MGnoob
08-17-2014, 07:56 PM
When i first got started i refused to buy lead.....i got some wheel weights, a piece of lead that someone was shooting, and a piece of ballast from a ship.
I then caved and bout just over 1000lbs of wheel weights.
Today i smelted all but 2 small pails of the WW... I assume the piece of lead someone used for a target is close to pure, i could do a harness test but just haven't yet. and am just going to assume it is between pure and wheel weight.
My question is on the ballast lead...it was the first thing i tried to smelt and it wouldn't melt at any reasonable temp..SO i have just moved on.
It is pretty eaten up by sea water.. it says something on it that i can't make out...perhaps the foundry or the name of the ship..
Anyway, i managed to break it in half then remove a small piece.. i couldn't get a readings on it hardness. It looks like the picture of antimony on Rotometals website and think it is some kind of high antimony lead?? What do you guys think? Is it something you guys have seen? do you think it is just high in antimony or just all around high in random stuff?
Picture of the whole thing
http://s1339.photobucket.com/user/MGnoob/media/GEDV0197_zpsb4048721.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1
Picture of it broken in half
http://s1339.photobucket.com/user/MGnoob/media/GEDV0198_zps29b2f159.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0
I am just courious..i was thinking about puting the lead "target" and the ship ballast in my pot heat it up then hit it with the weed burner to alloy it 50/50 then further when i need extra hardness. i've never used the weed burner for thing other than burning weed, because i don't sort my WW i just heat slow and then remove the zinc with the clips. Then maybe i can get an accurate reading on hardness
I then caved and bout just over 1000lbs of wheel weights.
Today i smelted all but 2 small pails of the WW... I assume the piece of lead someone used for a target is close to pure, i could do a harness test but just haven't yet. and am just going to assume it is between pure and wheel weight.
My question is on the ballast lead...it was the first thing i tried to smelt and it wouldn't melt at any reasonable temp..SO i have just moved on.
It is pretty eaten up by sea water.. it says something on it that i can't make out...perhaps the foundry or the name of the ship..
Anyway, i managed to break it in half then remove a small piece.. i couldn't get a readings on it hardness. It looks like the picture of antimony on Rotometals website and think it is some kind of high antimony lead?? What do you guys think? Is it something you guys have seen? do you think it is just high in antimony or just all around high in random stuff?
Picture of the whole thing
http://s1339.photobucket.com/user/MGnoob/media/GEDV0197_zpsb4048721.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1
Picture of it broken in half
http://s1339.photobucket.com/user/MGnoob/media/GEDV0198_zps29b2f159.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0
I am just courious..i was thinking about puting the lead "target" and the ship ballast in my pot heat it up then hit it with the weed burner to alloy it 50/50 then further when i need extra hardness. i've never used the weed burner for thing other than burning weed, because i don't sort my WW i just heat slow and then remove the zinc with the clips. Then maybe i can get an accurate reading on hardness