What is it?

[Steve E]

Recently while poking around at the local scrap yard I came across these pieces, they are
1"x4"x5/8th". They look like lead, feel like lead, cut like lead but they don't melt like lead. All the lead in the pot (bullet scraps, wheel weights, etc. etc.) melted but this just sat there, I turned up the heat and still nothing. They had some kind of white plastic rods running through them. Any ideas what it is or what it is used for?

[45nut]

well,, pure lead takes the most heat to melt vs most alloys we use.

I have a couple ingots that wont melt either that I just use as "soft anvils" in the shop.

Haven't seen those in my travels though, sorry.

[Steve E]

Does zinc cut like lead when you cut it with a knife?

Steve E...........

[Rangefinder]

by the look, that's what came to mind first for me was sacrificial zinc for a saltwater boat or something. Maybe get a specific gravity if you have something in the way of a graduated cylinder.

[Jal5]

I second the idea of the sacrificial boat zincs.
Looks like the one on my boat. both fresh and saltwater boats use em.
Joe

[Daddyfixit]

I'm not so sure it's zinc, I see where you cut a little sliver off. I'm in the marine industry and that looks to soft to be zinc or magnesium. I don't see any electrolytic corrosion...?

[Steve E]

It cut as easily as lead, a nice little curl came off that when I cut it. I thought zinc and magnesium was a good bit harder than lead.

Steve E..............

[Rangefinder]

And it's definitely heavy enough to be in the neighborhood of lead??? *shrug* It couldn't be some aluminum/magnesium alloy of sorts, maybe?

[WILCO]

No idea..........

[Tom R]

Take it to the local college they will tell you.

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

I doubt they are boat hull zincs. They would not have the plastic isolators press into them. They look like ballast weights to me. The problem with ballast weights is there is no telling what they are made of.

Regards,
Everett

[arjacobson]

They MIGHT be weights off of a racing go-kart. These are usually attached to the seat or the frame to get to the legal weight....Usually these are whatever lead can be found and melted

[Ken]

antimony?