Metal Casting Zone

I had an old lead acid battery that wouldn't accept a charge any more even after treatment with Tetrasodium EDTA, so I decided to chop it open and see if I could melt down the lead into a usable form - lead is supposed to be the best material for the cathode in an anodising setup. I drained off the acid and flushed the battery first with a sodium bicarbonate solution and then with water, several times.

I found that a propane torch isn't hot enough to melt the lead plates, but a welding (oxyacetylene) torch is. I think what's going on is that the lead in the old battery is mostly lead sulfate which apparently has a higher melting point than the metallic lead. After I was finished fooling around, I had a layer of lead and on top of that, a layer of what looked like yellow plastic. It left a yellow residue on the fire brick and burned with a thick smoke that smelled like sulfur. An ability to recognize the smell of burning sulfur will serve me well in the afterlife, I'm sure. In any event, this was quite a toxic business and I would recommend (a) that you not do it, and (b) if you want to try it, use a forced-air respirator, as I am sure I got way too much exposure to lead fumes. From an economic standpoint, I don't think the whole thing was worthwhile, but it was fun and educational.

So do you have an anodizing set up? Lead is toxic so any work with it would require (for safety) a good respirator. A friend of mine used to make sinkers for fishermen. He'd cut the plates out,remove the seperators,melt it and pour into molds. Anodizing tanks use a sulpuric acid/water mix and when running produce toxic fumes too so it's good to be aware of this. Always use caution.

Maybe lead is not t good metal for most people to wok with.
be careful it is poison.

i have to agree with everyone...

this sounds like an extra toxic project!

i have done some lead casting and had nice results,
but the down side is a very messy and harmful material.(lead)

be careful,

irontwig

While we're on the subject,anybody have any problems with brass or bronze fumes?

If I want to die cast brass or bronze, I need a special permit as a toxic substance

I hope you folks don't mind my jumping in here after all this time, but there seams to be a few misconceptions about lead.


I have been casting lead for years, and while it has some problems, there are 3 very easy rules to make it safer to handle.


1) Have proper ventilation. If you cast in your garage leave the garage door up. Cast near a window with a fan blowing air out.

2) Do not over heat your metal. That not only keeps your alloys of a higher quality, it keeps less fumes from getting in the air - with most lead alloys, an electric pot that bullet casters use, have thermostats built in to keep your lead just hot enough to pour.

3) This rule comes in 3 parts ( and is probably the most important rule of all ) - a) Wash your hands. b) Wash your hands. c) Wash your hands.

Virtually all cases of lead poisoning comes from direct ingestion of lead, due to not washing hands before transferring something to your mouth. There was a case a few years ago about a man who worked in a assembly plant and since the plant dealt with lead everyone had routine blood work to test lead levels in their body - out of all the workers this man was the only one to have problems with lead in his body. They eventually traced the cause to the guy taking smoking breaks without washing his hands first, so the lead dust would transfer from his hands to his cigarette to his mouth.


Now that being said, you should not be trying to salvage lead from batteries, because you are working with several unknowns.

With batteries, you are leaking not just with lead, but with sulfuric acid and lead sulfide and sulfur. The alloys are not solid but in sponge form, so while you may have may look like a solid piece of lead in your hands, but it may actually have pockets of sulfuric acid and lead sulfide, and we all know what happens if a liquid and melted metal meets.

The sulfur and sulfuric acid, when heated can also produce very corrosive fumes that act on the metal casting equipment and our bodies.

Your best bet is to take a battery to a recycling center that actually has the equipment to safely reclaim the lead, and see if you can make a trade your old battery for already reclaimed lead.

I'm a re-loader and have been casting bullets for about 25 years. I have never, nor will I ever, attempt to use battery lead. There is, however a excellent source for lead alloy available to anyone who lives in a town with a tire shop. Just go on down and ask them if they would like to part with any of their old wheel weights. These are the little alloy weights they use to balance tires with. Not only do these make great bullets, but the bullets made with this alloy are also "frangible" loads, which are bullets that break up on impact, thus fewer ricochets. They are greasy when you get them, so soak them in "Super Clean" by castrol (available at Autozone, etc,)and rinse. Otherwise they make a powerful stink while melting. Good luck and above all be safe. David