Using lead from a battery factory [Archive]

odinohi

05-20-2009, 05:05 AM

Bob Krack

05-20-2009, 07:17 AM

Is this something that can be done? I'm a newby and havent even started to cast anything yet. Just trying to get stuff rounded up for my future in casting. This would be new lead scraps from a factory that makes batteries. I know I'll be asking a million more questions as I get closer to becoming a bullet maker. Thanks, Tom
I'd be much more interested in having a one night stand with Lorena Bobbett!

The constituents of battery lead are genuinely deadly toxic.

The terminals are usually pure lead but the plates contain calcium and or cadmium and/or other toxics.

Your question is a good question and I hope you reach the same conclusion with more study.

Bob

JSnover

05-20-2009, 08:08 AM

I've seen the same warning twice from credible sources. The new sealed, maintenance-free batteries are not a safe source of lead.
The terminals are a different story. If you decide to hit local junkyards for wheel weights, ask about battery terminals. The posts on the batteries and the terminal ends on the cables are safe.

schutzen

05-20-2009, 08:21 AM

I will be the first to stand up and say, "I'm a cheap SOB and want to shoot for the least money I can spend", but battery lead is not cheap. Many lead acid batteries contain cadmium. This includes many that did not leave the factory with cadmium in them. For years after-market parts stores sold "battery rejuvenator". Several of these fluids contained cadmium. For all practical purposes, all batteries contain unknown contaminants.

Cadmium is a heavy metal that can severely damage your body. It is just not worth the risk.

theperfessor

05-20-2009, 08:37 AM

I make it a blanket rule to NEVER use battery lead except for the terminals. It's just too dangerous and in my mind its just not worth taking the chance of long term health problems.

It could prove an expensive way to save money.

largom

05-20-2009, 08:54 AM

Lead at my local scrap dealer sells for 20 cents/lb. and I usually pick out the sheet lead used in past by plumbers. This is close to pure lead.
The ONLY way I would ever use battery lead would be if OBAMA or PELOSI smelted it for me in a closed room.
Larry

briang

05-20-2009, 09:12 AM

Is this something that can be done? I'm a newby and havent even started to cast anything yet. Just trying to get stuff rounded up for my future in casting. This would be new lead scraps from a factory that makes batteries. I know I'll be asking a million more questions as I get closer to becoming a bullet maker. Thanks, Tom

If you can be 100% sure that the lead is not the alloy used for the plates you can safely use it. However IMO there is no way you can be 100% sure that someone didn't throw a piece into the wrong bucket, so I don't consider it safe.

sheepdog

05-20-2009, 12:13 PM

If the batteries have been processed by a professional lead recycler like National Lead they can process it in a way to make it safe. Alot of wheel weights started out as batteries in a past life. But unless you know how to chemically do it and process the waste then no no and hell no.

Slow Elk 45/70

05-20-2009, 12:40 PM

Is this something that can be done? I'm a newby and havent even started to cast anything yet. Just trying to get stuff rounded up for my future in casting. This would be new lead scraps from a factory that makes batteries. I know I'll be asking a million more questions as I get closer to becoming a bullet maker. Thanks, Tom

OK Guys, I think he should have the message about used lead from batteries,

IMHO he is saying this is "New Lead Scraps from a factory" Key word is NEW.

There should be nothing wrong with the scrap from their cutting forming for their process. IMHO.[smilie=1:

Firebird

05-20-2009, 01:06 PM

There should be nothing wrong with the scrap from their cutting forming for their process. IMHO.[smilie=1:

Even new scraps from battery plate manufacture will contain the calcium that makes the lead alloy dangerous, so you can't use them. The old batteries that just had lead in the plates could be used, you just had to be careful about the sulfuric acid fumes and put up with having the acid eat & rust your cast iron pot. The new sealed batteries made now are dangerous because of the calcium that has been added to the lead alloy in the plates so that you don't get much hydrogen gas generated if the battery is overcharged. It's the calcium that makes the lead alloy in the plates dangerous, not the sulfuric acid in the battery.

montana_charlie

05-20-2009, 01:15 PM

IMHO he is saying this is "New Lead Scraps from a factory" Key word is NEW.
I must agree.
A few questions asked at the factory will clear up any concerns about 'additives' in the lead. If it really is just 'new lead scraps' there should be nothing objectionable about it.

CM

briang

05-20-2009, 02:01 PM

I must agree.
A few questions asked at the factory will clear up any concerns about 'additives' in the lead. If it really is just 'new lead scraps' there should be nothing objectionable about it.

CM

Unless, as I stated earlier, someone put used or alloyed lead in the new scrap bucket. This IMHO is to big of a risk, some guys just don't care about sorting scrap.

ghh3rd

05-20-2009, 02:09 PM

I once considered using battery lead, until I researched the pros (none) and cons (many). I sure hope that none of the lead being sold in places such as EBay came from a battery.

I'd rather get lead from my plumber neighbor, wheel weights, etc., and know that it's safe.

Randy

Tom W.

05-20-2009, 02:16 PM

I never saw "scrap" lead...... :castmine:

JSnover

05-20-2009, 03:36 PM

If the factory can tell you the lead was pure when it got to them, that's one thing. If you know your scraps were made before the chemicals were added you're good to go.
I don't know what the scraps look like. The batteries I've seen opened up had very thin lead plates, like, so thin it seemed you'd get more dross than lead after seperating the surface crud from the metal.
I dunno....

468

05-20-2009, 04:46 PM

WAY too dangerous!!! It doesn't much matter what the battery manufacturer says. They are not liable for anything that happens to you when 1 or 2 pieces of bad stuff gets mixed in...

Same thing at a scrap yard. I worked in one...I know. Stick with something that you can visually identify as a known, safe item.

dakotashooter2

05-20-2009, 05:40 PM

Scraps from the making of the posts?

Scraps from the newly manufactured lead plates?

Scraps prior to the alloying of the plate metal?

You'd have to determine exactly what you are getting.

evan price

05-21-2009, 03:46 AM

The one time I was at a commercial battery plant (rebuilt forklift & etc battery cells and assembled them into packs), the only lead they had was for making post connector bars & lugs, that stuff was "pure" lead. However they never actually had any scraps, since they cast the lugs & connectors themselves. The flash and sprue just got put back into the furnace and recast.