[Clint C]

A few weeks ago I was at my local shooting range and a DNR officer came up and was talking to me. She told me they no longer had the funds to keep the range mowed and cleaned up, so I volunteered to take care of it for them.

Since I have taken over caring for the range I have picked up a lot of trash everything from computer monitors to truck batteries, even loaded rounds of ammo. There are some real scum bags out here and I would love to catch them. The worst part of it is that the batteries were in a small muddy creek that runs to a pond and lake.

My question is can people use the lead out of the shot up batteries to reload with? I am assuming that lead is inside of batteries.

Sorry I didn't know where else to post this.

[NuJudge]

The makers put Calcium in the Maintenance Free batteries, and if you melt that Lead you will probably generate miniscule quantities of 2 very poisonous gases. Miniscule quantities of either of those gasses is apparently enough to kill you quite dead. There is a discussion of this on the Cast Boolits board:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=40769&highlight=melting+battery+lead

[rcmodel]

No.

Modern maintenance-free batteries contain a calcium alloy of lead and a lot of very hazardous metals that are dangerous to melt down.

You also have a Haz-Mat disposal problem when you tear them apart to get the plates out. (Sulfuric Acid and Lead Oxide)

Some people do it, but it is dangerous.

You can haul them off to the recycler though.

rc

[Clint C]

Thank guys, these batteries are old ones, and are not maintenance free. they have been shot and have all the acid out of them already. The only reason I seen them is because I cut down a male mulberry tree and they were in the tall grass where the creek starts. You couldn't see them till the tree was out of the way. They had been there for a long time. Since they are the old ones does it make a difference? They are really old and are top post batteries.

Just to add these are the batteries you have to keep adding water to.

NuJudge, I will look at that post for answers, thank you.

Where would I take them to recycle, and how much will it cost me?

[bullseye308]

Lots of technical reasons, but the bottom line is DON'T DO IT!!!! It is bad. :(

[rcmodel]

Where would I take them to recycle, and how much will it cost me?Check with any auto parts store or Walmart or Sears Auto center.

They might take them for nothing, but I can't say for sure.

They do have some value to a recycler if you have enough of them.

rc

[Clint C]

Cool, thanks guys. After reading the link above, and your opinions I will not mess with them other than taking them to someone for recycling.

[FredT]

In all of my years I have never read where someone used battery lead and said that it was good stuff and they use it all of the time. I always read the opposite.

[Clint C]

Found a place to take them here in town, Thanks guys.

The guy (he is my friend) told me by law he has to take them. Its free!

He was really mad when he heard I found them in a creek.

[bullseye308]

Won't help you much, buy my local recycler pays 3.00 each battery. Might be something to look into in case you find any more.

[tlen]

Terminal posts [& adapters] might be OK but the rest is a waste of time.

[Chawbaccer]

You really have to learn to smelt the batteries if you want to get more than a little lead from them.

[Eric F]

Battery lead question
With out reading anything the answer is no

as in NO!

NO! dont even ask because this comes up so often the answer is still no.


Ok after reading the previous posts you can see why.

[ants]

Race car guys are always trying to recover battery lead to use as ballast.
It never works for them either.

[Clint C]

NO! dont even ask because this comes up so often the answer is still no.

Not here at THR.
I didn't know what to do with them and thought this may be a possibility. Now I know you can recycle them and make money, or just do a good deed, which is what I am doing here. I dug these out of a marsh/creek that some scum bag through in, and I cleaned them out trying to do the right thing.

I will repeat this incase someone skips all the previous post. By law a place that sells batteries has to take them back, even if you are not buying a battery from them. So there is no reason you have a bunch of batteries laying around.

[rcmodel]

Wish it was the same law for old tires!

I chaired a lake clean-up committee for 20 years, and we seldom saw a tire.

Then the government passed a $5.00 per tire disposal fee, the garbage man stopped picking them up, and the lake became littered with old tires in less then a year.

There are a lot of slobs out there!

rc

[ranger335v]

"Then the government passed a $5.00 per tire disposal fee, the garbage man stopped picking them up, and the lake became littered with old tires in less then a year."

Another example of the unexpected consequences of gov. "solutions."

Any average villiage idiot could have predicted the result. That does exclude the average elected official tho, doesn't it? But, an unexpected consequence of such bottom cover is that it does help most fish populations!

[748]

I have done it before and I can say it can be done but it is very nasty. I say its not worth it unless its post end of the world.
When opening the battery expect what ever clothes you have on to be ruined.
You can't just melt the lead out of the battery, because most of the lead is no longer meltalic. You have a bunch of Lead sulfate, Lead oxide and some metalic lead.
You convert the lead oxides and sulfates back to lead in the presence of Carbon, oxygen and lots and lots of heat. To do that you have to rig up a home made blast furnace with a shop vac, a weak electric leaf blower would work too.
What ever gasses that are produced are no less than deadly, so you will want to have a working gas mask for safty.

My sources of lead are tire weights, battery terminal clamps (use a lot where I work) and fired bullets.

"Race car guys are always trying to recover battery lead to use as ballast".
That is what I will say next time I am out tire weight collecting, tell them I need it for "ballast" for a race car or boat.