What do yall do with your scrap lead finds?

CoilToTheSoil · Feb 24, 2016

Not sure about yall but round here we have loads of fire bullets (modern) as well as a ton of melted farm and industrial lead/babbitt in some locations. Do you keep it and take it in for scrap? What do you get for it if so?
I've amassed about 125 or so pounds of it thus far lol.

CoilToTheSoil · Mar 7, 2016

It's used in conjunction with babbitt which is a popular bearing material for old farming milling and logging equipment.
The melted lead and babbitt was poured into molds to cast new bearing surfaces when the old ones wore out. They were re-melted and recast as needed. Hence one reason why many old farms or early industrial areas have globs of melted lead around.

Juice in the hole · Mar 7, 2016

CoilToTheSoil said:
It's used in conjunction with babbitt which is a popular bearing material for old farming milling and logging equipment.
The melted lead and babbitt was poured into molds to cast new bearing surfaces when the old ones wore out. They were re-melted and recast as needed. Hence one reason why many old farms or early industrial areas have globs of melted lead around.

So if I found an area littered with this stuff, one might surmise that a barn once stood there? There are several areas in one field where grass grows very thinly and I find melted (lead?) globs there. Some have bronze or copper in them.