DIY Sinkers

[LandyAndy]

Been melting lead today.
Made this lot.

Andrew

[Bearman]

Been melting lead today.
Made this lot.

Andrew

Looks good Andy, judging by the colour of the sinkers I would say you had the temperature of the lead and the moulds right for them to form properly. Good effort there.!

[LandyAndy]

Had a few re-melts to do when I let the fire die down too much,lead started setting as I poured it.
Not the nicest of hobbies to have.
Much cheaper than buying the sinkers.
Andrew

[Pilbara130]

Nice work Andy.I have never given the sinker making a crack yet but will one day.
Do you just get the lead from batteries?

[LandyAndy]

I got my lead from a local tyre mob,old wheel weights.ITS CRAP quality and you need to melt it down first into ignots to get all the other snot out.The steel clips float to the top,some weights dont melt(the ones that look like they are painted silver,they are an alloy,stick on weights dont melt either)
Even after the second melting plenty of snot floats to the top.
Lead sheeting is the go if you can find it.
Tyre shop owes me another bucket full,what you see there is about half a bucket full of wheel weights,after that I will try and get much cleaner quality lead.
I did a deal with the tyre shop,2 buckets of wheel weights for a block of beer.
Andrew

[Bearman]

I got my lead from a local tyre mob,old wheel weights.ITS CRAP quality and you need to melt it down first into ignots to get all the other snot out.The steel clips float to the top,some weights dont melt(the ones that look like they are painted silver,they are an alloy,stick on weights dont melt either)
Even after the second melting plenty of snot floats to the top.
Lead sheeting is the go if you can find it.
Tyre shop owes me another bucket full,what you see there is about half a bucket full of wheel weights,after that I will try and get much cleaner quality lead.
I did a deal with the tyre shop,2 buckets of wheel weights for a block of beer.
Andrew

You are right about the wheel weights, some of them are crap having some sort of alloy in them. Sheet lead is the go if you can find it these days another source is lead ingots from sailing ship ballast. I managed to purchase several of these from a scrap dealer years ago and the quality of the lead is excellent - almost zero slag and it pours very well. Definitely worth the effort making your own sinkers.