Just finished a flashing repair job and have quite a few offcuts left over. Does anybody have any creative/interesting/useful/fun use for this? I can't bring myself just to bin it; maybe it's just that lead sheeting is such fascinating stuff to play with!
Brings back memories of melting down and recasting my Dad's old lead soldiers on the fire when I was a kid. (Oh how I wish I'd never done that...)
I recently ripped 28Kg of lead piping out my loft - after playing with it for a bit, and developing a nasty rash, I took it to a scrappy and got 8 quid for it! Jobs a good'un. :-) Last checked, they were offering £300 per metric tonne for lead although prices seem to change dramatically depending on who you phone. They were quite happy to take it in small quantities though.
Here's an email I recently received from a friend, re his latest exploding kitchen horror.
:>
:>I was clearing up my kitchen (a friend turned up, and was plainly :>disgusted, and having glanced at the kitchen surfaces, politely refused a :>cup of coffee with a shudder), and found the cast iron glue pot that, in :>accordance with the recommendation of Tubal Cain, I had been using as a :>tempering bath. The sodium nitrate therein was rather soggy, so I thought I :>would heat it up, dry it out and seal it up. I therefore set it on the :>hotplate. Five minutes later, I noticed liquid all over the top of the :>stove. The (rude words deleted) pot had cracked and was leaking. I killed :>the heat, and transferred it to the sink, where it sizzled ferociously :>under the tap. Meanwhile, I got some thick heavy cotton denim, and (having :>soaked it well in water, because sodium nitrate is an oxidizing agent), :>used this to mop up the spillage before it ate into the stove, rinsing it :>well between wipes. Unfortunately, I had underestimated how quickly such a :>cloth can dry on a suitably hot surface... a small portion of it did, :>hissed viciously and belched out a huge cloud of grey evil smelling smoke :>and steam, followed by a load of orange flames, at which point it got slung :>into the sink and the incipient fire demon drowned. :>
:>I would strongly recommend that (following the previous debacle on :>mainspring tempering) anything written by Tubal F****** Cain to be treated :>with a degree of skepticism. I've never regarded cast iron as a good :>material for anything, and cast iron glue pots absolutely do not make safe :>tempering baths, steel would be much better! :>
He wouldn't touch anything so modern - the guy is a black powder shooter.
A year or two back he was doing some hot bluing on steel (firearms again). You do this by cooking the bits up in a pan of nitrate salts. Your choice though is whether to use simple nitrates (which are a powerful oxidiser, have a high melting point, and will set fire to any form of stirring stick) or to use a eutectic mix of nitrates and caustic soda. This has a lower melting point, but it's now corrosive.
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