Diving Weights

[jpsw44]

Found an old diving belt weight...Just curious if anybody knows the composition could be....

[Bill*]

COULD be anything, :mrgreen: but probably mostly lead

[Typecaster]

…almost anything that'll melt and pour. Try the thumbnail test…I've melted 25-30 of them, and all but 2 were very soft. Your mileage may vary, though—the 2 seemed to be about as hard as WWs so they just went in the pot with a bunch of seine net weights to become peestol boolits.

Richard

[jpsw44]

Its pretty soft. Scratches real easy with the fingernail..I assumed it was pure lead but i wasnt sure..It's a good 10 or 12 pounds..Nice

[big boar]

I've got a few and will melt them alone, just to see if they cast well. This aviods contamination with the good stuff I have. (WW)

[kennisondan]

they are heavy and pretty soft.. I bought some lead ingots and will compare the two best I can.. I am still trying to decide if 20 :1 is ok for my 45 70 with hollw base bullets or should I stick to plain base ? I may shoot 55 gr. and may go up to 68 or so grains of goex... and want to shoot some 350gr. or some 405gr. and then graduate to 530 postells or similar for my longer shooting, once I get around to the long stuff..

under what conditions would you go with hollow base ?
why would you choose one over the other : 405 ... 350 gr ?

I have been told that if I load about 55 gr goex with a 350 gr. and 64 - 68 grains goex behind a 530 will likely be fairly close in speed ( IIRC)

my gun is a uberti/pedersoli sharps.

once I find a place to shoot I hope to punch paper, shoot silllhouettes and perhaps pop a deer as well.... I am tempted to get the 405 or the 360 gr. bullets first and want to be sure I made the best choices along the way so far.
I was kind of thinking that with a hollow base I would get a good seal but know there are a couple of considerations as to how much powder is pushing it.. I kind of think that if I get the plain base bullet and it is a close enough fit and soft enough I will still get a good seal and can push it a little faster...

what comments does this generate ?
thanks.
dk

[shunka]

Found an old diving belt weight...Just curious if anybody knows the composition could be....

It can be literally anything :-(

any makers marks will not necessarily be relevant either. I used to cast them for a dive shop, and the mold itself had marks indicating "US Divers" and the weight.
The owner would come up with a bucket of mixed scrap lead, anything he could get, including wheelweight, tin, anything that would melt and I would start melting.

good luck
shunka

[Johnw...ski]

Found an old diving belt weight...Just curious if anybody knows the composition could be....

Commercially made diving weights, and sinkers for that matter, will usually be close to pure lead in order to get the proper weight, just like our boolits. On the hand there is nothing stopping anything and everything from being used especially when the weights or sinkers are homemade.

John

[Bulldogger]

I second the cautious optimism already mentioned. They are mostly lead, if not all. I got some dive weights and melted them recently. One kind were obviously home-made at a dive shop in a simple cresent (body hugging, sort of) mold and the others were brand name and stamped (Sea Pearls). The homebrewed ones had very bad shape and filling, obvious contamination. I melted them carefully, alone, and had a lot of skimming to do, but ended up with OK bullet metal.
I used the following tricks, besides a lot of fluxing with paraffin, I melted the mess all the way to the top of a variable heat LEE 10lb pot. Then I turned the pot off and let the whole thing harden, but not get cold. Then plugged the pot back in and walked up the heat until there was a chunk of hard metal floating on the top. This was the zinc that was in the mix. I skimmed, picked really, off the zinc slugs and threw them in the dross bucket.
I realize that this also cost me some tin and antimony probably, and the result was very soft (it scratched with a fingernail before too though please note). I just threw some Lino in before making boolits, and I cast some test boolits to check fill out before comitting my Lino.
Sea Pearls, that's a diff. story. They DO post their metal content, more or less. Go to their website. For their hard chunk weights they use a high antimony mix, they don't give specifics but they say it's I think 12% more than normal. I'm saving those for when I need a lot of antimony (it's only 5lb anyway). Their bag weights are standard hard shot, I melted 10lb of those after scoring about 14 bags from a guy who used them for physical therapy. Those melted and casted like buttah.

