Grandson Stocking Car Batteries For Casting Muzzleloader Bullets

[ShooterAZ]

I would probably offer to buy him some lead from Rotometals. Yeah... I'm an enabler. Sell the batteries to the scrap yard to recoup some of the cost.

[Budzilla 19]

No,no no, HELL NO!! Sell those batteries he’s been scrounging up, buy clean soft lead and let him live to be an old man by adding to his knowledge base!! Come on PawPaw you know how to handle this!!! Just my .02 ...................... let the flaming begin, I can take it. Just concerned .

[Tom W.]

Ain't no flaming due......

[JSnover]

I hope the recommendation sounded something like "no way, no how, Not Here!" I also hope he listened.

[Wayne Smith]

Not only all of the above, but if he got extremely lucky and did succeed, the results would be too hard for his muzzle loaders anyway! Its a no go all around.

[lightman]

You have certainly had a challenge with this young man! This is probably one issue where I would really assert myself. I would not want the acid and other stuff on my property and demand that it be removed. I would donate him some soft lead or even buy it for him. From your other post it seems like he does not listen well but this is one area where he would hear me. Good Luck!

[bangerjim]

" QUICK.........hire a teenager while they still know everything!"

NO...................NO.......................NO.. ................and NO!

How much clearer can we be. The experts (and al of us) say NO.......VERY DANGEROUS.

And eve if he/you survive the re-melting of the plates, it will NOT be pure Pb like he needs for ML's.

Get/take the batteries from him, take them to a local scrap yard, get the money, and buy pure Pb on here if he is so bent on casting for FREE. Personally I PAY for ever ounce of Pb & alloy I shoot.


OH.............and did I say NO!!!!!!!!

banger

[OS OK]

I think this kid has been doing You Tube videos > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhZTlqqeBi0

After all the comments, wasted worries and wasted words...I'm certain he 'passed' when God was handing out 'Common Sense'.

[ioon44]

Wow, looks like a candidate for the Darwin awards.

[KCSO]

No No No This will KILL you. The gasses from smelting these at best will make you choke hack and puke. I know I tried it years ago and learned a hard lesson. Even outside in open air one whiff and you choke.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Have him read this thread.

If he still wants to do it, ask him why. Do not treat him like a snowflake....treat him like a man.

BTW...your house....your rules....if it gets to that.

I nominate this for POST of the month.

to DonMountain,
adding to dverna's comment, I can only assume your grandson is intelligent, judging by these four things being true. 1. going to college, 2. shooting Muzzleloader, 3. wanting to cast his own, 4. and having a grandpa who is a boolit caster. So you don't want to insult his intelligence...guide him to learn what is best and safe.

[leadman]

IIRC there is calcium in battery plates. I did use old batteries many years ago but disassembled them where I worked and could dispose of the waste materials there. The lead was used to cast muzzleloader balls and fishing sinkers. Sinkers worked great, the muzzleloader balls were hard and very difficult to load into the bore.
Usually by the time a battery goes bad there is a lot of lead oxide (looks like dirt) on the plates and once the plates dry out it will fall off the plates when the plates are tapped with a hammer. What is left is mostly a grid of lead and maybe some lead on the upper part of the lead.
Very little lead from the plates, more lead from plate connectors and terminal posts. Not worth it.

I have quite a bit of pure lead. I'll contact you by pm about it.

[reddog81]

Lead is cheap, new lungs are expensive. I wish you the best of luck convincing him that this is a terrible idea.

[RogerDat]

I would say no don't do it, that it is very unsafe for a tiny yield but don't want to be guilty of piling on. Oh what the heck.


Dangerous battery with 3# of lead if you are very effective at recovering the lead content AND don't end up dead or in the hospital.

OR

Scrap yard pays $6 to $10 per battery and you go to the vendor sales or swapping and selling and buy some lead at around $1 per pound. At the least you end up with 2x as much lead and no health dangers. Better case you get 3x the lead by buying it with the battery scrapping proceeds. And again not health dangers, except maybe to your back. Batteries can be heavy.

[alamogunr]

It seems to me that the economics of this situation would be overwhelming in favor of selling the old batteries as is rather than trying to salvage a little lead. Even if the $$ were a wash, the health risks and the physical effort should convince even the most immature person to sell and use proceeds to buy lead.

[wmitty]

Have him google arsine gas. If he has common sense; he will back off. When I saw that evil looking smoke from the one I melted, it made a believer out of me.

[lightman]

Don, it looks like you have not been on since starting this thread. I hope all is well. If you can convince him to leave the batteries alone I’ll donate a small flat rate box of soft lead in ingot form. I think that will be 20# or so And should keep him busy for a little while.

[Walter Laich]

Don
Given what we know about your relationship with your grandson you are again between a rock and a hard-head.

In fairness I'm not too old to see the appeal of getting lead for almost nothing with the exception some effort--Cheap is King. All the replies have age, knowledge and experience on their side.

There are several folks on this site that sell lead for about $1.15 a pound including shipping Jetfan-24 is one that comes to mind (I'm a happy customer is all--no stock in his enterprise)

What I do in my 'casting for cowboys' (SASS shooters) is buy in bulk and then charge a bit more per lb. That way the customers don't have a big outlay and theoretically I make a few ¢ents per pound. Still need to figure out how the cost of electricity figures into this as I probably am actually losing $$ in long run but it's a hobby after all.

best of luck

[alamogunr]

Looks like the OP has had no luck convincing the grandson to alter his plans to salvage battery lead. I've got two grandsons in college and if made aware of half the arguments in this thread, they would change their plans in a heartbeat.

[frkelly74]

I saw a sign on the Batteries Plus Store that was offering to buy old car batteries for $7 each, I have gotten as high as $13 each at the scrap yard in the past. I find it odd that The core charge was $22 at Advance Auto Parts but that is beside the point. I would certainly sell every battery I could scrounge rather than mess with dismantling them for the lead. I guess that is the consensus here isn't it?