Lead melting pot

[zekepa]

67lb ingot L-1984 hand written looks like sharpie.

Either 984 or 084 stamped in bottom. Nothing cast into top

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[tlefire]

See if you can scratch it with a screwdriver.

[zekepa]

The 67 lb ingot can be scratched with a fingernail and has a darker grey color. It also has a dull sound when tapped with a hammer. Pretty sure it is pure lead.

The 55 lb ingot does not scratch with a fingernail, it does scratch with a metal tool is lighter in color, and has a different sound when tapped with a hammer. I chiseled a chunk off, came off fairly easy using an old wood chisel and small hammer. It was very shiny under the top, and did a melt test on it. Using an infrared thermometer it melts between 400 to 450 degrees. Much lower than pure lead should melt at. Not sure if it pure tin or some type of tin/lead solder mix.

[Kevin22]

The 20lb has a better plunger system and wont leak like the 10lb do.

As far as your ingots, hatchet and maul on a stump

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[Blue Tin]

I use a 4# melter to do jigs and sinkers.

Recently got a bucket full of dive belt weights and axe isn't splitting them. Was thinking about either using a torch to melt them into the pot (until it will fit) or saving those and using torch to melt these 50# chunks I have.

I'm a big fan user - no desire to smell or taste the lead fumes.

[canebreaker]

"The 67 lb L1984 ingot can be scratched with a fingernail and has a darker grey color."
Sounds like pure lead, most likely someone casted that ingot marked it for the year. Being beat up is anyone's guess. My brother was an amateur jewelry maker, had a block of lead for an anvil for gold and sliver.
The 55 lb ingot could be Babbit. It's a bit harder than lead. Good for solid sinkers and soft bullets. It doesn't have the color of zinc.

I look on marketplace for lead, as if I need some. One has RCBS 1 lb ingots that look like cast with a spoon for $4., 50 at $3. Another ad has medical cylinders for 50 cents per lb. Great price, I don't want to mess with them.

"Dive belt weights and axe isn't splitting them." I got 2 in a bucket of wheel weights from the scrapyard, they are zinc, can't/won't use. I know a guy with a 30mm cannon that cast balls with zinc, save them for him.

[slammingjack]

I get my lead on Ebay and I won't pay more them $2 a pound. I like the one pound bars, because I can just drop in to my Lee pot.

[popeye guy]

Be wary of medical lead. Lead blocks radioactivity by absorbing it, I have been told.

[zekepa]

I decided to go with the Lee 10 lb bottom pour pot.

Ordered all the things I think I will need to get started last night. I can see this side of the fishing hobby is going to be a real money saver.

Supplies I have or have on the way.
67 lb ingot pure lead
55 lb ingot some kind of lead tin mix.
Lg & Med ladle
Cast iron pot 10lb for breaking down large ingot to small ingots
Fluxing compound
med and lg Ladles
small ingot mod 1/2 and 1 lb cavities

Lee 10lb bottom pour pot
Shad dart mold 1/64 & 1/32
Round head mold 1/32
Already had a supply of size 8 and 6 jig hooks

What I don't have. Several hundred dollars that used to be in the bank. lol

Am I missing more stuff I need?

[zekepa]

Doing a bunch of google reading, and some math, As near as I can tell the 55 lb ingot is most likely plumbers solder somewhere between 40/60 tin/lead and 30/70 tin/lead.

My head hurts a little from the math.