Cutting Lead Bars

[CNC Molds N Stuff]

Cutting Lead bars

 

I occasionally need to cut down a lead bar so it will fit in my melting pot. I recently bought 125lbs of 99% pure 5lb bars from Roto Metals for testing molds. I felt the bars were a little long to just stand in the pot and let melt, so tried to come up with a way to cut them down without put lead dust into the air, or raining lead particles onto the floor. This took a little muscle in the bench vise, but it worked. Much better than a hack saw or a bandsaw. There might be a particle or two hit the floor, but there is certainly no lead dust in the air, and an order of magnitude less than if I used a saw.

 

 

This is called a vise brake. Its intended purpose is to bend small piece of sheet metal in a vise. I mostly use it for bending heavy stainless wire used as eyelet keepers in molds, but I have used it for its intended purpose as well. Its made many a small sheet metal part.

 

Hope it helps somebody out.
Bob La Londe

Edited July 15, 2016 by Bob La Londe

[cadman]

Hey Bob,

     Where did you get the vice brake. I have to have one of those, as I am a sheet metal guy and many times I need to bend a small piece of steel at home.

[RayburnGuy]

Way to use the old grey matter Bob.

 

Have you thought about welding a nut on an old vice so you could use an impact wrench to tighten it?  If you didn't want to weld on the vice you could cut a slot in opposing sides of a heavy duty socket that would fit over the head of the screw that tightens the vice. The slots in the socket would then fit over the t-handle used to tighten the screw making it impact wrench friendly. Either of these would save a lot of "grunt work".

 

Just a thought.

 

Ben

[CNC Molds N Stuff]

Way to use the old grey matter Bob.

 

Have you thought about welding a nut on an old vice so you could use an impact wrench to tighten it?  If you didn't want to weld on the vice you could cut a slot in opposing sides of a heavy duty socket that would fit over the head of the screw that tightens the vice. The slots in the socket would then fit over the t-handle used to tighten the screw making it impact wrench friendly. Either of these would save a lot of "grunt work".

 

Just a thought.

 

Ben

 

That's not a bad idea.  I do have about 25 (24 now) of those five pound bars to deal with.

 

 

Hey Bob,

     Where did you get the vice brake. I have to have one of those, as I am a sheet metal guy and many times I need to bend a small piece of steel at home.

 

I'm not 100% sure, but several places sell them.  I might have bought it from Grizzly or Northern Tool.  I might have just bought it off of Ebay.  I just don't remember.  I've had it for a few years. 

 

P.S.  I don't use the vise brake for sheet metal much anymore because I have a 48" Tennsmith rated for upto 12 gage mild steel.

Edited July 16, 2016 by Bob La Londe

[mark poulson]

Shear genius!

[fishon-son]

I JUST USED MY MITER SAW...WONT DO THAT A 2ND TIME...FIRST TIME POT USER....IT WORKED BUT A MESS FOR SURE

[Zygotor]

I use a butane blow torch to cut (Melt) my larger lead pieces, takes a little time but no lead dust or pieces floating around.

[dlaery]

One time i had a bunch of lead pipe and i used a log splitter to cut the lead, it cut like butter

[Slammingjack]

I use a hatchet, the kind you can hit with a hammer. A 5 lb hammer to hit it. Had a piece of lead that was 6" thick and two feet long and about 8" wide. Took maybe 30 minutes to get small enough to melt. Wear safety glasses. There is small chips of lead flying around. But no shivers like you get from a saw.  

[Darkman]

This is great, I bought a pig of lead from roto metal and didn't know how to get it in to

Size that fit my melter, I tried hacksaw and grinder and so on but I suck

So I did what I do best....smash, I got a cold chisel and a hammer and went to work

I get it done in no time, I'm not the brightest star in the sky but I can hammer the crap out of anything

[kelly]

Im a sledge hammer and hatchet kind a guy. About 7 blows to get threw a 5 lb round ingot. Sharp hatchet and polished smooth. Like the vise brake I could think of a fair amount of things i could use that for.

[Painter1]

I just grab the bar with a sturdy pair of large channel locks and dip it in the hot lead. Pull it out when desired level is reached.

[CNC Molds N Stuff]

I just grab the bar with a sturdy pair of large channel locks and dip it in the hot lead. Pull it out when desired level is reached.

 

What do you do when you have melted off all the corners and the round plug remaining won't fit in the pot?  LOL.  

 

Seriously I got a couple chunks of linotype lead that were 8x8x2 a while back.  I finally cut them down to size and melted them after figuring out this method.  

[fishon-son]

just had the saw guy at the shop cut my 30lb. bar up  that's the way go...

[CNC Molds N Stuff]

Well atleast the lead dust and chips are in somebody else's shop that way.

[walleyeking]

I like to melt mine in a cast iron pot with a propane burner and ladle it into cupcake pans. The lead cupcakes come out to a little over a pound each and fit perfect into a 10 lb pot.

[Salty's]

Be a man grab it with your bare hands and throw it in the pot 

[CNC Molds N Stuff]

Be a man grab it with your bare hands and throw it in the pot 

 

Actually if I was using my cast iron pot over the propane turbo burner I would, but the 5Lb bars I got from Roto the last time won't fit in my bottom pour pot.

[Kasilofchrisn]

I have a pot big enough to handle some pretty large pieces of lead.

Its a cast iron dutch oven and holds roughly 196# of lead and a 60,000 btu turkey fryer style burner.

I believe an 8X8X2 piece would fit in it.

 I use this pot to melt down all scrap and make 1# ingots. All done outside. only clean  fluxed ingots are allowed into my shop and all that goes into the bottom pour pot.

I would never use a bottom pour pot to melt scrap.

[BLT]

I have a pot big enough to handle some pretty large pieces of lead.

Its a cast iron dutch oven and holds roughly 196# of lead and a 60,000 btu turkey fryer style burner.

I believe an 8X8X2 piece would fit in it.

 I use this pot to melt down all scrap and make 1# ingots. All done outside. only clean  fluxed ingots are allowed into my shop and all that goes into the bottom pour pot.

I would never use a bottom pour pot to melt scrap.

X's 2.  Big ole dutch oven pot out back of the house.

[SW Lures]

Really like your idea with the vise.

Turkey fryer on steroids for me, I'm inpatient. Then I just pour into multiple muffin pan (heavy duty). One ingot or two in the pot and I'm in like Flin.

Dale

[ravenlures]

I just cut them on my band saw.

[CNC Molds N Stuff]

I just cut them on my band saw.

 

We talked about saws earlier in this thread.  Lead dust and lead particles are no concern to you?  Having a large enough melting pot is no doubt the best option, but every saw I've looked at drops lead particles and dust.  I've got two band saws and a variety of other saws, both hand and manual.  None of them can cut lead bars without dropping particles and dust.  Still I suppose it does work if you have a way to manage that or don't care. 

 

I have a bandsaw I use for cutting steel and aluminum bar stock.  Unless its the day I sweep up the shop there is always a pile of metal chips under the saw.  Same with my wood cutting upright band saw.  Big pile of sawdust under it if its been used recently. 

[SW Lures]

I got just about every type of saw that could cut lead. I won't even contaminate my vac system with the dust. I pour most of my work outside to. I may need to use lead, but I also have respect for what it can do.

Saw, nope not for me.

Dale

[ravenlures]

That is what I used to do which was not much, now I do no lead pouring at all if I want to or need to I purchase them from Lure Parts Online which in the long run, with no waste and better than I can pour but is slightly more in cost. I sold all my molds and have 1 small lead pot if needed. I am into hard plastic now.

Wayne