ar battery terminals

[xd45forever]

Are car battery terminals soft lead? I was offered to buy a couple buckets of them and was wondering if j should smelt it by itself or throw it in with the coww?

[lightman]

The alloy used for battery terminals can be all over the place. Some are even zinc and others are brass. Most of the ones I get are soft. Battery terminals will have a steel bolt in them and the factory ones may be crimped on and there will be a little bit of copper wire in that crimp. All of this adds up to unusable weight if you are buying them. Try to buy them cheap.

[MaryB]

from the few I have smelted they are dead soft... friend junks cars and he brings me an ice cream bucket full now and then. I pay him 20 cents a pound(there is some garbage like left over wire etc in them).

[xd45forever]

Thanx wasn't shure ill just smelt it down and toss it in the "soft" bucket!

[bangerjim]

Separate and mark them as PURE. Terms are generally soft. The clamps are harder to last longer. Many cars today use plated steel or Cu clamps which does us Pb melters absolutely no good.

Also industrial batteries (forklift, etc) seem to different than normal car batteries from the ones I have found.

Best bet is re-melt separately, mark as pure and then ID later to verify.

banger

[DaveyDug]

I frequently buy battery terminal clamps (not the terminals themselves) by the 5-gallon bucket for $.35/lb. They test out just slightly softer than my COWW's - maybe 1 BNH softer. This is using the Lee hardness tester.

[RogerDat]

I take it "terminals" means the post, and the stuff with bolts and left over wire are the clamps or wire ends. Side terminal wire ends are copper plated lead as I recall.