Awesome video, thanks for taking the time to record this. It's obviously a very limited audience that would be interested in this topic. So glad you made this for us, thanks.
I have been polishing lead shot for 35 years for scuba weights and we have polished millions of lbs. during this period of time. I would just offer some gentle suggestions. 1. The longer you tumble, the more lead dust you create. It is going to invisibly coat you, your shed, your yard, your shoes, your house, etc. 2. I assume you are trying to create reloading shot - not create new planets. Tumbling lead for a maximum of 15 minutes will give you the greatest return on your time and your lead. No glass beads, no sand. There are no pores on the surface of the lead to accommodate graphite, lead is one of the most densest elements known to mankind, there are NO pores or any place for the lead to hunker down. Actually, the smoother you make the surface of the lead shot, the less graphite will adhere to that surface. 3. If you want more graphite on the surface, add a quarter of a teaspoon, NO MORE of 30 weight motor oil per 100 lbs. 4. Get a large WET/DRY VAC with a HEPA Filter and mount the hose from the ceiling or any other method of your choosing so that it is at the mouth of the mixer. Have it running whenever you are polishing. It will pickup about 60 to 70% of the lead dust and excess graphite. 5. OK, Mr. Jones, this will be a shocker for you but you need only approximately 1/4 to 3/4 of a teaspoon of graphite for every 100 lbs. of lead shot. READ the next one, # 6! 6. Your lead shot doesn't look like the "store bought" lead because you are creating a mess. Here is the right way: a. Lead will only polish if it is completely clean and dust free. Since you are grinding it for 2 hours it is anything but clean, it is coated in rock and lead dust. Thus you can tumble it in graphite for eternity but you will have little graphite actually adhere to the lead shot. b. This is why you start with clean shot. Typically this means you buy shot that has already been tumbled and washed by the MINERS at the GUN CLUB where the laws of the EPA and your state ecology department hold no sway! If you try to wash and tumble it you are really going to get in over your head, take it from someone who knows. You can try and do it right and still something will go wrong, it just will go wrong and how are you going to get rid of gallons of toxic lead contaminated water? OK, enough said. c. So, you put a 100 lbs. of clean, CLEAN lead shot into a mixer, start it up, add no more than a quarter teaspoon of 30 wt. motor oil (If it is really clean, use an 1/8 of a teaspoon), count to 10, then add 1/4 to 3/4 teaspoons of graphite powder or flakes. Polish for 5 minutes. d. WHY DO WE POLISH THE LEAD SHOT? Graphite is a lubricant and when you are shooting tens of thousands of tiny lead balls down the barrel of your shotgun you want as little friction as possible not only from the little balls but also from the hot gases and tiny pieces of gunpowder, graphite, lead, and other foreign materials. The graphite residues create a thin layer of lubrication that will help to protect your valuable firearm. Gumming up the inside of your barrel with glass bead pieces, sand, ground rock, excess graphite, will not create better lubrication. AND your shotgun is going to hate you because it is going to be hell to clean unless you have a shotgun that likes you to just open it up and physically dump out the debris every dozen shots or so. TROUBLESHOOTING A. LEAD looks black and "sticky". You added too much oil. Sell it to the recycler, nothing you can do, or mess up your gun and clean it forever. B. LEAD won't shine, just looks blackish. Too much graphite or possibly oil. This is one product where more is not more. Less is more! C. Lead won't shine, so you keep tumbling and tumbling and tumbling and tumbling... Every minute you spin the lead you are CREATING more dust which again, is going to stop the lead shot from polishing. D. Since this is reclaimed lead, each load is going to be slightly different so you will learn over time by looking at it how much oil and graphite it needs, in the meantime, enjoy the learning process. E. MOST OF ALL - wear gloves, wear a P100 Mask at least, get a TYVEK suit to wear and dispose of, get those cute little paper shoes, spread out a couple of 4 mm paint tarps around you, at least 20 feet in all directions. I mean, be safe, don't be a yahoo, I can't see it so it can't hurt me! It is your sex drive, by the way, so I mean if you don't mind losing it... well... your deal. But you can also take this home to your grand children or kids and that would just be wrong!
Thanks for your info. One thing to consider is that reclaim shot sits out in the dirt and water for 20 years or more. The last reclaim in our area was over 40 years of shooting, they pulled out 10 plus tons a day for over 7 months. Alot of the older shot will start to break down some, which you would not want to shoot alot of, so tumbling for a longer period helps break those up to be screened out.
