Hey all, recently I started pouring my own lead and making terminal tackle (weights, etc.) and some lures (Flutter spoons, and soon jigs).

I purchased my first lot of soft lead on ebay for $.99/lb. And when I got it and melted it I literally spent one full day consistently scraping out the impurities after adding flux. It never ended.

I am sure the lead I got was no where near pure, so I want to find some local sources of lead where I can talk to them and find a good source of lead at least 99.5% pure, any suggestions?

And is Beeswax a good flux?

John,

Try Roto-metals, they have any grade of lead you want and it's priced fairly. Here's the link

http://www.rotometals.com/

On the beeswax, I have used that from day one and yes it is excellent to flux with.

John,

Try Roto-metals, they have any grade of lead you want and it's priced fairly. Here's the link

http://www.rotometals.com/

On the beeswax, I have used that from day one and yes it is excellent to flux with.

I second the Roto-metals idea. We're heading towards a lead ban on jigs here in 2012, and Roto-Metals was one of th few sources that I found that had a bismuth alloy for a reasonable price. I must qualify that I have not purchased there and maybe Cadman can comment on their service, but they are on top of my list so far heading into next season for bismuth. I plan on doing an extensive research soon for the bismuth alloy and most of these type of companies deal with lead, so if I find a better alternative source, I'll be sure to let you know John J and anyone else interested.

Yeah I thought rotometals would be a great source, but I was merely looking for a more local source. But yeah I'll definately take them into consideration!

Thanks guys!

I have only bought from Roto-Metals about 4 years ago, never had any problems. I believe freight was either free (don't quote me on that) or very minimal. This past year Illinois was suposed to go lead free it didn't pass. But I'm sure it will eventually. The problem is there aren't very many choices as alternatives. Jigfishn10 mentioned bismuth. That wil be one of the options. The other two are pewter and zinc or a combination of some or all. The problem with all of these is weight. None of their weight properties is even close to lead. So that means bigger jigs to compensate for deeper water or we will have to all learn how to fish with finesse. Second problem with the above metals is cost. It will kill a lot businesses and your custom jig makers. Bismuth is at least 5 times the price of lead. So guys buying  jigs will pay more and guys selling jigs will pass it on to the buyers. In reality this whole lead ban is a bunch of C@@P if you ask me. Sorry for the rambling.

that's ok.

Yeah, luckily here in Va, we are not running into a lead ban. And I agree, lead is fairly cheap compared to other metals, so by forcing businesses to use alternative metals the market is going to skyrocket and demand is going to diminish.

Like you said it kills businesses and fishermen alike!

Yeah I thought rotometals would be a great source, but I was merely looking for a more local source. But yeah I'll definately take them into consideration!

Thanks guys!

The one thing you can try is your local plumbing supply. Some retro fit jobs plumbers do is to pack oakum around the drains and pour lead on top. It's not common practice now, but I still see it from time to time. The other thing you can try is Home Depot or Lowe's and go to the roofing supply aisle. Lead flashing is still used to flash roofs to masonry. I will say this is an expensive alternative. Then there is wheel weights from tire stores. These are not pure lead and need a little extra effort on your part, but they do work.

Yeah I thought rotometals would be a great source, but I was merely looking for a more local source. But yeah I'll definately take them into consideration!

Thanks guys!

The one thing you can try is your local plumbing supply. Some retro fit jobs plumbers do is to pack oakum around the drains and pour lead on top. It's not common practice now, but I still see it from time to time. The other thing you can try is Home Depot or Lowe's and go to the roofing supply aisle. Lead flashing is still used to flash roofs to masonry. I will say this is an expensive alternative. Then there is wheel weights from tire stores. These are not pure lead and need a little extra effort on your part, but they do work.

Thanks! Yeah I heard you can apply tire weights to lead to get a heavier sinker. After dealing with all the impurities my first go 'round, I really want the entire application to run smoothly, rather than me spending one entire day scooping out impurities.

Thanks for the input!

Your original batch was probably Zinc contaminated. Possibly mented down wheel weights.

If you are going to try wheel weights, search through them for the letter Z or Zn. Then drop each one onto a concrete floor in turn and listen to the sound. Discard any that sound different.

