Is this thing lead?

[dilly]

I'm not sure what this is, but I picked it up while looking for wheel weights. It's heavy and on parts of it it scratches clean like dirty wheel weights do. Does anyone know what this is, if it's lead, and if it's an alloy suitable for use in casting?

Here are a few pictures from a few different angles.

66686
66687
66688

[historicfirearms]

It's a battery terminal, and yes, it's lead.

[Hardcast416taylor]

To be more specific, it is soft lead.Robert

[ku4hx]

Ohhhhh ... I am so old. :groner:

[Green Frog]

Unscrew the two steel bolts and remove the little steel tab and throw in the rest when you melt your wheel weights, or, if you have some other more or less pure lead, it is probably close enough to pure to regard as equal to that. Grab all of those you can find! :)

Froggie

[I'll Make Mine]

Unlike most "battery" lead, this is good stuff, safe to use and pretty low alloying (should be no more than 1.5% antimony, same as .22 range scrap or the tape style stick-on wheel weights). The item is a "repair terminal", a clamp ring that goes on the stripped end of a cable to restore ability to fasten on a battery post. The two screws and the clamping plate are steel, but they'll just float in the smelting pot if you can't easily remove them before melting the clamp.

[dilly]

Thanks guys; figuring this out would have been a huge pain without this place. I appreciate the help.

[MtGun44]

Never saw a battery terminal???!!!!!! This is from a car.

Bill

[ku4hx]

Never saw a battery terminal???!!!!!! This is from a car.

Bill
Actually it's a battery terminal clamp, but then that's sort of like the distinction between bullets and cartridges I guess. Yes I know, "boolits" but the news outlets will never get that one.

[Tatume]

Many new cars don't have them anymore. Some have side posts on the battery that take a steel terminal with a hole in it. A bolt passes though the hole into the battery. Some have conventional top posts, but have spring-steel clamps that you squeeze with a pliers and release to grasp the post. So, it's not that unreasonable that someone wouldn't recognize a mangled lead battery terminal clamp.