Cutting lead

An axe?

(Depends on the shape, I guess. I'm thinking of a longish keel kind of thing..)

OA torch? Propane torch?

Melt & run off into usable "ingots"

I also vote for an axe.

Tom Gardner fired this volley in news:zeqdnXxhSKTJmjzTnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

You've probably already surmised that an ordinary saw won't work.

Depending upon the dimensions, a pair of "jaws of life" shears may be the way to go. I published a booklet once that included how to make lead balls for ball milling media, and the best way to cut the 3/4" rods of lead turned out to be lever-action lopping shears.

A chain saw might work, but make sure it's got a safety-cut style of chain that limits the depth of cut per tooth, and POUR cutting oil all over the work -- otherwise, as you probably know, lead will gall on and smear over almost any other metal.

LLoyd

Tom Gardner wrote in news:zeqdnXxhSKTJmjzTnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

I do NOT recommend a cold chisel. I grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and my dad was a reloader. He got some lead shielding bricks (no, they were not radioactive) at the lab's surplus yard. They were about the size of normal house bricks, and were too big to go into his lead pot in one piece, so he paid my brothers & me a nickel an hour to cut them up with a cold chisel. Unless you are both very strong and have a lot of time on your hands, (or have some young boys who will work cheap), cutting up a 500 pound keel weight that way is gonna be a problem.

Splitting wedges & a maul might do it. Lot's of ventilation & a cutting torch would be faster.

Doug White

Probably almost pure lead.

A regular handsaw or axe might work better/create less mess. Remember that you'll have to clean up after it, too, so put down a tarp.

OR

You could use a blowtorch and hold your flintlock bullet casting dies under it while you work.

-- Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Big hot fire, suspend lead on a pipe frame, catchpan, sluices to a molds (or just holes in the ground).

Or a big sluice into a big vat of water, just make little lead chunks.

Could use a pavement-slicing tip on the end of a jackhammer.

Drill the living heck out of it until you can pry/drag/carve slices off it.

Dave

Ripsaw, and go very easy. Don't try using a crosscut, it will just bind and go nowhere.

Take it down to Reserve Trading on W 140th St, they specialize in lead for the reloading industry. That's where we sell reclaimed bullets from the range. Trade it for some of their hard cast. They make it for Lyman and others.

A chain saw does work, and kerosene makes a good lube. It might be worth filing a tiny flat on the leading edge of the teeth, like dubbing a drill for brass, to minimize self-feeding.

I've also cut a chunk off a keel with a bow saw, but wouldn't if I had a chain saw available.

You have lots of interesting suggestions. I would like to suggest you use a power wood splitter. Some of them are designed to operate without having to lift the wood up onto the splitter. Your 500 lb. piece could just stay on the ground and be slid onto the bottom of the splitter.

Paul

Cool! What range are you talking about?

I am currently reclaiming the lead from our outdoor range at Beaver Creek Sportsman's Club, near Oberlin, to meet the EPA's best management practices for outdoor ranges. We expect to get well in excess of 10,000 lbs.

I had to design and build the machinery that takes in tough clumps of clay and processes it and separates it into fine dirt to put back on the berm, and the bullets. Plus lots of gravel, unfortunately.

That's the hardest part, separating the bullets from gravel and small lumps of clay, everything is the same size and can't be sorted by screening. So it's into a gold mining sluice for the final stage.

We have three stages of machinery, 30 horsepower total, plus 3 electric conveyor belts to link everything. The front end loader drops everything onto the feed conveyor, and I turn around and ten feet away, it's raining bullets into our cart. The cleaned dirt travels up a farm conveyor (grain elevator) and back on the berm. It's amazing.

I also have a another process to separate bullets from shredded rubber from indoor ranges. Still perfecting that one. It's coming along well, I just have to make it more continous, right now it is a small batch at a time. I just picked up a small conveyor belt from HGR, it's all aluminum and plastic so it won't rust (this is a wet separation process).

Mallet and chisel. No messy "sawdust" to deal with, and if all you are trying to do is get it into manageable chunks, works fine. Figure out how big a bite you can take, take it, and then take the next one, gen that you are dealing with an odd-shaped lump.

With sheet lead, chisel-cutting can do fairly precise work (I spent a while lead-armoring photomultiplier tubes when I was a lab technician - cutting and then forming sheet lead.)

(...)

Eddy current sorter!

--Winston

Now that's what I'm talking about! That setup in the video looks almost like our operation, with close-coupled machines linked by conveyors. Not much explanation, I'll have to start reading.

I guess the bullets and gravel should be funneled on to a narrow conveyor to limit the size of the electromagnet needed to induce the current. Perhaps an air curtain of some sort to cause the levitated bullets to divert?

Alternatively:

--Winston

I wish I lived closer. I'd gladly trade you some ingots of wheel weight lead for your dead soft lead. I'd like to have some dead soft lead for black powder shooting.

RWL

An air chisel, sharpened to an acute angle, like for wood. Whittle off shavings.

The shavings can be pot-melted afterward, to make handy size cast slugs.

You can also turn lead into shavings fairly quickly with a drill (but the metal is grabby).