XRAY lead for bullet casting?

It works just fine for boolits.

jim

If its just the lead from the exposure plates, bulletwise, you are good to go.

They are metallurgically pure lead, as soft as it gets.

The more pure the lead is, in theory, the more "blocking" you get out of Xrays for it.

In addition, lead is cheaper than any of the adulterants used for hardening, and in this instance, hardening serves no purpose.

Nice lineup, I'd take 'em.

At the very worst, take a strip ( sheet really... ) and a BHN tester- and it'll tell ya right away

Dental medical lead is some of the purest lead you can find.

I was given some dental lead and it melted down nicely.

I recommend using it for Minie balls. These need to be dead soft and medical lead is about as soft as you can get.

IF that X-ray lead IS dead soft/pure lead, it's only suitable for very low velocity loads like 45 auto or 38 special wadcutters. For anything else, it needs to be hardened by adding lead containing antimony and tin. Or find a muzzleloader that also needs that pure lead and has some wheel weight lead, trade it to him pound-for-pound.

First, for researching this facinating (read addicting) hobby try logging on to the "Cast Boolit" site on the net.

With respect to the dental X-ray lead, it will make good bullets as mentioned above. One caution --since the little foils have been placed in peoples mouths, I do not handel them without gloves. Once they are melted down the heat kills any transferable germs.

For anything else, it needs to be hardened by adding lead containing antimony and tin.

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1. Wander on over to castboolits.gunload.com, they'll be able to tell you everything you need to know about casting your own bullets.

2. Snuffy is right. If you need to harden it don't despair. Rotometals has what they call 'Superhard' (http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/30_antimony_70_lead.htm) that is 30% antimony 70% lead that you can mix in - in the right poportions - to get the hardness you need. With a little scrounging you may also find some linotype for the same purpose.

3. Depending upon the mold you use, you may find that you also need to add a little tin. Never fear, tin is also easy to find.

4. The easiest thing is to find someone selling ingotized reclaimed wheel weights and mix it 50-50 with your soft lead.

I got a couple of buddies at tire shops, so I bet I can come up with some wheel weights to harden the mix...

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Get it if you can but you need to make sure you can ID the zinc ones before you start smelting.

jim

It's good soft lead. You will be surprised how much a big box of the stuff shrinks when you melt it down. Mix it half-and-half with hard lead, unless you're shooting a muzzleloader. (hard lead is easier to find than soft lead)

my brother in law was a dentist. Hes retired now but when he was in bussiness and before they went to electronic imaging he used to give me buckets of those things. They are soft but not dead soft. the ones i would get did have a bit of antimony in them and would test out at about 8bhn on my hardness tester. Good enough as is for bullets to feed 38 specs ect.

The great thing about any lead that is used around radiation is very few companies (salvage yards) can take them. This drives down the price, I got 400lbs of ISO lead from a radiation pharmacy for .10 a pound because no one else wanted it. If you know a little about science you'll find 6 day half life is nothing to worry about after it sets for a month or so ( which is required by law before anyone can get rid of it). It keeps the prices down and it's very clean alloy.

Walkalong, that can't possibly be just from dental X-ray backings! My dentist gave me a whole office paper box of the stuff once. It was less than 2 pounds. (but it was good lead, and very little waste)

Walkalong,

Send me some of those "bricks" and I'll send you some more bullets.

Don

I got a couple of buddies at tire shops, so I bet I can come up with some wheel weights to harden the mix...

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hurry up.. industry is going to non-lead weights at speed...

the steel and zinc ones are easy to ID.. they ring when dropped on concrete.. the lead ones just "thud"

I got 4 coffee cans worth the other day and it smelted down to almost exactly 20#. Doesn't seem as soft as pure lead, but I figure if I mix a little here and there with wheel weight lead, it will be fine for 38 special and plinking .45acp.

For what it is worth, there was some plastic pieces mixed in that said Kodak on the bite wings. I have heard that some xray lead is harder than other brands.

It was used as shielding for the low radiation stuff they used.

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You should see the tungsten blocks we use at high energy facilities.

They are sized to about 70 pounds each, and are not all that large.

Putting up a lead brick wall is a good use of graduate student labor.

Need a sight bit more than a lee lead furnace for that, wouldnt ya ?

http://www.theantimonyman.com/furnace.htm
http://www.shilohrifle.com/shop/product.php?productid=92