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1. A very good article as I have watched my husband go through each of the steps described. I have assisted on occasion in the process. I feel confident that I could also do this on my own if needed. Women should watch, learn and participate in learning these skills.

2. Thank you Mr. Rawles, for posting my essay. It was a lot of fun to write, and I haven’t written one since my college days. I look forward to hearing what all of you readers think of it.

   1. You done good. Congrats on getting it posted

      1. Thank you, it is a lot of fun to see the people commenting here. It was my hope that others would join in and share their favorite places to find scrap lead, and I have to say I’m happy that people are doing just that.

3. Wheel weights, battery terminals, broke fishing lures, digging out backstops etc. soft lead can be hardened by adding solder.

4. We used to remodel a lot of residential bathrooms. The older homes often have lead toilet flanges and shower pans. A good source for bulk soft lead if you know any area contractors.

   1. If your willing to work out the junk….

      This new trend of small office medical centers (emergicare, prohealth etc…) Villages. Any that have x-ray machines MRI machines dental etc… Have lead lined doors and walls.

      If you see any demo going on and have a truck and trailer you can undercut the demo cleaning guys by offering to clean up for the price of keeping the lead from the walls.

      That is time and schedule permitting. If you can do it there is about…. Depending on wall height and room size easy north of 800 lbs lead per office.

      You will have alot of debris stuck on it and hard work but it’s a heck of alot of free lead.

      Side note… Most of us in the “bidness” know it’s a recycling metal and won’t part with it for free and will over charge you to buy it from us…. But if you barter us labor in demo cleaning or such we are more willing to part with our beer money errr… Emmm…. Lead.

      Speaking of a bottle of Jaeger (Polish Russian Baltic state areas)
      Whiskey (American white , Irish , latinx)
      Vodka (most every one but same as Jaeger)
      Tequila “Blanco” etc. (Mostly Hispanic)
      Light or dark rum and “Hennessy” (west indies)

      Will help you negotiations…. Alot.

5. In the early 50’s my parents ran a small newspaper/print shop business. This was just before offset technology took over the printing business. We used lots of lead to cast raised type and advertising displays. The lead casting setup was very basic and efficient. Our casting room had a good exhaust but was extremely hot. Melted lead flows like water and can get away from you. I always heard that printers lead was too soft for bullets. Anyway, we never thought working with lead was dangerous. Guess it was before the government decided to protect everyone from themselves. Even when reusing lead, there were always impurities to be skimmed off. We used a hard wax substance to concentrate the impurities. It was really easy.

6. Cut my teeth with “Hot Lead” in Florida building sail boats. Poured thousands of pounds of keels over the years.
   The Good: I learned a lot. Always amazed at what floated to the top in the slag. Still have some old hammer heads and a plumb bob, I still use.
   The Bad: My experience with steam expanded flying lead is primarily from lead plumbing flanges that had water trapped in them from being outside in the rain. Best to make sure these pieces have any possible water evaporated prior to melt.
   The Ugly: Hot lead does not respect the fact you’re wearing protective layered clothing. It can burn through or find that one spot showing.
   Be safe and enjoy the experience.

7. I’m going to state the obvious here, in my experience the best place to find soft lead is range backstops where they shoot soft lead. Historical re-enactments and the like.

   Safety point, when you burn metal you should wear a P100, the metal particles (called fumes) will slip through a N95. That’s more for welding but consider upping your game if your ventilation isn’t up to snuff.

   1. good tip on the mask, thanks!

8. This is a very thorough description of the process. Thank you!
   I remember as a kid watching my dad in our basement melt lead and use a mold to make lead soldiers for my brothers and me to play with. Simpler times, indeed. And none of us were ever poisoned by the lead. Hmm, I wonder which of my brothers ended up with that mold.

9. Useful information,look for older cars for Pb wheel weights,anything newer or rebalanced has Zn. Weights are alloyed so get tester to check product for hardness.
   If you do this have your doctor check you for lead poisoning,you can do chelation on your own(remove lead from your body) plus it clears your arteries of blockages(a lot cheaper$50 vs bypass surgery($100,000-500,000),safer(a few pills or IV vs major surgery) and more effective(entire system is flushed not just a few sections moved around). If you have been told you needed it(unless left coronary artery 95%+ blocked) you were lied too and subjected to unnecessary,dangerous medical malpractice for profit.

