"Jack Erbes" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 24 Aug 2003 03:01:59 GMT, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

"George E. Cawthon" wrote in message
...
Are you talking about white lead?

Nope, but I have a film can full of that, too, for use on the tailstock
dead-center on my lathe. This is finely-ground lead metal. It was once
the
common filler for anti-seize compounds used at normal temperatures. I
know a
couple of old mechanics who have squirelled away a tin or two of it, too.

Ed Huntress

Actually white lead is a carbonate, not finely ground metal.

Poor sentence construction on my part. I meant that the finely-ground lead
is used in the anti-seize, not in the white lead, which, as you say, is a
lead compound.

I just pulled out the tin, the label of which is still barely readable. It's
"NAPA 765-1862 Anti-Seize Compound. Warning -- May be harmful if swallowed.
Contains metallic lead. Keep out of reach of children." I bought it around
1965.

It's heavy and very dark gray, as one would expect of lead fines. It would
spread pretty nicely on snack crackers, I think, but I was never enough of a
motorhead to try it.


I don't say this to start an argument, I am uncomfortable with the
thought of someone thinking you can grinding up lead to make a
lubricant.

Sorry, sorry. I'll watch my antecedents more carefully in the future. g


If you have a older South Bend with the little storage hole and dauber
on the tailstock, that was for storing white lead handy to the point
of usage. If you only have a mysterious hole, you have lost your
dauber.

I still have the precious dauber. And I use only dead centers.

Ed Huntress