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I got a chance to get some lead plates out of a cat scan machine that are supposed to be pure lead. Will these be safe to cast bullets with? There is supposed to be approximately 1000 lbs of these lead plates, it would be a heck of a lot of bullets. Thanks in advance.

from what Ive read if you let them sit outside separated for a few months the minor residual radiation IF ANY will drop off to the point its negligible, the half life of the radiation source is only weeks.obviously won,t hurt to run a radiation detector over it before touching or transport, but
let me say given the option to get 1000lbs of free lead id stack it out near my back fence and use it a year later without giving it a second thought, you probably run a greater risk with wearing glow in the dark wrist watch dials

340,thank you. I thought 1000 lbs of lead was a good thing.

Only downsize is that you will need to alternate the alloy, but I would take 1000 pounds of lead anytime.

Side note - are you Czech?

Czech Made, yes 3rd generation American.

I am fresh off the boat :), moved to States in 97.

I wouldn't do it if I were you, better send it to me, I'll pay the freight and dispose of it properly

I had some rolls of pure lead sheets that came out of an old X-ray facility. We melted several hundred pounds of it into pure lead ingots. As others have said, the risk, if any at all, is minimal.

On a side note, my use for pure lead was limited. What I really needed was harder alloy for rifle and pistol bullets. I managed to find a commercial bullet caster locally that was willing to trade my pure lead for an equivalent volume of harder alloy. Something to consider if you need harder alloys.

sush, please beware of any fumes from the lead you got from the xray sheathing. I remodeled the dental school at loma linda university in calif and got about 3000# of lead, lately I have been in bad health with high lead and uranium levels in my system. my wife discovered on the internet that the lead shealding is coated with uranium to catch errant radio active particles. the radio active part is not the problem. it is the heavy metals, lead and uranium that accumulate in your system and cause many different health problems. just thought i'd let you know. best wishes.

Thanks for the heads up.

I actually traded the majority of that sheet lead off for some type metal. I still have a few buckets of ingots around that were cast from the sheets, but I don't have a lot of call for the pure lead and I cast in good well ventilated environment.

My dad drilled the ventilation thing into my head early on when I was learning to cast. I keep a big exhaust fan running behind the pot and I sit in front with a door or window cracked behind me. I've been teaching my son to cast and can't seem to impress the serious need for those precautions upon him though.