10. Glad you mentioned use of a full-face shield. Don’t try to cheap out and just use eye protection. If I’m not melting/casting outside with a fan behind me, I wear a respirator behind a face shield. Also, any soft surfaces in the same room with you (if you’re doing it inside) can pick up lead dust and fumes during casting. Don’t wash those clothes, just keep them dedicated and pitch them when you can’t stand them anymore. You don’t want to contaminate clean clothes or the washers, especially if you’ve got kids or grandkids with you.

    1. You will want to check with your face shield manufacturers to get the appropriate face shield.

       Safety is safety go whole hog for it.

11. A friend of mine passed away and left me his gun shop … I have about 2 1/2 tons of lead bars (pure lead) and about 300 pounds of tire weights in army surplus 5.56 ammo cans … one large propane burner with a nice old cast iron crucible and one brand new in the box lead melting pot … but no molds at all???

    I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do with it since I am not into black powder and have enough bullets and fixins to handload more ammo than I could want to use.

    Maybe some fishing weights? Thank you for your article it was good info for a beginner and helpful for learning.

    1. If you really don’t need it, you can always sell it. Places like Craigslist and ebay are good places to find buyers. Do some research online and see what its being sold for and offer yours for a slight discount. I’ve found this to be a great way to offset the cost of the lead that I keep for reloading.

12. Worked for a time at oneida LTD silversmiths. My job was to pour hot lead into a centrifical rubber mold that created handles and feet for those fancy things like milk and sugar holders as well as handles for serving trays and the like. They had an exclusive contract for our embassies. The point im getting to is if you handle this stuff a lot get a regular blood test at your doctors to keep yourself safe.

13. In response to Slippery Red‘a comment.
    Printing lead (Linotype) is one of the best casting alloys known to bullet casters. I have paid in excess of $2/lb for good clean Linotype and is known for exceptional mold fill out and very hard bullets especially if quenched in water.
    On another note about masks, even a p100 will do very little good against airborne lead. The lead fumes are small enough that you would have to drop some serious coin on closed system respirators to be effective. The best way to combat lead fumes is proper ventilation and a good cross wind to carry fumes away from you while working with the molten lead.
    Y’all might also find powder coating to be of interest, a great way to stretch your hard lead alloy and also eliminate the hassle of sticky traditional lubed bullets.

14. Many years ago my brother was setting a slop sink into his basement floor with lead. One of his holes penetrated the slab and when he poured the hot lead around the anchor bolt it hit the damp earth and boiled back into his face. He had lead under his eyelids plating his eyeballs. Thank God there was an opthamalogist (sp?) on duty at the ER on a Saturday night. Fifty years later he is still OK with some interesting scarring and good vision. A five dollar face shield would have saved him a lot of pain. The moral of the story is protect yourself from 600 degree boiling metal.

15. Best source of lead for me has been dismantled sail boat keels. I have gone in with friends to buy three in the past. They have ranged from 2,000-3,000 pounds. You can find them as heavy as 5,000 pounds. We spread out a tarp, and use a chain saw to cut it if any iron or steel mount and then cut it into manageable pieces. The lead actually lubes the chainsaw so no bar oil is needed. We put the now 300 or so pound pieces into the truck and make a couple of trips from the wrecking yard at the marina. Then bundle the tarp with the lead chips and go. The chain saw dusting created small pieces like a sawsall would. We don’t use that chain and bar for anything else.

    As a side, I cast 24 ingots in a bread pan the is 4x4x8” and put them in the bottom of my Gun safe. Each on weighs just over 75# giving me over 1,800# in the bottom 4” of the safe. Lead is stock piled for SHTF and good luck to anyone that thinks they can move or tip the safe over. The loss of 4” of inside height didn’t reduce the rifle capacity at all. In fact covered in a cut piece of nylon I don’t even remember it’s there. If I ever need to move the safe I can just remove the ingots.

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