Molten lead! ... no way...I don't need that or its out-gassing in my shop, and am not set up to be a forge. Also the reason they taper them is to get them out of the mold, so you would have to make them tapered anyway, to some degree, thus defeating my main goal. As far as I can tell, they need to be extruded to make them cylindrical. Then, one would have to make molds with a whole bunch of individual leads so you can pour all at once. Way more work than the 20 minutes per lb this took me, I would think.
Plus, this gives me a brain dead task to do in between harder tasks. I find I benefit from the brain space a very simple task provides, as it allows me to to gestate other more involved and trickier schemes of daring-do.
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Jim Ialeggio
grandpianosolutions.com
Shirley, MA
978 425-9026
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2020 10:07
From: Chris Chernobieff
Subject: cylindrical leads - forming
Why not just melt and pour? Easy to do and quicker.
Original Message------
Tapered leads are a pain, i really prefer to use cylindrical leads. One can buy cylindrical leads, but I'm too cheap to spring for them, as they are about 5 times the cost of supply house cheap tapered leads. I've tried a bunch of ways to make a cylindrical lead out of the tapered leads, but none of them worked very well, until I came up with this simple solution. Buy a slightly undersized drill bushing, for example for 3/8" leads, drill a 3/8" hole with a forstener bit, and use a 9.4mm ( Mcmaster 96977A343) drill bushing to form the lead. For a 1/2" hole, use 12.6mm (ID) drill bushing. Grind a 3/8 and 1/2" rod respectively, so it fits in the undersized drill bushings.
To form the lead, place the lead in the bushing tapered side up, put the bushing and lead on an anvil, smoosh the lead inside the drill bushing, and the eject the cylindrical lead using a small arbor press. It took me 20 minutes to do 1lb.
Grind the bushing end on a belt sander or something so there is no chamfer in the bottom end of the bushing. These fit with just a few thousandths clearance, and require only a light swage to install, not clicking around.
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Jim Ialeggio
grandpianosolutions.com
Shirley, MA
978 425-9026
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