I got bad lead from the scrap yard - What might it be?

[eagle-man]

I have been buying lead from a local scrap yard. They just classify it as hard and soft, based on the sound it makes when it hits the concrete. Well, I was melting some down, and in the pot, it looked like I had oatmeal or cream of wheat in my pot. I poured it into a cupcake pan mold, and after cooling for 5 minutes, I normally flip the mold to empty it out. These ingots had the consistency of wet sand, and we almost mushy. Normally I have hard ingots that I can grab with pliers.

My pot temp was more than enough to melt lead. It seemed like there was some stuff mixed in that didn't want to mix with the lead.

I set the rest of the stuff from that batch aside, hopefully I can trade it back in for some better stuff from the scrap yard.

Anyone have any idea what I might have gotten?

Thanks!

[H.Callahan]

Sounds like lead with zinc contamination.

[40Super]

Yep I'd say zinc. I would only get the stuff that is soft and not the hard . If they classify it that way, you will get a lot of unwelcome junk.

[Springfield]

Pour some Muriatic acid on it. If it bubbles it is zinc. You can get it in the pool section of hardware stores.

[Ole]

Sometimes when you dump ingots too soon/hot they come out mushy/sandy.

Best to test it with some pool acid before you assume it's got zinc in there.

[koehlerrk]

Could be some lead with a lot of antimony and arsenic in it, ie, hardened shot.

Once, long ago, when I started melting and casting lead, I got a half bag of lead shot.... #5 if I remember right. Had no use for it, didn't reload for my shotguns yet, so I melted it down to cast it. Got the same oatmeal looking mush in the pot, and the ingots looked like silver sand, and very extremely brittle. Dropped one on the concrete floor and it shattered. Not broke, shattered!

Took care of it by remelting it into pure lead, adding a little tin, and it finally cast decent boolits.

[runfiverun]

could be kirksite,calcite, or a bismuth blend too.

[lavenatti]

I bought some lead/bismuth alloy. It got that oatmeal look that zinc contamination does when I first melted it. It did flux in after a few minutes and casts fine with just a bit of linotype added (for the tin content).

[10 ga]

scrapyard I frequent puts the zinc in the lead container and seperates when prepping to ship out. Mostly the zinc is from anodes used on crab and fish pots and on boat props and rudders and tabs on outboards. Some from the ships and such are quite large. Most I can identify by shape or such but if a question I do the drop test and if it "pings" it goes back in the bin. Yes, sounds like you got zink or some other stuff contamination. Check the stickeys on getting rid of the zinc, they may help. 10 ga

[eagle-man]

So yesterday I took this back, and they traded it for lead. As we were picking out lead, they had a stack of bars that were stamped 50% lead / 50% tin. They didn't seem to care, I told them it was tin, I guess there, they consider tin and lead to be the same thing. They weigh 1.25 lb each and I got about 15 - 20 of the bars. They also had a little bit of lyno as well.

Not a bad day. Went home with another 60 lbs total. I got boolits for another month!

[mold maker]

If ya traded contaminated lead, for 50/50 solder and lino, Ya done a good stroke.
Even making 2 trips it's a good stroke.
Did ya acid test the first lead?

[koehlerrk]

Oh heck yes! Traded mystery metal for 50/50... if they swapped you 2 for 1 you'd be a long way ahead, even-steven and you're up by miles! Great to hear!