Purple lead??

[northwoodneil]

I came upon a roll of sheet lead that supposedly came from our old hospital (1930's). When I smelted it, it had a purple rainbow effect on top and the ingots had purple highlights on them. Does this mean it's really pure lead? It's dead soft you can scratch it with your thumb nail. I've seen this before but not to this extent.

[Graybeard]

I think it mostly means you don't have a lot of impurities but yeah if used as sheathing for X-Ray area likely pure or near pure.

[northwoodneil]

I think I'm in muzzle loader heaven. Lets see 32 caliber ball =46gr. 7000gr/pound. 152 balls/pound times 250.  38,000 shots. I'll never live long enough. I'll have to cast 50's and 54's too.

[Ranger99]

I came upon a roll of sheet lead that supposedly came from our old hospital (1930's). When I smelted it, it had a purple rainbow effect on top and the ingots had purple highlights on them. Does this mean it's really pure lead? It's dead soft you can scratch it with your thumb nail. I've seen this before but not to this extent.

I had some like that last year. Not all that big a
piece, maybe 4"×6' unrolled.  When melted it
had that same purplely rainbow looking
sheen. I was trying to pour an ingot, and
it poured strange and was almost like it was
full of slag or something, although I couldn't
skim any off of it. I tried to pour a ball
or two, and I couldn't get it to fill the mould
properly.  Don't know what the deal is.
I just got the small roll somewhere, so
I don't know the origin of it.
Post anything else you find out

[Dee]

Maybe it's radioactive.

[northwoodneil]

I came upon a roll of sheet lead that supposedly came from our old hospital (1930's). When I smelted it, it had a purple rainbow effect on top and the ingots had purple highlights on them. Does this mean it's really pure lead? It's dead soft you can scratch it with your thumb nail. I've seen this before but not to this extent.

I had some like that last year. Not all that big a
piece, maybe 4"×6' unrolled.  When melted it
had that same purplely rainbow looking
sheen. I was trying to pour an ingot, and
it poured strange and was almost like it was
full of slag or something, although I couldn't
skim any off of it. I tried to pour a ball
or two, and I couldn't get it to fill the mould
properly.  Don't know what the deal is.
I just got the small roll somewhere, so
I don't know the origin of it.
Post anything else you find out

Pure lead doesn't fill complex molds well. It works for round balls and other simple slugs, but you have to pour around 750 degrees. You need some tin (3% at least) in your alloy to make it flow nice. Pure lead seems to have more surface tension you can see it even pouring ingots.

[Lloyd Smale]

like bill said you have pure lead there. Ive casted as much as anyone and you can cast fine bullets with pure lead without tin added. Just adjust the temp a bit higher and molds fill out fine. Id bet theres much more tin wasted by casters then used for benifit.

[Land_Owner]

I received a gift of 800#'s of isotope shielding lead - pure lead.  When melted, it produced the "rainbow" of color as described. 

Melt
49#'s (+/-) of shielding Lead (Pb)
49#'s (+/-) of Clip On Wheel Weights (WW's)
2#'s of Tin (Sn)

49-49-2 Pb-WW-Sn

Pour into "pot size" alloy ingots (~3#'s ea.) and let them air cool. 
Recast alloy ingots at about 725*F in a bottom pour pot. 

With this alloy, the boolit mold fills out very well.  My most recent casting session (last week) resulted in 1,150 Bator Boolits (22 caliber) from a 2-cavity aluminum mold with ONLY FIFTEEN (15) REJECTS.

[northwoodneil]

I may alloy some of this but mostly cast round balls and cannon balls (1 inch).  I have muzzle loader friends who will give me the "look" if I "waste" pure lead. I usually can trade at least 2-1 for wheel weight ingots.

[Lloyd Smale]

I may alloy some of this but mostly cast round balls and cannon balls (1 inch).  I have muzzle loader friends who will give me the "look" if I "waste" pure lead. I usually can trade at least 2-1 for wheel weight ingots.

wish he lived by me. Ive got a ton of pure and could use the ww much more.

[northwoodneil]

Wheel weights are getting harder to come by. The service truck that changes our heavy truck tires gave me a 5 gallon bucket of them a while back and most of those were zinc. I would guess they aren't making lead ones nowadays, as they would be illegal in Commiefornia and other places.