battery lead

[olafhardt]

I know for years we have been cautioned agianst battery lead because of the calcium. However, today we were in an O'Rielies getting parts and I noticed that a spiral wound battery was advertized to have 99.9%pure lead electrodes. What do you think?

[GP100man]

I cut the posts off , but never bust the innards out , just toomuch to go wrong smelting it down .

& besides A person brought me some smelted battery lead (2 batteries) & after remelting & fluxing it mite have been 1# of useable lead !!

Look for stiky on this subject .

Got the link for ya : http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=40769

[Wayne Smith]

New design batteries MAY be different, but how much calcium and other **** does it take??

[MikeS]

If the battery says it's 99.9% pure, then chances are you MIGHT be able to use the lead from those batteries. The thing is, just how much lead is one battery going to hold? And where are you going to get a supply of worn out batteries that are just that brand? There are many other sources of lead, so I don't think it's worth it, unless you just want to buy one of those batteries for your car/truck, so in 4 or 5 years from now you can get a few pounds (if that much) when the battery fails. Now if you owned a fleet of vehicles, and replaced the batteries on a regular basis, it might be a valid source of lead.

[odfairfaxsub]

battery cells inside the jar will never be 99.99 percent lead. the way they exchange chemically is the way they create electricity. so by nature inside the jar you will always have a exchange of ,"calciums, lead oxides of other metals, ect" just from being used in its eletrlyte.

[Beagler]

At DEKA most of our Maint Free Batts are 98 to 98.5 pure with Cal. added and a very small amount of silver. Silver strengthens the grid/alloy so it resists cracking from the expanding and contracting when the battery is cycled. Just that near 1 percent of cal. makes the lead really ugly in the pot and very dirty. Wish I could snap a pic of the inside of our 16,000 pound lead pot at all the nasty cal. lead but would get fired if caught. Now alot of serviceable deep cycle batts. (floor scrubber, big marine, elec fork truck. etc) are pure virgin lead with 3-6 percent antimony no other junk melted in. Even after 8 hour shift the surface of the antimony/lead pot looks perty like a boolit casters pot.

[odfairfaxsub]

we use 135-138 volt sets at work. i know what plate growth and cell bulging is all about due to < "used batteries will aquire non metals or change themselves"

now a new battery without chem added or used will be like you said, but who's going to get a pallet of un used batteries and be like, "well today brother, its a great day for bullet casting"

i would sell the batteries for cut rate cost and buy scrap lead. kind of like im not apposed to copper recycling but i despise taking a whole brand new roll of 6 solid and scraping it. what a waste.

BTW, i know this because i had to replace 2 expensive maintence free batteries on my boat. they really arn't maintence free unless their gel batteries, then i have a feeling its a amonuim paste (or something like that) and carbon rod configuration with lead post or something wierd (no clue cept what a AA battery construction)

[Me not you]

Some battery manufacturers use nearly pure lead in a wrapped form of construction. Others use a lead-calcium mix. In any event the lead picks up sulphur and other stuff from the electrolyte (sulphuric acid) in use and is not something I would want to work with. Leave battery lead to someone who is equipped to deal with it.

[Beagler]

we use 135-138 volt sets at work. i know what plate growth and cell bulging is all about due to < "used batteries will aquire non metals or change themselves"

now a new battery without chem added or used will be like you said, but who's going to get a pallet of un used batteries and be like, "well today brother, its a great day for bullet casting"

i would sell the batteries for cut rate cost and buy scrap lead. kind of like im not apposed to copper recycling but i despise taking a whole brand new roll of 6 solid and scraping it. what a waste.

BTW, i know this because i had to replace 2 expensive maintence free batteries on my boat. they really arn't maintence free unless their gel batteries, then i have a feeling its a amonuim paste (or something like that) and carbon rod configuration with lead post or something wierd (no clue cept what a AA battery construction)

Those Gel Batts have a ridiculous amount of cal. in them think its the worst alloy we have. The gels similar to reg. batts on the inside the Electrolight goes in as a super cold fluid and thickens up as it warms up. The AGM batts are a starved electrolight batt. AGM (absorbent Glass Mat) basically fiberglass sponge that only hold enough acid to keep battery alive. so instead of having a permeable separator between + and - plates like gels and reg batts. they just use the fiberglass

[Beagler]

Some battery manufacturers use nearly pure lead in a wrapped form of construction. Others use a lead-calcium mix. In any event the lead picks up sulphur and other stuff from the electrolyte (sulphuric acid) in use and is not something I would want to work with. Leave battery lead to someone who is equipped to deal with it.
I agree with this some of the different sulfuric acid mixes we use can get really nasty. Some of the guys on the raw fill lines wear some pretty extensive ppe's to protect themselves and they have the scares to justify wearing them

[bumpo628]

Just because the posts are pure, doesn't mean the grids are pure.

