Talking about lead, for those of you that have a lot of time and effort to spare, here is a good "useful workshop thingy" to make with lead.
We always need weights of some sort for one thing or another, ranging from keeping a roll of drawings flat on the table, to applying pressure on two parts for glueing. Being a scuba diving instructor, I normally use weights from a weight belt. However, they have two inconvenients. First, lead is messy, especially on paper; second, their surfaces are not perfectly flat, nor square. I recently bought 50kg of lead for something I ultimately gave up. So, I decided to turn this lead into useful workshop all-purpose weights. Here is the idea. I cut pieces of aluminum rectangular tubing. Size is roughly 2"x1"x6". I clamp the tube vertically to a flat surface (to close one of the two openings. I then melt lead in a saucepan, and pour it inside the tubing. And voila! I get neat "bricks" of roughly 2 Kg (4#) of lead. To go one step further, before casting the lead, I have drilled two holes through the rectangular tubing, and run a piece of aluminum tube through the holes, flush with the surfaces. I keep the tubes in place, while I cast the lead, by squeezing the tube between two pieces of wood. This way, I have two neat attachment points, which I can use to nail the weight to a surface, or to bolt several weights together, or to put a string through the weight...
