Diving Belt Weights

[cabezaverde]

Picked up about 100 lbs of diving belt weights today. Melt them or ebay them ?

[Texasflyboy]

Picked up about 100 lbs of diving belt weights today. Melt them or ebay them ?


I would use them. Divings weights are almost always pure lead. They are great for hollowpoints. I have about 20 in a bucket that I keep for hollowpoints.

I would keep them.

[Goatlips]

Picked up about 100 lbs of diving belt weights today. Melt them or ebay them ?

The boxful I found at a garage sale (with the mold) weren't pure lead so I ebayed them. I plan on making and selling more from some forklift battery lead I came across, gotta do something with it.

Guess it's a tossup....

Goatlips

[The Nyack Kid]

i dont know about forklift batterys ,but modern car batterys have some very nasty stuff in them .
I take used batterys down to the tire shop and trade them for wheel wheights .
ive got some dive wheights and i think they are pure lead .i got them from my uncle ,dont know where he got them here in landlocked montana. pure lead is special stuff ,very useful .

[porkchop bob]

The diver weights, shoe and belt, I have seen at Little Creek NAB and aboard ship were not pure lead. They could be dropped or hit and still keep their shape. You could mark them with a iron nail. Finger nail would not leave a mark. Those items do take a lot of abuse, wear and tear, during normal use. Pure lead would not stand up.

Bob

[David R]

Forklift batteries have cadnium in them. Not good at all.

Sell it for scrap and take the money to buy new stuff if you can.

David

[versifier]

There was a time (30-40 years ago) when they'd just sell you a mold if you asked about weights at the local dive shop. When we bought the mold they asked if we'd be interested in casting some that they could sell. After I cast enough for my dad, brother, and friends, I turned the several hundred pounds of pure lead I had left into weights, 3, 4, and 5 pounders. My uncle was a plumber and he saved lots of old sink drains from renovations for us. I have since turned a lot of them into Maxi Balls as they are no longer into diving. I suspect that a good many were also made from ww or lino, if that was what was available. Chances are they're castable/shootable - what have you got to lose by trying a small batch? :wink: See how well the molds fill out, then compare their weights with those of bullets from the same mold cast in pure and in different known alloys.
If they don't work out, pour it into a cookie sheet in thin layers, cut them into envelope sized pieces, (about 8-12 ounces each)and mail them back in the postage paid envelopes to your favorite anti gun/anti hunting organizations, or Hillarious Clinton's Campaign Slush Fund. :grin: Be creative guys!

[kenjuudo]

All I have ever seen were either lead or WW lead mix. Have the local scrap guys on the lookout for anything castable, it's amazing how many of the scuba weights show up concidering I'm in Indiana.

[Nazgul]

I work in the material handling business, with forklifts. I believe the lead Goatlips is referring to is the intercell connectors on top of the batteries. I have used them for 15 years, they are not pure lead but they cast well with a touch of tin. I have a 55gal drum 2/3 full right now. The connectors are not the cell plates which are made from lead sponge that contains cadmium and other dangerous stuff. They should definitely be avoided.

[beagle]

MY experience with dive weights came from Hawaii. Over there, guys would buy a mould and make them for sale...out of anything that would melt. Commercially make ones will be probably close to pure lead as they buy commercial to insure a good lead supply. If they're home poured, you'll probably have WW metal and who knows what else in them. BUt' they'll probably make bullets./beagle