sheat lead

[Cornbelt]

Anyone know how to make sheet-lead? Can it be rolled in a slip-roll, or is that asking too much?

[Old Fart]

That's a good question.
All I ever did was melt it down for bullets.
I'd think that they roll it one way or another.

[charles p]

I remember taking down a building that had lead lined walls.  It was on a Coast Guard Air Base.  They used to xray every used part that went back into copters and planes.  Have no idea where the lead sheets went.  That was in the 70's.

[Glanceblamm]

That's a good question.
All I ever did was melt it down for bullets.
I'd think that they roll it one way or another.

Ditto, I still have a bunch of this stuff and folded it up for Storage, Excellent stuff for my Blk-pdr shooting as it is very pure.

[Victor3]

 I used to make radiation shielding for X-ray machines.

 How large of a sheet do you need to make, and what form is your lead in now?

 I can't see making a lead block into a large sheet using a slip-roll. You'd have to pre-flatten, and it would need to be done to a uniform thickness before you started rolling (Could be done in a large hydraulic press using flat dies).

 A slip/pinch-roll machine, not being designed to make thick material thinner, may not be sturdy enough (due to the long length versus relatvely small diameter of the rolls) to do even soft lead over a large section of the rolls unless you're talking a large, power-driven machine suitable for forming thick plate.

 A light-duty, hand-cranked sheet metal roller probably wouldn't work well; it will take more pressure than you might think. It would be very difficult to get a large sheet through and you'd have to put it through a whole bunch of times to get the thickness reduced much (if it worked at all).

 That said, it might work okay to make a small strip as opposed to a large sheet. Would need to be done near the end support of the rollers on a sturdy enough machine. Need to use lube since it's gonna want to stick to the rolls, especially if they're dinged up or scratched. The more pure the lead, the worse it wants to stick.

 McMaster-Carr sells small quantities of lead sheet but I don't know what they charge nowadays.

[charles p]

Does your wife have a pasta maker?  Not!

[Cornbelt]

Had a couple of connections with the telephone company (now both retired), but the junctions would occassionally need to be reworked. That's where the sheat lead came from. The thin stuff pretty well got used for vice jaw liners,etc. then bullets. The bigger junctions had about 1/4" wall which is what I was thinking to roll, but it might be easier to melt it down on a piece of aluminum plate.

[Glanceblamm]

Does your wife have a pasta maker?  Not!

Great thought

[Drilling Man]

Ditto, I still have a bunch of this stuff and folded it up for Storage, Excellent stuff for my Blk-pdr shooting as it is very pure.

  I have a lot of it stored too, as many years ago i bought it for 10 cents a pound when a hospital X-ray room was taken out.  It's VERY good quality...

  DM

[Cornbelt]

Another often overlooked source for pure lead is from the joints of cast iron pipe. Pipeline I worked for used to let me beat it our. Takes a lot of beating, but it does come out. That might be worth trying to pour out in a sheet.
  Too bad I let a whole truckload of bad fireplugs get past me.

[Glanceblamm]

Another source for some pure lead may be found if you have friends in an industry that uses Pressure\non-pressure vessles.

They may be able to retrieve used Step-bearing gaskets which are installed on the idle end of an agitator gearbox shaft. They are usually sandwiched in between a teflon coating but open around the edges making it easy to cut the teflon away.

[The Hermit]

We used to make some in the black smith shop back in the fifties. We had 12" X 12" steel cake tins about 3/8 inches high. We cleaned them with alcohol and heated them up. Then we set them on a level bench and poured in the lead to the thickness we wanted, usually 3/32". When it cooled, it dropped out when we turned the plate over. Most applications were used by the plumbing shop.
Occasionally there was a need for lead that looked like steel wool, but I never learned to make that. I think the black smith had a way he drizzeled  it through a dye into water, but I'm not 100% sure on that.


   The Hermit

[Bigeasy]

Sort of on topic-  A long time ago, I found a dive shop in Bridgeport CT that gave me about 50 lbs. of lead weights used on divers belts.  Might be a good source today, as i am sure in today's health conscious world, there is now a "safer" alternative being used by modern divers.

Larry

[Cornbelt]

Good ideas here. About the divers' weights, I once aquired a 100 # lead pig. It about all went into divers weights. Then when I quit diving, what weights I had left went into bullets. Still got a couple somewhere. Hard to believe a guy can go through that much over the years, but I'm always on the lookout for more.

[Glanceblamm]

Occasionally there was a need for lead that looked like steel wool, but I never learned to make that. I think the black smith had a way he drizzeled  it through a dye into water, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

I have a brand new (OLD) box of that stuff. It is marked Lead wool, 5lbs net but has no other markings to say where it came from.

Like Cornbelt, I am always on the lookout. I have more lead than you can shake a stick at but this inventory needs to be kept topped off or I will run out one day

[JBlk]

Check with your local roofers and contractors.They often get used lead that was put in or on the buildings years ago.My buddy does some remodeling in his spare time and he has given me enough sheet lead to cast thousands of balls from.This stuff is so soft it bends if you stare at it.