Ship ballast?

[SamT1]

So I found this ballast block at my dads. I remember when I was a kid he melted that corner off for weight in pinewood derby cars. Anyone have any idea what the alloy could be? Feels hard. Google doesn’t say anything, but the company comes up a marine related.

 

[pic1083]

could it be a zinc alloy? sacrificial anode

 

[FROGO207]

Can you scratch it with your thumbnail? If so it is probably pure lead. If not it is probably a zinc ingot. They used zinc as anti corrosion protection. It was bolted through the hull or onto the outboard below the waterline and connected to the bonding electrode. Yours looks like a zinc. Most ballasts were long and trapezoidal in shape so they could be stacked low in the boat. What temp it melts at is the real give away.

 

[Varminterror]

My mind jumped to cathodic protection as soon as I read the title, but we don’t have a lot of seaborne ships here in Flatlandia, and my time in Seattle was focused on the inside of subs, not the outside.

 

[mrmeval]

File a small amount off the bar, put in plastic cup, pour vinegar over it. If it fizzes it may be zinc or zinc alloy of some sort. Aluminum will not fizz. This produces hydrogen gas so small amounts and good ventilation are a must. Magnesium and perhaps other metals may fizz but I would not expect those to be a chunk of metal in a boat.

 

[H&R Glock]

any chance it's Wood's Metal? (bismuth) If it melts in boiling water-- voila'

 

[tightgroup tiger]

It's bearing lead, like babbit. I found a reference to it in an advertisement for pouring your own bearings. It will be like babbit and may contain Arsenic so if you melt it do it outside. If you see your pot starting to turn orange inside, that's the Arsenic coming out of the alloy.
Arsenic makes lead really hard so it won't crush under weight, like for bearings for railroad cars. Railroad lead is not safe to melt because the high amount of Arsenic becomes airborne and can make you really sick or kill you if you breath the fumes.
I doubt this is railroad lead but just a babbit lead for small bearings like Steam and Natural gas engines, bandsaws, things made before the ball bearing age.
The add for Tripple-ite bearing lead didn't say what the Arsenic content is so I can't help you there.
I found the article in Google books from a book called "The Lumber Worker" but it is not public domain so I couldn't download or open the book. I only see snipets from it.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I'm trying to link to this, we'll see.
https://books.google.com/books?id=h...ved=0ahUKEwjTidaq8O_eAhXBmOAKHVbZClkQ6AEIMTAC
According to one of these snipets Triple-ite came in 4 grades from simple Babbit (copper, Antimony, and tin) to heavy duty bearings with Arsenic added to 1%.
I have no idea which kind you have.

 

[SamT1]

Hmm this is getting interesting. It’s really hard. Like 20+. Im real familiar with casting lead and Zinc, I smelt zinc weights too and sell them. It’s definetly heavy enough to be a lead alloy. It acts like it’s as hard as a bar of Linotype.

Dad had a great uncle that was a wealthy man. He had lots of fishing and hunting stuff as well “home brew” of sorts. No ocean boats as far as I know so the ballast doesn’t make sense. Dad says it came from his estate.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

If he had farm machinery or old engines with open babbit bearings than that's probably what type of Triple-ite yours is. When I was younger I had hit and miss engines, steam and other antique equipment. I had some old babbit ingots for pouring my own bearings.
I have no idea if the 4 types of Triple-ite ever had Arsenic added as a hardener, most babbit metals don't have it. They rely on Antimony for hardness.
Railroad lead in the only type that I have read about with Arsenic. Don't know if they still use it today either.
Those articles are copyrighted to hell and back and are not shown on the internet.
I've used babbit hammer heads a time or two to harden my bullet alloy. A little goes a long ways.

 

[mdi]

Ship ballast lead can be any lead/lead alloy. I believe many boat builders buy preformed ballast and the maker often uses scrap lead. It has no need to be anything but heavy (My sailboat keel weighed several thousand lbs, IIRC...). Corrosion, electrolysis protection is always zinc anodes, attached to various metal parts of the boat (rudder, underwater shafts/fittings, engine parts).

Being in ingot form, I don't think the lead in the pic is boat ballast...

 

[CapnMac]

Loose ship ballast has been long out of favor. The last used, in the mid 20s, was "pig iron" ingots (when it was not just heavy shingle & cobbles).
Open babbit bearings have a long maritime history. And stockpiling material for repairs is an equally historic activity. And maritime supply houses (chandlers) having piles of materials is also pretty common too. And, thos piles being surplussed or remaindered afterwards is also pretty common.

 

[Varminterror]

Maybe as an impossibly silly, yet plausible assumption - considering the name, “triple-ite,” and the vintage when tongue and cheek product names like that were en vogue, I may expect it has 3 components as its name suggests. You (the op) have already stated it’s heavy, but hard - so there’s an expectation it’s alloyed. I’d be asking myself - is the small amount you have there worth enough to find out WHAT alloy composition, before I even considered whether it is then further worth it to process it for reloading lead. Vs letting a commercial lead recycler worry about the fuss...

 

[edwardware]

If you really want to know, wander over to Alloys section at CastBoolits and ask.

Bet you my last pound of linotype someone over there will recognize that ingot, and it's a fair chance they can tell you which phase of the moon it was cast under.

 

[jmorris]

I have a fairly simple method I use. I have a particular bullet mold that will drop bullets up to 240 grains with pure lead or as light as 210 grains using sliver solder.

Wheel weights will drop at 232 grains. If I want them to drop 230 like “certified” lead, I just mix in a little Linotype, until they do.

 

[Dwb1957]

There is a large shipyard in Pascagoula Ms named ingalls shipyard maybe that's where it come from.

 

[mstreddy]

There is a large shipyard in Pascagoula Ms named ingalls shipyard maybe that's where it come from.

I was about to type -- Ingalls is a shipyard/ship builder. Didn't know where, but I was familiar with the name.
The suggestion to check out cast boolits' site is good. In the Alloy section there is a gent that may be able to test a sample for you and give you the exact breakdown of the alloy.
BNE is the user name, here is a link where he provided results on various wheel weights.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?229666-Stick-On-WW-XrF-Data

 

[rfwobbly]

I remember when I was a kid he melted that corner off for weight in pinewood derby cars.

Your dad had the right idea, but worked way too hard. As all professional pine wood derby race car builders know, it's much easier to simply drill a 3/8 hole and push in 38 Special DEWC !!

 

[300Whspr]

My first thought was that the ingot you have is bearing babbit... but that hole in the center of the ingot makes me wonder if it is a zinc anode.

 

[thomas15]

If it's a alloy it will be difficult to determine the exact makeup but if you determine the density you can make a good guess

The formula is p=m/V where p=density, m=mass and V=volume

If you really want to know It would probably make sense to cut off a small piece that you can put into a graduated cylinder to measure volume by noting the amount of water it displaces.

 

[Blue68f100]

Have you contacted Ingalls ? I believe their still in business by my Google skills. I would bet there is someone at the company that knows what it's made of.

Do you have a way to measure the harness? If so that will give you a clue.