Hit the Jackpot

Carried a load of scrap to one of the local scrap yards last Wednesday, as usual I always look around and happened upon a lead ballast out of a sailboat. Have a friend that works there told him to put my name on it. Returned today to pickup some angle iron and rebarb for a farm project and told them to load my lead ballast, weighed 1673 pounds, paid .40 per lb for it. Soft, can scratch with my fingernail. Have to make a smelting pot to melt down for ingots. Have a gas fish fryer and some 12in. pipe to make my smelting pot. Will be my winter project this year. Good hunting to all.

Great find and very decent price. Was it in a lot of smaller pieces or just a big one or two?

nice haul! :drinks:

If you search on Youtube for a user that goes by "Mainejunker", you'll see a few different useful ways to deal with getting a sailboat keel into ingot-sized pieces.

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/mainejunker I'm 99% sure he's also a member here. :)

Just one large piece. I will hang it from my front end loader and melt it with oxy/acelyene torch using a large rosebud. Will make my smelting pot large enough (12" dia.) and deep enough to hold 100 pounds or more. Just cast into ingots. Probably take a while but will definetly be worth the effort.

I bought a cast iron pot at a garage sale for $10. It holds about 40lbs and has a wire bail with a handle and a pouring spout.
If you have an air chisel you might be able to get that into manageable sized pieces. Maybe look into renting a jackhammer with a wide bit???

And I have to dig in the dirt to get my lead . Good find .Marvin