Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting discarded stained glass supplies for bullet casting?

My neighbor has a few hundred pounds of lead came he wants to get rid of. Came is used in making stained glass items; it is basically an edging that goes around each piece of glass. See here:

http://www.delphiglass.com/index.cfm?page=itemList&altcat=1678&viewcat=1678

Anybody know what the make-up of this stuff usually is or how I could find out? Would it be good for casting bullets? I need to decide weather to give it to my brothers wife, who does stained glass as a hobby or feed it to the pot. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I'm only guessing, but I'd says it's pure lead. That stuff has to be soft and workable as not to crack the glass. If it's a "few hundred pounds" GRAB IT! You can use the "finger nail test". If you can scratch it with your nail easily, it's most likely pure lead. It might have something in it to keep it from oxidizing, (turning grey), but it sounds like you have a good base metal for bullet casting. You'll have to add some Tin, and or Antimony, but it's worth it for the amount that your talking about. Bullet casters are scroungers by their very nature. I'm always on the lookout for such finds. No matter what, I'll find some way to put it down the barrel of a gun! billt

Can't tell you the exact composition of the stuff, but rest assured you will be able to use it. It's very soft. You can cut it easily with a came knife,which is kinda like halfmoon shape with a handle on it.You actually need to stretch it before you use it to stiffen it up a little when setting stained glass.

P.S. About the only "contamination",when using scrap or salvage came will be the solder joints,which are probably made with 50/50 solder.

Savage 24. I've been using this stuff for a while now and it works perfectly. A friend of a friend is the alloy man at a lead foundry near me. I went in one time looking for something cheap and close to pure lead. He told me he had some came lead rejects (didn't extrude smoothly) about 200 lbs. He told me it was .45% antimony and .06% copper. I'm sure there's more than one recipe for came lead, however the fact that it must be extruded smoothly would usually mean that whatever it is, it's most likely to be cast boolit friendly. This is close enough to pure lead for practical purposes and that small amount of copper is a nonissue. In small percentages, it acts somewhat like tin, however the amount is so small, it can be discounted. Hope this helps a little. I use it for BPRC shooting with the addition of 3% tin and it works very well. Ron.D