I have never done it myself, but know others that have. I don't know how soft it is, but can't be any different than wheel weights once it's melted down and cleaned. Wouldn't use it for bullets, but jigs and weights ought to be fine.

 

Roddy,

Be EXTREMELY careful melting battery lead. Lead in itself is dangerous enough to our lungs and body.

Battery lead contains Ca (calcium), Cd (cadmium), Sr (strontium), Cu (copper) and a variety of other trace elements. Some are toxic and most will cause casting problems and if you intend to use the bullets for hunting, they will be brittle and fragment.

In addition to the alloying elements, you also have sulfuric acid contamination to deal with, as it cooks off it will turn to vapor and you breathe in the toxic fumes possibly burning your internals.

There are plenty of other type of lead available that you shouldn't need to use lead from old batteries. The best lead you can get is leading sheeting. Do you know anybody in the hospital maintenance field? X-Ray rooms are lined with 4x8 sheets and hospital remodels are a great place to find lots of lead.

The #1 rule in melting lead is to have proper ventilation if not doing it outside. #2 rule is to keep WATER away from the melting pot. Water will cause exposive reactions to a melting pot.

 

back in the early 70's we use to melt the lead from them we had a large hood to draw the fumes,the company stopped doing it because of all the new lead warning's also use to use the glass containers for aquariums they worked great for the price FREE,,, we had lots of the batteries back in the day from all the substations ,we changed all of them out in the 90's