Aircraft ballast, what is it?

Butcherbill

Butcherbill

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Has anyone ever used aircraft ballast for casting bullets, what is it generally composed of? Had some given to me by a friend, it’s got inspection stamps and part numbers stamped into it.

Searching part numbers online doesn’t bring anything up, anything I find on cast boolits says it could be pure lead, lead/antimony or tungsten. Have a mix of soft and hard lead by the looks of it but I haven’t tried to test hardness yet.
 
It is likely pure lead. The numbers and such are most likely a part number and a government approval number. Virtually any aircraft part has to have traceability.
 
Odinson said:
It is likely pure lead. The numbers and such are most likely a part number and a government approval number. Virtually any aircraft part has to have traceability.
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That’s what I figured but I can’t bring anything up regardless of how I word it or search for it, searching by part number doesn’t bring any results. Some of it is likely pure lead, it’s soft and can be bent/broken in half by hand. Some of it is very hard and can’t be bent, I’ll have to see what a hardness test results in. Possibly see what temps things melt at as well, would be nice to know what I’m working with.
 
Butcherbill said:
So it’s not ballast it’s balance weights or counterweights for the ailerons and control rudders. Not that I’m any closer to determining alloy composition or what it actually is, looks like I’ll be doing some hardness testing and maybe testing melting point.

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Those weights were put into control components to prevent a problem called "flutter" ....... without those weights, control surfaces could start to flutter with sometime catastrophic results.
 
They're probably alloyed for rigidity.

We used to use "pure" lead for ballast weights.

I think you'll have to test them to get an accurate picture.
 
I cannot remember the metal but read an article recently that they would be a metal heavier than lead.
NAECOMET® Tungsten Based High Density Metals????
 
4star60 said:
I cannot remember the metal but read an article recently that they would be a metal heavier than lead.
NAECOMET® Tungsten Based High Density Metals????
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Yeah it seems to be a mix of lead and lead alloys, or heavy tungsten alloys from what I’ve been able to dig up. The good thing is tungsten seems to have an extremely high melting point, so it should be easy to test that once I do an initial hardness test.

The other thing o see being used south of the border for ballast or balance weights in an aviation setting is depleted uranium, hoping it’s just a hard lead alloy lol!
 
You could figure out the density.
Measure (or calculate) the volume, and weigh it. Lead's density is ~708 pounds / cu.ft., or 6.56 oz/cu.in. according to the interwebz.
 
When I was posted to Moose Jaw, there was a Tutor that crashed killing the single pilot. My duty station during emergencies was to sprint to the Wing Command Post in the hangar beside the tower. In the midst of the response, a Sgt tech I sort of know, came in asking for the coordinates. I asked why he wanted to go out. Part of the CP's job is to keep tourists out. He said he had to locate and isolate some dense weights on the control surfaces. They might have been depleted uranium, which must have made sense to keep from getting pilfered.
 
That looks a lot like a Cessna Aileron, I can't see anything other than "lead" being used for balancing because it would be cheapest for production of that part. My bet is lead.........
 
Butcherbill said:
Yeah it seems to be a mix of lead and lead alloys, or heavy tungsten alloys from what I’ve been able to dig up. The good thing is tungsten seems to have an extremely high melting point, so it should be easy to test that once I do an initial hardness test.

The other thing o see being used south of the border for ballast or balance weights in an aviation setting is depleted uranium, hoping it’s just a hard lead alloy lol!
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That high melting point may or may not assist you - when metals are alloyed (mixed molten) you can get a eutectic mix - the alloy has a much lower melting point than either parent metal - an almost classic example would be to alloy tin and lead - at a eutectic proportion - the result will have a lower melting point than either tin or lead. I have seen eutectic charts for three metals - starting to get pretty crazy to work out the eutectic proportions - and I suspect, but have never seen, there are eutectic charts for 4 or 5 or more metals, that get alloyed together.
 
Potashminer said:
That high melting point may or may not assist you - when metals are alloyed (mixed molten) you can get a eutectic mix - the alloy has a much lower melting point than either parent metal - an almost classic example would be to alloy tin and lead - at a eutectic proportion - the result will have a lower melting point than either tin or lead. I have seen eutectic charts for three metals - starting to get pretty crazy to work out the eutectic proportions - and I suspect, but have never seen, there are eutectic charts for 4 or 5 or more metals, that get alloyed together.
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My thoughts are if it’s tungsten or a high content tungsten alloy it’ll be easy to test the melting point, if it’s doesn’t melt near the temps lead or a hard lead alloy melts it should be pretty obvious. Then I can figure out if it’s worth keeping or selling to the scrap metal dealer. It’s not like the zinc WW’s much heavier in weight.

I’m guessing it’s a hard lead alloy of some sort, I can scrape it with a tool and it makes a higher tone of clink when I hit two pieces together be the soft clunk the softer lead pieces make. If it’s a hard lead tungsten alloy that I can melt easily that could be interesting, I’ve got some heavy tungsten balance weight hardness specs from a manufacturer so will have to do some testing in the new year. Hopefully it’s something useful for bullet casting and not just scrap.
 
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