Gamma Spectrometry Forum

Hi folks!

I am on the process of preparing my testing environment and of course the question of shielding the detectors from background radiation has arised. I've been searching for places to buy some lead and apparently I cannot find it anywhere in stores in germany (other than small pieces in fishing shops) so while searching through ebay I came across with some sellers that have rolled lead. Apparently rolled lead is used in construction as an insulation material.

They look like this:

And I was thinking if somebody has ever thought about using one of this rolls. I think that as an advantage you could say that it's easy to avoid having holes in the castle, but I'm not sure if the thickness of this sheets would make it very expensive to build an appropiate shield. I also don't know if this kind of lead has other treatments that might affect the measures taken.

Any experience?


Regards,
Manuel.

Here in the US, many scrap metal dealers are a good source for scrap and bulk lead at reasonable cost.

That also depends on what type of shielding are you planning to build. In some cases such foil might be easier to work with, but hard to say if it's affordable. You'd need to calculate the estimated cost. Generally a 2-3cm thick layer should be enough.

Manuel,

You should be able to find such rolls of lead in your local hardware store, it is commonly used for roofing.

If you also visit the plumbing section and buy yourself 1 meter of 3" copper pipe, you simply roll the lead tightly onto the copper pipe to make an instant shield. Finish it off with a layer of masking tape to hold it all together and prevent skin contact with the lead.

Voila - instant shield!

Steven

Steven Sesselmann wrote:Manuel,

You should be able to find such rolls of lead in your local hardware store, it is commonly used for roofing.

If you also visit the plumbing section and buy yourself 1 meter of 3" copper pipe, you simply roll the lead tightly onto the copper pipe to make an instant shield. Finish it off with a layer of masking tape to hold it all together and prevent skin contact with the lead.

Voila - instant shield!

Steven

I didn´t think about the copper pipe! Today I´m home sick with some fever, but If I feel ok tomorrow morning I´ll see if I can find some of it. The lead roll is going to be the most complicated thing (I can´t find them online, but maybe asking the workers over there...)

I´ll see what I can do!

Hi Manuel,

there are lots of stores in Germany with all kind of lead in stock. At [broken link removed - Steven] ( I am NOT affiliated in any way with their shop ) you can order both lead blocks and lead shot online. Expect some shipping cost due to the weight.

Valentin

valentin wrote:Hi Manuel,

there are lots of stores in Germany with all kind of lead in stock. At [broken link removed - Steven] ( I am NOT affiliated in any way with their shop ) you can order both lead blocks and lead shot online. Expect some shipping cost due to the weight.

Valentin

You're right valentin. I didn't explain myself properly, I cannot find it on physical stores websites, at least not in the common baumarkts. I might swing by a big one and just ask, as due to shipping costs you end up paying quite a lot and waiting a lot of time.

Interesting question. I live in Devon, SW England and we have a number of diving supply shops within easy driving distance. Divers make up pouches full of lead shot to get negative buoyancy so you can buy this by the kilo. Some diving shops sell little lead ingots to pack into a diving belt. The ingots look like you could build a box out of them. I was thinking of building a double skinned box out of MDF and pouring in lead shot between the two layers.

Hi Manuel,
the common "baumärkte" do not offer these "special equipment" like construction stuff you need to build your own home, Baumärkte are non professionals.
So you need to go to " Baustoffzentrum" - you will be able to go there even without professional background.
I bought there ~2years ago 10meters lead roll, but the price is bad bad bad!
Usually used in roofing sealing around windows and stuff like that. I think I paid around 60 Euro. Depending on your location, search for "Hagebaumarkt Baustoffzentren" or "I&M Baustoffzentrum" as an example.
I work for a medical company with a lot of lead on our scrapyard, so I do not have the problem... but I was even confused when I ordered new lead shielding that the ratio of industrial lead was changed. The copper part increases nowadays, so the shielding needs to be thicker now.
In my order from 10mm to 12mm - so I was surprised.
hope this will help, Keuleeule

Hi

Another source of lead is boat surplus shops. I bought around 70 kg of lead weights used in boat keels. I got this for around 100 €

I then used this to cast a 3 cm thick lead shield in a stainless steel mold, complete with lid and base (there is an older thread about it here somewhere).
Soon, I will also combine this with my older 2cm lead roll, which is precisely what is suggested above: lead rolled around a 2mm copper pipe. the copper will attenuate most of the Pb X-rays, and the Cu X-rays are around 8 keV (if I recall correctly) and you won't pick them up with a standard NaI detector...