moooose102
Member
is it ok to use lead from batteries to melt down for bullets (lead-acid car type batteries)? or is tha acid going create problems?
batteries for bullets?
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Rottweiler
Member
N6, All sorts of bad things happen when you heat battery lead to near its melting point. You aren't the first to think of this, neither am I
par0thead151
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sell the batteries for scrap and use that $ to buy/bribe wheel weights from your local auto service centers. casting is dangerous enough without adding more risk variables to the equation.
Quoheleth
Member
holy explosive situation, batman! Do NOT - repeat DO NOT - try to use batteries for this purpose. I spent a lot of years in a car garage working with batteries. In the early 90's, the state of Texas changed its rules regarding how batteries could be disposed of. Our garage held a couple of "amnesty" days where we would accept old car, truck, and tractor batts. TRUST ME: battery acid burns skin; the smell is also caustic and burns the nasal passages. The fumes are volatine: car batteries can and do explode, spraying this stuff all over anything nearby.
Even if you got the battery open, you cannot wash the acid away - it has reacted with the lead and it has actually made a chemical reaction, producing a "crust" on the lead plates. Heating these plates will literally make "lead poisoning" the least of your concerns.
If you crack one of those so & so's open, you technically have created a chemical spill, and in certain legal domains, you are legally (not just ethically) liable for clean up. This involves your local, county and state water boards, fire departments (since they usually get the clean-up call), and perhaps EPA. If you think the BATF can be nasty, you have not seen anything like what happens after a chemical spill. Think I am joking? I can give you names and numbers of good ol' boys who thought they were taking the easy way out and "disposing" of their batteries themselves...
You want cheap lead, go to the local car garages - especially the small ones - and ask for their old, broken wheel weights. We kept a bin next to the tire changer and wheel balancer. We reused the good ones and chucked the broken ones. Chances are they have a box, too. Even offer them a little $$ for the stuff. They will probably be glad to get rid of it, and you'll be glad to get the weights.
Q
rcmodel
Member in memoriam
And modern "sealed lifetime" car batteries have a lot of nasty stuff in the plates besides pure lead.
Some of which will ruin not only your health, but your cast bullets as well.
Plus, all the white crap settled to the bottom of the old battery is lead oxide.
It is WAY more poisonous & dangerous them the lead itself.
Don't do it!
rcmodel
Some of which will ruin not only your health, but your cast bullets as well.
Plus, all the white crap settled to the bottom of the old battery is lead oxide.
It is WAY more poisonous & dangerous them the lead itself.
Don't do it!
rcmodel
snuffy
Member
Hmmm, I saw a program the other day where car batteries were being re-cycled. The process was big business. They crushed the batteries, the plastic pieces floated, the plates sank in a water bath. Then the lead was melted and re-claimed in big ingots. All the workers wore respirators! There was also a lot of ventilation present. Not something that can be doneSAFELY in a home environment.
The acid had to be neutralized and the resulting liquid disposed of.
The acid had to be neutralized and the resulting liquid disposed of.
ReloaderFred
Member
As mentioned, it won't work. Besides all the safety reasons, you'll never get all the acid out of the lead, and you wouldn't want that going down your barrel.
Hope this helps.
Fred
Hope this helps.
Fred
well folks lets not get carried away here, THey do recycle batteries for a reason, And they do harvest the lead and zinc from them then there is a 4 day process to render the metals safe again ect ect ect, so it is a do-able event but why go through the trouble and risk?
There had to be just one in the crowd sorry
There had to be just one in the crowd sorry
moooose102
Member
thanks guys. i was concerned about using it, thats why i asked. i will not try to melt them down! now, where can i take them for cash!?
lives4huntin
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- Aug 25, 2007
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Possibly a secret I shouln't share. I work construction. In the past seven years, our hospital has remodeled their X-ray, radioligy, and other areas. Areas that have walls lined with lead. When the walls come down, the lead is throwns away. I have about three 3'x8' sheets laying around waiting to be put to use. Just another source you wouldn't think of. Right place, right time.
moooose102
Member
FULL OF RADIATION!?!? can you say CANCER!?! man i wouldn't want that stuff laying around my kids, no way, no how. maybe i am just paranoid, but i wouldnt take the chance with 2 little kids running around.
the lead from a x-ray room for medical purposes will not be any worse off than lead that has been exposed to regular sunlight. If the building was demolished all the bad stuff was already removed. I say use it or if you want to take an extra precaution take a chunk to the local Fire department and have them check it with the Haz Mat equipment. I would be willing to bet it is safe.
Seafarer12
Member
Call the scrap yard. Last time I took some in I got 12 bucks for 2 batteries.
evan price
Member
I get $8 each for scrap car batteries at the local Exide dealer.
