Just poured some lead ingots

I got about 100 lbs of lead from a dentist office a while back. It's from the little x-ray boards you have to hold in your mouth to get your teeth x-rayed. There are thousands of these in the three boxes I got. Someone took a while to pull all of them apart. I wanted to consolidate it into ingots for easier storage. I've poured lead before, but it was into cola cans to make weights to use around the house. While at the scrap yard, I found some pans with nice deep Christmas muffin designs. They are just right for my Christmas cookie ingots. I got the pan, ladle, spoon and muffin tins at the yard for $1. I already had the fish cooker so we fired it up and started melting. It only took a little skimming as the thin sheet lead is pretty clean. After pouring and cooling, I weighed some of the ingots and they were all within 2 ounces of 3 lbs. I'm liking them and my wife has taken interest in a few. My kids wanted one each and their friends want some. I might be able to sell these things for more than scrap.

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Pnut, that's pretty freaking cool.

Think you got a nice little sideline gig there.

Sirscrapalot - Ding ding.

Thanks, Sirscrapalot. We just accidentally stumbled onto the Christmas theme idea because those tins were the best thing I found to pour into. I talked to a bullet casting friend and he told me to coat the tins with talcum powder before pouring. That helped a lot and they filled in the details much better. By the way, the tins are Teflon coated and the ingots fall out easily when done.

is handling that lead really a good idea, specially as a toy/ornament ?

I love it deadly Christmas gifts lol but its fun thpough and good creative thinking

Bah..slap'm high in the tree out of reach of the kids an pets(unless you gotta cat, they will scale a xmas tree..Stupid cat..)an it's all good! An don't suck on them. lol.

Still pretty cool. An a neat idea. Wonder if it'd work the same with some Alum? If so..I may have to send you some cookie trays an a order..

My wife bakes a ton, so themed cookie trays I have out the wazoo.

Sirscrapalot - I got to use the word Wazoo...triple word score Baby!

To make 'em really safe, mix in a little mercury for the eyes, button, ornaments, etc.

Bear....Yeah, I thought about the lead being toxic thing, but my kids are 16 and 19 so they won't be teething on them. I wouldn't recommend giving them to little kids. People handle lead all the time and I'm not sure what the exposure level has to be to be dangerous. I think it is mostly airborne or waterborne particles that cause problems. That and lead paint on toys and other things that little ones would be chewing on. If adults want to use these for paperweights or sit them around for decorations, I don't think there's a problem. I really was just making ingots though and didn't even think about people playing with them.

Sirscrapalot....you could make designs for all occasions.....I wouldn't reuse the cookie molds for cookies though. Aluminum would work about the same except you'd have to heat up to 1221 degrees instead of 621 for lead. That's a great idea and I think I'll try it out. If I made them from aluminum, they would be much safer if someone did let kids play with them. I'm just not sure my fish cooker smelter will get that hot.

Brasscatcher...painting is a good idea, I may have to hire someone for that job though.

Originally Posted by Pnutfarmer

I got about 100 lbs of lead from a dentist office a while back. It's from the little x-ray boards you have to hold in your mouth to get your teeth x-rayed. There are thousands of these in the three boxes I got. Someone took a while to pull all of them apart. I wanted to consolidate it into ingots for easier storage. I've poured lead before, but it was into cola cans to make weights to use around the house. While at the scrap yard, I found some pans with nice deep Christmas muffin designs. They are just right for my Christmas cookie ingots. I got the pan, ladle, spoon and muffin tins at the yard for $1. I already had the fish cooker so we fired it up and started melting. It only took a little skimming as the thin sheet lead is pretty clean. After pouring and cooling, I weighed some of the ingots and they were all within 2 ounces of 3 lbs. I'm liking them and my wife has taken interest in a few. My kids wanted one each and their friends want some. I might be able to sell these things for more than scrap.

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$1 a pound day after day for bullet casters. I smelt down my wheel weights and sell the ingots. I have over 400 pounds to do. Scrap yard will give me 25 or 30 cents for around $100 or I can render them down and sell them on this forum and clear $300 plus after the clips and crap are removed.

Swappin & Sellin

Poke around the forum. Lots of interesting stuff and guys willing to buy your lead at well over scrap yard price.