I cut a battery open and harvested the lead once before (and never again, btw). Only about 10% of the weight was lead. In my case, a 30 lb battery yielded 3 or 4 lbs of lead after smelting. It is very dangerous and the plates can start burning when exposed to the air. It is really not something anyone should ever do in their garage. Btw, I have not used the lead. Since then, I read about the dangers of mixing the two types of lead and decided against it.

Just cut off the posts and recycle the battery. Buy good boolit lead with the money instead.

[leadman]

The spiral wound batteries like the Optima is dry inside. There is a paste type substance that looks like dirt layered between the lead wraps. Once in a while you may see a drop of liquid.
We tested some of these years ago at work and then opened them up to see what was inside.
Optima had a video where they shot a battery with a 357 and then hooked it up to a vehicle and started it.

Batteries are not fun to play with and can be dangerous. If the battery has been overcharged the plates will be mostly gone and in the bottom of the cells as lead oxide. Looks like dirt almost. You get very little lead from a battery like this. If you pull the caps off and see a brown color inside this is the lead oxide.

I have been told that battery companies are buying all the used wheelweights they can get so what is actually the alloy in the batteries. Supposedly used batteries are over 90% recycled back into more batteries.

[Beagler]

Last time I checked the posts where mixed antimony lead. At least thats what we use for parts/posts. Yes they are smelting the WW they come in buy the truckload to the smelter I tried getting some and they wouldn't let me near them. Here is a video about batts. and recycling the PB
http://www.dekabatteries.com/default.aspx?pageid=331

[Freightman]

Beagler thanks for the video very informative.

[KohlerK91]

I believe I read in the Lyman casting manual to NEVER mess with the lead in batteries. I am taking their word for it and leaving it alone. I am not quite as advanced as the recycling plant in the video above. But WW and printer lead bring it on.................

[UtopiaTexasG19]

Where in the future will we get our lead for re-loading? Since lead wheel weights are being phased out in the U.S. and the use of the internet is causing linotype in printed matter to go by the way side and PVC pipe causing the demise of metal plumbing systems that used lead just what will be the final source for affordable lead?

[Blammer]

foundry's will be a great source, since lead will not be used in ww's anymore it should be quite abundant and cheap.

[376Steyr]

The big battery recyclers us chemical extraction and pressing the resulting sludge through filter banks before smelting, which is far beyond even the most advanced hobbyist to attempt. Modern batteries are more trouble than they are worth for the bullet caster.

[jameslovesjammie]

When I managed the Auto Center at Sears, they just came out with the Diehard Platinum Battery (Made by Enersys). I think some of the confusion is in the wording. The batteries had 99.9% unrecycled virgin lead. They never said they were pure lead...just the lead used in the battery was pure, unrecycled.

[mold maker]

Where in the future will we get our lead for re-loading? Since lead wheel weights are being phased out in the U.S. and the use of the internet is causing linotype in printed matter to go by the way side and PVC pipe causing the demise of metal plumbing systems that used lead just what will be the final source for affordable lead?

Thats what I have ask for years. My answer is "I will get it from my stash". It was free, or nearly so, and I haven't left any, that I could get my hands on. I've been doing so since the early 60s.
I also put aside some gold when it was $200./oz. It's imperitive that you think ahead and provide for your own future.
Lead is still available, but cheap and easy, wont last much longer.

[uscra112]

Hasn't been mentioned yet so I will - the dross from smelting battery lead can contain compounds that, if exposed to moisture, morph into EXTREMELY toxic gases. The Rifleman published an article about this many years ago. Possible case they gave was disposal of the dross in a trash can. Moisture creates the gas, the closed can concentrates it, somebody opens the can and gets a dose, and dies. No joke. Batteries ain't worth the risk.

[plmitch]

Its not easy to find free or cheap lead here around the Bay area, I still wouldn't resort to pulling apart a battery just for some lead.