car batterys

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  • Last Post 11 April 2012
parkerhale1200 posted this 06 February 2012

I've to ask, sorry

Recently i asked at a other forum about the lead in car batterys. The cadmiun free thus the old ones

I've been dumped with warnigs, and they are right!!!!

But curiosety as the upper hand.

So gasmask on, ph meter in one hand, NaoH(99%) in the other hand (with gloves on), to neutralize the acid.In the barn where i cast with the vent on.

If you dont know or you are just a little affriad of what you're about going to do, then :uhuhuh:

 

I get the lead out (not the grid plates) i've got some 10-15 pounds of lead out of it. The gridplates are to a recycler, i spoke first with him before i take them appart

But what kind a lead is that? It's looking very good! Can someone tell me that?

Let me hear you, C Ya Parkerhale, thanks

ps this was a one time test, i just wanted to know

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gunarea posted this 06 February 2012

Hey parkerhale1200

   The lead we are dealing with over here is the battery terminals only.  WARNING!! Arsenic is the primary hardening agent we have found present in this source. You are correct in the precautions being taken. Even after smelting, in a completely separate nasty operation, great care must be used during the casting stage. 

   It does test out very good though. As cast, it is slightly harder than Lyman magnum # 2. After a three week cure it runs up around 18 bhn. Enough tin is in the alloy for good quality casting even after adulteration of the mix with up to 25% pure lead. Our particular use has been exclusively for handgun bullets, it has been successful and fruitful.

   Since we are blessed with a golf cart business within our friend circle, it's another source of alloy for us to employ. Take care and proceed.

                                                                                                                   Roy   

Shoot often, Shoot well

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303PV posted this 06 February 2012

Previously the lead was hardened with antimony, but now with the maintenance free batteries it is hardened with calcium or barium. In the plates there is a compound PbSO4 in a completely discharged battery. In a charged battery one pole is lead the is lead peroxide. Sometime ago I described what the junkyard recyclers did with the compound and the plates in the old days (in Holland) http://www.castbulletassoc.org/viewtopic.php?id=4442&forumid=49&highlight=303PV

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Johnny Breedlove posted this 06 February 2012

I recently watched a program on “How It's Made” and they were showing how they recycle batteries (the car type) it was so envolved and it looked very dangerous, every one working there was wearing a mask and eye protection of some sort and protective clothing and heavy gloves, of course heavy gloves and eye protection is a given for the home caster as well. I have in the past thought about trying to melt the lead from the plates in the battery but never did. Now after watching that show I'm glad that I never tried it.

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Brodie posted this 07 February 2012

My friend Rubin used to melt the lead from car batteries by throwing them into a large campfire, and them collecting the lead the next morning.   Of course I would not of wanted to be sleeping down wind that night.  I had an H2S exposure when I worked in the analytical lab at Standard oil and I can do without another. Brodie

B.E.Brickey

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parkerhale1200 posted this 07 February 2012

hey all It seems to me that the lead in car batterys is the same as the lead in birdshot? Can anyone tell me, what kind of metals in how many procent they are present.

I was smart enough to read and ask first of the do and donts about batterys, and knowing where to get rid of my “(safe)garbage"so i didnt touch a calcium battery, but the old kind.

The lead i didnt want to use or test is to a scrap recycler, the neutralized acid is to another recycler. So there are no spills nor danger.The terminals/connectors how ever they're in bars now

And i admit, i did test 2 single gridplates in the woodstove, just to find out, it isnt worth it, so everthing whent to the recycler.

In these days every single battery is mantainince free As far as i know of there are 3 types of car batterys. The old type, but its seald, deu to car flip over, and the dis and charching gasses. So now the vapors,that came free with dis or charching, condense and go back into the battery The second one are those gel batterys. The third one are with calcium in it I had taken FULL precaution with the old ones, i dont want to harm myself or others.

But this raisses another quistion: IF it is the same lead as birdshot, why dont some people take the precautions if it where less dangeres? I always cast in the barn with the vent on and i was my hands every time i deald with lead, regardless what kind of lead that is.

again i hope i hear from you, regards parkerhale

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parkerhale1200 posted this 07 February 2012

ps nice topic and a great post 303, but i dont want to use a stovepipe or something else to melt down gridplates, its far to difficult and dangerus even with a bag of lime. At the other hand i get some money for those gridplates.

Thanks and maybe we will lay down, site by site in the isk harskamp when they open again for civilian shooters, and dont know of each other, LOL

 

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303PV posted this 07 February 2012

If you are careful with the acid and just use the connectors then it will not be more dangerous than normal smelting The lead contains antimony about 8-9%. I did not find anything about arsenic in the book Blei und Bleilegierungen , Dr Wilhelm Hoffmann Julius Springer Verlag 1941.the last time I was at the ISK was around 1983 I guess.To which range do you go normally? Is opstelten going to change the gun laws again in holland?. And dio they finally adopt the Sig-Sauer? All the best, Piet

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Sonny Edmonds posted this 08 February 2012

Not even with an 11 foot pole..... :shock:

My life, my equipment, and my firearms are worth more to me than that... (Not to mention my wife, friends, Family and Neighbors)

But you have fun. Glad you are “over there". :D

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303PV posted this 08 February 2012

That's OK . It's better to stay away from it if you don't understand much of the subject. I hope you can find the time to improve the quality and the content of your posts.

