Scored a 600lb fiberglass covered lead boat keel...

[colonelhogan44]

I've never tried to chain saw through fiberglass...sounds somewhat sketchy. I have a chainsaw and may try it though...

[Pete44mag]

I have cut up two like you have, I used a skil saw (circular saw) with a course carbide framing blade (about 18 tooth). As stated above put down a tarp and use cardboard or plywood walls to catch the chips. Make sure you use a respirator, gloves and eye protection. It's not what you would consider a clean job, best done outdoors.

[lightman]

Be careful cutting that fiberglass with any tool that makes chips. The sawdust from fiberglass is not good for you. It will also get onto and into everything. I would try using my air chisel to skin the fiberglass shell off and then deal with the lead.

I probably would deal with a 600# chunk of lead by suspending it over my smelting pot and playing a weed burner over it, catching the run-off.

Nice Score, by the way!

[colonelhogan44]

I probably would deal with a 600# chunk of lead by suspending it over my smelting pot and playing a weed burner over it, catching the run-off.

I melted out the bit out of the tiny corner that was cut off with a propane torch and it came out really nicely. It's very soft, might be pure lead. With the dry summers here in CA, it's hard to find an area where it's safe to have a large flaming object...I'll probably hit up a buddy with a large irrigated area on his farm and have at it with a fire and something to channel the runoff. The more I look at that thing, the less I want to deal with cutting it at all.

I've also never dealt with more than about 50lb of molten lead, so the melting it out method is a bit intimidating too...

[Mal Paso]

I used a 20 ton log splitter to divide up some ballast bricks and 25lb fishing weights. I did 400 lbs that way. That sounds like a lot of lead, but it's all a faint memory now. LOL

[colonelhogan44]

The lead can be indented/scratched by fingernail, so I'm thinking it is pure or close to it. It should be good for black powder and low power smokeless loads.

[chickenpot]

Pure soft is hard to come by. You scored big if that's the case.. you can always mix up to harden your allot but not the other way around!

[tryingalot]

better wear gloves and a mask while doing any of it. lead is a skin-absorber and lead dust in your lungs is deadly, too. The fumes are bad news, but most casters know that already Get a 20 lb propane tank, big cast iron pot, and a turkey or fish cooker. they are cheap on Ebay. Melt 100 lbs at a time, flux it and cast it into cupcake or muffin pans as ingots. Wash your hands carefully, dont eat while doing any of it, get well away from all of it and clean up before you drink anything, too.

[colonelhogan44]

Pure soft is hard to come by. You scored big if that's the case.. you can always mix up to harden your allot but not the other way around!

I compared it to some stick-on WW I got from The Captain, and it seems about the same. I have a small amount of Linotype (probably 10-20lb), so I should be able to harden up a portion of it.

[kevin c]

I'd guess (but it's only a guess) that smaller lead keels are done in one pour, so that the alloy is the same throughout, but I've read that big keels are sometimes done in sections, making it possible that different parts done at different times are made from different batches of metal.

Still, what you've sampled is promising.

[colonelhogan44]

It's a well made commercial keel (not home-built) so I'd doubt a commercial keel maker would use scrap or varying alloys for a single keel.

I'm pretty confident it'll be dead-soft throughout. Now I need to rig up some scrap metal channel to melt it down into bread pans for marking and long term storage.

[shootrj2003]

I would not mind some of the lead but THAT job is not one I envy,I had a huge sheet and some pipe given to me years ago maybe 200 lbs total I gave some to a friend and just started using thsheet and I have some ingots and a 10 lb lead hammer for things that won't move!