Thread: Clearing Up

When we moved in here nearly 23 years ago there was a prize winning garden that was a tad overgrown. Underneath some of the creepers on the side of the garage was an old coal bin, and inside that was a rotting nail box full of lead wheel weights. I thought I might hang onto those so they went into a bucket and 3/4 filled it. Over the years I managed to pick a few sinker moulds at ridiculously low prices and store them for a hot, bright and shiny windless rainy day. I also picked up some heating gear and an old aluminium pressure cooker from the local thrift shops, they move some stuff and get some money to do their work. Took a while to get the initial melt going with little surface contact but as it progressed things got easier.

Take one bucket of old rubbish




Get it melting




To improve the melt speed I stacked up some old bricks




Scrape off the steel clips and other crud which all floats nicely to the top.




Once I'd managed to get some heat into the moulds things started working well. Figured the easiest way was to pour some lead in and just dump the results straight back in the pot. Hey presto some virtually free sinkers.

Bloody good results there

Wana come Fishing?

Such fun melting lead. A mate and I used to melt lead head nails in the sixties and we made all sorts of stuff. They only problem is lead is so soft and so heavy it doesn't make good arrow heads.

15kg of sinkers, 2.5kg left in the bottom of the pot to start the next melt and about 5kg of rubbish. Cleaned up all the holes, inside and out, so they are easier on the line.

Originally Posted by Rushy

Such fun melting lead. A mate and I used to melt lead head nails in the sixties and we made all sorts of stuff. They only problem is lead is so soft and so heavy it doesn't make good arrow heads.

Blunt quite easily too.

Last time I made sinkers would have been at least 35 years ago with the old man. Only a handful of those left. They were made from salvaged lead pipes and flashings, handy having a couple of builders in the family.

Mate of mine died in the process of making sinkers.
He was collecting lead head nails off a roof in Thames and fell to his death.

Originally Posted by Pengy

Mate of mine died in the process of making sinkers.
He was collecting lead head nails off a roof in Thames and fell to his death.

That reminds me that I have a dose of those in the garage too. As the nails rust away I replace them with scews and collect the lead. There will be some flashings when I bust up the knackered wood shed.

There were a few that got into trouble gathering lead off roofs back on the 80s.

Yeah, I was one of them. The cops caught me

Originally Posted by Pengy

Yeah, I was one of them. The cops caught me

I'm picking that was a good 'wake up call' that set you back on the straight and narrow.

I wish I could say you are correct GM. Alas, it took a few more run ins with mr Plod before I realised the error of my ways.
One of the perils of growing up in a village of 900 residents is that the kids can indeed get bored.

Next youll be casting bullets as well

Originally Posted by Pengy

I wish I could say you are correct GM. Alas, it took a few more run ins with mr Plod before I realised the error of my ways.
One of the perils of growing up in a village of 900 residents is that the kids can indeed get bored.

Your dark side is coming out to us Pengy.

@gadgetman

Melting metals and creating alloys is a fascinating process.

Just watch the lead fumes coming off your pot, they're not good to breath.

To help clean up your lead you can use a flux in your melt.

Flux will help purge the melt of impurities and float them to the top as dross.

Chuck a whole tea light candle (removed from the aluminium casing) into you molten lead and give it a stir

It will catch fire initially, once burned out give the molten lead another stir and remove the dross.

I'm currently making a small furnace that will be capable of melting aluminium and bronze for casting.

Cheers
Pete

@P38 keep us posted on the furnace project with pics.