Baattery cable ends

[BadHeart]

A friend of mine gave me 1/2 a 5 gallon buccket of the lead ends from battery cables, I scratched it with my finger nail and it scratches pretty easy, Do ya'll think it would make a good round ball. If not I will make fishing weights from them

 

[kevthebassman]

If it scratches easy I don't see why it wouldn't make a fine cast ball. Only thing I would maybe worry about would be corrosion impurities.

 

[jimmy82]

Maybe you could melt it and "skim" the impurities off the top. Haven't dealt to much with large amounts of molten metal but I think that should work. Problem is finding something your are willing to melt a crap load of lead in unless you already have something. I have only dabbled in casting figurines with pewter so your results may vary.

 

[DickS]

Many years ago, I ran a diecasting machine at Prestolite Ltd., making these clamps on the end of the cables. We used a lead alloy, I have no idea what the actual compositon was. There will probably be a steel clip embedded in the clamp. These will float to the surface and can be skimmed off, along with other trash. If the material seems soft enough, I don't know why it couldn't be used.

 

[BadHeart]

Thanks, I use an old cast iron pot to melt my lead in, on my turkey fryer burner outside in front of my wood shop. The other lead I have I have to skim off all the crud that floats to the top. So that is nothing new for me. I wouldn't know what to do iffin I got lead that was clean. Thanks again.

 

[B.Habermehl]

Your battery cable ends will do just fine as raw matieral for casting round balls. Just a word of caution, any time you are working with scrap lead be absolutely sure that there is no trapped moisture in the cable remnants imbedded in the cable ends. It will cause a steam explosion in your lead pot splattering everything within some TENS of feet of the pot with molten lead. Please look in the archives on my post "stoopid hurts". I now use a propane torch and a pair of pliers to melt scrap lead into the pot and never put a piece of scrap lead into the melting pot...