Isotope Lead for casting

[iMigraine]

Well, today I went down to a local metal supply yard and bought 120lbs of medical isotope lead and 5lbs of tin. From what the fancy Star Trek scanner read on the screen, they contained 1% Antimony. Not sure about the other alloys but basically they are mainly lead. I've been doing some reading about casting isotope lead and some casters found it good enough without adding more tin or mixing Linotype lead.

Just wondering if anyone here has first hand experience using this type of lead. I'm looking to cast 9mm.

[jkcerda]

What price did you pay? Do they have more?

[Twystd1]

Did you get it at Schorr in Placentia? That where i got mine.

-T

[BigBronco]

Never used it, However if you cast a couple up then read the hardness (BHN) of 8 is good enough some like harder. If Powder coating them it should be fine if not then you may need to add some linotype to get it up to Lyman #2 specs. I am in Fullerton if you do not have a harness tester I can read them for you. More important than hardness is barrel fit. you should be .001" over groove bore to prevent leading issues.

[Psychbiker]

Just getting into casting and discover a $14 hardness tester.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0014E2S0Q/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687582&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000X06LQE&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=106ZJF64PDYD1TEKKVQP

Check out the thread here for info. It works and the pencils have been cross referenced with a tester. Office Depot carries them too.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?75455-Testing-hardness-with-pencils

[ThunderDuck]

Good info here on iso lead.
isotope lead

[iMigraine]

Never used it, However if you cast a couple up then read the hardness (BHN) of 8 is good enough some like harder. If Powder coating them it should be fine if not then you may need to add some linotype to get it up to Lyman #2 specs. I am in Fullerton if you do not have a harness tester I can read them for you. More important than hardness is barrel fit. you should be .001" over groove bore to prevent leading issues.

Thanks for the info an generous offer too. I slugged my barrel and it measured 0.354 diameter.

[M1NM]

Isotope lead - do you end up with depleated uranium rounds like they use in the Warthog? I always used 2/3 lead and 1/3 linotype. Don't know if there are any sources for linotype anymore since all the newspapers have gone to offset printing.

[Pablo5959]

I once bought 140 lbs of the stuff.

It was some of the cleanest lead I've melted that wasn't pure.
If yours are painted the neighbors may not like it. (I live in the country).
I stayed away as the paint burned off and once melted I scooped the paint ash off and no other cleaning was needed.
Just adding a little tin will make great 9mm boolits.
Save the Linotype for rifle or magnum loads.

[stilly]

Not sure if this is along the same means, but there is a jackass on youtube and he made a video (knock it off already...) and told everyone that a great source of lead is the dentist office where they x-ray your mouth and then you find the lead sheets behind the x-ray film. He said that you can collect those and melt it all down for a great source of lead.

I was going to reply and tell him what a jackass he was (I do not like the way he calls people you-tubers anyways...) to suggest that.

Turns out I went to the dentist to have them sharpen my fangs adn I had them take a x-ray of my teeth and then I asked for the sheet of lead and they told me that in CA it is regulated (wow, who did NOT see that coming?) and that they had to set them all aside in a special container and someone comes in to collect them.

Well, each sheet is 10.8gr. Yeah do the math on that... I do not care to peel open 700 OR SO plastic x-ray film thingies to get a single pound of lead out of it...

Anyways.

[Psychbiker]

^^^ that's fortunecookie45lc. He's very knowledgable in casting and on castboolits forum a lot. Most lead sources don't apply to Cali I've come to realize, certainly wouldn't call him a jackass, he knows his stuff.

Friend of mine is not longer casting and said I can buy all his wheel weight ingots for $1/lb.

[iMigraine]

I once bought 140 lbs of the stuff.

It was some of the cleanest lead I've melted that wasn't pure.
If yours are painted the neighbors may not like it. (I live in the country).
I stayed away as the paint burned off and once melted I scooped the paint ash off and no other cleaning was needed.
Just adding a little tin will make great 9mm boolits.
Save the Linotype for rifle or magnum loads.

Good to know so I can start working on 9mm once I figure out which mold to buy. But still, I need to figure out other sources of lead that have more antimony in it. I don't have any Linotype lead, just starting to gather up what I can find locally. Linotype seems to be rare. I bought some tin but that is supposed to help the boolits form in the mold better and help them release too (from what I've been told).

[Sheldon]

How much the scrapyard sell this stuff for when u guys find it there?

[Pablo5959]

Good to know so I can start working on 9mm once I figure out which mold to buy. But still, I need to figure out other sources of lead that have more antimony in it. I don't have any Linotype lead, just starting to gather up what I can find locally. Linotype seems to be rare. I bought some tin but that is supposed to help the boolits form in the mold better and help them release too (from what I've been told).

Here's your source for for making your lead harder.

http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/30_antimony_70_lead.htm

At the bottom there a formula for figuring how much to add to get the desired hardness.
That being said I was thinking the same as you. I had a bunch of pure sheet lead I needed to harden so I bought two of these 5lb ingots.

By the time I started casting, I had a bunch of WW's and the ISO lead.
I mixed the pure with ISO
I never used that hard cast and still have it.

You DO NOT need to add any hard cast for 9mm!
Just add a little tin to your ISO lead.
You don't even need to water drop.

Just drop them on a cotton towel.

I cast for .357mag and .44mag full house and still don't harden my lead.
Trust me, you don't need it for 9mm.

Your best bet is to learn to powder coat. It will save you a lot of headaches.
Just in case your interested, here's a little reading material for you while your waiting for your mold.

http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletAlloy.htm#UNS

[rsrocket1]

It's certainly not a jackass idea to collect lead from dental X-ray backings. Folks have been doing this for a long time. A dentist friend of mine says he used to accumulate a bucket full of the stuff before someone comes and hauls it off. Unfortunately he's gone digital, so has my dentist's office.

I agree that FC45LC is pretty knowledgeable. He's not 100% but has some good ideas and lots of experience. As with anything on the net, the real skill is to pick and choose your poison and make the most of what you can learn. If you don't like the knowledge, toss it and move on.

Another source for scroungers is when a dental office is being refurbished or demolished, there are hundreds of pounds of lead sheeting available from the walls if you can get connections to access it. A guy I know said he has nearly a ton at home from a score he made many years ago.