@@tabithagracejones That is more rare than gourmet Ramen. The typical shotgun club gets visited every 2 to 5 years by a Reclaim "miner". The EPA or state simply would MEVER allow a gun club to go 10 years never mind 20 without cleaning up the lead on site. But yes, back in the day, there were clubs that had NEVER been mined that conditions like you describe and lead like that was melted down. Rarely would you find any reloader willing to tumble 100 lbs. for 5 hours to save and spend a total of probably 10 hours to get a 100 lbs. of good lead.
Hello Bruce, I have a question. I was given 1000lbs of lead. The club struck a deal where the reclaiming company is paid a flat fee and the club keeps all the lead. They were able to get 550,000 pounds. They set aside 10,000 pounds for members. The lead I got was a combination of number 7.5-8-9 shot. There was also a lot of dirt, pebbles and silt in the shot. I want you to be painfully honest with me if I did anything wrong. 1. Cleaned the shot 25lbs at a time a total of four times. The shot went from a medium brown to light gray. 2. I Sieved the lead for any shot bigger that number 7.5 (this also helped me remove bigger stones) 3. Then I sieved the lead again to separate the 7.5 shot from the 8’s & 9’s. This process removed 95% of small pebbles and sand. This process was also the most time consuming and backbreaking. I don’t have a cement mixer to work in the graphite. However, since my lead shot is so clean is it necessary? Finally, I realize that we all need to worry about lead dust. However, since the lead was cleaned with water to near perfection do I too need to worry about lead dust? Thank you for your time.
This one to remove anything larger than #7 www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004LZ4YT8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 thins one to remove anything smaller than #9 www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0037XH6MM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Better use some gloves dude that lead will seep through your skin. A breathing mask would,t hurt either. I shot cleaned reclaimed shot I reloaded and could break a clay. Better off melting into ingots ,selling and buying your shot with antimony in it. Good video though
Did when actually doing it, lot easier to show without all the safety stuff. When it is done this way it is hard to tell from new, have reloaded over 100,000 shells easy
Awesome video, thanks for taking the time to record this. It's obviously a very limited audience that would be interested in this topic.
So glad you made this for us, thanks.
I have been polishing lead shot for 35 years for scuba weights and we have polished millions of lbs. during this period of time. I would just offer some gentle suggestions.
1. The longer you tumble, the more lead dust you create. It is going to invisibly coat you, your shed, your yard, your shoes, your house, etc.
2. I assume you are trying to create reloading shot - not create new planets. Tumbling lead for a maximum of 15 minutes will give you the greatest return on your time and your lead. No glass beads, no sand. There are no pores on the surface of the lead to accommodate graphite, lead is one of the most densest elements known to mankind, there are NO pores or any place for the lead to hunker down. Actually, the smoother you make the surface of the lead shot, the less graphite will adhere to that surface.
3. If you want more graphite on the surface, add a quarter of a teaspoon, NO MORE of 30 weight motor oil per 100 lbs.
4. Get a large WET/DRY VAC with a HEPA Filter and mount the hose from the ceiling or any other method of your choosing so that it is at the mouth of the mixer. Have it running whenever you are polishing. It will pickup about 60 to 70% of the lead dust and excess graphite.
5. OK, Mr. Jones, this will be a shocker for you but you need only approximately 1/4 to 3/4 of a teaspoon of graphite for every 100 lbs. of lead shot. READ the next one, # 6!
6. Your lead shot doesn't look like the "store bought" lead because you are creating a mess. Here is the right way:
a. Lead will only polish if it is completely clean and dust free. Since you are grinding it for 2 hours it is anything but clean, it is coated in rock and lead dust. Thus you can tumble it in graphite for eternity but you will have little graphite actually adhere to the lead shot.
b. This is why you start with clean shot. Typically this means you buy shot that has already been tumbled and washed by the MINERS at the GUN CLUB where the laws of the EPA and your state ecology department hold no sway! If you try to wash and tumble it you are really going to get in over your head, take it from someone who knows. You can try and do it right and still something will go wrong, it just will go wrong and how are you going to get rid of gallons of toxic lead contaminated water? OK, enough said.