Dave

My first batch had some crusty yellow impurities. At the time I was making some drop shot weights and one of the swivels accidently fell into the pot. Since then I've been getting this crust yellow substance in the lead and then my pour spout creates this "shed snake skin" effect while I'm pouring.

Meaning the lead comes through but a yellow funnel forms over top of it. I think it was the coating off that swivel, but idk. Just in case I am going to order some new lead and clean my pot thoroughly. If I need some wheel weights I'll definately use your advice Vodkaman! Thanks!

Info on casting lead from another forum. I found it while researching lead casting to possibly make my own jigs.

"FIRST SAFETY MUST BE UTMOST ON YOUR MIND! ALWAYS DO THIS OUTSIDE! WATCH FOR SPATTER! USE HEAVY LEATHER GLOVES AND PROTECTIVE CLOTHING! A FAN TO ENSURE FUMES ARE BLOWN AWAY FROM YOU IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED! A FACE SHIELD IS ALSO RECOMMENDED! NEVER REUSE A POT OR UTENSIL AFTER MELTING LEAD IN IT, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO CLEAN! USE COMMON SENSE OR YOU CAN BE SERIOUSLY HURT!

That being said, its not that big a deal. Use some common sense and precautions and its safe and kind of a fun project.

Im convinced that old tire balancing weights are the best way to go. They have an alloy in them that makes them harder than pure lead. Which is a good thing. Pretty much where there are people there are cars and balance weights. Most shops will give them to you for free and thank you for taking them. I went to a shop and walked away with a five gallon bucket full and can go back and get all I want. Take your own bucket. Also fill about half the bucket, even then its quite heavy.

Learned this trick from a guy that does quite a bit of melting lead. Get a couple of feet of scrap angle iron. I cut a piece about 18" long and welded a foot on one end and two legs on the other end. The end with two legs is elevated slightly higher than the end with one leg.

I use a MAPP torch because I have one and its hotter (faster). But a propane torch will work fine. You can buy one at almost any hardware or home center for about $10 plus a $3 bottle of fuel. You use this thing to clean up the lead wheel weights. You place the weight in the angle iron channel and melt it with a torch. The lead will run down the angle iron into a hot pot. I bought one on ebay, but you can buy them new at Bass Pro Shops for around $40. Once in the Hot Pot you can skim off what little slag is in there. Most of the junk is left in the angle iron.A cast iron pot will work well, or even heavy aluminum pots if you are only doing one melt & can keep the bottom covered with molten lead. An old propane tank properly cleaned and sectioned also makes a pretty reasonable large capacity low cost pot. Anything used to help with the melting process, as well as the melt pot, should be relegated to that use permanently! It is not possible to clean a pan used to melt lead well enough to ever cook food in it again! The same applies with skimming tools and ladles. Even if they should look clean, the traces left behind are highly toxic and can cause permanent damage to your brain and other organs. Soup ladles, or tomato cans with a pair of vise grips serving as handles are good to handle the molten lead from the pot to the mold. A standard" soup ladle holds about 3 pounds of lead. A large Tomato sauce can will hold about 12 pounds before it gets difficult to control. If pouring more than 12 pounds in a single shot make a bottom drop pot.

You can make molds from dry hardwood, an aluminum or steel cookie sheet with four side walls (if all you want is sheet), dry sand, or even plaster of paris if you bake it good and dry before adding the lead. Production molds are generally machined or cast aluminum, steel, or gray cast iron. If making a mold you intend to re-use allow for about 1.5° draft to get the lead out of the mold. Global Manufacturing makes semi-commercial molds at a reasonable price. No matter what you use as a mold, giving it a good coating of dry film graphite or molydisulphide will make it a lot easier to get the lead separated from the mold. Separating the lead from the mold should be done as soon after it fully hardens as practical to minimize difficulties knocking out. Silicone spray also works as a mold release agent, but burned silicone smells bad and the odor lingers on/in the weights for years.

Cast weights for the pocket style neoprene belts will be almost exactly half the size of shot weights for the same weight. Remember that smaller size = less drag.

Any stove, including some camping stoves, should be able to generate enough heat to melt the lead, which takes approximately 500 -700 degrees Fahrenheit. The lighter" the lead (i.e more tin in the mix) the lower the melt point. Pure lead melts about 720°F. Solder, which is ~40% tin, melts at about 500°F. The "cajun cookers" are great heat sources for melting lead, plus once you're through doing the lead you can use the burner to fry turkeys and boil crabs, lobster, or mudbugs!

