Diving weight alloy?

[Freyr_255]

So I just got back from the dump and picked up something like 50-70lbs of diving weights. Does anyone know what kind of alloys are used for diving weights or how to find out roughly what I have?

 

[trevj]

They guys that I knew used "Anything heavy". Batteries, shot, pure lead, contaminated, whatever. Just had to be heavy to perform as advertised.

Test with a thumbnail, melt some and try casting, and hardness test it, if you are able. How it behaves will tell you whether you got something useful or not.

Aw heck, you can probably get $60 for the weights, so you got something useful anyways, eh.

Cheers
Trev

 

[ted_dent]

So I just got back from the dump and picked up something like 50-70lbs of diving weights. Does anyone know what kind of alloys are used for diving weights or how to find out roughly what I have?

They could be anything from pure lead to melted wheelweights. I used to scuba dive and I'm sure there is no specific formula for diving weights. You could get a lead hardness tester like the SAECO or Lee but for 50-70 pounds it's not worth your while. Unless you're looking for pure lead to shoot black powder I would treat them as wheelweights. If you think they might be pure lead and you're using them for pistol or rifle bullets I would alloy them with wheelweights or Lyman #2 or something similar to harden them up.

 

[Freyr_255]

I guess hardness testing and casting would be the two best determinations of what they are. I'll keep them separate for now and see how they cast/hardness test next time I'm in the mood.

 

[Spawn-Inc]

They could be anything from pure lead to melted wheelweights. I used to scuba dive and I'm sure there is no specific formula for diving weights. You could get a lead hardness tester like the SAECO or Lee but for 50-70 pounds it's not worth your while. Unless you're looking for pure lead to shoot black powder I would treat them as wheelweights. If you think they might be pure lead and you're using them for pistol or rifle bullets I would alloy them with wheelweights or Lyman #2 or something similar to harden them up.

+1, i would treat as wheel weights unless you can see they aren't acting the same during casting/melting.

 

[zuke]

Melt them down into your ingot's and as you melt other known alloy's drop in a couple lbs of the unknown lead.
I've done it like that for year's. I also have a 200lb smelting pot.