The lead in sealed maintenance car battereis carries lots of calcium, arsenic, and other nasties. Plus the lead paste that is used to make the plates is nasty. Honestly, if you could just take the lead terminals, you'd be better.
The lead in sealed maintenance car battereis carries lots of calcium, arsenic, and other nasties. Plus the lead paste that is used to make the plates is nasty. Honestly, if you could just take the lead terminals, you'd be better.
Medical x-rays are way to low in energy to activate the shielding.
Either VERY high energy x-rays or particle radiation (heavy ions, protons, electrons, neutrons, etc.) are required to activate materials.
The problem with the 'low maintenance' batteries is separating the lead from the other elements added to the alloy for the battery plates.
ReloaderFred
Member
I've checked the lead containers used to transport radioactive materials to a hospital with a geiger counter and there was no radiation present. In fact, we got a higher reading from one of the guy's luminescent watch than we did the pure lead container.
Hope this helps.
Fred
Hope this helps.
Fred
Wetawd
Member
I have no idea if it's bad or not but if u load down u might have a really good long distance taser.
Cosmoline
Member
LOL If the radiation was hot enough to turn the lead radioactive, it would have turned the patients into crispy critters.
I have been quiet a scrounger in my youth. I became friends with a lab tech in a hospital who gave me about 50 lbs. of lead vials used to store radio active dyes. And no, the lead doesn't store radioactivity. It is too soft, but does quiet well when mixed with wheel weights.
GP100man
Member
the car batterys have cadium in them =bad fumes ,the kind that puts you to sleep permanently
lead from x=ray rooms is fine ,the lead redirects the rays thats why they use it
GP100man
lead from x=ray rooms is fine ,the lead redirects the rays thats why they use it
GP100man
No, the lead simply absorbs the x-rays.
X-rays are photons, not particles.
The x-rays are made by impacting electrons onto a metal (usually tungsten) at thousands of electron volts of energy.
As the electrons halt they give off x-rays.
Any dense material will attenuate x-rays, with lead being dense and easily available.
Car battery lead can be used, but the hazards are not worth it for the homeowner. You can easily neutralize all the acid from a battery with sodium bicarbonate,which is baking soda. It doesn't overshoot your pH the other direction if you use too much. It is what we used for acid spills while I was on a factory Emergency Response Team (ERT). For a battery, you'll need quite a bit.
The danger is in draining the battery's fluids to another container and neutralizing the interior to make it safe before you open it up. You would drain the battery and fill it with baking soda solution to neutralize the acid in each cell as well as neutralizing what came out of the battery. You'd have to wash out the interior a couple times, and those other reactant crummies will be washing out with your draining of the fluid.
You'd then need to open up the battery by cutting the plastic around the top and lift the lead cells out. I'd immediately dunk them one more time into a neutralizing bath. Once the fumes clear, I'd figure out how to cut the lead free from it's encasement and make manageable chunks for smelting. And there will be a lot of scale on the lead plates. This buildup is It'd probably need some wire brushing to remove as much of that nasty scale as possible before smelting.
Then smelt it for a good long time outside. Once you avoid all the toxic fumes and skim all the crud, you should have plenty of good bullet material. But for all that work it just doesn't seem worth it for the homeowner. But that's how a homeowner could make it happen. It would not be fun in my book. But it is not out of reach with materials you can buy yourself like acid apron, goggles, gloves, respirator, and a face shield for splash protection. Not too mention a container large enough for all the fluid to do the work on the battery. Once the acid is neutralized, you could dump it down the drain since it is a water based solution.
Possible, just not very practical.
The danger is in draining the battery's fluids to another container and neutralizing the interior to make it safe before you open it up. You would drain the battery and fill it with baking soda solution to neutralize the acid in each cell as well as neutralizing what came out of the battery. You'd have to wash out the interior a couple times, and those other reactant crummies will be washing out with your draining of the fluid.
You'd then need to open up the battery by cutting the plastic around the top and lift the lead cells out. I'd immediately dunk them one more time into a neutralizing bath. Once the fumes clear, I'd figure out how to cut the lead free from it's encasement and make manageable chunks for smelting. And there will be a lot of scale on the lead plates. This buildup is It'd probably need some wire brushing to remove as much of that nasty scale as possible before smelting.
Then smelt it for a good long time outside. Once you avoid all the toxic fumes and skim all the crud, you should have plenty of good bullet material. But for all that work it just doesn't seem worth it for the homeowner. But that's how a homeowner could make it happen. It would not be fun in my book. But it is not out of reach with materials you can buy yourself like acid apron, goggles, gloves, respirator, and a face shield for splash protection. Not too mention a container large enough for all the fluid to do the work on the battery. Once the acid is neutralized, you could dump it down the drain since it is a water based solution.
Possible, just not very practical.
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