Car batteries good bad n ugly

[Waters]

So I'm debating on cutting into a car battery for lead. I was wondering if the top post were pure? Seeing how they take a lot of abuse, I could see them not being pure.Is a good idea or bad idea? If it'll work what are the ugly do and don'ts?

 

[michiganmuzzy]

Dont Do It. The battery is worth almost as much in 'core charge' as it is in actual lead value. Plus the dangers from fumes and acid are no joke.

 

[Waters]

Any idea about the post being pure

 

[Okie Hog]

Don't attempt to recover lead from car batteries.

Call local roofers: They often have old lead roof stacks. Home Depot sells new lead roof stacks.

 

[Waters]

I know about house breather stacks .you're right,good call okie.I just have a couple old car batteries lying around.as i was standing there looking at them .I got to wondering the risk to reward. Could I just simply cut off the post for extra lead before I recycled the battery .also if someone else has an idea about cutting a battery open this post could be a deal breaker.

 

[Caniborrowsomeammo]

Don't mess with car batteries, It's not worth the risk. Top posts "should" be pure lead, but with cost-cutting nowadays you can't be sure.
See here about recovering lead for bullet making:
Casting bullets with salvaged lead from batteries
There is a guy selling lead our ML sister site.
Or order from a reputable supplier that has certified lead. Roto has 99.9% -26 lbs for $59 free shipping right now.
I know we all want to save a few bones, but it's probably not worth it.
I have hundreds of lbs of linotype when my buddy closed down his printing business and ~50 lbs of pure that I bought before prices climbed "just in case".

 

[michiganmuzzy]

Take them into the auto parts store, get the core money, put it in your pocket and I will send you a few pounds of lead so you dont have to mess with those things

 

[Matthew323]

Any lead inside of a automotive battery is going to be contaminated with sulphuric acid. Even if there was a safe way for a homeowner to remove the lead plates from a battery without having to deal with the sulphuric acid itself (there's not), the lead would still be contaminated with high concentrations of sulphuric acid, thus requiring industrial methodologies to safely melt the lead, and remove the acid.

Even if I had all of the necessary industrial equipment to safely render automotive battery lead plates safe for melting; I personally would never trust such lead to be 100% free from the sulphuric acid.

 

[robwheeler]

Batteries are not pure lead. They use tin and antimony for hardness and structure.

rob

 

[Shorty]

Any left over sulpfuric acid will create havoc with your bore...

 

[Shorty]

SULPHURIC

 

[ourway77]

I tried a battery once what a mess took a very long time for the lead to melt Every time I go to the range I scrape about 25 pounds of bullets I have an abundance of lead now

 

[Matthew323]

Something that a lot of muzzleloading shooters don't know is that if you shoot mainly patched balls, as I have for most of my life, then lead hardness is not as critical as it is when shooting lead conicals.

Depending upon the depth of the grooves, simply moving to a slightly smaller ball diameter may be the only change necessary to substantially increase the hardness of the lead used in casting the balls. This is true due to the ability of a thick patch to compress far more than most people believe is possible.

One needs to be utilizing patches that measure, compressed under the jaws of a micrometer/vernier caliper, at least 0.020" thick, or thicker, for the above statement to be applicable.

Increased lead hardness, over a pure lead ball, usually results in a ball that drops from the mold measuring slightly larger in diameter than one cast from pure lead.

If one desires to cast balls, for example, from pure wheel weight metal, or linotype metal, both of which measure quite hard on the Brinnel scale, then it may be necessary to reduce the diameter of the cast balls by as much as 0.015" in order to maintain the same accuracy as with a pure lead ball.

All barrels are unique, and what works for one barrel, may require a completely different ball diameter, and or patch thickness, in order to obtain the same standards of accuracy. This is true, even with barrels from the same manufacturer that to all appearances measure out as identical.

 

[old man jim]

Any left over sulpfuric acid will create havoc with your bore...

Shorty
Supporter
Suppo


Yes, any SULPHURIC acid that makes it through the cleaning, melting at 700 degrees, fluxxing and casting process would be strong enough to completely destroy your barrel with the first shot.

 

[Jon Foster]

Trying to use lead from batteries is a major no-no. It is extremely toxic and to do a proper recovery job you'll need some serious equipment. Just don't do it. A quick Google search will turn up several good articles with plenty of details why it's a bad idea. I do cut off the terminals on post batteries though. But I also mix them in with scrap lead when we do our melting to make ingots. That lead gets tested for hardness and eventually becomes bullets. I try to use pure lead for our round balls and conical balls/bullets.

Jon.

 

[idahoron]

I have around 50 pounds of battery lead.
I bought a 50 pound box of "pure" lead from eBay. I poured up some Lee 405 gr hollow base bullets for my 45. I barely got them through my sizer. I shot some, and found one.
I couldn't get any kind of accuracy with them. Later I asked the seller where it came from. They were melted batteries. He threw the whole battery, several in fact into a giant cast iron pot and melted several at once.
I got a hardness tester for buying lead and developing loads. The battery lead is 18bhn. It is pretty hard, even for centerfire rifles.
I still have it, but I don't plan to use it.
You can see the bullet went through obturation.

 

[phalanx]

Ron,

Could you continue to add pure lead when you melt it to reduce the hardness and at least get some use out of the lead? Or is it too "toxic" when melting to even try and mess with it anymore?
Thanks

John

 

[idahoron]

I have made mistakes with lead. It is impossible to soften hard lead. It takes way too much pure to do that.
Now I pretty good at using a little hard lead to harden soft lead. But in my opinion you can't soften hard. You just ruin a lot of good soft lead.
I also believe that once it is hot enough to melt the lead the acid is gone. If it wasn't it would grow that white fuzz on the outside like batteries get.

 

[phalanx]

Thank you Ron. That 50lbs of hard sounds like a couple of lifetime supplies!

 

[idahoron]

Thank you Ron. That 50lbs of hard sounds like a couple of lifetime supplies!

I will end up making sturgeon fishing weights with it.. I have about 800 pounds of hard wheel weight also.