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.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/scaled/medium/707/2eyz.jpg[/IMG]

Another pic[IMG]http://imageshack.us/scaled/medium/191/6wrs.jpg[/IMG]

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. :)

Nice job Pnut....paint them and sell ornaments or maybe fasten them together as a centerpiece for the dinner table for the holidays.

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.

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Originally Posted by Pnutfarmer

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.

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Have you tried one out of copper? Man that would be slick.

Omigosh that is so cool!!!!

Quote:

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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.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/scaled/medium/707/2eyz.jpg[/IMG]

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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.

Realistically Using lead this way is not the way to go . Having ingots for future value is very real concerning lead value investment .
But there are other low temp melting metals you can use this way and not worry about handling .
I make lead ingots from mini bread molds @ 4 pounds . Even I who is around many things of non health, don't go out of my way to touch the lead ingots except for basic handling. Skin absorbs what we touch but sure lead ingots probably cause no harm.

But consider this - the Half Life of Lead - is older then the universe, Those cute lead ornaments you make will be around a Long Long time , some day will they accidentally be sold in a garage sale to a family with kids a hundred years from now ?
None of us will live forever but the metals we play with - for all purposes will live on .
Some day , one never knows if some of your belongings will be acquired by a clean out entrepreneur .
Since lead use is so severely curtailed these days , items made during these years are assumed not to have any lead content by the general public . Some day an assumption might be made that the cute ingots are Zinc .

I would engrave the word LEAD on back of each ornament
Yes you did a nice job with the mold