new to casting making a start

Hey guys iv wanted to start casting for a couple years now well iv been collecting junk to get started iv got a cast iron pan i need a pot too...i got a electric stove eye for a heat soarce got a lattle and i started asking around for wheel weights iv got a couple tire shops that said they would save me some and a guy at work even brought me some lead i got about 2.2 pounds worth!! so iv got a good start now its time to start asking question over the next several weeks il probly ask alot of them lol but here is my first....how much lead is inside a car battery is it worth my time to cut them open??? thanks guys and il keep you caught up on the lead hunt!

ok another question if buying clean lead already in ingots how much would you pay a pound?

i haven't done it yet but I have been told by several people to stay the heck away from battery lead. They say that it is very poisonous to work with BE VERY CAREFUL

+1 stay away from battery lead

price? gosh i dont know you can get on Ebay seems it runs about $2 a pound. but im cheep I am looking for free LOL depends on what you buy really i just bought a 25 lb spool of lead wire from richard corbin for $75 so what was that about #3 a pound?

Kevin, back away from the car batteries. DO NOT USE!!! You can use the top post that the battery cable clips too. But they are way way way soft. They are pure lead. YOu want a much harder alloy so you can mix it.

Right now, if you can buy lead at around 1.00 a pound go for it. I do not like to buy wheel weights by the pound as by the time you get rid of the metal clips and all the greese, your not really getting the pounds your paying for. I can hook you up with some lead. I have helped others get started in casting. I have some lead ingots here already made up. When your able to get by this way, you can take them home. If it stops snowing and the weather is warmer, I will be smelting more so you can hang out while I smelt and I will show you how I do it and let you have some hands on.... Good thing living close to someone that casts...

But like the others have said, Say No to Car Batteries....

ok thanks guys i will stay away from the batterys i may take you up on that DW just to get a start ok next question is about hardness do i need to by one of the brinell hardness testers or is there a "homemade" way of testing hardness?? also what is the best flux to use when smelting down wheel weights?? and one more question after i melt down the wheel weights and flux it and pour it in ingots do i need to flux it again when i melt it down (the ingots) to cast for example say DW gives me a clean ingot do i need to glux it be for pouring it in my bullet mold???

I cant answer the fluxing question. But you can test hardness with a ball bearing and a piece of known lead preferably pure lead squeeze the two togather with the bearing in the middle and measure the depth of the impression. Go to Corbin Mfg web site David Corbin has a pretty good description of the process. I am still chewing on getting the Lee hardness tester one would be handy but gosh they are high for what ya get.

you'll prolly need to flux again when you melt down the ingots.

Don't use batteries! As mentioned you can use the post or your can use the battery cable clamp end(if it is lead).

http://www.corbins.com/lead.htm#hard
here is a link to the hardness testing i was telling you about

Parafin wax makes a good flux. What I use is a small uncented tea candle. I drop it into the lead and after the flames goes out, I stir it good and then scoop out the dross...

Then I pour them into ingots. Yes, when I melt down my ingots in the production pot, one last flux for good measure. This time just a pea size of tea candle is used...

Other fluxing agents I have read others using...

Sawdust
Borax

Some doesn't use anything as the oil and grease on the wheel weights also makes a good fluxing agent. I would still use a parafin wax personally...

Hardness tester will help. I have never bought one or used one as I cast straight wheel weights and water drop so the hardness of them are good to go.. I will eventually get a Lee tester myself...

I always used Gulf wax... like you use in canning jams and jellies.... get a pound for about 2.00 and lasts forever....

ok thanks guys i was thinking gulf wax would work but i wanted to be sure i bet you could use gulf wax in a lube formula to! gulf wax is pure parafin wax! thanks again..Im going today to ask around some tire shops for wheel weights wish me luck iv got three or four stops so hopefully il hit gold.....or lead hehehe lol

dartfreak75 wrote:ok thanks guys i was thinking gulf wax would work but i wanted to be sure i bet you could use gulf wax in a lube formula to! gulf wax is pure parafin wax! thanks again..Im going today to ask around some tire shops for wheel weights wish me luck iv got three or four stops so hopefully il hit gold.....or lead hehehe lol

Also check out any local junk yards that will let you walk through...some won't let you in the yard at all. They might let you pick wheel weights and battery cable ends right off the cars with a minimal charge. Most of the time they end up buried in the dirt anyway.

Walmart carries gulf wax, only problem, it is a seasonal thing with them. Only through canning season. Now if you go to a grociery store, you should be able to find some. Here at the grociery store it is 5.99 for a 2 lb box...

Any candle should work. I get the Tea Candles at the dollar tree, you get a bag of it for 1.00. During smelting, I use a whole Tea candle. During casting, just a pea size for my production pot...

Also, call plumbers. They usually have pure lead such as PIGS and things like that which is just scrap.

I will be willing to trade you wheel weights for pure lead. I am out of pure lead for my swaging.....

ok il look around and see what i can find if i find some pure il trade you!!!

Now don't forget, I am giving you free 14 ingots. So the trade will be for anything more over that

I get my paraffin from a store called Micheal's its a craft store and i get it from the candle making part. actually my ex-wife was into candle making and left a big A#@ slab of it. but that is where it came from. Its were I get my bees wax from too. But hold on to your wallet the bees wax is expensive but a huge slab of the paraffin wax was i think a little under 20.00

......

Daywalker wrote:Now don't forget, I am giving you free 14 ingots. So the trade will be for anything more over that

plumbers ahhhhh.... my mother is a dispatcher for three plumbing companies...... I will have to call them and see what they can give me..... hehehehe good call tommy thank you....

If you have to buy WW's from a recylce center or junk yard they will charge you the going rate on lead, try to talk them down a few cents per pound because WW's are not pure lead and that's what the market pays for. Tell them that after the steel clips are smelted out you will be losing about a 1/2lb. per 5 lbs. of WW's.
I think I gave .50 cents a pound for WW's when I bought them? But at the time, lead was going up.......it may be coming down now though? I haven't checked on it for awhile. Free is always better if you can get it, but lead WW's are a hot commodity these days are about to become obsolete.........so get all you can now!!

ok thanks guys i hit gold today i went to six shops out of the six 3 came through the first guy would not come off them the 2nd was a cheap skate and wanted to charge me the cost of pure lead i told him that the metal clips added weight and he said he would melt them down for me he wanted like 2 bucks a pound i told him to forget it!! the 3rd give me some it wasnt alot but i got probaby 10 pounds or so maybe more! then i stoped at another he keep them for hisself for race car weights the 5th and 6th really payed off i went to a little one man shop he give me an entire pensoil box for 25 bucks im guessing its close to 75 pounds!! then i stoped again and i got another box about the same weight for free!! i need to weight them but im guessing its close to 125-175 pounds for 25 bucks!! heres what i got..

with the ingots that DW is giving me i should have enough for a while!!!

Nice score man!
Be sure and do your homework before smelting them down so you don't get any zinc in your WW mix. Slow and not too hot is the key to sorting out zinc WW's.......hopefully you won't run into any, but you never can be sure till you smelt them down.

excellent job indeed. Another way to seperate zink, is to drop them on concrete. If I am not mistaking, and I forget where I read it, lead will make a dull thud and zink and steel will make a hi pitch one. I would take 2 and bounce them listen to the noise. Then pick one up and hit it with a torch. The lead will melt almost instantly where the other will take a bit longer. You could train your ear for it...

Or like Mo says and the way I do it, I get my pot up to temp, then cut it back to medium

Dump in all my wheel weights. Lead will melt really fast, any wheel weight that does not look like it is melting, get it out quick....