cost of analyzer scanner

[Wayne S]

From what I've read here scrap metal dealers use some sort of scanner / analyzer "gun" to run analysis on the "lead alloy" they buy.
Just wondering what one of these analyzers costs ??

[kbstenberg]

I only once had a recycle place analyze 6 different peaces of lead that I knew the composition of (because I made the alloys). And the person shooting the lead said they were all just straight lead. Thats the only and last time I will have it done.

[jsizemore]

Used on ebay $14,000 and up.

[Defcon-One]

Niton XRF Scanner! New is $25 - $30K.

[KohlerK91]

I only once had a recycle place analyze 6 different peaces of lead that I knew the composition of (because I made the alloys). And the person shooting the lead said they were all just straight lead. Thats the only and last time I will have it done.

I had a similar expierience.

I had some hard lead that would "ring" when hit togetherwith another piece. After scanning I was told it was just plain lead 99%+. And I paid him 5 dollars too.

I didnt think plain lead would ring like that.


And on my LEE hardness tester it was more than 20 on the brinnell harness scale.

[odinohi]

I had a similar expierience.

I had some hard lead that would "ring" when hit togetherwith another piece. After scanning I was told it was just plain lead 99%+. And I paid him 5 dollars too.

I didnt think plain lead would ring like that.


And on my LEE hardness tester it was more than 20 on the brinnell harness scale.


I think maybe the dude didn't know how to use it.

[geargnasher]

Somebody who knows ***TD and does these rough assays at a scrap yard could make a lot of beer money for themselves and their boss by analyzing small samples that people mailed in. You'd think we would have one amongst us in such a situation with 25K members, but if so they don't say.

Gear

[BAGTIC]

A sheet of HTWW will ring like a bell when struck with steel.

[captaint]

Might want to consider, too, they may say that in case you have some to sell. That way they can get it cheap. I had a friend who scraps lots of stuff take an ingot to get anayized. The guy told him "it's 80% lead, 10%tin and 10% antimony." He says - tell the guy I'll buy all he has". At least he was honest. I knew it wasn't just lead. Had that tinny look to it. enjoy Mike

[garandsrus]

The guns work... I had a scrap yard check a sample and it came back with 10 or 11 elements detected. I saw the readout on the gun. Several elements were way less than 1%.

I also had him check some lead sheeting and it came back 99.5% lead or something like that.

[Wayne S]

Somebody who knows ***TD and does these rough assays at a scrap yard could make a lot of beer money for themselves and their boss by analyzing small samples that people mailed in. You'd think we would have one amongst us in such a situation with 25K members, but if so they don't say.

Gear
My point in asking was to see what they cost , and to bring up the "little side business" thing to get someone that would have access to a scanner to ponder on a little side business.
So the question is what would you pay to get an alloy analyzed by a fellow caster ??

[Lizard333]

I'd pay five bucks. If I got to send multiple samples. Let the guy scanning keep the lead as well. Not worth it to ship it back.

[btroj]

Someone mentioned a 14K price tag.

At 5 bucks a sample it would take 2800 paid samples to break even. Bet that would be a few years.

At a sample per day, every day, it would be approaching 8 years to break even. Doesn't sound like a sound business proposition to me.

[Oreo]

Rotometals will do it for, I think, $60 for up to 5 samples. That's $12/ea.

[Wayne S]

Rotometals will do it for, I think, $60 for up to 5 samples. That's $12/ea.

Just talked to RM, Sorry to say they are very proud of their work and charge $ 69.00 PER SAMPLE
I tried to explain we would mainly be interested in ONLY the lead,tin/antimony content. didn't matter $ 69.00 PER SAMPLE
True, to get buy a scanner would not be cost effective, BUT as stated before if someone worked at a business that had one and could permission to use it after normal work Hr's. and it's $$ for an office party, or ???

[Any Cal.]

I know a guy with one, I had him analyze some lead for me. I am sure he would do more if I did all the legwork. The big downside is that he is quite busy, so I have to work on his schedule. If it was worth $5 and a 1oz ingot to everyone I will see if we could try one run, and then see how it goes from there.

I am envisioning running down on a weekend with a bunch of samples and doing them all at once. Any thoughts, questions, or ideas let me know. If it was 2-5 pieces I don't see it being worth the hassle, but we could keep a tally going and do them all once we got 30 or so.

