Melting lead for weights

Bill_C · Oct 6, 2007

I've got several useless car batteries lying around, I'm thinking about cutting them open and melting the lead down to make wheel weights...Anybody here done this? I had in mind making an outdoor fire pit and using charcoal, and melting the lead in a ceramic pot. Using appropriate safety gear of course.

mobilus · Oct 6, 2007

Don't do it! I've tried it and the amount of lead you'll end up with is negligible at best. I keep the little pattie of lead as a reminder not to do that again!!!!

The acid gets everywhere despite your best efforts and the combination of sulfuric acid and lead vapors can make you very sick (or dead). Better source of lead is wheel weights. You can get them at tire stores.

Best of luck.
Mark

Egon · Oct 6, 2007

If you want lead go to a local shooting range and start digging. That is if no one is shooting.

Bill_C · Oct 6, 2007

mobilus said:
Don't do it! I've tried it and the amount of lead you'll end up with is negligible at best. I keep the little pattie of lead as a reminder not to do that again!!!!

The acid gets everywhere despite your best efforts and the combination of sulfuric acid and lead vapors can make you very sick (or dead). Better source of lead is wheel weights. You can get them at tire stores.

Best of luck.
Mark

Thanks for the response...but I figure I've got over 150 lbs of batteries, and most of that weight is lead....sure wouldn't call that negligible! And it'd be awfully tough to come up with 150 lbs of wheel weights from tire stores...or the gun range...

I was going to rinse the batteries out as I cut them, then I could passivate the lead with baking soda before melting.

However, I've worked in a copper electrorefining plant, which used large football-field size vats of acid to refine copper, so I'm not inexperienced when it comes to the hazards of hot acid.

Egon · Oct 6, 2007

Hey, you know more about it than most of us. Go for it!!

bx23barry · Oct 7, 2007

We had a guy that picked up batteries and over 15 years he aged about 40 years and was walking on crutches. I wouldn't mess with the stuff. Of course your experience may vary.

Rara Avis · Oct 7, 2007

Bill what are you doing with the acid??...It is a HAZMAT material...which means you must control it from entering the environment...

Skyco · Oct 7, 2007

And so is I would imagine, the rinse water.....

sandman2234 · Oct 7, 2007

One of my neighbors dug a hole and was burying batteries along with the rest of the stuff he wanted to get rid of. I offered to take them away and bring him the core charge just to keep them out of the ground. Wouldn't budge on it, so they probably got buried, which is a shame.
Control of hazmat chemicals is up to the people who handle it, and batteries are one of them. Lead is also another one along with the fumes being lifted into the air as it is heated. I worked around molten lead, sulfuric acid, nitrate acid, hydracloric acid, molten zinc for 15 years and one of the things I did learn was to respect it. The property that the plant was on finally sold after being vacant for 15 years due to the contaminants in the soil and the last owner took a beating on the price. Those contaminants were the same as the batteries your talking about, so consider the effects of saving pennies at what cost?
David from jax