On Friday September 06 1996, Roy J. Tellason of (1:270/615) wrote to Chris 
Harper:
 RJT> Yup,  all you need to do now is find an old lawnmower that uses a V-8!
 RJT> :-)
I live next door to Wilson, who lives next door to Tim Allen!  ;-)
 RJT> Don't expect solder to work well at steam temperatures...
Lead/tin solder liquifies at around 500 farenhieght. I don't intend on going 
much past 250. But I had intended on brazing (soldering with brass 
copper/tin) on the high pressure side.
 RJT> This is a real *BAD* idea.  Every so often I see the suggestion come up 
of
 RJT> using lead from old car batteries to make bullets.  I usually jump on 
that
 RJT> when I do.  You're not talking metallic lead,  for the most part,  but
 RJT> lead sulfate and lead dioxide,  alloyed with Antimony or Calcium or 
other
 RJT> metals. They add stuff to reduce water usage and there's no easy way
 RJT> you're going to separate it out.
I'll have to read up on that.
 RJT> From what I understand,  battery mfr's like Exide have smelters to 
recycle
 RJT> the materials from junk batteries that come in,  and everything I've 
heard
 RJT> about those places says that they're rather *nasty*.  Not something 
hat
 RJT> an individual would do well trying to set up.  And,  they shut 'em down
 RJT> during the middle of the summer.
Exide and large companies like it are doing rather large quantities, and are 
profit motivated, without reguard to the envirnoment. I would be doing things 
a LOT different. I'd trap and condense any gasses the melting would produce, 
to dispose of properly, for one thing. They might have value as well, for all 
I know.
 RJT> FWIW,  they also recycle the plastic case material to make new 
atteries
 RJT> (why do you think so many of them are black?) and the acid gets 
processed
 RJT> somehow to make fertilizer...
I would just set up a still to split the water and acid from each other, as 
well as anything dissolved into it, and re-sell the acid to battery makers or 
chemical companies. Maybe use some myself for making my own batteries.
RYL,
    Chris
--- GoldED 2.40+
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