rtbcomp
Moderator
- Messages
- 18,574
- Location
- Sheffield UK
That's a nasty job - loads of slag from plastic & pitch and the lead salts can be deadly.
- Thread starter sardine
- Start date
That's a nasty job - loads of slag from plastic & pitch and the lead salts can be deadly.
Maker
Most folk just call me; Orange Joe
- Messages
- 10,596
- Location
- Keeler crater
I know the clue's in the name but is there actually much lead in batteries?I was thinking of melting down scrap batteries, lead on its own is double the price per kilo. £800 a tonne.
Yes I know its a stupid idea, I was bored !
KemppiFrog
Member
- Messages
- 4,275
- Location
- Aquitaine
Begs the question, what does one want with a mtr cube of lead? Big fishing weight? Playing with nuclear physics? If the latter, glad I am a long way distant.
Edit: Melting down batteries is a specialist job. Has to be done in a reducing atmosphere. I tried it the simple way, waste of heating gas
Edit: Melting down batteries is a specialist job. Has to be done in a reducing atmosphere. I tried it the simple way, waste of heating gas
Maker
Most folk just call me; Orange Joe
- Messages
- 10,596
- Location
- Keeler crater
Hang it from a tree, lure people under it and...
?
rtbcomp
Moderator
- Messages
- 18,574
- Location
- Sheffield UK
By the time they won't hold charge anymore the plates have turned to lead compounds (probably sulphate). You're really only left with the thick edges round the plates, the posts and the internal straps.
KemppiFrog
Member
- Messages
- 4,275
- Location
- Aquitaine
Hang it from a tree, lure people under it and...
Very thin hamburger
sardine
Member
- Messages
- 3,721
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
A pallet wood fired gas bottle battery melter oven furnace , tap off the lead into ingots, burn off the plastic. Ten ingots £800 quid ?
( do not tell the council environmental dept )
They are 40 p a kilo so there is plenty of lead in them somewhere.
( do not tell the council environmental dept )
They are 40 p a kilo so there is plenty of lead in them somewhere.
KemppiFrog
Member
- Messages
- 4,275
- Location
- Aquitaine
Like I said, not so, simple. You have to do it in a closed oven. I tried to melt the contents of a couple of 100 amp/hr batteries. Nice and heavy, expected a reasonable amount of pure lead. Got very little, for the reasons mentioned above. Lot of the lead converts to sulphates and they do not convert back to lead by simple heating. It really was a waste of gas.
rtbcomp
Moderator
- Messages
- 18,574
- Location
- Sheffield UK
colnerov
Member
- Messages
- 4,926
- Location
- Nr Gatwick UK
KemppiFrog
Member
- Messages
- 4,275
- Location
- Aquitaine
They do around here, but I don't know for how much. Selling price for lead is about 2 euro/kg & buy in 1 euro.Last time I tried to weigh a battery in they wouldn't take it.
roofman
Purveyor of fine English buckets and mops
- Messages
- 12,425
- Location
- North West with water on 3 sides
£ 1/11.34d...think i paid that for my 1st pair of boots as a kid
Wedg1e
They call me Mr. Bodge-angles
- Messages
- 7,745
- Location
- Teesside, England
I've heard that some of the radiation shields used in targetted-dose cancer treatment can use up to 9 tonnes of lead...
daleyd
Member
- Messages
- 10,362
- Location
- Wrexham, North Wales
I believe from my keen but amateur interest in nuclear stuff that lead is the heaviest stable element, ie everything with an atomic weight above this has a half life and will eventually decay to lead or something lighter.
Not sure how any of that will help you in melting batteries but I thought it was interesting anyway.
Not sure how any of that will help you in melting batteries but I thought it was interesting anyway.
- Messages
- 22,928
- Location
- Birmingham
I'm sure I've still got a few boxes of .38 SWC heads, are they worth anything?.
Maker
Most folk just call me; Orange Joe
- Messages
- 10,596
- Location
- Keeler crater
Osmium is the densest naturally occurring element at 22.59 tons per cubic metreI believe from my keen but amateur interest in nuclear stuff that lead is the heaviest stable element, ie everything with an atomic weight above this has a half life and will eventually decay to lead or something lighter.
Not sure how any of that will help you in melting batteries but I thought it was interesting anyway.
with 6 stable isotopes (there's quite a few heavier ones by density) but if you mean by atomic weight, Bismuth has one more proton and has a half life of 1.9*10^19, longer than the (Predicted) age of the universe. Thorium 232 (The isotope used in TIG tungstens) has an atomic weight of 90 and a half life of 1.405*10^10, also longer than the age of the universe but you are right in thinking lead is the heaviest element (By atomic weight) that is truly stable.
julianf
Member
- Messages
- 8,498
- Location
- devon, uk
I believe from my keen but amateur interest in nuclear stuff that lead is the heaviest stable element, ie everything with an atomic weight above this has a half life and will eventually decay to lead or something lighter.
Not sure how any of that will help you in melting batteries but I thought it was interesting anyway.
Your post interested me, so i looked some stuff up, and came across this -
You have to wonder as to definitions sometimes. At the absolute, it appears that Bismuth is unstable. But, then there's that "half life of more than 1 billion times the estimated age of the universe" comment!
