A friend has access to the lead "foil" used in dental x-ray film. This foil is removed from the x-ray film after use, before the film is developed. OSHA regs do not allow this foil to be thrown away in regular trash because of the lead content. He has asked if it would be suitable to meltdown and use in cast projectiles for black powder rifles.
Does anybody know the exact makeup of these lead "foil" pieces. What is in them besides lead.

N E 450 No2,
Last I checked they were pure lead. Other metals will skew the X-rays. Any other impurities will float to the top. Orygun

I had a supply of lead from a radioactive isotope box at one time and was told that it had to be pure lead. I would imagine the foil would be the same way.

Yepper, pure lead. Another good source of soft lead is from the lead pan in old shower stalls and the lead seals around roofing vents.

I used to live next door to a ceramic tile man and he brought me several 100 lbs of shower pans. Great source for free lead, but it needs some alloy to improve it for good bullets.

450 No 2..... I was always of the opinion that Orygun Mark and Pecos had on the alloy content of dental x-ray lead.

I picked up about 50 pounds recently and it's got tin in it.

I'm posting a reply from another board for general consumption:

I was talking to the dental hygenest(sp?) as she was cleaning my
teeth. She said she saved the little lead foils that protect the x-
ray film. She used to give them to a guy who made his own shot but
he hasn't picked any up in a couple years. When I told her I cast
bullets she volunteered to give me some.

I took a piece into work and had an EDS (energy dispersive
spectrograph) done on it. Turns out it's 97.12% lead and 2.88% tin.
about a 33 to 1 mix. Each foil weighs about 11 grains so it takes a
bunch of them to make a pound.

Now, I'm tending to agree with this analysis based on my experience with it.

I cut straight WW alloy with it. Hope this helps./beagle

........This may be a bit of heresy but I threw away a bunch of it. A freind gave me 2 big plastic trash bags and a 5 gallon bucket of the stuff. It was still on the paper and after looking at it for some time and seeing what it weighed I didn't feel like dealing with the dross (paper) and the mess involved.

If that was my only source then I would gladly glom on to all I could get, naturally. But from my point of view, as an addition to what I already have and can get I felt it was just way too much trouble.

........Buckshot

PS: Attached is a photo of 1600 lbs of lead my neighbor brought home for me. He's in construction and they were building a new radiology isotope storage room. They had 4 times this much left over, but it's all he could get in his Ford Ranger P/U before the scrap dealer showed up. He said his tires were looking like they were going to blow anyway!

I can find MSDS's for lead foil that are pure lead, lead+antimony+tin and lead+tin. Looks like they are also making a polymer substitute. I guess as the xray machines get more modernized they can use less pure lead. The lead shielding on the last xray tubes I was given was still pure lead. I need to talk with my lead shielding experts. Orygun