Hit the Jackpot

[owejia]

Carried a load of scrap to one of the local scrap yards last Wednesday, as usual I always look around and happened upon a lead ballast out of a sailboat. Have a friend that works there told him to put my name on it. Returned today to pickup some angle iron and rebarb for a farm project and told them to load my lead ballast, weighed 1673 pounds, paid .40 per lb for it. Soft, can scratch with my fingernail. Have to make a smelting pot to melt down for ingots. Have a gas fish fryer and some 12in. pipe to make my smelting pot. Will be my winter project this year. Good hunting to all.

[nwellons]

Great find and very decent price. Was it in a lot of smaller pieces or just a big one or two?

[Ole]

nice haul!

If you search on Youtube for a user that goes by "Mainejunker", you'll see a few different useful ways to deal with getting a sailboat keel into ingot-sized pieces.

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/mainejunker I'm 99% sure he's also a member here.

[owejia]

Just one large piece. I will hang it from my front end loader and melt it with oxy/acelyene torch using a large rosebud. Will make my smelting pot large enough (12" dia.) and deep enough to hold 100 pounds or more. Just cast into ingots. Probably take a while but will definetly be worth the effort.

[Zymurgy50]

I bought a cast iron pot at a garage sale for $10. It holds about 40lbs and has a wire bail with a handle and a pouring spout.
If you have an air chisel you might be able to get that into manageable sized pieces. Maybe look into renting a jackhammer with a wide bit???

[melloairman]

And I have to dig in the dirt to get my lead . Good find .Marvin