-Edit- I just realized it probably wouldn't need to be a big ingot. If we worked with small ones it would cost a lot less for shipping. Maybe just fill the bottom of a soda can with an oz or so of lead and send that. Shipping could be less than $1 that way.

[Lizard333]

If you need a Ginny pig, I'll bite. If this happens I'll be willing to try it.

[Wayne S]

If you need a Ginny pig, I'll bite. If this happens I'll be willing to try it.

Ditto, getting ready to do some smelting of some big batch's and would like to know if what I bought IS what I bought .
I would think the bottom of a 1/4 measuring cup would be more than enough.
Take enough drill shavings of the alloy, melt them down in the 1/4 metal cup.

[Leslie Sapp]

I wonder about the accuracy of the scanners. I took an ingot I cast from some unknown alloy I got in a cast iron smelting pot I bought off ebay to a local pawnshop. It was full of about 20 lbs of a hard and shiny lead alloy. The scanner readout said it was 98.1% lead, 1.9% platinum, with a trace of gold.:-?

Now it's got me wondering whether it's worth it to send a sample to Rotometals.....

[Wayne S]

L Sapp,
That does sound strange, If the "scan" didn't cost to much, I'ld get a 1 oz. egg sinker flatten it out and get it scanned, that way you are working from a known alloy, assuming the egg sinker was pure lead

[GLL]

Leslie Sapp:

You own the most concentrated platinum ore on the planet ! :)

Your alloy is about $400/pound !

Jerry

[Leslie Sapp]

Being in the roofing business, I've got plenty of pure lead. I think I'll get them to try a sample of the pure and see what it says.

[Leslie Sapp]

Your alloy is about $400/pound !

I guess stranger things have happened, but I'm not writing any checks on it yet.:lol: I do have it set off well away from anything else until I have a chance to get it checked out. Any boolets from that would be considerably more expensive than the Lone Ranger's projectiles.

[DRNurse1]

I am in. I can send several samples for testing if I have a week lead time. Guestimate a cost per sample for your time. Consider returning the samples and the results in the cost for the most positive responses to the service.

[Any Cal.]

I got an OK to do this from the guy that will run the scanner. If you are interested, I am going to post a thread in Swapping and Selling with some instructions. I have had him do lead for me, and it picked up 7 or 8 elements in the alloy, so it definitely works.

[MikeyPooh]

I wonder about the accuracy of the scanners. I took an ingot I cast from some unknown alloy I got in a cast iron smelting pot I bought off ebay to a local pawnshop. It was full of about 20 lbs of a hard and shiny lead alloy. The scanner readout said it was 98.1% lead, 1.9% platinum, with a trace of gold.:-?

Now it's got me wondering whether it's worth it to send a sample to Rotometals.....

Ah, I can (maybe) shed some light on this.

I myself have recently been needing some samples analyzed, so I started by asking at a precious metals dealer that I knew had an XRF gun. He's a friendly guy but when he saw my bag of lead he got a sad look on his face - not because he didn't want to test my stuff, but apparently the guns have different programming modules. Since he is in the PM business, he has the precious metal module. He showed me... he tested one thing I had that was obviously mostly lead, and it rang up as like 78% gold, and a few other exotic elements which I forget now - Iridium may have been one.

Luckily he then turned me on to a scrapyard ( and I may have just worn out my welcome there today after testing about 7 samples, lol, they were busy too and ended up just letting me use their "40 thousand dollar piece of equipment - DON'T DROP IT!" lol) that has an XRF gun with the right programming for what we want.

So, with that said, why did your guys gun show gold platinum and lead? I don't know. Maybe you can load up more than one type of program at once. Anyway, just thought I'd chip in on this one as I had a somewhat relevant story for once, heh.

[sqlbullet]

I will be glad to undertake this. Everyone on the forum send me $1. Once I have the 25K I will buy one and test samples for forum members for free. Sounds perfect (for me).

I did look at buying one a few years back. Once I found out the price though I realized it wasn't going to happen on my budget. The salesman was incredibly nice however. On his next visit to my fair city he rang me up and came by and tested a bunch of my lead. He wanted to find out how well the general purpose module did at heavy metals.

That is how I found out the composition of many of the isotope leads I see regularly. And it was a really cool machine.