Arsenic

[heebs]

Anyone know of a source of high arsenic lead other than shot?

[elmacgyver0]

Batteries?

[M-Tecs]

Some of the babbitt alloys https://www.mcmaster.com/products/babbitt-metal/

[Dusty Bannister]

Batteries?

Good grief, I thought this one was finally killed and people knew better than to mess with batteries and all the dangers of attempting to use them.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?138362-Why-Car-Batteries-Are-Dangerous

[405grain]

Chilled or magnum shot is going to be your least expensive and most available option. Yes, you could buy a 4.5 pound ingot of babbitt at $29 a pound (not counting freight and taxes), but shot would be a lot cheaper. Getting lead from car batteries is dangerous and foolish. There's calcium in that alloy that makes it cast lousy, plus a rogues gallery of toxic metals.

It only takes a very small amount of arsenic to act as a grain refiner in lead/antimony alloys. Anything over one half of one percent is just a waste. As little as 0.2% is usually all that you need. When added to typical lead/tin/antimony alloys, some arsenic containing shot usually increases the air cooled hardness by 1 additional BHN. But, when water quenched that trace amount of arsenic can really boost the hardness of your alloy. Too much arsenic will make the lead flow poorly, and you might have trouble getting full mold fill out, so only add very little to your alloy.

[heebs]

Thanks everyone for the replies.