Doing the Forbidden for Informations' Sake,

[RedRiver]

Let me start this by saying we are very safe with everything we do. We hold a Federal Explosives License so we take safety seriously. So for the finger waggers, no worries here.

There is little to no information, that I have found, on the lead within a car battery. So today we cut one open, drained the acid into a bucket containing a strong baking soda solution to neutralize it. Cut one side off the battery and had the whole thing soak in another strong baking soda solution for a couple hours. Next, we will be putting the lead components into another solution to make sure it is completely safe.


Next Friday, I will put it in the cast iron outside and melt and flux, and flux, and flux some of it. The rest I will just melt and skim it. This way we will all know what is originally in it and whether or not fluxing this particular lead actually accomplishes anything.



My goal is to have the definitive answer on what is contained in the lead within a battery and what contaminants there are. I will send a sample of each off to be scanned.

The battery posts will not be included in the test because we already know they aren't "contaminated" or dangerous.

We will go through 5 pounds of baking soda before it is all done.


I am an information guy, if there is debate or flat out falsehoods, I want to know the true answer. We will see if there is cadmium or calcium contained within the lead.

[rancher1913]

very interested, have a friend with about 25 old batteries that are all busted open and the acid is long gone, they were piled behind his barn by his father and forgot about. been thinking since nobody will take them like this I might try salvaging the lead but I have been a little worried about the make up, it will be good to know what is in it.

[Bookworm]

Very interested in this myself.

Not because I would melt one down, but because I want to know.

Back in the mid-80s, I used to go to a fellow that repaired car batteries. He would cut the top off, pull out failed grids, repair ( solder in sections ?) the grids, put the battery back together, heat seal the top.

I've often wondered what became of him. He was in his 30s, but looked 60. Had a big barrel of used battery acid he would refill the batteries from. Lead battery plates everywhere. Huge holes in his clothing from the acid. Batteries and empty casings stacked every which way.

Basically, his shop/yard looked like a SuperFund site.

[M-Tecs]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-Are-Dangerous

[GhostHawk]

Have fun.

My experience, there is not enough salvagable lead in a battery other than the posts to be worth the trouble. But I understand sometimes you do need to learn some things the hard way.

Think you would have better luck going to the plumbing company's that do new sewer/water main lines from street to house. They remove a fair amount of lead in a year. Just need to make them a better offer than everyone else. I know I salvaged some when we had ours done some 4 years back. We also left some in the dirt which is semi tempting to go find.

[RedRiver]

I won't do it again. It it a huge hassle cutting it open and neutralizing everything for what I can see, will be about six pounds. This is just an experiment.

[Budzilla 19]

I'm an information guy also and I won't attempt this. NOT EVER! So, having said that, you help yourself sir, just post your results to this forum for the rest of us to learn from. Good luck.

[dverna]

Some things are not worth knowing

[BNE]

Thank you for doing this. I have talked to an engineer that previously worked in a battery company. Her opinion was that the dangers we read about were VERY overstated.

Please include pictures!

[JSnover]

I think it's worthwhile for someone to come up with a clear, "this is what I got" answer. I'm also glad someone else is doing it because I disagree with the OPs claim that there is "little to no information" out there.
Soon enough we'll find out who's right.
I think we'll find out that the amount of recoverable lead isn't worth the time, effort, or the risk but at least this experiment might settle the debate.

[M-Tecs]

RedRiver. I think you took my post the wrong way. I posted it to show what some of the claimed dangers are. When I started in the later 60's it was common to smelt batteries. When the newer type batteries started coming out so did the claims of increased dangers due to various metals added to lead plates. I don't know if they are real or not.

[jsizemore]

Why not cut a couple samples to have tested before you melt? You would know how deeps the water before diving in.

[runfiverun]

there is fluorine gas waiting to be released.

I would drop the idea before I even started.
never mind the newer battery's will get you a whole1.5 lbs of lead.
which you could get without all this grief.

[GARD72977]

I dont think the guy cares how much lead he is going to get. Having it tested is the real goal. The backing soda will cost more than the salvaged lead!

[6bg6ga]

Having and holding a Federal Explosives License doesn't automatically qualify you in your quest to see if what we have been preaching for years is right or wrong. The only thing it tells me is your careful around chemicals. I suggest that the poster read this thread.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-Are-Dangerous

[Teddy (punchie)]

My idea with car batteries ( other ?? lead) is to get an angle iron about 6 to eight feet long. Place on slant make a place or whole in bottom to collect lead. About half way up start piling fire using wood etc. Placing battery ( of other ?? items) at or close to top. Wind (air flow) from bottom to top. Start fire at bottom with idea that the air, will make its way to other end where items to melt are. I'll be far enough way not to care what it may be giving off. Next day show up and see what's at bottom.

All in how bad you need the lead. So far no need for me to do it.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I think the dangers are overrated, but not entirely absent, and not consistent enough to assume that what happens with the first battery will happen with the twentieth. It is said that an aging battery can develop pockets of liquid or gas in the eroded and redeposited lead.

Countries in wartime have routinely recovered the lead from batteries for munitions use. I would think they have remote and shielded equipment which would protect the operator from spattering. I don't know of alloying materials which would be dangerous, and any chemical residues could surely be skimmed from the top. They probably have ways of recycling the acid, though, rather than neutralising it.

I wouldn't do it with less precautions, and doubt whether it is worthwhile. It doesn't directly resemble anything a person gets a federal explosives licence, but I should think its issue depends to some extent on not seeming the type to let optimism get out of hand.

[Toymaker]

There is a very large facility, maybe the largest in the country, in Sedalia, MO that processes old batteries and recycles the materials. In case the name of the town seems familiar, that's where Sierra Bullets is located too. Coincidence?

[308Jeff]

This has been done recently by Grant Thompson.

[jonas302]

very interested, have a friend with about 25 old batteries that are all busted open and the acid is long gone, they were piled behind his barn by his father and forgot about. been thinking since nobody will take them like this I might try salvaging the lead but I have been a little worried about the make up, it will be good to know what is in it.

Have you checked with the scrapyard those batterys are worth a little bit around here paid by the pound doesn't matter what they look like even ones that are melted and burned in a car fire used to to about 4000 pounds a year and never had one turned away