I am so stoked on this, and so will any of you who do lead work. In my opinion the biggest drawback to using lead is the cost of the material. A 4 lb bar costs like 26.00. Plus body solder is 30% tin and 70% lead, so you can't just melt down tire weights and what not for filler. Also, in my opinion the 2 big tricks to doing lead work is a good tinning job, and making sure you get enough solder on the repair area, and that you get it paddled smoothly. It's not a huge deal to add more lead later, but it is a bitch if you have to re-tin a spot. I am no Bill Hines, so I probably make more waste than he does. I tried this method, and refined it for myself the other day, and did lead work all night using about 3 sticks of solder that normally would have lasted me like 2 repair areas, and had enough for like six, and still haven't run out yet. It's virtually no wasted material. You will need a form of some type to cast your new lead bars. A bowl of some type to pour your lead into (dog dish cap). And some type of foundry / pouring / filter tool. I used a 3" elbow section of stainless tubing that I beat a little pouring spout into one end. This whole method takes about 8 minutes to complete. Well worth the effort for a 20 dollar bar of lead. First step, put some wax into your form, melt it, slosh it around and let it cool. When cooled it will have a slight white look to it. Then sweep up all of your lead filings off of your nasty floor. Yup. With all the dog hair, dirt, chunks of steel, filth, excrement, etc. If you have chunks that have fallen off while applying lead to the repair area, or any small unused bar ends, etc, throw them into the pipe as well. Now heat up the contents inside the pipe. Heat it from both ends, and make sure all of your lead is melted. The lead will puddle to the bottom and all of the impurites will stay on top. While keeping it hot, pour the lead slowly into the dog dish. If done correctly, all of the impurities will stay in the pipe. If you get a little bit in it don't sweat it, youll get that stuff in the next step. Also, when the lead is cooling in the dog dish, I made some light taps with a body hammer to keep it from sticking. This is the left over impurities, dump em out.
Next, put your new lead chunks back into the pipe, and get your form ready to pour into, I set it on top of another piece of metal so I can move it while it's still hot. Re-melt the lead and slowly pour it into the form. Again, any left over impurities will stay in the pipe if done correctly. After it's poured, I slightly run the torch over the form to smooth the lead out. Let it cool, flip it over, and give it a couple of taps with a hammer, and you have a new bar of solder ready to go! I am finding that if I use 2 and a half sticks to do a repair, when done maybe only half a stick to 3/4s stays on the car. Now I can reclaim the waste, and make my materials go way farther, and be less expensive!
Lead fumes are nasty, ventilation is critical. And newer wheel weights are not Lead, they use all different kinds of stuff now. One of my suppliers quit buying scrap wheel weights, because of this. Scrap wheel weights was a cheap source for him, not any more.
Plus body solder is 30% tin and 70% lead, so you can't just melt down tire weights and what not for filler! covered it!
Good tech. I've been doing very similiar for years pouring fishing sinkers and bullets for reloading.
Back when I was first working in body shops some guys still did lead work. They always had a cardboard box on the floor to catch the lead they filed off so they could melt and re-use it. Back when the 1st step of using body filler was to rough shape it with a cheese grater some guys even saved the cheese grated filings to mix into the filler for a 1st coat on the next job! Frugal bunch they were back then! Way back when, one of the old guys was watching me unmask a car I had painted and he said he used to take the longer used sections of masking tape and stick it on the wall to use on the next job! He called it "bacon".
If you heat your solder in a ladle, when it is molten stir it with a green willow stick and the dross or scum will rise and float on the surface you will get more out this way, You do lose a small amount of tin during the reheating process but this can be added by stirring in tin to the molten lead.
I used to reclaim my Lead until one day my Doctor asked me if I chew on Pencils ?? Once I figured it out, I quit using Lead. The Doc told me that my lead levels were WAY HIGH. Imagine that ? ? ALL METAL works realy good. I still think that my Liver is shot for the Lead exosure. I don't think is would be the Crown Royal though ! ! ! VR&C.
Where did your doctor go to medical school, some off shore diploma mill? There is no lead in pencils. Its graphite.
just what i was thinkin. also i wouldnt be heating it while its sitting on concrete (couldnt see in the pics if you had it elevated or not). concrete can explode when heated. cool tech tho
I had bought a bunch of the Lyman Ingots that is supposed to be the right alloy for this, I was looking at making a mold to make the sticks as well and thought a short piece of angle iron with ends on it would do the trick. The guy on ebay sold me like 60 ingots for like 30 bucks, been a few years back now though.
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