Old Sailboat Ballast - very hard

[LuvMy1911]

My buddy scrapped out a wrecked sailboat years ago... He brought me a few ingots and said to see if I could figure out if it was be good for casting.

I don't have a hardness testing kit yet. It seems to be quite hard.

Does anyone know roughly what alloy would be used in an old sailboat ballast weight?

Thanks!

[dbosman]

Depending on who/what company made the ballast - anything that melted at the time.

[hickfu]

First off, take some muratic acid and put a few drops on it. If it bubbles it has zinc in it. If you melt some down into small ingot form there are members here that will bhn test it for you (myself included)


Doc

[shadygrady]

if its zinc send to me for lead

[LuvMy1911]

First off, take some muratic acid and put a few drops on it. If it bubbles it has zinc in it. If you melt some down into small ingot form there are members here that will bhn test it for you (myself included)

Doc

I didn't know about that, I'll see if the acid causes bubbles

Zinc content in your lead is bad for what reasons? does it cause it to be too brittle to use as boolit material?

Thanks for the info!

[9.3X62AL]

Dittoes to the idea that boat-builders will find whatever will melt for ballast weight. My wife's uncle bought 2500# of cast-up 1" x 4" and 2" x 4" lead "studs" to lay in as ballast for one of the puff-buckets he now races around San Diego and Mexico. I got some of the trim pieces and sawdust (!) from this project as bullet metal. He dragged the stuff up from a vendor in Tijuana. Most of it tested out as WW metal hardness, some of it (the 2" x 4" ends and sawdust) had a lot of iron filing in it, like that found in beach sand. No issue for him, he dulled a buttload of chopsaw blades fitting it into the hull anyway. I just smelted the filings out and used the metal for pistol bullets. Smelting is like a boolit metal polygraph, in many ways.

[merlin101]

if its zinc send to me for lead

LOL!! You sure must burn thru a lot of zinc. Are you ever going to post some pic's of your cannon?

Sorry about the hi-jack

[merlin101]

I didn't know about that, I'll see if the acid causes bubbles

Zinc content in your lead is bad for what reasons? does it cause it to be too brittle to use as boolit material?

Thanks for the info!

Not to brittle just to hard. I've never tried it but I bet it would be hard on you and equipment to size and shoot cast zinc boolits.

[BadDaditood]

lead alloys can only tolerate a very small amount of zinc before they turn to an unusable oatmeal-like mush that won't cast and sticks to your ladle, pot, everything.

pure zinc casts fine, although very hard. the two don't play well with each other.

[badbob454]

lead alloys can only tolerate a very small amount of zinc before they turn to an unusable oatmeal-like mush that won't cast and sticks to your ladle, pot, everything.

pure zinc casts fine, although very hard. the two don't play well with each other.

yeah n what he said zinc turns oatmealy in consistency and wont fill out the boolits , they will look terrible

[9.3X62AL]

Zinc = evil. So few priests these days do exorcisms, too. Kinda like finding an 8-track tape deck repairman.

[LuvMy1911]

Thanks for the info, it really does help

[Hickory]

One other thing about zinc, it melts at a higher tempture then lead, that could easily ruin an aluminum mold.

[LuvMy1911]

Thanks for the info! I learn a lot from you guys!

[dragon813gt]

Don't forget that zinc is lighter than lead, by a heathy percentage. So even if you casted bullets out of pure zinc they would be at a drastically reduced weight. Which could make them unusable.

[fredj338]

I have had a zinc contaminated alloy, won't cast bullets for krap unless you get temps waaaay up & even then, fill out is poor. Bang the keel w/ a steel hammer, if it dents, it's soft enough to cast with. If it rings like a bell, it's likey zinc, pass.

[LuvMy1911]

As soon as my friend heals up from his knee operation, he'll slice off a little piece. A member here has very generously offered to test it for us.

[Ohio Rusty]

If you have lead with zinc in it and it won't can't boolits at all, ... use it for making lead head fishing jigs or casting sinkers. If it end up in the belly of a fish or on the bottom of a lake ..... At least you made something usable with it.

Ohio Rusty ><>

If I'm going to die I'd rather die on my feet, than on my knees. The 2nd Amendment is not about hunting ....... it's about our freedom and killing tyrants. Anyone not in favor of individuals possessing firearms and the right to keep and bear arms ... is a tyrant.

[Multigunner]

A fisherman had used what he thought were old lead ingots he found on a beach as ballast for his boat for years. He later found these were actually ingots of silver from a Spanish treasure ship.

A contaminated zinc alloy can develop "Zinc Pest", the bane of die cast toy collectors.
Bullets from contaminated zinc alloy may look fine then months or years later the bullet can crumble when handled or break up in the bore when fired.

[bangerjim]

There is a thread on here somewhere about using sulfur or copper sulfate during the flux period to remove zinc from a contaminated melt. You also take out all the tin too! And have to add it back in. Gets pertty complex and a bit expensive.......putting the tin back in.

I have never had the "zinker blues" in any of my melts................yet!


Now.........let's talk about that silver ballast............!!!!!!!

bangerjim