I thought I had lead. But....

[DrB]

Anyone ever figure out what the alloy was?

[OeldeWolf]

I apparently do not know many people rich enough to own pools. Having a tough time getting a few ounces of HCl to test with. Been doing not o hot with the fibro, not been getting much else due to 'pain and discomfort' from that. I do not really want to buy 3 gallons of muriatic acid just to test the bars i have. I sure miss running the lab at the glass plant.

With the comments on Bi, and knowing the bid system, could well be Zn. But, knowing the screwy things this state often does, could be Bi or almost anything. lol

[nanuk]

HCL.... can't you just dip a Q-tip in your car battery and put a drop of that on?

it should be concentrated enough

[OeldeWolf]

Battery acid is H2SO4, sulfuric acid. THAT I have plenty of access to, working in an automotive shop!

[Linstrum]

H2SO4 battery acid will work to make zinc fizz just fine. Zinc is "amphoteric", which simply put for our purposes is a property where it will react with both acid and alkali. Being amphoteric is a somewhat unusual property since most metals do not react with alkali. If the mystery metal fizzes with a strong acid like hydrochloric or battery acid and goes into solution with lye, then it is a pretty good bet it is zinc. Chances are it is an alloy, though, so doing chemical tests this simple won't tell the whole story, but if it fizzes in contact with a STRONG acid along with getting etched by a strong lye solution, then it at least has zinc in it. Aluminum is also amphoteric and will be etched by both acid and alkali, but it also fizzes with both acid and alkali, which zinc does not. Unfortunately, some aluminum alloys also contain zinc, which will mask the results. To further complicate things, tin is also amphoteric, and its presence will mask test results, too. Like I mentioned earlier, there isn't a good definitive test that can be done using supermarket chemicals, but some good educated guesses can be made. Bismuth will also react with HOT H2SO4 battery acid to make bismuth sulfate plus sulfur dioxide gas, which zinc and aluminum won't do. Sulfur dioxide is what gives burning match heads their highly irritating smell and causes a very unpleasant burning sensation when inhaled. Sulfur dioxide will trigger asthma attacks in very tiny amounts, even in people who normally don't have asthma, so I really can't recommend doing a sniff test unless you know exactly what you are doing.

rl 1105

[OeldeWolf]

I do not know how i missed your reply, Linstrum, but I did.

I bought 2 gals of Muriatic Acid, and tested the suspect boxes. I got some fizzing on every one of the boxes. My boss bought a rental unit with a pool, so he will buy the excess off of me. For a slight discount, of course.

I also got some slight fizzing, on a couple of boxes marked alloy, which should have been bullets I bought at an estate sale. Looks like I will heat up the pot tomorrow, see how those boxes melt. And cool down. Fortunately the cooled result is distinctive.

I took one of my weeks of vacation now, to rest up and get stuff done around the house. Figured better to rest up now, than run till I drop and then rest, like I usually do. So the loading room/my work room is actually showing empty floor, and both the benchtop and top of my desk are now visible. So I had a place to test the ingots.

I am hoping that there will not be enough tin in normal range lead to fizz, as I can not see any reason they would. Just to rule out a possible false positive, anyone know?

[popper]

Sure it isn't sinter'd Cu/Sn bullets - the green ammo for LE?