In any case always melt outside with good ventilation.

Lead sources:

1. Tire stores. The weights used to balance wheels are a lead-tin alloy and contain about 5 - 8 % antimony, which is a hardening agent, The result is castings which are much harder and more durable than lead or a lead- tin alloy. Most tire shops don't reuse wheel weights and will be happy to give you all you want as it usually costs them to have the weights taken away. They melt and cast well but the steel clips can be problematic to remove. The easiest and best way to remove them from the pot is with a magnet. The steel will float on the top of the molten lead and can be removed clean by using an old speaker magnet or any other magnet strong enough. Try to keep the lead dross (the other stuff floating on top of the lead) separate from the clips. The clips can be recycled as steel, but only if there is no lead mixed in with it. Wheel weights normally melt between 500 and 600 degrees F.

2. Hospitals. Hospitals often use radioactive tracers or drugs. These are shipped in virgin lead containers often weighing several pounds or kilograms each, and there are other protective parts to disposable delivery equipment that are also made of virgin lead. If you just need a few pounds (50 or less) contact your local hospital's radiology labs and offer to take the "trash" out. If they balk, you may even have to offer them a few $. This lead melts around 600-700 F (the highest melting point of the lot.)

3. Shooting ranges. This lead recovery is a lot of work. There is usually a lot of brass and copper to be cleaned from the spent projectiles and the amount of dross is almost as much as the amount of lead you'll recover, but it's cheap.

4. Plumbing contractors. Roof flashing and old lead caulked sewer pipes are constantly being replaced and are normally available, as is the lead sheathing from buried telephone lines.

5. Scrap yards. Most metal recyclers will sell scrap lead for melting. It can be in any of the above forms, plus ingot, 5 lb. pigs, and sheet. Scrap yards will often charge you twice what you could get the lead for if you scrounged a bit yourself. As a gauge, expect to pay up to $.40/lb for scrap lead at a scrap yard depending on how clean it is and how much is needed. In over one ton lots the price should be down around $.15-.20/lb

6. NEVER melt down a lead-acid battery to get the lead out of it! Some of the alloying elements are deadly (cadmium and arsenic for example) and they will boil out of the molten metal at about the same point the lead melts. This is not a good thing even if you are melting in a high wind with lots of ventilation.

If you have a choice you want to get the highest weight to surface area ratio stuff you can find. Not only is lead oxide hard to reduce back to metallic lead unless you know exactly what you are doing, handling it is the most toxic part of the entire operation. The following procedures should be strictly followed for your safety!

DO NOT VIOLATE THESE PROCEDURES AND WARNINGS!

1. Do the following in a very well ventilated area (read outdoors). A fan to blow the very toxic fumes of the melted lead and any impurities away from where you are breathing is strongly recommended. You do not want to breathe these fumes! Lead can cause permanent brain damage and is toxic. At the very least, stand upwind of the vapors and fumes.

2. Be certain that there is no moisture of any sort in the material you use. The pot, beeswax, and everything else must be perfectly dry. Any moisture in the pot will instantly turn to steam and explosively spatter molten lead everywhere! Treat this step lightly and you may bear nasty scars for the rest of your life.

3. Be absolutely certain that the mold is absolutely dry and free of grease, oil, moisture, etc.

4. Flux the lead for uniform results.

Fluxing is the adding of a material which helps the alloying metals mix together and to float impurities to the surface for removal. If you melt a lead alloy, you will see a silvery scum on the surface of the molten metal. This scum is lead oxide and tin. The flux will help the tin to recombine with the alloy and will cause the lead oxide to precipitate in an easily removed form. Beeswax is a commonly available fluxing agent, however there are other commercial fluxing agents usually available from bullet casting supply houses that do not smoke or flare as much. Almost any hydrocarbon with a high flash point will work for fluxing. Old frying grease, crankcase oil, parrafin, axle grease, lard, etc have been used with success. These lower flash point materials will ignite and flare! Never the less the low flash point materials will still function as a flux if you are working in an area with nothing flammable overhead where the flame can be tolerated. With beeswax, about 1/4 teaspoon stirred into a 20 pound pot is all that is needed to clean up the alloy for pouring, although it will smoke a lot! Repeat fluxing and skimming until the mix is clean.