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delmarskid1 posted this 09 February 2012

How does one open the batteries with out getting battery acid all over ones self? I tried this process some years ago and thought that it was an awful lot of work for what I got. Lead is easier to come by here though. They used to mine the stuff two hours west of our house.

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parkerhale1200 posted this 09 February 2012

You live allmost next to a mine!!!!! How much can you reclaim out of it now. I think you're very happy with it. as special when you can make finer related metals out of the raw metal.

Sonny Edmonds, I understand your point but sorry, I know what safety is withe that stuff. Im not fooling around nor do i some danger experimenting. `Knowledge is power to those that have no strenght.' I read, i learn, i think, i ask, i learn more than i act, when its safe.

Its not “just” lead. I'm also aware of the people you must be afraid off, they just dump the acid in the ground.

With best regards Parkerhale

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Sonny Edmonds posted this 10 February 2012

After 42 years in the Utility and Industrial electrical field, including several years of caring for electrical station battery banks, I do actually know a little more about things bigger that car batteries. :shock: In fact, they used to rebuild the giant Edison glass cased batteries where I retired from. But got away from it due to liability issues, and bought commercially made deep cycle batteries we built the banks from in later days.

But hey, knock yourself out bud.

I won't bother, myself. Too many reputable, and safer sources, for me to work with. I can drive acrossed town and by bags of shot to melt down, or use in shotgun hulls, for $35 per 25# bag. So that is a nice “dual-sport” lead source. In fact, I prefer it for my 45 ACP cast bullets. BHN of 11.8-12.1

Or order up certified analysis Lyman #2 alloy, and know what exactly is sliding down my bore. BHN of 16.0

I don't have to resort to sulfuric acid laden sulfated lead.

But you guys can... (I'll watch from an upwind vantage point.) ;)

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parkerhale1200 posted this 10 February 2012

That is he problem, overhere We don't have such good sources for hard lead, and the sources we do have, they are becomging less and less. WW are outlawd, lyno has died, ect, if you can find something, youre just a lucky ..... If we want to order some, you pay almost the same as a box of bullets. Its cheaper to order somewhere in the us of a, a brick of antimony and/or a brick of tin. Thats why i wanted to use the batterys for an alternive way for lead, or if perhaps you know a better source, i treu like to hear it,and many others, i geuss.

A car battery isnt fun, but dueabel to work with,sorry

Best regards Parkerhale

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303PV posted this 10 February 2012

Parkerhale 1200 obviously knows what he is doing. Therefore there is no problem. I you don't know how to handle sulfuric acid safely then don't do it. At the time when the old type not-maintenance free car batteries were used , garages would stock them dry. If a new battery was needed then the mechanic would fill them with sulfuric acid. There were also shops where batteries were repaired when one cell was bad. When you take the right precautions the risk is minimized. The same is true when casting bullets. Neutralizing the acid can also be done with sodium carbonate (washing soda) or with calcium carbonate (Lime). The advantage is that CO2 gas will be formed. You can see that the reaction has ended when it stops gassing. Parkerhale is from Holland that means he dislikes to pay for anything he can get for free. (Scots of the continent) :D But I think lead will be banned in California before it will be banned in Holland.

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Sonny Edmonds posted this 10 February 2012

And Obama wants to make America like Europe..... Good thing this is his last year of vacationing....

Sorry for your plight Gents. Sucks to be you.

I do have a dead deep cycle in my shop. And two in my RV that I'm going to replace. But even though I know how to and could salvage the lead from them, I wouldn't. It isn't worth the work for the yield.

First for safety reasons. Second because I really don't need to.

Do you youngsters think you have some sort of a “new” idea?

Any dilapidated boat yards around you? Often lead is used as ballast, particularly in sailboats. Might give you something to cast with.

Good luck guys!

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parkerhale1200 posted this 12 February 2012

This youngster has no new idea, but dusted a old one off Why would i be casting if i can buy for the same money ready made bullets? I started casting sinds i was 12 years, im 35 now. But a strainge thing happend on the range this weekend, “the gun went off". And it happend a 100 times.

Live free and let it be,

The road goes on forever, and the party never ends, im still casting regards ph

Ps the boatyards want to have the same money, some even more

but thanks for the idea

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Pigslayer posted this 12 February 2012

Batteries are a bad thing!

If someone else had of done to me what I did to myself . . . I'd have killed him. Humility is an asset. Heh - heh.

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parkerhale1200 posted this 13 February 2012

.............

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Coydog posted this 11 April 2012

Years ago when I was small and we needed lead for sinkers and had car batterys around that was no good we would drain them and then when have a fire going out in a brush pile just put it in there and left it burn and then pick up the lead after it was all done and then re melt it out side and make our sinkers for fishing. I still have some of that lead and use it now for bullets. I have tested some of it and some was hard about 18 to 20 BHN that I use a lee tester. Some of it was harder then what I want so I add soft lead to get what I want for BHN . I do not mess with batterys now since I am alot older. it is not worth the work from it all for all you get from it .

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