what lead did I buy

[gamma50]

I bought some 100 lb. 3 ft. ballast bars from a guy who salvages boats from mississip that are burned or sunk, this was out of a huge cabin crusier, I take a magnet and hatchet when I know I'm looking at some big lead stuff, it had no ferrous metal and split open with hatchet deep gash, get home and my husband spits it into 2 pieces with a mall, I put it in a cast iron old 24 qt. cook pot and it seems to take awhile to melt, I get 24 cupcake ingots and then the metal starts to stick to pot and turn red, it won't flow no more! it has my pot coated with something similar to half frozen large cottage cheese! that is about as close to a description as I can get.
finally I flip pot over and bang on pot till stuff falls out, about 35 lb.s what the heck is this stuff?
and what I did get to melt looks like chrome bullets, pretty cool looking but not what I wanted, hoping I didn't burn my mag bottom pour with the stuff I got out, it seems to never flowed like any lead I ever had before. is this full of tin or what other metal?$5 a 100 lb + bar,and what to do with this **** now?
[smilie=b:

[mikeym1a]

The '...cottage cheese...' sounds like it might be zinc. At what temp did you melt this? Zinc is lighter than lead and melts at a much higher temp, 787F. Don't know what to suggest.......

[elginrunner]

I have no idea but this might be the case where pictures speak volumes!

[338RemUltraMag]

Sounds like zinc, some white vinegar on the ingot should "sizzle" if this is the case contact shadygrady here on this forum, he will trade lb for lb zinc for lead.

[shadygrady]

thats right have it tested if zinc send to me for lead

[338RemUltraMag]

thats right have it tested if zinc send to me for lead

Dude, you are quicker on zinc than flies on a pile of dog ****!!!

LOL :kidding:

[Bent Ramrod]

Was this all from the same bar? If it was the same metal, it should melt and cast the same, and not change characteristics after 24 ingots worth. The "turning red" sounds like oxidation to me; was it red powder/reddish surface or actual red heat, like the metal was glowing red? Did you run the heat on high even after the stuff was melted? Red powder buildup on the sides and cottage cheesy dross on top would be the result of too much heating.

I can't imagine the metal could have been cast into a bar in the first place if the lead was seriously contaminated with zinc. That mixture is an uncastable slush at about any reasonable temperature.

[leeggen]

Op states that the metal turned red in the pot. Sounds like it was heated to extreme temp. If so tin and the good stuff got cooked and needs to be fluxed back in.JMO!! op needs to give more imfo as to temp heated to and pic if posible.
CD

[gamma50]

it started to turn darker then it had red spots appear as it got hotter, I tried vinegar it bubbled like peroxide on a wound, so I have zinc, is it dangerous? and what the heck would be price to mail it to shadygrady? pm me shadygrady if you want to trade, I'll send you this **** first and you send me however many ponnds of lead, it won't be pure lead will it?

[shadygrady]

gamma50 i have ww ingots hard lead

[detox]

Sounds like you got melt too hot. Dross will bloom and flower if it gets too hot. You need a good casting thermometer like the RCBS. Cast no hotter than 800 degrees

If there is zinc in the melt you can remelt alloy to 675 (no hotter) then flux and try to skim off zinc oatmeal. If the melt has a mirror image after fluxing and skimming off dross at 675 then there is no zinc in melt. Zinc has a melting point in the low 700 degree range and looks like oatmeal before melted..

[Idz]

Its possible what you got was not lead but zinc anode bars that are installed on ships for corrosion control.

[Cherokee]

If they were zinc bars, or high zxinc content, would they not have been harder than lead and not been easy to cut or split as the OP said they were ? Just asking.....

[338RemUltraMag]

An easy to split bar is an indicator of a hard alloy. Lino splits with minimal force, but try splitting pure and it is like trying to split a metal playdough