New to casting?

In the old days when automotive batteries were of the type that had to have water added periodically, there was no problem other than dealing with the acid. The allow form battery plates only became a problem when they went to "no maintenance" batteries. The lead alloy used for those plates contained Calcium (I believe, but not sure now...too many years), that would result in the lead alloy when melted, to expand too much and when the alloy "froze" in the mold, would contract and shrink away from the mold walls resulting in misshapen bullets. I do not know if the posts of the new maintenance free batteries also contain that contaminant, but internally the plates attach to the posts and may be cast as a unit. It is not worth the risk of contaminating your melt to find out. Once contaminated, diluting with enough good alloy may not be successful...ask me how I know.
 
the question is, is it worth it? how many bullets do you think you'll get from a couple battery posts. unless you have a source for hundreds of posts, I wouldn't take the risk. whereabouts do you live? have you tried all the local mom&pop tire shops for wheel-weights? I find more lead than i'll ever use from crappy tire shops and it costs next to nothing. if by some miracle you live in Georgia, I wouldn't mind hooking you up.

if you do have a source for an abundance of battery posts, I would say go for. wear eyes, gloves etc. be careful not to go too deep or yank it out of the battery, maybe a small coarse saw would work best. but I don't see how it would be a major safety concern since the posts above the battery isn't going to be in the acid anyhow.
 
This is a common question from new casters as far as lead from batteries. I'm not sure if terminals or posts apply. After reading a number of posts related to batteries, what I hear is don't risk it. The reason is because when you melt the battery lead down it releases toxic fume that is harmful. It doesn't sound like you would get enough lead either to risk the chances of being exposed to the fumes. Try and stick with the salvage yards and tire shops for scrap lead.
 
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Go to the Cast Boolits site. Under Buying & Selling. There are a fellow or two always selling sheet lead or Range scrap if you prefer. Automotive battery's are not worth monkeying with. Besides being dangerous to handle their very pollutant.
 
Thanks everyone for your information on this.
I've checked tire shops in 4 county's around here, and have 2 of them saying they would save me some.
Been waiting for 4 months
and I don't think its going to happen.
 
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