Doing the Forbidden for Informations' Sake,

[badbob454]

ok sooo 8 lbs of lead ,approx. or $10.00 for a battery core ...

[runfiverun]

those are mini ingots.
probably less than 4 lbs.

[lightman]

It will be interesting to see your results. Be careful and Good Luck! Years ago, before the newer style batteries came along, I tried salvaging battery lead. I found it to be a high percentage of lead oxide and quickly decided it was not worth the trouble. Back then, lead was plentiful and cheap.

[MaryB]

Problem is the gasses driven off during the smelt. I hope nobody is downwind for a long ways because some of them are super toxic! The recycling places use scrubbers to keep them out of the air!

[dbosman]

The video clearly shows that the battery being dismantled is an older technology battery with removable cell vents so you can top it off with water. It's not the maintenance free type with doped plates that is reported to give off stibnine and arsine gases.

[QUOTE=308Jeff;3957911]This has been done recently by Grant Thompson.

[popper]

Those guys are total idiots. No protection, melting lead sulfide? Used to have Exide plant here but greenies chased them out.

[KenT7021]

The NRA had a warning about recovering lead from batteries in their Cast Bullet Handbook by E.H.Harrison.The danger is from the skimmed off dross.When it is exposed to moisture it forms stibine gas which has the same effect as nerve gas.I don't know if atropine would work as an antidote though.I believe there was at least one fatality when an individual opened a trash can that dross had been disposed of in.

[Outpost75]

Modern maintance-free automotive batteries are calcium-lead alloy, rather than antimonial-lead as used in larger fork-lift, marine and industrial batteries. The Ca makes it useless for our purposes due to the hea y drossing which occurs.

[RogerDat]

very interested, have a friend with about 25 old batteries that are all busted open and the acid is long gone, they were piled behind his barn by his father and forgot about. been thinking since nobody will take them like this I might try salvaging the lead but I have been a little worried about the make up, it will be good to know what is in it.

Take the used batteries to a scrap yard, take the money from the scrap batteries and buy lead. You will be way ahead on how much lead you end up with and from a safety standpoint.

[6bg6ga]

That is the problem with a thread like this. It has been proven that trying to use battery lead is associated with toxic gas and chemicals. Thanks to this thread people now think its possible to try to use battery lead. Good going. I would advise those thinking about smelting the battery lead to read the thread on battery lead that I and several others put a link to. Exercise common sense and take your battery collection to the yard for money then take that money and buy good clean lead.

[DocSavage]

The frying and muffin pans look to be teflon coated,I'd be very reluctant to melt or pour molten lead into them. I second the safety concerns especially the guy wearing flip flops/sandels.

[JSnover]

That is the problem with a thread like this. It has been proven that trying to use battery lead is associated with toxic gas and chemicals. Thanks to this thread people now think its possible to try to use battery lead.

The real problem is people who insist on ignoring the wisdom, warnings and experience of others.
The OPs mind is made up, in spite of the facts. His findings will likely confirm what everyone else said. Stay tuned.

[RogerDat]

For those who can gain wisdom from the experience of others, you will probably do well in reloading if you take some care. For those of you that feel a need to pee on the electric fence to see what happens.... we want video and don't touch the flammable powders or primers and you should be safe enough.

[finstr]

Poisons and dangers aside it just seems like a lot of very messy, smelly work for what amounts to a handful of useable metal. I'll stick to wheel weights.

[sqlbullet]

All I could think about reading this thread was the old poem:

"Johnny was a chemist's son
But Johnny is no more
What Johnny thought was H20
Was H2SO4"

OP, i would strongly suggest you engage a professional hazards analysis of your endeavor.

I would further suggest that having a Federal Explosives License in no way qualifies you to understand the dangers of what you are about to attempt. This is not a concern about explosion, but a concern about harmful vapor formation and release which can be deadly or permanently debilitating to people who inhale said vapors. A masters degree in chemistry would be more apropos.

And, as has been pointed out, one of the dangerous compounds may form days, weeks or years later if the dross is kept dry and uncontaminated and then subsequently exposed to water.

I know you don't want finger wagging. But you have provided no bona-fides that indicate you are actually qualified to understand the hazards of what you are about to attempt. And worse, you have provided credentials you think qualify, but don't.

[fredj338]

Seems like a lot of work for little gain. The trade in value of used batteries seems higher than the amount of usable lead plus the effort & cost, 5# of baking soda?

[RedRiver]

Melted it down today. Was pretty breezy so no issues with fumes.

Out of probably 20 lbs of crud in the pot, I got 3 lbs of lead total. Just nowhere near enough liquid to even think of fluxing.

The ingot is purple identical color to pure lead, but smoother in appearance to stick on ingots.

Next step is sending it off to be tested.

All in all, it's nowhere near worth it for 3 lbs of lead. So if you're thinking that you have a gold mine of lead sitting around, just sell the batteries and buy your lead. But that was never the point of this experiment, the purpose of it is to see what is in the alloy, stay tuned. Should have answers next week.

[RedRiver]

And nothing about what we are doing is safe. Lead is hazardous.

Melting down hundreds of pounds of wheel weights gives me a headache, not to mention the paint of xray room lead, that is by far the worst.

Just try to mitigate the dangers and you will be fine.

[kmrra]

I have already tried this and its not worth the time , no matter how you do it

[RedRiver]

Some pictures