5. Add about a pound of 50/50 or 60/40 solder per 50 pounds of pure lead to have some tin in the alloy. This will allow it to flow more easily and fill the mold uniformly. The target here is 1% to 1.5% tin in the final alloy. More than that simply adds cost and lowers the melting point without giving any flow or strength advantage. Wheel weights generally start with enough tin. Sheathing and shielding don't.

6. Pre heat the mold by dipping a corner of it in the molten lead if the mold is small, or by filling a larger open mold very slowly. The first shot or two out of any mold will generally go back in the pot as a mold preheater with an incomplete fill. The preheating process provides two advantages. The first thing it does is slow down the set process to allow a more complete mold fill and better surface finish on the cast weight. The second thing it does is raise the mold temperature slowly to above boiling point, thus ensuring a dry mold.

7. Wear eye protection, goggles or a full face shield.

8. Wear a breath shield or mask, the thicker or more effective, the better. You could even breathe from your regulator and tank if the hose will reach.

9. Wear thick gloves, heavy welding gloves are best

10. Wear heatproof clothing. Heavy cotton absorbs sweat that will quench most small splashes before it reaches skin. NEVER wear synthetic fabrics, other than kevlar, when doing any hot metal operation! Any splashes, spatter or slag will melt the clothes and bond the hot metal to your skin for a REALLY nasty burn. Peeling off the melted plastic usually takes the hide with it!

11. Be aware that if the molten lead spatters or spills, it will stick to your skin and/or clothes and can cause some nasty burns.

Watch your heat! Lead, and the alloying elements in it, all have a vapor pressure once you get them molten, and the hotter the melt the higher the vapor pressure. The high vapor pressure of the alloying elements in batteries is the primary reason to let the big smelters deal with recycling them. As a rule of thumb, you want to pour lead as close to the melting point as you can, without having it set on you before you get the mold full.

Another rule of thumb is that when stirring the pot you should use a dry pine stick. If the pine stick chars to black in a few seconds, or if it ignites, the pot is too hot. Either turn off the heat or add a bit of cold lead, the faster method of the two, which will get it cooled down fast.

Boiling lead is not a good thing! If the top of the pot starts to turn yellow or gold you have the same problem of a pot that is overheated.

Remember that even after the lead hardens it is still around 500F and will remove skin if you touch it too soon. Good leather gloves are a must.

A final note: Lead dross is the stuff you skim off the top of the pot. The steel of the wheel weight clips can be recycled. The rest of it can be incorporated in a marker buoy weight by mixing it with cement and using the lead dross as the aggregate. Lead dross of any amount is NOT to be discarded as trash in the US. If you can't use it as ballast in another project, you are required to ship it to one ofthe metal smelters for reuse. That shipment is expensive as it has to go as a hazardous material. Metallic lead is dangerous if it splashes on you or hits you at high velocity. Dross is just plain nasty biologically. Dross encased in cement is rendered relatively harmless. "

Great how to article and I'm glad that it stresses the importance of using protection against lead fumes. I would highly recommend using an air scrubber to keep the air clean and to make sure to use surface protection such as coveralls, and a N-100 rated mask to avoid inhaling lead fumes. This is also a concern for artists making stained glass windows that use lead welding. Good luck but be careful

Hey all, recently I started pouring my own lead and making terminal tackle (weights, etc.) and some lures (Flutter spoons, and soon jigs).

I purchased my first lot of soft lead on ebay for $.99/lb. And when I got it and melted it I literally spent one full day consistently scraping out the impurities after adding flux. It never ended.

I am sure the lead I got was no where near pure, so I want to find some local sources of lead where I can talk to them and find a good source of lead at least 99.5% pure, any suggestions?

And is Beeswax a good flux?

Beeswax will work, as will paraffin, rosin, bullet lube, etc., but this is a vastly superior product.

I actually prefer a little tin in the lead that I cast with. Pure lead is pretty soft, a little tin makes for a little tougher jig. I usually just add 1 lb, of 80/20 solder to 4 lbs. of lead.

Tom

You don't have to worry about lead fumes if you're using a lead melting pot. They do not get hot enough to vaporize the lead. Simply melting lead doesn't create toxic fumes. You still have to be conscience of contamination on you hands and clothing from handling, but the fumes are the least of my worries.