Lead sheet for dental office

[Glenn Berryhill]

A guy gave me a bunch of lead in sheets that came from a dental office. I got this about 20 years ago. I made a bunch of sinkers and jigs from it but now want to make bullets. I'm in the process of melting the lead, making 1 pound bricks. What do you guys think I will need to do to get the lead to the correct hardness for making bullets? I'm a beginner at this.

 

[brewer12345]

Some dental lead is very soft, some has some antimony. Without knowing what the composition might be, I would suggest adding 10 percent linotype to the mix when casting.

 

[Alex Clayton]

Good chance it's almost pure lead but only way to know is test it. There is some real simple cheap ways to test hardness. Search for the instructions and pick one you like. How important it is of course depends totally on the loads you want to make. If you are making loads for something in the 7 or 800 FPS it of course is not the same as making stuff for a .357 and such. So just decide what you want to load, then check some of the lead to see how hard it looks to be. Go from there. The way things are now of course what you add will probably depend a lot on what you can find right now. Supplies being "short" to say the least right now you may try to find someone to do some trading with if you have trouble buying stuff to harden the lead.

 

[Glenn Berryhill]

Thanks guys. I suspect it is pure lead because it is pretty soft. The sheets are a little less than 1/8" thick and I can bend it with my hands pretty easy. I will search for ways to test hardness. My first caliber I plan to make bullets for is .357.

 

[brewer12345]

Thanks guys. I suspect it is pure lead because it is pretty soft. The sheets are a little less than 1/8" thick and I can bend it with my hands pretty easy. I will search for ways to test hardness. My first caliber I plan to make bullets for is .357.

The most certain way is find someone with an XRF gun. However, if you can easily scratch it with a fingernail it will be soft stuff. If that is the case, you will want to alloy it with something that has a fair bit of antimony. If you are powder coating or gas checking (or both). 10 to 20% of linotype should be plenty for 357.

 

[Rule3]

There are pencils of different harness that will indicate what the hardness of the lead is.

https://www.amazon.com/STAEDTLER-br...ler+pencils&qid=1601306998&sr=8-5&tag=mh0b-20

https://castbulletassoc.org/forum/thread/dhccking-lead-hardness-with-drawing-pencils/

 

[Frulk]

If it’s “sheet” lead it will have come from XRay film backing. That lead is meant to be soft and malleable so the technician can place the film packet where needed and adjust as required to get the image on the film. The lead sheet is there to prevent additional exposure for the patient. Pretty soft stuff and will need antimony etc. to get to the hardness to make it shootable without leading.

 

[Bob Willman]

Find some bar solder that is typically marked 60% lead - 40% tin or something similar. Lyman #2 bullet metal is a mixture of lead and tin. Mix your lead with tin/lead solder until you get the hardness you want. You can also buy pure tin and mix it with lead by weight. Hold on to your wallet though.

Bob
NRA Benefactor
Golden Eagle

 

[mdi]

If you're not in a hurry find a Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook and check the section on alloying. There is a chart outlining the percentages of components/minerals to mix with pure lead and the resulting BHN. For example to achieve a Wheel Weight alloy clone; 96.5% pure lead, 0.5%tin and 4% antimony. Equals 9 BHN. Chart lists from soft to pretty hard, pure lead (5 BHN) up to Monotype (28 BHN)...

For the home caster, exacting percentages and lab quality BHN measurements aren't necessary, but some casters want to be as close as they can get. Personally if I'm within 3 or 4 BHN of the target alloy, I'm fine...

 

[edwardware]

Or. . . you might find that the blackpowder folks over at castboolits will trade you pound for pound for suitable bullet alloy. Dead soft lead is often more valuable than Lyman #2-ish alloy.

 

[243winxb]

 

[AJC1]

Sheeting lead for protection against radiation is almost 100% pure and you're going to need something like super hard from rotometals to really crank up the hardness. I don't think it's necessary to go above a brinell hardness of 12 but the higher you try and go the more super hard it's going to take and that gets real expensive. I've shot Brunel hardness 7 in low-power 45 loads for target shooting. The lower the number for your needs the more cost-effective it will be

 

[lightman]

Like the others have said, sheet lead is most likely going to be soft. Its going to be too soft for 357's unless you powder coat. Look at the charts that 243winxb posted to see what to add to it. You don't have to go all the way to Lyman #2 although it is a great casting alloy.