Random bits and pieces...what to mix

[SeabeeMan]

I'd like to do a smelt in the next few weeks to get everything I've scrounged out of buckets and into ingots. I have 3 full buckets of hand sorted COWW's, which will be on their own. I also have a 4x8x1/8" sheet of lead shielding from behind sheet rock that is pure. I have the following odds and ends that I'm not quite sure what to do with, let me know if I'm off base with anything:

- SOWW - not enough to warrant their own batch...do I throw them into the pure stuff or the COWW's? These are the really soft ones. I sorted the harder ones into the COWW's.

- about 50lbs of poured pipe joints...in with the pure?

- 1 ~3lb chunk of lead pipe with wiped solder joints, about equal parts solder and lead...not sure what to do with it and it probably doesn't warrant cutting the joints out for 3" of pipe. In with a full batch of wheel weights?

- a handful of battery terminals...?

- 3lbs of random fishing sinkers...? Would these and the battery terminals be better in the scrap bucket or recycling bin?

I also have about 200lbs of home made garden tractor wheel weights. They are definitely lead based and were probably made by pouring it into a metal bucket to about 2" thick. As far as casting, I'm pretty much out of luck unless I can convince somebody with an x-ray gun to check them for me, right?

[500MAG]

I'd put the pipe joints with the pure and sinkers & battery terminals. COWW with the pipe & solder, unless you feel there's enough solder in it to make a big difference. I'd keep the tractor weights separate until you see what you got with the melt, check what temp they melt at and the consistency.

[Dusty Bannister]

I would suggest that you use a propane torch to melt the solder off the joints and leave the nearly pure lead pipe in it's own batch. That will give you a whole lot of solder you can make into one batch and have scanned to see what the approximate percentage is tin. Eventually you will want to know what tin you have on hand, or sell to members if you have an excess.

Battery terminals and sinkers would make a nice batch of Unk metal. Just clean and cast into ingots. Use a ball bearing between a known ingot and the unknown ingot to see which is harder and blend as indicated. Be sure to mark your ingots to prevent confusion later. Dusty

[RogerDat]

Three buckets of COWW's assuming 5 Gal. buckets is better than 300# so just throwing the 3# of pipe, handful of battery terminals and 3# of assorted fishing sinkers into it won't make much difference one way or the other on the alloy content. Then just call all that batch COWW. I think your idea of SOWW's in with the poured pipe joints makes sense, close enough to plain lead to all be used that way.


Plus one on keep the alloy from those tractor weights separate and try to establish it's hardness. The tractor weights using a ball bearing will test as harder than or equal to your plain. Or harder, softer or equal to your COWW ingots. Best if you can find out tractor weight alloy content by taking an ingot from it to a scrap yard to gun it for you but in the end you really only care how hard is it so you can decide use as is or mix with either your plain or COWW's. Homemade so could be anything from scrap pipe or roofing plain lead, WW's, or some nice printers lead. Probably made from whatever was available and depending on when made that could be any dang lead you can imagine.

[meeesterpaul]

I'll be bringing samples to a place with an XRF gun in the next couple of weeks.