Re: Cheap Lead

[Bill Wichers <billw at waveform_net>]

>Buy a roll of solder. You can get lead free solder for soldering water
>lines that will transport water that will be consumed by humans or you
>can buy the lead containing stuff. The lead containing solder is cheaper
>I think.

I'd be very careful using solder as a plant weight for any length of time.
Solder isn't just the metal -- there is a core (acid for plumbers solder,
various rosins for electronic solder) that will probably dissolve and leech
into the water.

A lot of fishing places sell molds so people can make their own lead
weights. I would suspect they also sell lead in some "raw" form (maybe lead
shot?). You can also get "bar solder" with no core in 1 pound bars from
electronics places like Techni-Tool. Just pick an alloy with a lot of lead
and not so much tin (common solder alloy is 60% lead and 40% tin). All you
would need is a mold to make the solder into strips.

     -Bill

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Waveform Technology
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