# Cutting lead? How?



## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

For my Challenger, I need to cut off the hump on the Pacific lead weights. What is the best way to do this? Should I wear a mask? Can I use my bandsaw, or hacksaw, or my reciprocating saw? I planned to wear a mask.

Jerry


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

any old metal saw with a sharp blade and slow feed so it doesn't plug the teeth should work fine. Or a micro torch and melt it off.... 

If you saw I might be more worried about the dust getting in the pores of your skin than going airborn... maybe wear surgical gloves?


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## Skip (Jan 2, 2008)

If the weights are removable and pure lead, the hump can be cleaved off with a heavy sharp knife, one with a thick back so that it can be tapped with a hammer. Done slowly and carefully, it will work. There may be some distortion but that can normally be worked out. Taking several thin slices may be preferable to one big one. A coping saw with a coarse blade may also be usable. If its truly lead you don't need a metal saw specifically.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Wear a respirator if you do sand lead. I like Paul's idea. Wash your hands afterwards. Don't eat any of it ha ha! 

Greg


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## noelw (Jan 2, 2008)

*Jerry.. You might want to try this.... I use a reg. crosscut hand saw.. like we use to use cutting wood before the table saws.. laf... The large teeth with lead will cut deep when cutting slow.. It doesn't hurt the teeth on the saw if you don't go fast on cutting.. and no lead dust and the lead is soft. It just takes off small filing. I set the lead wt. on a pc. of wood so cutting in to the wood as you cut the lead. 
It will makes a good even cut .. It an old trick from the 20ths & 30ths. But then there dead now to...ha ha ha ha ..Noel *


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks guys, will try it out.


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## Skip (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Greg Elmassian on 02/24/2009 11:29 AM
Wear a respirator if you do sand lead. I like Paul's idea. Wash your hands afterwards. Don't eat any of it ha ha! 

Greg




Experience gained cutting up a 70 lb pig of lead into 1"x2" blocks for casting as musket balls.


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

I use a good hack saw blade and just cut it. Of course take the precautions mentioned If your worried about it. Later RJD


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

The lump is zinc, not led.


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

JERRY!!!

IT'S ZINC!! ZINC, ACCORDING TO TOBY!! MAN, YOU'RE SAFE!! WHEW.









Possibly misplaced humor aside, do you hope to live for ever?







Lead works slowly, and best in children, whose nevous system is still developing. Not to be insulting, but yours, like mine, is headed the other direction. 'Undeveloping' is the clinical term.









I have a medical chart of lead intake vs longevity I was issued while at McDonnell Aircraft. (No, I won't sell a copy. I stole mine and I don't believe in copyright infringement.) I looked at it. I assumed you are 65, just to be safe. (You look maybe 50.) You're off the chart, dude. Don't panic: it shows that if you intake enough lead to be harmful at that age, you'll lose 4.3 _minutes_ off your *average calculated *lifespan. This is statistics, mind you, with an error of plus/minus five years. Or ten, depending upon sex. You look male, more or less. This is bad. In these times, males are thought to be useless. I'm trying my best to live up to that concept.

Are you gay? If so, that decreases your risk. You don't have to answer.







(HIV, jealous boyfriends & whatnot.)

Do you drink beer? If so, you're immune altogether, as medical science has proven that beer molecules fight to the death with lead molecules over each and every brain cell, to see which can eat the brain cell in contention. And most people drink more beer than lead in a day.

Altogether, the chart predicts you'll live a very long life--so long as you listen to your wife, not doing so being the leading cause of death among males.

Tongue in cheek,








Les


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## Guest (Feb 27, 2009)

zink - lead ... who cares? 
as children we all got enough lead with our drinking water from the leaden pipes. 
as they say, that lead stays in the body, a little more after all those leaden (laden?) years should make no difference. 

but to your problem at hand, why dont you chisel the lump away? 
a chisel of the sort, one uses for woodwork and a hammer. no sawdust for you.


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

When I bought my current house, the inspector said the drain vents on the roof which are made of lead, showed signs of the squrrels chewing on them. So leave the weights outside for a couple of days and the squrrels will nibble the hump off. Course the animal rights people will probably try to have you arrested and put in jail for life over possibly posioning the poor squrrels. 

Randy


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

zinc is nearly as much fun as lead. Especially when the wind shifts when you're melting it


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Posted By Mik on 02/27/2009 7:29 PM
zinc is nearly as much fun as lead. Especially when the wind shifts when you're melting it
















Mik,

You worry a lot, don't you?

















Les


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By rlvette on 02/27/2009 6:27 PM
When I bought my current house, the inspector said the drain vents on the roof which are made of lead, showed signs of the squrrels chewing on them. So leave the weights outside for a couple of days and the squrrels will nibble the hump off. Course the animal rights people will probably try to have you arrested and put in jail for life over possibly posioning the poor squrrels. 

Randy


With my luck the squirrels would eat the wheels and leave the lump for dessert.


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Les on 02/27/2009 8:16 PM
Posted By Mik on 02/27/2009 7:29 PM
zinc is nearly as much fun as lead. Especially when the wind shifts when you're melting it
















Mik,

You worry a lot, don't you?

















Les


Nope, just took 2 days for the headache and nausea to go away after I melted wheel weights for the trebuchet.


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## Ron Senek (Jan 2, 2008)

Jerry How did you get to be old if you're worring about lead. When you were young there was LEAD pipes in every house and LEAD paint on the walls and not to mention as a school teacher you used LEAD pencils. I lived in LEADVILLE where LEAD was mined and never knew anyone who ever had LEAD poisoning. But then again my kids when born had rare disease they were all born NAKED must be from living there I guess.


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Maybe the lead that surround us in our child hood has made us live longer. With all the fuss made about lead 90% of us here on the forum would not be here. Later RJD


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Tom, Jerry has the old style Pacifics. I am pretty darn sure they are lead. 

Only recently did Uncle Lewis bless us with the zinc weights and cut the weight in half and double the price. 

Even the new pacfics have lead, from the Northern Rex built for me. 

The only zinc weights seem to be the -9 ones, and possibly the new SD45.... the first zinc weights were for the E8, the ones we waited a year for, and then they were 1/2 the weight. (Turns out they are the same size as the -9 and we did not have to wait a year, and could have used the lead -9 ones, but that's all stupid history now) 

Regards, Greg


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Posted By Mik on 02/27/2009 8:41 PM
Posted By Les on 02/27/2009 8:16 PM
Posted By Mik on 02/27/2009 7:29 PM
zinc is nearly as much fun as lead. Especially when the wind shifts when you're melting it
















Mik,

You worry a lot, don't you?

















Les


Nope, just took 2 days for the headache and nausea to go away after I melted wheel weights for the trebuchet.









That could've been connected to the beverage at hand ... could it not?









Seriously, some people are more sensitive to metal (or whatnot) fumes than others. Sorry you got ill.

Les


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

We always worried about getting lead poisoning from our pencils, but they're graphite and clay, no lead involved. 

I'm 30% lead, myself. Mostly in the backside.


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm 30% lead, myself. Mostly in the backside.
With me, that's lard, not lead.


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