Cheapest place/form of lead

[Frodo]

Go to your local plumbing supply. NOT the big box store

In my neck of the woods I use Southern pipe and supply

ask for lead wool   $7.34 per lb  they also sell ingots

[fredk]

I accumulated my stock of  ready-use lead, now at about 100lbs, from car tyre places. I got their used wheel weights. Here the lead weights had to be changed to zinc or iron but the places didn't know what to do with the lead weights so I got them free and used to cast sea fishing weights for mates in the fishing club

[jcuk]

22 minutes ago, fredk said:

I accumulated my stock of  ready-use lead, now at about 100lbs, from car tyre places. I got their used wheel weights. Here the lead weights had to be changed to zinc or iron but the places didn't know what to do with the lead weights so I got them free and used to cast sea fishing weights for mates in the fishing club

Now i thought you were going to say you got it from a church roof or maybe more than one.

 

[fredk]

2 minutes ago, jcuk said:

Now i thought you were going to say you got it from a church roof or maybe more than one.

  Actually some of my lead did come from a Church roof. Sort-of, It was left over flashing from the re-roofing job on the local Parish Church. About 20lbs. Too little for the builder to keep, I got it in exchange for biscuits. 20lbs of lead is very small in volume and not much of a roll. I still have that somewhere

[jcuk]

2 minutes ago, fredk said:

  Actually some of my lead did come from a Church roof. Sort-of, It was left over flashing from the re-roofing job on the local Parish Church. About 20lbs. Too little for the builder to keep, I got it in exchange for biscuits. 20lbs of lead is very small in volume and not much of a roll. I still have that somewhere

You sure you did not go back after the roofer had gone for some more

[fredk]

    

[Dwight]

You did not say how big it is in dimensions or in weight . . . which would certainly help some of us trying to help you.

If it is not too big . . . you can buy small fishing weights out of darn near pure lead . . . soft as all getout . . . drop em down in the cavity . . . take a steel rod the diameter of the cavity . . . and by gently tapping with a hammer  . . . they'll pretty much take the shape of the void.  It won't be perfect . . . but it'll be pretty good.

It'll definitely fill the void . . . and you won't have to melt lead.

OTOH . . . if you don't want to melt lead . . . you can buy solid core solder . . . and with a cut off piece of copper tubing . . . formed into a trough . . . you can melt the solder . . . it will run down the copper trough . . . and will fill the void.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Tugadude]

Wouldn’t lead be easy to saw, being so malleable?  Big pieces can be cut with hand tools.

[fredk]

8 minutes ago, Tugadude said:

Wouldn’t lead be easy to saw, being so malleable?  Big pieces can be cut with hand tools.

No, its actually not easy to saw. It bungs up and clings to the saw teeth. For big lumps a cold chisel and thumper to split pieces off, or sheet metal shears, or wire cutters for smaller thinner pieces

[garypl]

Put the handle in a vise or wood clamp outside that will hold it upright.  Take an ingot and a propane torch and hold the ingot over the  hole in the handle and start heating it and let the molten lead drip into the handle.  I do this all the time when melting lead for bullets and the pieces are too big to fit in the pot.  Easy to control and very little fumes.