Melting Lead

[The Great Wallsendo]

Had a play today at melting lead...

Had quite a few powder coated pirks that I bought last year that were just too heavy at 14-16oz so I thought I'd melt them down in preparation for another Team Slinky Melt

I thought I'd make "ingots" of the clean lead so I used the cast iron griddle pan and poured the molten lead into it to make a thin'ish sheet that I then rolled up

Now got half a bucket of the "ingots" in readiness

one question I do have for peeps...

Any suggestions on the best way of tackling this bad boy lump of lead?

measures 15 x 3.5 x 2 inches and is solid lead - I have two

Tried a saw on it today thinking "coz it's soft innit?"...as you can see after 10 minutes of sweaty endeavour I'd only just scratched it - blow torch perhaps?

 

[pottsy]

does she know what you have been up to with her pans

 

[The Great Wallsendo]

does she know what you have been up to with her pans

2 points - firstly they're MY pans and secondly it cost one whole pound fifty pence from the land of dreams that is Tesco

 

[Mike.Haley]

Just melt it down in stages. Hold it upright in the pan till so much is melted then lift it out. pour melted lead into mould, then start again.
Or you could use an angle grinder.

 

[peter.m]

Just melt it down in stages. Hold it upright in the pan till so much is melted then lift it out. pour melted lead into mould, then start again.
Or you could use an angle grinder.

Be careful with the angle grinder, used one last year to cut some lead and there were little bits spitting everywhere

 

[PRIMO MAN]

hammer and chisel and chop it into bits or angle grinder and watch of the bits flying off.

 

[The Great Wallsendo]

tried the upright idea Mike and as it weighs a third of my body weight it wasn't the best solution - all I ended up with was a bad back and a mushroom cap of shiny lead on the end of what was already a heavy piece of lead

 

[KeithB]

I used to chop the big bits up but my office worker's hands that do dishes couldn't handle it so now I just position it over the pan and chip away at it with a blow torch

 

[Codfather]

Best to drop it off at mine Tony lol

Could try putting it through the wood chipper at work, would do the blades a world of good.

 

[mark]

tried the upright idea Mike and as it weighs a third of my body weight

didn't know you could 11stone lead ingots

 

[kingcod deano]

try using an axe that should do the trick

 

[The Great Wallsendo]

didn't know you could 11stone lead ingots

just read this...cheeky *******************************

 

[BriH]

Big Pan ,then ladle out into clean ingots -




or you could just hoy the whole lot over the side of Normans boat ,after all thats where it will end up

saves the hassle of melting it

 

[lorry]

I would back the axe idea

 

[phill_itofish]

You want a gas axe mate, failing that i've got a big gas torch you can borrow and melt it into some smaller pots,

 

[mick dunn]

I have never seen lead like the ingots before-is this how it,s sold in industry.
11 stone is an awful lot of wieght to move about.
I bet a welding torch would cut through it like a hot knife in butter.

cheers Mick.

 

[mark]

think the proper name for them is a 'pig' of lead, used to find them quite often around some of the old mines out here

they're not 11 stone though

gas axe is by far the best way to reduce the bulk

 

[5150]

I've got a few of the ingots, they were used as ballast in some machinery where my brother works, he nabbed them for me when the machines were scrapped.

 

[The Great Wallsendo]

They're deffo from an industrial machine of some sort as there is a steel bar sticking out the top with a steel roller attached and most def not 11 stone each...at a push 5 or 6

 

[5150]

Best stuff we had was when the curtains at the odeon were changed back in the 80's, dad got all the pouches of weights out of the bottom of the old ones - filled with little lead ball bearings, melted in no time.