lead acid battery plates

[Tater John]

Hey group ,

As I proceed along in my M.L. journey the thought of casting roundballs will become tempting, but I didn't find anything in past posts regarding the use of plates from lead acid batteries, good, bad or indifferent... Now before anyone scolds me, a simple 'don't think about it' does get the point across. Common sense tells me not to fool with it but I'm askin' anyway.

Rusty

 

[BrownBear]

It's a source of lead alright, but disposal of the acid and any dissolved lead in it could be a big problem. I recovered a bunch for casting fishing weights about 40 years ago. Can't tell you what I did with all the acid, but I'm sure it wasn't right and proper by today's standards.

 

[Bountyhunter]

It has been kicked around here before. Dont do it. In an emergency, survival situation, it WOULD work, but the basic problem is that it isnt pure lead. It has cadmium, arsenic and other nasty ingredients in it that makes it really toxic.

 

[cheatherly]

Battery plates contain a considerable quantity of antimony, up to eleven percent or so; moreover,they can have little pockets of trapped acid which can erupt with explosive violence when you go to smelt them down. - The Black Powder Gun Digest 2nd Edition.

 

[bigbore442001]

I have read too much that battery lead is bad juju. I'd avoid it altogether and look for an alternate source.

 

[jeepwj992002]

Everyone here is right on the money. Lead battery plates are bad juju. You might see if you can find old cable sheathing, water pipes or roof flashing.

 

[marmot]

Hi Rusty -

What everysone says here is true; battery lead is not a really good idea to melt with the normal backyard setup.

BUT... to satisfy your curiousity: Several years ago while working at a place that I could do it under controlled, safe, circumstances, I "recycled" some battery plates that had come in from a battery that had been cracked. The plates were dry by the time they got to me, so that problem was already resolved. Under a lab hood I melted a small batch; part of it was cast into RBs, the rest into an ingot mold for future use. Results were lousy. The RBs, were so hard that when fired from a .50 with 75 grs, they didn't deform to any significant degree in pine boards - they were almost reshootable (Common sense kept me from trying, but I still believe that I could have reloaded one and refired it.) Not wanting to give up entirely, I decided to see if I could harden up another batch of lead by chopping off a bit of ingot and adding it to a soft lead alloy. Out came the axe, down onto the ingot, and IT SHATTERED! Edge rolled on the axe, ingot lay in about a half dozen pieces on the ground. This ended my experimenting with battery lead; I didn't (and still don't) want anything that hard, and that fragile, in my guns. Too much danger of something going poorly during the loading and firing (imagine a ball stuck halfway down the barrel out of that stuff), of a riccochet, or a shrapnel spray if it hits something hard down range. This, admittedly, was ONE test with ONE battery, but the fumes and the end result just didn't justify any more experimentation with them. If you can use hard lead and get decent accuracy, and want cheap lead, go with wheel weights: they are usually free, safer to handle and cast, and I believe will provide much better performance than battery lead.

I hope this satifies your curiousity to the point that you don't feel the need to repeat the experiment... free lead is good, but not if it puts you at risk both during the casting and the firing, and ballistically doesn't give you the results you want.

Best of luck,

marmot

 

[kayja]

battery lead is alright for bullits and sinkers, but is to hard for RBs..

 

[Bob Riegl]

:hmm: Please do follow the advice given here. As the various and sundry materials used to pre-coat and coat the lead battery would be released into the air whilst being melted and cast. In plain ordinary English it's ba-a-a-ad stuff. :nono:

 

[kayja]

I've been melting lead from all sorts for about 60 yrs(melted my first lead that was weights in piano keys about 1947 to get money for the picture show)since then i've melted probably over a thousand batteries, it's like everything, you have to be careful, actually I'd rather melt lead then walk the gauntlet thru the smokers standing if front of the doors at wal-marts.

 

[Tater John]

I didn't think the idea was to bright in the first place, but I have a few batteries sitting around and wondered what you guys thought :thumbsup:

Rusty

 

[Parzifal]

Hi sir, I myself use the cheapest lead fishing sinkers I can find as long as I can mark them with my thumb nail I figure they are useful, I can usually cast 6 x 69 cal balls for about a loonie or so.

Robert

 

[Tater John]

You gave me a great idea, Robert. I'll start picking up fishing sinkers found below the dam spillways when the gates are closed.

Rusty

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Just watch-out for the barbs! Ouccchhh!

Dave

 

[flashpanner]

Ask your dentist for his lead foil from x-rays. It is clean lead. I wear barrier gloves in case of germ and lead contact. Your dentist is happy to give it away. He/she does not have to do the special HAZMAT disposal routine.

 

[Stumpkiller]

The caking on the plates in batteries is lead sulfide and the gas given off when melting this is very much nasty and will cause lung damage if precautions are not taken. Best to avoid the plates. One local junkyards pulled the just the terminals and kept them seperate. These were perfect, but they now have a quantity buyer and won't sell in small lots.