spongy lead

Hi to all, I cant figure out how the spongy lead (lead oxide) found in batteries can be recycled,say for fishing weights or something. I am aware how dangerous smelting lead is and after heating this to 1800 with crushed charcoal on top for a carbon source it just became kinda semi-fluid and would not be good for anything.I just wanted to see if I could return it to metallic lead.I pulled a cell from 36 volt to experiment with and got 20 lbs reuable lead but about 80 lbs of the lead oxide.Unless the oxide could be sold or reclaimed I dont see much use for the other 17 cells.My yard is giving .15 lb(less than car batteries) for these but I guess thats better than trying clean up and get rid of all the contaminated garbage.

Oh my i can see where this is going to go already.

to the scrap yard, if I cant reduce the lead oxide to metallic lead

Theres other metal in car batterys, like Cadinum.

Melting down car batterys is a bad idea, The Lead plates are covered in oxide & you can't reduce that back to Lead at home.
As you melt down Lead, it forms a oxide with the air pretty quickly & you end up just making a bunch of molten lead, covered with a thick layer of oxide, which gets thicker every second.
The only way to reclaim that oxide, is adding it back to your car batterys before you sell them.....

I'm guessing, use Zinc from car wheel weights, if safer on the enviroment than Lead, or Cadinium.
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I made some sinker weights once. I drilled a bunch of holes in a peice of wood, inline with the grain of the wood, put a thick wire across the holes & dropped a fencing staple into each hole so it sat on the wire.
Then I poured the molten Lead (from roof flashings) into the holes, waited till they got cold, then split the timber down thru the grain & the weights fell out.

I did use lead, which gave me a good idea on how much oxide it makes & also not to use lead again.....
You might as well use actual wheel weights, with the metal tag still in it.

go to this thread http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/day-life-scrapper/12537-lead.html#post103662 and read post #7

Starbits

I have melted down a couple hundred pounds of wheel weights and I dont konw what oxide youre talking about but the oxide from the battery is what is found on the plates in a grid type pattern,this framework remelts well.All I know about the oxide is what I have been able to find on the on web.Unless I am mistaken I have read that at just under 1700 degrees and the addition of carbon will cause reduction back to elemental lead.I am not trying to argue my case or anything I just find this really interesting.

starbits posted while I was typing,the forklift battery is an older lead acid not a maintance free

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pwa

I have melted down a couple hundred pounds of wheel weights and I dont konw what oxide youre talking about but the oxide from the battery is what is found on the plates in a grid type pattern,this framework remelts well.All I know about the oxide is what I have been able to find on the on web.Unless I am mistaken I have read that at just under 1700 degrees and the addition of carbon will cause reduction back to elemental lead.I am not trying to argue my case or anything I just find this really interesting.

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But in the meantime your stuck with that hazardous material,,, :k

yeah, it would be like 80% waste if I cant use the oxide

the more I read I can see how really involved the process of getting the lead back of a battery is. Looks like it off to the the yard with batteries.Thanks for all the input

i have found a buyer in my state that pays $8 each for car batteries, you might look for a core/flat rate buyer over taking them to a yard thats going to turn around and resell them, cut out the middle man and sell them directly to a battery core buyer

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BRASSCATCHER

Oh my i can see where this is going to go already.

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Lol. All I'm gonna say is I'm not saying a word this time. ;)

sounds like the silence of experience

wile this is a older thread , I can say if your used to any to all the tedious techniques needed for and dismantling projects getting lead out of a Bat can be done and its a fun challenge .
But I do kinda feel like its wrong only cause good pay can be had from Bats. and then its less of a burden as trash at landfills . still I do a few up and except the oxide lead as a loss.