scuba belt lead

[tahoe2]

A guy at work gave me two diving belts with 12lb weights (2ea - 4 total) and a couple
of 3lb (2 ea - 4 total). has anybody ever melted those down before ?? thanks

[Retumbo]

Usually made out of "what ever you find" lead

[Big Dipper]

It is hard to tell what is in dive weights. I put them in my mystery pile and trade for alloy of known composition. Stock car racer's need ballast and usually have wheel weights.

[lightman]

Factory weights usually make pretty good alloy. Homemade weights may be anything. I would do the acid test and check for zinc, and then a hardness test. If they were harder than pure I would dump them in with my next batch of wheelweights. Good Score!

[RogerDat]

Weigh them on an accurate postal scale. Store bought will weigh right on stamped weight +/- a very tiny amount. Weight matching stamped weight means probably plain soft lead. The molds are designed to be right weight with plain lead, made from "whatever" alloy they will be a bit lighter than the weight number molded into them since alloys weigh less than lead.

[Loudy13]

I have 25 lbs of factory weights someone traded me for a couple boxes of 9mm, seems to be pure lead but now I may have to dig farther.

[Tackleberry41]

Depends entirely on who made them. My dad was a scuba diver and had a mold for the weights. I remember him digging in the berms at a range for material to make weights, then sold them to local shops. Commercial made, they will go with whatever is cheapest.

[mtnman31]

A neighbor gave me a some scuba weights a few years back. They had been spray painted at some point. Not sure of their composition, but they were pretty soft, close to pure lead as best I could tell. As was mentioned by others, its a **** shoot of what you may get when looking at things like scuba weights and boat ballast.

[GoodOlBoy]

Yeah I did a write up on here a year or two back with pictures showing some of the differences in diving weight leads... I don't have a link, but it's there if ya wanna read it.

God Bless, and One Love.

GoodOlBoy

[RogerDat]

Yeah I did a write up on here a year or two back with pictures showing some of the differences in diving weight leads... I don't have a link, but it's there if ya wanna read it.

God Bless, and One Love.

GoodOlBoy
Might want to see if a local scuba shop will buy them. Worth more than the lead price to the dive community. Have heard around $2 a pound. I have a friend that is a dive instructor so I set any dive weights aside for him. I think I remember that thread, wasn't there something about rounded vs. square corners that helped indicate store bought from home cast?

[frkelly74]

I just melted some and they were not a problem to get good looking boolits out of. I did do the pruning shear test on them to see if they were lead and got a nice clean shaving off the corner of each one and the metal under the oxide and paint the was a nice clear bluish silver grey so I pronounced it castable lead and now it is mixed with wheel weight and quite a lot of it is 45 boolits.

[GoodOlBoy]

Might want to see if a local scuba shop will buy them. Worth more than the lead price to the dive community. Have heard around $2 a pound. I have a friend that is a dive instructor so I set any dive weights aside for him. I think I remember that thread, wasn't there something about rounded vs. square corners that helped indicate store bought from home cast?

Yep, shop & home cast tend to have more squared corners, etc etc. I agree you can get quite a bit for them from a dive shop. Mostly likely more than enough to double the lead you have by buying from some of the folks on here.

God Bless, and One Love.

GoodOlBoy

[Hardcast416taylor]

Anymore whenever I am `gifted` dive `lead` weights from well meaning friends I just make up about 20# total weight of unwanted leads and put them in an online auction. In the past I get $1+ per lb.Robert

[mold maker]

I have always used my dive weight molds as a way to use up questionable content lead. To adjust for lighter weight I poured them with a slight over fill.
The only zinc contaminated lead I ever encountered, went into dive weights and were sold to a local dive shop, who appreciated the harder lead, that didn't scrape or cut on contact with other equipment. I'm sure others have done the same.
I sold some as late as 2003, that were made of lead that just didn't pour, weigh, or look right.
I always stamp the actual weight on the top side.

[scottfire1957]

Usually made out of "what ever you find" lead

Yep. Without any markings, nobody here can tell you what that material is.

[mac1911]

I scored 2 weighted vest...only to find them filled with pouches of black sand:roll: