Smelting car battery lead

[3rdTennCoC]

Nice of you too assume I don't work. Seems to be a poor choice of words here mate.

[3rdTennCoC]

I appriciate the input of those who sell, I will look into such sources. Buying bullets can be too pricey too. Lot of mine balls for the muskets seem to be quite high from where I look, upwards of 50 cents a ball

[charlie b]

LOL. Yeah, several years ago I got a muzzle loader cause it would be 'cheap' to shoot. I could not cast at the time due to where I lived. I 'graduated' to paper patched bullets and found out they cost more than .223 loaded ammo. So, I ended up buying a .223. From your post and handle I will assume you are participating in Civil War stuff.

Understand the cost issues. If you have plenty of time on your hands and access to a LOT of batteries then the advice above about using just the terminals and connectors is reasonable. It will take a lot of time and you still have to find a way to responsibly dispose of the battery contents (dumping on ground is bad and pouring in sink is REALLY bad).

[Froogal]

I fully understand the money issues. Not too many years ago I knew nothing about reloading, but that made no difference because I could not afford to even own a gun. A few years later I bought a used Marlin 30-30. It came with 1 and 1/2 boxes of ammo. I bought one more box, but only shot 4 rounds because I figured out each cartridge was worth 25 cents and that was simply way too expensive for just having fun.

[BJung]

I retrieved lead from car batteries when I was in High School. That was 44 years ago and I'm still alive. As two others have said, there is not much lead in a battery despite its weight. I'm going to guess but from one large battery, you might get 5 lbs of lead. You get more lead from lead wheel weights. I'd suggest first asking the shooting range where you shoot at for some lead. Tell them it's for a new hobby. If that doesn't work, look up small shooting clubs and ask them. I've never met a bullet caster in any range I've shot at yet. There are weight limits by lead recyclers before them come in, so it isn't worth it for small clubs with small indoor ranges to call them. If the ground is dusty, be sure to wear a face mask and use a deep frying ladle to sift out most of the dirt and debri. There's no use carrying that stuff home.

[WRideout]

Just a thought: If you have any kind of reloading stuff to trade (i.e. brass, dies, etc.) you could possibly work out a trade with someone on this forum for prepared boolits. Or Lead.

Wayne

[jdgabbard]

Nobody has to tell me about making it work on a tight budget. Back when I started casting it was partially because I was poorer than dirt. And even then I had a hard time affording decent equipment. Resorting to making lube from toilet bowl wax and candles. Lead was measured by the boolit. And my smelting was done in a small Lee pot... Melting car batteries is still not worth it. I'd hazard a guess that even Rotometals could sell you enough castable alloy with $50-100 than you would see out of 20-30 car batteries. Throw in the health risks.... No thanks, not me.

[3rdTennCoC]

Thanks guys, I'll look into the other sources recommended, and snip off terminals as I see them

[schutzen-jager]

I retrieved lead from car batteries when I was in High School. That was 44 years ago and I'm still alive. As two others have said, there is not much lead in a battery despite its weight. I'm going to guess but from one large battery, you might get 5 lbs of lead. You get more lead from lead wheel weights. I'd suggest first asking the shooting range where you shoot at for some lead. Tell them it's for a new hobby. If that doesn't work, look up small shooting clubs and ask them. I've never met a bullet caster in any range I've shot at yet. There are weight limits by lead recyclers before them come in, so it isn't worth it for small clubs with small indoor ranges to call them. If the ground is dusty, be sure to wear a face mask and use a deep frying ladle to sift out most of the dirt and debri. There's no use carrying that stuff home.

newer production batteries contain a much lesser percentage of lead than they did back then -

[huntinlever]

Unless my math is wrong, shipped 45 pounds of known alloy (2:1 Pb/No.2) from Rotometals is $150. That's a total of 790 bullets for me (without taking into account dross losses etc.). That's a nominal $0.19 per bullet. More than worth it to me and I can't understand considering battery smelting at all.

[jdgabbard]

Unless my math is wrong, shipped 45 pounds of known alloy (2:1 Pb/No.2) from Rotometals is $150. That's a total of 790 bullets for me (without taking into account dross losses etc.). That's a nominal $0.19 per bullet. More than worth it to me and I can't understand considering battery smelting at all.

There are actually a few better deals there too if you're willing to with lesser desired allows. I think they have 60lb Pigs of 99% available for something like $120 shipped.

[Winger Ed.]

[QUOTE=3rdTennCoC;5518208]Thanks guys, I'll look into the other sources recommended, /QUOTE]

Lead is still out there.

I've asked the Home Depot guys for Lead roof flashings kids have stomped down and ruined.
They've just given me a few over the years.

Also at estate sales, there's 'junk' in the garage that they don't figure is worth pricing. I snagged a coffee can of sinkers that way.
I've had neighbors that moved in from the coast and they've given me some of those big salt water sinkers about the size of an egg.
I found SCUBA diving weights at Goodwill for dollar each.
Whenever I get new tires, walking around in the parking lot always yields a few tire weights.

It's going out of style, but Plumbing supply houses should still sell the 5 pound ingots for pouring the Lead joints for cast Iron pipe.
They usually won't sell direct to the public, but any Plumbing contractor could get them for ya.
There's shotgun ranges that sometimes sell bags of reclaimed shot on the cheap.
Our scrap yards here can sell to the public. They sell it for about twice what they pay for it coming in.
Back when Lead scrap paid 10 cents a pound, I bought a lot of picked over, clean stuff for 25 cents a pound.

It's out there, you just need to get the word out, and sometimes it will come to you.

[super6]

A lot of wheel weights end in dirt track racing cars. They try to balance the cars on the slopes! All the dirt track people get the lead. Just saying. Look around.

[Wis Tom]

If you were closer than Tenn,(going by your name) I would give you some lead to help out, as you don't get much lead out of a battery. Hope you find some to make musket balls, and if you get close to Wis. ever, let me know. I know what being short on money for extras of shooting feels like. Take care.

[hoodat]

If you use lead/acid battery scrap, and shoot someone with one of those bullets, you could very possibly kill them. jd

[6mm win lee]

3rdTennCoC

You mention being near Chicago. That's a pretty big place. It is bound to have little Mom and Pop car repair shops, in not too good neighborhoods, that have stacks of old tires on the side of the building. Tires are a good sign there may be a rich vein of the mother lode wheel weights waiting to be mined for the right price or maybe even a smile with a open hand.

It worked for me a couple of times.

[BamaNapper]

I'm cheap, and at one point had access to several old car batteries. I thought about giving it a try. I had no idea how to get started, so I checked out YouTube and found a video of a guy breaking down a battery to recover the lead. It looked like a nightmare, and when he was done he had a pitifully small amount of usable lead to show for it. It seems to me the battery yielded him less than 5 lbs of lead. Most definitely not worth the risk/effort.

As mentioned above, find some place you can mine a berm. My last trip to the pistol range berm, I spent an hour sifting and what I recovered netted me right at 300# of clean ingots. Berm at the rifle range was not worth the time.

[whisler]

How much pure lead do you need and do you ever get near Cincinnati Oh. I would be glad to share?

[john.k]

I keep batteries until I have over 1 ton (about 50 pickup/truck),then take them to the scrap yard ........I clip all the exposed lead before taking them..........you get a realistic rate for over 1 ton ,under you get the dopeheads rate.

[Barry54]

Thanks guys, I'll look into the other sources recommended, and snip off terminals as I see them

You could probably score a fair amount of wheel weights at a pull-a-part junkyard.

I would try truck shops too. Truck weights are bigger than automotive weights.