Body filler lead

[Lon371]

 Friend has several pounds of new auto body filler lead. He said he was told there is tin in it. He said it is in 1/4"x 1 1/4 x 16"(or close to that) sticks. Wonder if it would be good for casting? Thanks.
 
Lonny

[anachronism]

Probably. The lead/tin content is normally cast into the bar.

[Bob J]

Don't see why you couldn't use it.....


Try and scratch it with your fingernail....  If you can it is soft and good for BP/Pistols....  If you can't scratch it then its a harder alloy and I would use it in my higher velocity stuff.....

[Nobade]

See if you can find out what it is made of. If it is 50/50 lead/tin it is quite valuable and you don't want to use it straight to make bullets (though it will make nice ones).

[dorothy daily]

most likely 70/30 or 80/20. last lead work i had done was 1971, on a triumph trident tank. no longer own it but know where it is and the tank is still as smoth as back then. was good stuff. required a craftsman,not the plaster work done by most body techs. of today.

[RIF]

It will have tin in it because lead/tin alloy melts at a lower temperature than pure lead.  Usually they are 30 percent tin and 70 percent lead.  Look for any numbers on them to tell you what they are.  Sometimes they are not marked.  I would treat them as 30 percent tin then.  If these are a high tin bearing alloy they will tin your bore badly and it will be HARD to get it out.  A better idea would be to use it to cut your wheel weight alloy.  Tin pretty much acts like soap in water, it decreases the surface tension of the molten lead and allows it to fill the cavity.  Use it sparingly.  Nice find. 

[Lon371]

 Thanks guys. I am waiting for him to bring me a piece of it, and he is suppose to see if he can find any marking on any of it.
 
Lonny

[crash87]

I just got 200# of lead from an old auto body shop that a machine shop bought up. cleaning it out they found had 400# of lead. My buddy told me about the stuff said I could have it for what the scrap yard would give them, .60 a pound!!! Not knowing and not able to see, bought 200# sight unseen.
Should of bought it all. There were different style of ingots, round, bar, etc, but, it looked to me that each different ingot was the same alloy and found out that a few different were the same also.
I melt down the ingots and poured bullets from each and checked hardness. The pure lead was easy to pick out and there was about 40# of that stuff, The rest   "LINOTYPE"  Saweet.
Cast a few and let them harden some and check hardness, you'll get an idea of what you have, yep should have bought it all.
crash87