c. So, you put a 100 lbs. of clean, CLEAN lead shot into a mixer, start it up, add no more than a quarter teaspoon of 30 wt. motor oil (If it is really clean, use an 1/8 of a teaspoon), count to 10, then add 1/4 to 3/4 teaspoons of graphite powder or flakes. Polish for 5 minutes.
d. WHY DO WE POLISH THE LEAD SHOT? Graphite is a lubricant and when you are shooting tens of thousands of tiny lead balls down the barrel of your shotgun you want as little friction as possible not only from the little balls but also from the hot gases and tiny pieces of gunpowder, graphite, lead, and other foreign materials. The graphite residues create a thin layer of lubrication that will help to protect your valuable firearm. Gumming up the inside of your barrel with glass bead pieces, sand, ground rock, excess graphite, will not create better lubrication. AND your shotgun is going to hate you because it is going to be hell to clean unless you have a shotgun that likes you to just open it up and physically dump out the debris every dozen shots or so.
TROUBLESHOOTING
A. LEAD looks black and "sticky". You added too much oil. Sell it to the recycler, nothing you can do, or mess up your gun and clean it forever.
B. LEAD won't shine, just looks blackish. Too much graphite or possibly oil. This is one product where more is not more. Less is more!
C. Lead won't shine, so you keep tumbling and tumbling and tumbling and tumbling... Every minute you spin the lead you are CREATING more dust which again, is going to stop the lead shot from polishing.
D. Since this is reclaimed lead, each load is going to be slightly different so you will learn over time by looking at it how much oil and graphite it needs, in the meantime, enjoy the learning process.
E. MOST OF ALL - wear gloves, wear a P100 Mask at least, get a TYVEK suit to wear and dispose of, get those cute little paper shoes, spread out a couple of 4 mm paint tarps around you, at least 20 feet in all directions. I mean, be safe, don't be a yahoo, I can't see it so it can't hurt me! It is your sex drive, by the way, so I mean if you don't mind losing it... well... your deal. But you can also take this home to your grand children or kids and that would just be wrong!
Thanks for your info.
One thing to consider is that reclaim shot sits out in the dirt and water for 20 years or more. The last reclaim in our area was over 40 years of shooting, they pulled out 10 plus tons a day for over 7 months.
Alot of the older shot will start to break down some, which you would not want to shoot alot of, so tumbling for a longer period helps break those up to be screened out.
@@tabithagracejones That is more rare than gourmet Ramen. The typical shotgun club gets visited every 2 to 5 years by a Reclaim "miner". The EPA or state simply would MEVER allow a gun club to go 10 years never mind 20 without cleaning up the lead on site. But yes, back in the day, there were clubs that had NEVER been mined that conditions like you describe and lead like that was melted down. Rarely would you find any reloader willing to tumble 100 lbs. for 5 hours to save and spend a total of probably 10 hours to get a 100 lbs. of good lead.
Hello Bruce,
I have a question. I was given 1000lbs of lead. The club struck a deal where the reclaiming company is paid a flat fee and the club keeps all the lead. They were able to get 550,000 pounds. They set aside 10,000 pounds for members. The lead I got was a combination of number 7.5-8-9 shot. There was also a lot of dirt, pebbles and silt in the shot. I want you to be painfully honest with me if I did anything wrong.
1. Cleaned the shot 25lbs at a time a total of four times. The shot went from a medium brown to light gray.
2. I Sieved the lead for any shot bigger that number 7.5 (this also helped me remove bigger stones)
3. Then I sieved the lead again to separate the 7.5 shot from the 8’s & 9’s. This process removed 95% of small pebbles and sand. This process was also the most time consuming and backbreaking.
I don’t have a cement mixer to work in the graphite. However, since my lead shot is so clean is it necessary? Finally, I realize that we all need to worry about lead dust. However, since the lead was cleaned with water to near perfection do I too need to worry about lead dust?
Thank you for your time.
Could I ask where you got the sifters? I am not having any luck in finding them.
This one to remove anything larger than #7
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004LZ4YT8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
thins one to remove anything smaller than #9
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0037XH6MM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Thanks
Better use some gloves dude that lead will seep through your skin. A breathing mask would,t hurt either. I shot cleaned reclaimed shot I reloaded and could break a clay. Better off melting into ingots ,selling and buying your shot with antimony in it. Good video though
Did when actually doing it, lot easier to show without all the safety stuff. When it is done this way it is hard to tell from new, have reloaded over 100,000 shells easy
Speak up Ali i hear is mumbling.