Diver Weights?

[Drm50]

Made a nice haul today, 3 drywall buckets full, had to put 1/2 in three other buckets
to handle. Got about 8lb pure tin, several bars of solder 50/50 & 60/40, some big
seals 8"dia X 3" thick, a bunch of ladle 1/2 rds, and some flashing lead. I've herd
some reference to divers weights, I've got 14 things that look like belt buckles, would
these be divers weights of some kind? Centers have little round cleats cast into them.
Being off the farm in Ohio, I've never come across any diver weights.

[scottfire1957]

Ihave seen some like that, indicated to be dive belt weights, composition unknown.

I did not buy them. Analysis required. Buyer beware. YMMV.

[bangerjim]

Dive weights can be commercial and home-made. All the ones I have (over 200#) are all over the map. Many are made of whatever Pb the maker can find!!!!! Even commercial ones.

Only way you will know is x-ray analysis.

Just treat them as range lead! Don't worry about it.

bangerjim

[Drm50]

Not really worried about composition, have 1/2 a 5gal bucket full of ladle 1/2 rounds. They are
pure lead either, have no idea of alloy, just harder than pure lead- about same as WWs. Coal
fired PP being torn down, going to stop every day, lead compliments of the "O" and EPA. Cleaned
off what I thought was tin, turns out to be factory ingots of bearing metal, babbot?

[runfiverun]

I'd go with Babbot too.
probably poured for bearings in some type of equipment.
if they made electricity there I'd say for the big spinny machine the steam spun around to make the juice.

as far as the diver weights they could be foundry lead a ordered alloy of some sort or ww alloy.
back in the day my biggest ww competitor was an outfit making dive weights.

[Leslie Sapp]

That's definitely a dive weight. I've never seen one that was not made from lead or a lead alloy. As runfiverun has already said, it could be anything. Pure lead, wheelweights, etc. It's almost certainly a useful alloy, once you figure out what hardness it is.

[RogerDat]

One thing about dive weights is if they have a weight cast into them and they match that weight then probably closer to plain lead, alloys such as WW's reduce weight for the same size mold. There was something about square corner vs. rounded corner with one being commercial and the other being home cast. But as folks have already pointed out both sources of manufacture might use whatever lead was available.

Hardness test, and the weight being lighter than a stamped or even weight rather than a few ounces short of a full or normal increment E.G 3#, 3.5#, 4# etc. Really you mostly care about not wasting especially good alloy and that the bullets cast from the scrap lead are hard enough. So if they test out as good on hardness and cast well, what was the question? All good.

You may want to look for a dive shop, they pay more for weights than scrap lead costs. May be able to sell to dive shop or divers for enough to purchase more than their weight in lead. Have heard $2 per pound is common.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Unless someone else uses weights like that, they are dive weights. Takes me back to Red Sea, which has negligible river inflow, and is abnormally salty... I used a pair even for snorkeling.

There is no reason for them to be anything but pure lead, unless someone made them from scrap. A simple test, useful up to a point, if you don't have a tester is to squeeze a small ball bearing in a vice, between pieces of this alloy and another you know about, and see which side gets the bigger dent.

[bangerjim]

Many I have were made from COWW's by private companies. I treat them as range lead and 10-12 hardness because other stuff was melted in the mix.

You could even find Zn in there, but since it weights less, most do not use it.

I gave 30# of them to my son who does dive!

banger

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I suppose he has several outfits, or it sounds like a vertical descent and trail of bubbles.

[472x1B/A]

This is good to keep in mind. My ex-boss gave me 55 home made dive weights be for he retired. I asked what he used to cast them, ie. what type of lead. For someone with 2 degrees all I got for an answer was a shruge! "Whats that mean? You can't remember what you put in the pot to cast these with? Well it was a little bit of everything WW, spools of soldier, some bars of auto body lead, some roof caps." So buyer/user beware.

[thegatman]

That is a dive weight. The belt threads through the loop. Now they come covered in plastic.

[6622729]

Made a nice haul today. I've got 14 things that look like belt buckles, would
these be divers weights of some kind? Centers have little round cleats cast into them.
Being off the farm in Ohio, I've never come across any diver weights.

Yes, that is a common dive weight. All of mine which are 2# and 5# are soft lead. It's possible what you have could be harder but professional weights would be very likely be soft so as to cause the least damage to boat decks and dive gear. There is no truth to being able to ID commercial vs home made dive weights by whether the corners were rounded or squared. Like bullets you can buy molds so the DIY'er could have used anything.

Keep an eye out for more dive weights. They'll be good lead. You could melt one and compare it's volume to any other known alloy. I am sold on the hardness testing via scratching with pencil technique.



Attachment 172222

I started scuba diving in the late 1980's and am an Advanced Open Water diver. I was most recently "Pixie" the Safety Elf for Scuba Santa in the shark exhibit at the Newport Aquarium. lol. There we had to use soft weights (lead shot bags) to protect the acrylic tunnels and most divers have gone that route these days due to the new types of gear that have become popular.

[ShooterAZ]

I got a bunch from the scrap yard, some of them for sure were zinc. I will not mess with them any more.

[Kraschenbirn]

In the past, I've snagged a couple sets of dive weights but they were commercial-manufacture with the maker's logo cast into the outer surface. May not have been 100% pure PB but hardness tested at 8-10 so I melted them in with a pile of roof flashing and added 2% tin for BPCR boolits.

Bill

[RogerDat]

Now days the dive weights are shot. Seems that when placed in a suitable sock our pouch it has no corners to dig in, and is adjustable to some extent. Fishing weights and dive weights are a roll the dice purchase. A check with a couple of pencils can get you in the ball park <> WW's or >= plain. It is even possible that someone out there made some from printers lead. For a lot of plinking ammo hardness is what matters, and there is a wide range of "it works" for that. As long as it casts ok and don't lead the barrel..... there you go.

[runfiverun]

you could always just drop them on the cement and sort into tud and tink.
tud is soft lead tink isn't soft lead.
yep real scientific, but I was able to sort stick on ingots from clip on's using the tink and tank sounds from the two.
but I listen to a lot of music.

[bangerjim]

OP - if you don't have a good hardness tester, you can always use the artist pencil test as defined on a thread on here. SWAG but good enough for our purposes of casting little lead things.

Do a search in the white box at the top right.

banger

[Drm50]

I don't have any fancy testers, I do about 20lbs of Alloy a time. I'm shooting 32-38-45 WCs at
no more than 850fps, just hard enough they don't lead. For the rifles I cast them harder, starting
with know materials so I know what I got.

[bangerjim]

I don't have any fancy testers, I do about 20lbs of Alloy a time. I'm shooting 32-38-45 WCs at
no more than 850fps, just hard enough they don't lead. For the rifles I cast them harder, starting
with know materials so I know what I got.

Artist Pencils are NOT fancy testers! Just get a set and then refer to the chart posted on this forum for SWAG hardness tests.