Mystery metal?

[Pbr322]

I picked this up from the recycling yard's scrap lead bin. The bar is about a foot long, 5 inches wide and 3 inches thick, and weighs 40 pounds. The metal is hard to cut with a chisel but melts readily with a propane torch. I did a scratch test and it took a 3h pencil to scratch it. Anyone know what this might be?149307

[mfraser264]

Looking at the part I can see ejector pin witnesses which says it was either die cast of low pressure perm mold cast. Suspect Zinc or an alloy in that family. Can you scratch it with your thumb nail and does it "ring" or "dull thud" when it is dropped?

[Pbr322]

It has more of a ring than thud when dropped but it does definitely scratch with a thumbnail.

[RogerDat]

I might suspect the counter weight to a crossing bar such as you see at RR tracks or parking lots. Speculation but the indentation could be for the butt end of a wood arm and with two sandwiching a board, bolted through those holes it would make an 80# weight which is about right.

The only ones I have actually seen up close had one hole as a pivot and hung underneath but I think I have seen attached weights on those arms in the past. I forget the exact alloy but I had 100#'s of those weights and they gunned as a rich version of WW lead, a bit more Sn & Sb so harder but not like printers lead.

[Pbr322]

Rogerdat: it does "feel" like WW metal. It does have a recessed bolt holes on the opposite sites so it must have been bolted to something. A counterweight sounds logical. I Learn something new everyday on this forum.��