finding lead

[ohioscrap]

I would like to thank every body first for the info I have found in this forum and your advice on my post. I would like to ask if any body knows where to find large amounts of lead. I have checked the local shopes that I know of. I do not care to pay for lead at scrap price or a littel higher so I don't want it for free. If any one could help thank you dave

[Mulden]

All my lead comes from tyre weights, acid batteries or REALLY old industrial wiring casing.

[miked]

Why just lead?? Mike

[thortek]

My dad was an electrician. He worked a lot of hospitals and Dr's offices, and collected a lot of Lead from X-ray machine installs and take downs. Etc.

Check with large commercial electrical contractors maybe?

The old man had about $500 of lead when he retired...lol

[ohioscrap]

Hay mike I use lead for many casting products in return brings me higher than lead prices verses weight

[RustyDollars]

Hay mike I use lead for many casting products in return brings me higher than lead prices verses weight

Then by all means check with any place that mounts tires. They usually have a bucket full of old lead wheel weights used when balancing a tire.

[Mechanic688]

I'd check around the big used tire shops,

[wayne]

Just out of interest, do you use lead as a roofing material in the US? In the UK there is normally some lead on the roofs of most buildings built before the 70's. We have a lot of churches that have complete lead-covered roofs, while others have copper-covered roofs.

[ohioscrap]

Waynei have used roofing lead and flasking I try to deal with the local roofer around here.

[MLComputers]

Check the plumbing shops.. They tear out the old water systems and have it laying around.

[ParkerFlyer4]

I tried all the tire stores around my area for tire weights... and every one of the managers had the same ole' story. "i'm a fisherman"

[eesakiwi]

We have lead trim on our corrigated iron roofs.
Its easy to get off, most places (roof fixers) don't bother tearing the lead strip off & I find it where I find old roofing iron.
Lead headed nails, we have a set price per Kg for that here too.

The roofers always seem to like it when I do strip it off.
Like they will put the lead edges iron off aside for me to work on, then I put the left over iron onto their pile.

I had ideas of making scuba diving weights but never got around to doing it.

[redcrossnj]

lead concrete wall anchor s , flashing , solder, in motors sometimes, cable sheating ,. you ever try to cast zinc ohioscrap .thats what i do.

[KrazyJ]

In the Telephone Industry years ago (Old School) they used lead sleeves to seal cable splices. I have purchased hundreds of pounds of good melting lead from these old telco suppliers. Or find an old phone man. Makes Good bullets too
KrazyJ

[ohioscrap]

Thaks redcrossnj and no I have never casted in zinc used pure tin and lead would like to try smelting some copper this spring

[rebar17]

Check the plumbing shops.. They tear out the old water systems and have it laying around.

I watched the plumbers pull 3 this week, they took them personally for the scrap. Pretty typical, the shops/owners could care less, but the workers all take the metal. Those same workers were not to happy that they were not getting the copper, cha ching, that's ours.

[BurlyGuys]

NEVER take lead shielding from xray machines. They have been irradiated and are dangerous. My local scrap yard wont touch them.

[zito]

NEVER take lead shielding from xray machines. They have been irradiated and are dangerous. My local scrap yard wont touch them.

Lead doesn't "absorb" radiation in the sense that it will absorb it, and then give it off itself, like "glow in the dark". That's why lead is used in shielding, along with it's density. Lead from an xray machine is completely safe; if you don't believe me haul it to a yard that has radiation detectors, and it won't set them off. I've hauled in a few older machines myself from govt. surplus, never any issues. Think about it. X-ray techs wear lead aprons. If the lead absorbed the radiation, and then gave it off, each tech would be wearing their very own little personal nuke! Cool stuff! As well, something I used to haul regularly for a while was the lead cannisters that hold the vials of radioactive iodine, I think it might have been??, that's used in testing such as angiograms, etc. Wondered what the heck they were the first time I saw them. They're little canisters just slightly bigger inside than the old plastic cans that 35mm film used to come in, but about 1/2" thick and made of lead. Heavy as heck, especially when you got a couple hundred of them. When I noticed the radioactive and biohazard warning stickers on them, I pretty much freaked, and spent a few hours doing research. I calmed down after that. Same deal, no residual radiation or biohazards, completely safe. The stuff inside of them, different story completely. But that was in its own heavy duty cannister, a box within a box if you will. Fun times indeed, until I found out it was safe!

[mikedmissouri]

Lead doesn't "absorb" radiation in the sense that it will absorb it, and then give it off itself, like "glow in the dark". That's why lead is used in shielding, along with it's density. Lead from an xray machine is completely safe; if you don't believe me haul it to a yard that has radiation detectors, and it won't set them off. I've hauled in a few older machines myself from govt. surplus, never any issues. Think about it. X-ray techs wear lead aprons. If the lead absorbed the radiation, and then gave it off, each tech would be wearing their very own little personal nuke! Cool stuff! As well, something I used to haul regularly for a while was the lead cannisters that hold the vials of radioactive iodine, I think it might have been??, that's used in testing such as angiograms, etc. Wondered what the heck they were the first time I saw them. They're little canisters just slightly bigger inside than the old plastic cans that 35mm film used to come in, but about 1/2" thick and made of lead. Heavy as heck, especially when you got a couple hundred of them. When I noticed the radioactive and biohazard warning stickers on them, I pretty much freaked, and spent a few hours doing research. I calmed down after that. Same deal, no residual radiation or biohazards, completely safe. The stuff inside of them, different story completely. But that was in its own heavy duty cannister, a box within a box if you will. Fun times indeed, until I found out it was safe!

Thats good to know as im supposed to be getting an xray machine from a chiropractor next week. Besides lead what should i be looking for when i break it down.

[zito]

Brass. Craploads of brass. Last machine I had that I actually broke down fully and weighed had about 180 lbs of brass. Seems x-ray machines use a lot of brass in fittings, as well the housing of the x-ray "head" itself is often brass. As well, sometimes there are these... things... that I'll call lenses. Not sure exactly what they are or do, or what they are called. They're like a 4-sided funnel with small (like 1-2") glass windows in the sides, and then a clear cover at one end. They've been solid brass on the 2 machines I did that had them. There's a tungsten bar/rod inside the head as well. No idea what to do with it so far or where to sell them, so for now I'm just hanging on to them. Some copper inside the head, but not too much actually. Most of the copper is in the power unit/transformers, and there can be quite a bit. Aluminum in the housing as well. Check every piece of metal you pull off, it's often aluminum or brass or stainless that's been painted/powder coated. I've always ended up with less steel than I thought there would be, and more of the more valuable metals. Gotta like it when that happens.

Biggest thing to watch for, is the cooling oil. Some of them circulate oil to cool the head, and if you're not prepared for it, it can make quite a mess. The ones I've done all used a mineral oil for the cooling, nothing toxic (luckily, coming from govt. surplus they all came with MSDS sheets). So I'm not sure if all xray machines are like that, or if I just got lucky. That's about all I can think of, to be honest. Good luck on yours, let us know how it goes for you.