So I keep an eye out for dive weights locally and take them when I can. Lead is lead, sometimes it needs to be divorced from unwanted additives is all.

[JIMinPHX]

I've seen guys in dive shops that cast their own weights use just about anything that they could get their hands on, including old car battery plates. Also, a lot of dive weights get used in salt water. I'm not sure what it takes for salt residue to cook off.

[G- Unit]

commercial dive weights contain an additive to keep them from corroding in a salt water enviroment, I'm not sure if this additive will smelt out.

[Old Goat Keeper]

Kennisondan your BP load should do fine as long as you remember one thing. And that is to make sure there is NO SPACE BETWEEN THE POWDER AND BULLET BASE! If you can't seat the 350 grain boolit deep enough to eliminate all empty space use wads or fillers. Empty space in a cartridge and black power don't do well together!


Tom


they are heavy and pretty soft.. I bought some lead ingots and will compare the two best I can.. I am still trying to decide if 20 :1 is ok for my 45 70 with hollw base bullets or should I stick to plain base ? I may shoot 55 gr. and may go up to 68 or so grains of goex... and want to shoot some 350gr. or some 405gr. and then graduate to 530 postells or similar for my longer shooting, once I get around to the long stuff..

under what conditions would you go with hollow base ?
why would you choose one over the other : 405 ... 350 gr ?

I have been told that if I load about 55 gr goex with a 350 gr. and 64 - 68 grains goex behind a 530 will likely be fairly close in speed ( IIRC)

my gun is a uberti/pedersoli sharps.

once I find a place to shoot I hope to punch paper, shoot silllhouettes and perhaps pop a deer as well.... I am tempted to get the 405 or the 360 gr. bullets first and want to be sure I made the best choices along the way so far.
I was kind of thinking that with a hollow base I would get a good seal but know there are a couple of considerations as to how much powder is pushing it.. I kind of think that if I get the plain base bullet and it is a close enough fit and soft enough I will still get a good seal and can push it a little faster...

what comments does this generate ?
thanks.
dk

[waverace]

Just got a couple of dive belts from a buddy of mine , melted down great with very little dross , seems about the same hardness as ww so I'm stoked , have about 40lb total usable lead

[Combat Diver]

I've got about 30-35 lbs of dive weights and been tempted to melt them down. However, I still dive! They're my enemy is at the gate stash.

[USSR]

I recently picked up some lead in the local scrapyard that is in the form of square ingots. Dimensions are about 2" square by 1" thick. Are these diving weights (see pic below)?

Don

http://ussr.clarityconnect.com/DiveWeights.jpg

[Bill*]

Not divers weights like any I've ever seen (no way to attach to a quick release belt)

[Combat Diver]

Concur with Bill, all dive weights I've seen or used had slots to pass a dive belt thru. Only exception was chill shot in bags that go in pouches. The call these soft dive belts/weights. Dive weights are usually molded in 2-6 lb blocks and have the weight shown.

[waverace]

Old printing press letters ?

[home in oz]

the ones I melted down appeared to be lead.

They cast into 357 SWCs quite nicely...

[stainless1911]

Get hold of 'em, and hop in the local pool, if they tend to help you sink, then *ding!* you have diving weights. :)

[WILCO]

Get hold of 'em, and hop in the local pool, if they tend to help you sink, then *ding!* you have diving weights. :)



:groner: [smilie=l:

[a.squibload]

Don't forget to let go of 'em after the pool test...

[malpaismike]

Hello the camp! I suspect the most important aspect of dive weights is making sure the diver is done with them. Could lead to a testy issue! My .02. mm

[GaryM]

My dive weight mold sits right next to my ingot mold. I have sacrificed somewhere around 40lbs of wheel weights for this, one of my other addictions.

[*Paladin*]

My sister e-mailed last night. She found me 100lbs of dive weights for .15 cents a pounds. I told her to buy it all and I'll come get it!!! Unfortunately, it's only a 100 lbs...