Lead soldiers

[DSW]

I read a comment on another site about Christmas and it reminded me of this. I took these picts a while back, but though you all might find them interesting. A bit of lead casting. A few sinkers for a buddy of mine since I had the pot out, some block weights and some custom V weights for double scuba cylinders that I occasionally make up for a friend of mine who teaches technical diving, and some lead soldiers cast in molds I got from my grandparents and uncles in Germany some time back in the early 70's. I can remember melting lead on the kitchen stove with my dad using fishing weights to make up some soldiers to do a Revolutionary war diorama for elementary school.

 

 

Ah the good old days. When you could give a child under the age of 8 a toy dealing with toxic molten metal! ( with adult supervision of course)  :lol:

 

 

I remember looking thru the toy catalog we'd get from Germany at all the different molds that were available and wishing I could get some others to add to my small collection ( I always wanted the cannon. The firing crew would have been a bonus). I remember seeing other eras as well like knights, French Napoleonic troops, Civil war soldiers and others. I probably had as much fun pouring these almost 40 years later to show others as I did as a kid when we'd pour them.

 

 

 

 

           

[DSW]

I'd love to see them.

[Rich Hale]

I" have an appt with Doc tomorrow for yearly physical....Gave blood sample yesterday..Among other things they do a heavy metal poisoning test. Big player in that is testing for lead. Not to be taken lightly. 

[ThomasPowers]

In general I would think the handling of the soldiers to trim off the casting flash would be the most dangerous part of the process as far as lead intake would go.

[DSW]

Most of my lead was scrap. I got a bunch of lead when they cleaned out the bullet traps at a range I belong to. The buckets are full of trash as well as lead. Most of the range is set up for  lead bullets only, so most of the trash is paper and some rubber from the target boards and sand from the bottom of the trap. I did pick up a few buckets from another range that has a snail drum trap and a lot of that has copper jacket material mixed in. Not many wheel weights. Occasionally a friend of mine comes up with some, but most places today recycle. I also get some scrap lead from old drain pipes on occasion. I've got a few friends who are plumbers down in the city who keep an eye open for scrap lead pipe for me when they do little jobs. Occasionally some one will give me some old 8 or 10 lb dive weights when they find an old weight belt some one ditched and ask me to melt them down instead to save some money. Never could find a place to get type linotype for casting.

 

 

Looks like you have a nice assortment of weight molds for sinkers. I though about getting some along with some lead jig molds when I used to do a lot of fishing. Never did get around to getting any before we moved. Ever since we moved back East from Washington state, I just can't get back into fishing.

 

 

I did do some bullet casting when I got heavy into handgun shooting years ago. That's where the vast majority of my lead came from ( I think I still have 4 or 500 lbs minimum from back then when we cleaned the ranges.) I think I still have the bullet molds some where with my reloading stuff.

 

 

Most of the stuff I cast now are V weights for my buddy. It's hard to find any decent tank weights on the market, so I welded up my own molds out of steel and machines them to fit what we wanted. I cast him weights typically between 6 and 16 pounds, though the one mold will cast weights up to 22 lbs if I fill it 100%. A lot of guys who want to get into technical diving doubles often grab 2 alum 80's for their cylinders. Since they are at least 4 to 6 pounds buoyant when empty compared to steel cylinders, there's a big need to have  different weights you can add to the cylinders so the diver is neutrally buoyant and yet has the same center of gravity so he stays trim in the water. Weights on your belt add weight and make you neutral, but they are below the neutral axis, so they drag your feet down and wreck your trim in the water. I'll cast maybe a dozen or so at a time, most being 8, 10 and 12 lb ones with a few heavier ones or custom weights if he asks.

 

 

I like your little ingot molds. I have one small set of Lee molds for doing ingots, but that's about all. I have 2 small scuba block weight molds that cast 3 and 5 lb block weights that I usually use as ingots. It's tough many times to find enough things to use as ingot molds to use up what ever lead is left when I melt down scrap. Usually I'll just cast a few extra V weights or maybe a few monster ones that I know I'll recast later.

 

I do all of my melting of lead outdoors on a nice bay with a light breeze. and observe all the basic precautions about staying out of any smoke that might get formed and washing carefully when done. I use a good respirator and gloves as well as other PPE like safety glasses and a face shield, as well a my old leather welding coat. I use the bottom of an old 330 cf O2 cylinder as my big scrap pot and melt over a big propane plumbers rig used to melt lead for doing lead and oakum joints.

 

 

Leads a lot more common than most people think. Every few years when we get a really cold snap in the winter, the news usually trots out the same "investigative" story about the city still having lead pipes in the water supply. From what I  understand that's true in most large older cities. They still have quite a few smaller supply lines in older sections they haven't gotten around to replacing, especially feed lines to individual residents in some sections. Any time they test  the water though it always comes in under the levels of acceptable lead.

[DSW]

I used to live in Seattle back in the 80's and did a lot of diving. Mostly Scuba but took schooling in surface supplied and mixed gas diving, And taught scuba for a few years. We used to pour our own weights.

 

 

What a strange small world it can be some times. We  were stationed out at Keyport Wa from 1980 to 1985 and had a full dive locker with recompresion chamber on base to service the divers that worked the range on the Hood canal just off the sub base at Bangor. I really wished I'd been into diving while I was out there. I remember how clear ( and cold) the water was out there. I'd have loved to talk mixed gas diving with the divers out there back then. I didn't get into diving until I was in my 30's. I'm full cave, trimix and CCR certified. I have my divemasters, but don't use it any longer since I don't work with students as much any longer on a regular basis. I've also done a small amount of surface supplied diving and worked for a short while PT for a commercial dive company.

[macbruce]

When I first got into the artisan thing in the 70's I made stained glass with lead came. I would mindlessly put a small piece of came in my mouth and chaw on it while I worked away........I mean heck, I remember rubbing mercury on pennies when I was a kid......Anyway my brother in law Bill (rip) took notice of my chosen 'snack' and set me strait in no uncertian terms saying it would cause dementia among other horrible things, so no more of THAT.....It didn't seem to affect me.......or did it? :unsure:

[DSW]

 

My ingot molds are mostly old cast iron muffin pans. The big one in the back is a pig mold for a type casting machine I had, it will cast about a 25# pig..

 

I'd missed the details on the one in the back. Looks a lot like an old window sash weight.

 

 

 

When I first got into the artisan thing in the 70's I made stained glass with lead came. I would mindlessly put a small piece of came in my mouth and chaw on it while I worked away........I mean heck, I remember rubbing mercury on pennies when I was a kid......Anyway my brother in law Bill (rip) took notice of my chosen 'snack' and set me strait in no uncertian terms saying it would cause dementia among other horrible things, so no more of THAT.....It didn't seem to affect me.......or did it? :unsure:

 

 

My aunt is an artist who mostly does painting, either water colors or preferably in oils. She often talks about how they used to point their brushes with their mouth when painting, often while using white lead, cadmium red and other paints derived from heavy metals long before all the dangers of that kind of thing was fully known.

 

 

Today I'm sure molds like this are for tin rather than lead. It's almost impossible for me to get decent lead based solder any longer for copper work, at least locally. I'm hording the last few rolls of 100% lead solder I have for special projects. I've switched over to silver based solders for all the plumbing work. I can remember when I used to buy lead solder and melt if for bullet casting...

[anvil]

mcbruce,,, turned ya into a danged ole blacksmith, it did...sheesh snorting lead for gosh sakes.