Found a 5 lb, 10 oz circular chunk of lead! What was it used for?

[FreeBirdTim]

Found a big chunk of lead at an older school today. It was 3 inches down and lying flat. Looks like someone took a torch to it and then tossed it. Also appears to have "34x" scratched on one side. What was this used for and why take a torch to it? Any guesses?

 

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[nsdq]

want to sell it let me know , could have been a couter weight for a lamp

 

[Oddjob]

Found a big chunk of lead at an older school today. It was 3 inches down and lying flat. Looks like someone took a torch to it and then tossed it. Also appears to have "34x" scratched on one side. What was this used for and why take a torch to it? Any guesses?

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Who knows what it could have been used for, but if there was a shop class or an ag class then the reason why it was melted is simple. Why not, some kids just want to melt something, most likely some freshman grabbed the door stop, melted it and then chucked it before the ag teacher could see what happened.

Back on our ranch we had many 20 kilogram bars of stock laying around, used it for all sorts of stuff from filling the ends of T-Post Drivers, fixing rain gutters, capping main posts.

 

[DCMatt]

nsdq seems to be on the right track. Counterweight for a heavy door seems likely. It is notched for a ball-end cable.

 

[Icewing]

Looks like CNC torch cuts to me, that would have been the throw away piece, hence the start/stop points being to the inside.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Could be a door counterweight, but why use lead? The windows in my home have iron counterweights, since iron is much cheaper than lead.

I found it at an elementary school, so I don't think it was a shop class reject.

The throwaway piece theory could be correct. Just can't picture what they were making out of lead that needed to have a hole in it.

Thanks for the guesses!

 

[DCMatt]

I found it at an elementary school

Possibly a weight from playground equipment?

 

[capsmith]

Hey FBTom are you sure that is lead? The reason I am asking it looks like a end of a aluminum extrusion billet .

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Definitely lead. Not magnetic and way too heavy to be aluminum.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Possibly a weight from playground equipment?

Could be, but it was on the front lawn of the school. Nothing around there but trees and grass.

 

[NHBandit]

I just want to see someone cut lead with a torch.. It's my opinion that it's impossible.. just sayin

 

[FreeBirdTim]

I just want to see someone cut lead with a torch.. It's my opinion that it's impossible.. just sayin

You are correct! I checked it again and the metal is slightly magnetic. A regular magnet doesn't stick to it, but a very strong magnetic slides down the side of it. I also did a spark test on my bench grinder. Lead doesn't spark, but this metal sparks a little bit. Very thin orange sparks.

Now I am clueless on this one! Some sort of stainless steel? I may have to try and cut off a small piece and do a density test on it. I need to know what kind of metal this is!

 

[releventchair]

The piece looks like a hole was cut out of a piece of heavy stock.
To avoid irregular edge , a plunge cut ( two in this case) was made and then the circle cut out.
If the marked line for the circle was heated till molten ,with torch and then hit with air to cut ,an irregular edge would result from blowing a hole through stock. If cut with a laser , or water, or plasma cutter , still for accuracy the plunge cut away from accuracy needed line first.
I'm not saying it was cut with a plasma cutter, but ...it has very consistent edges like it could have been.
(Edit ,remove mention of torch cutting lead,melting it would be a better description.)