Battery hardware lead

[odfairfaxsub]

I’ve gotten another box of this stuff from c&d technologies. It’s two lead nuts held together w a brass piece of thread. Seems hard. Anyone ever test this lead of know what it is?

[rancher1913]

lots of battery cable ends are zinc nowdays, test it good.

[odfairfaxsub]

The nuts cut w a knife like a wheel weight made of lead. Your asking for a acid test?

[rancher1913]

just saying be careful, I almost ruined a batch with some battery connectors that turned out to be zinc.

[odfairfaxsub]

Thanks rancher!!!

[odfairfaxsub]

So it is lead, I had a piece fall on the floor and it dented. I think I’ll melt on down in a ladle and do a hardness test

[CPC24]

I put battery terminals in my melt all the time. If they’re soft, and easy to scratch, they’re definitely lead.

[yeahbub]

I noticed that about the cable clamps I bought for a spare vehicle - made of zinc and harder than my head. . . she says. Actually, kind of glad about that because I've had lead ones refuse to open and let go of the terminal when changing things out.

Another point about lead plates now used in lead/acid batteries is that it contains calcium which will play hob with mold fillout. There are some other serious hazards (poisonous chemical compounds) used in battery construction these days, so batteries are never to be considered a source of casting lead anymore. Someone once posted here that if one has old batteries laying around, sell them to a reclamation place and use the money to buy the WW/sheet lead/linotype you prefer. Less work and more lead.

[lightman]

So it is lead, I had a piece fall on the floor and it dented. I think I’ll melt on down in a ladle and do a hardness test

If you dropped it and dented it, its probably soft. If you have very much of it you might want to contact member BNE and send him a sample for XFR testing.

[ShooterAZ]

I rendered down about half of a 5 gallon bucket of battery cable ends a few years back. I did the muriatic acid test on it, no fizzing at all. I bought it at the auto recycle place for .25/LB about 4 years ago or so. It's dead soft lead, and I've been using it in my muzzleloaders for a couple of years now. I don't know about the newer stuff, but test it with the side cutters and if it's really soft, I'd go ahead and melt it.

[Burnt Fingers]

I had a bunch of BIG battery terminals in a barrel of wheel weights I bought at the scrap yard. Some were dead soft lead and others were a hard lead alloy. No zinc. The same barrel also had some stick on weights of a type I'd never seen before and they were hard lead also.

[odfairfaxsub]

These were lead nuts w brass inside thread. I fired up about 20 lbs of clip on, 10 lb of stick on, after that melted I threw what appeared to be remainder of 20-30 lbs of the batt nuts. Came out harder than straight wheel weights. I’m curious about the composition now bigger than I was. I might send one off to get tested (battery nut that is)