I found about 4 fluid ouces of mercury what will it do to lead if added and how much do you add to get results.

If you add mercury to the molten lead, you will release dangerous fumes that will end up doing you a very bad deed. It won't happen overnight, but it will happem. The stuff is cumulative. At one time, back in the very old days, mercury was used to harden lead for the bullets used in the African big bores. I once read an article about that cumulative mercury poisoning and it wasn't very pretty.
You can use it to remove leading from your barrel though. You plug up the bore and run the mercury in until the barrel is full. Let it sit for about 5 to 10 minutes, carefully drain, and run a very tight patch through the bore.
It doesn't sound like you have enough to do that though.
Whatever you do, please, do not add it to your lead melt. If you need harder lead, add some magnum bird shot and water quench the bullets. They'll either be as hard or harder than lead with mercury added.
Paul B.

Lead,mercury,bismuth and cadmium are toxic and care must be taken when handling them; well ventilated area etc.Mercury's volatility at the temperature of molten lead would mean injesting large amounts.The are all cumulative toxins.

thanks guys!

Mercury is bad, bad stuff.

It's also pretty valuable.

I'd sell it on EBay if I found that much. I sure would not try to use it myself.

I'm a chemist. You have some good advice here. Quicksilver may be fun to look at and play with, but don't, especially if you are thinking about having children, or have them in the house. It is an allergic sensitizer, it is a carcinogen, it is a teratogen (sp)(meaning it can cross the placental barrier into a fetus and cause birth defects), and it is poisonous. It is not terribly poisonous in its liquid state, but can kill in it's gasious state... DON'T HEAT IT.

Also, it may be worth some money. just make sure that the container is very well sealed.

Clement

I seem to recall that in Lt. James Forsyths' book, "The Sporting Rifle and It's Projectiles", from the 19th century mentioned that mercury was added to lead bullets for heavy game. I don't recall the reasoning behind it, and I'm sure there was no mention of casting methods. No doubt some unsuspecting Gunga Din was delegated the task. I'll locate my copy and see if there was any other reference about it.

Lloyd---

To answer the question---

Mercury dissolves lead into a soft goo. The only time you should use it is in really horribly leaded barrels. Plug the bore and fill it with mercury. Let it sit overnight and let it run out and then run a couple patches through it.

The problem comes in what to do with the almalgum of mercury and lead that comes out of the barrel. It can't be re-used as is and to refine it for future use is EXTREMELY hazardous. It's rated as a very bad polluter and can't just be thrown away, either. I have mine in an ammo can along with mercury batteries. Once a year I take it to the local EPA office and tell 'em I found it. So far I haven't faced the same person.....yet.

FYI
Mercury will dissolve gold as it does lead. Be careful of any jewlery (wedding band) if you handle it.

If I remember my high school science if mercury spills it goes in to little balls. The teacher used a special device that was like a sponge to put it up. He was really PO that some was spilled. He was worried because it is very bad hazard. Be careful

Hcliff

Paul, would you please share all that you can recall from the article concerning the use of mercury to harden lead? I especially would like to learn any technical details which the article may have mentioned.
Thanks,
Paladin

As somone who does some hobby prospecting Ive learned quite a bit about Mercury and it should be handled only by those who know exactly what theyre doing. It is some nasty dangerous stuff, breathe its fumes and it can kill you, touch enough of it and it can kill you. The little balls it forms can become microscopic and penetrate the pores of your skin, it then enters the blood system. When inhaled as a vapor it also enters the blood system and then re-materializes back to its liquid metal state in your blood.

When used to amalgamate gold it will attach itself to itself and to gold. This sort of magnetism to itself also works within a persons blood system, get enough of it in your self and you will be shaking hands with the old time prospectors who used it. BE CAREFULL!!

When you've got more mercury than lead, you get a mushy liquid amalgam. When you've got more lead than mercury, you get a flaky, brittle, pitted piece of lead. Frederick Forsyth was full of shit about most all of the gun stuff in "The Day of the Jackal", and mercury-filled bullets for precision rifle shooting is one example.

In graduate school, I had to learn how to make amalgamated lead gaskets as spacers between polished sodium chloride and zinc selenide salt plates. Mercury balls up on the surface of the polished salt plates, so you can't get an even coating. It you apply the mercury to the lead, it does wet the surface, but it sinks in quickly at the spot where you've applied it, forming a silvery-looking pit. Again, you can't get an even coating. The scrap lead gaskets from these efforts break ino flakes like a pastry when bent.

Fortunately, other metals (indium, gallium) added to the mercury give a liquid that will evenly wet the polished surface of a salt plate, and then the lead gasket can be installed so as to form a tight seal (the plates are way too brittle to get a seal by pressing hard enough to deform the lead gasket; I tried). With just indium added, the gaskets last a couple of weeks, and then they start leaking. The gaskets are flaky and brittle when they are removed. Adding some gallium to the mix gives gaskets that seal for 6 months to a year. When they eventually fail, they come out nice and pliable. I suspect these indium-gallium amalgam sealed gaskets fail when all the mercury has evaporated.

That's what I know about mixing lead and mercury at room temperature. I would never heat mercury.

The other thing I've found out about mercury is that the common remedy for a mercury spill in a chemical laboratory does not work. It is widely believed that sprinkling powdered sulfur on spilled mercury will supress mercury vapors by forming very stable mercury sulfides. I have even worked in labs where sombody drilled holes in the top of a bottle of sulfur so they could use it like a salt shaker. This method does not work, and it just gives you more stuff to sweep up. The concentrations of mercury above a fresh mercury spill and a mercury spill that's been dusteed with powdered sulfur are the same.

The only way I know of to not be exposed to mercury vapor after a spill is to clean it all up. Nobody does that. If you look closely enough in practically any chemical laboratory (look into the corners and cabinet drawers), you will find tiny droplets of mercury. Everyone breaks thermometers. It's rare that they find all the droplets.

H. C.

Paladin. I forget exactly where I read about hardening lead with mercury. I think it was in one of theose special editions that Gun & Ammo puts out on a particular subject. There was one on big bore rifles for dangerous game and one of the sections was historical in nature. IIRC, they said that lead bullets were hardened with mercury, but gave no details on how it was done. I'll try and come across it if I can, but no promises.
Paul B.

Use antimony and tin to harden lead.

As has been said here a LOT is DONT heat mercury!!! .
Now tell me again what happens to bullets when you shoot 'em??

Writers usually have a lot more imagination than information, that's why its been 30 years since I've seen a movie. I once bought a book to read on a plane and the first page had this sentence---
"He slapped the cylinder shut on six fresh shells and stuck the automatic back in his belt......"

I traded it for something else.

I got to try some mercury in a copper pan one time. Amazing how much gold you can pull out of concentrate. Then you have to separate the amalgam. That required a kind of funky BBQ grill/smoker stove and hollowed potatos. It was all really neat, but the setup wasn't exactly OSHA approved. I believe he was playing with cyanide leaching as well.

I'll leave the mercury up to those who have an immunity to brain damage. Me, I can't afford to lose the 5 cells I have.

quote:

Originally posted by mete:
Lead,mercury,bismuth and cadmium are toxic and care must be taken when handling them; well ventilated area etc.Mercury's volatility at the temperature of molten lead would mean injesting large amounts.The are all cumulative toxins.

Not that it really matters five years after this post, but Bismuth is nontoxic.

It is the active ingredient (The "Bis") in Pepto-Bismol, is widely used in cosmetics
as well as intestinal drugs and opthamalic preparations.

And is being used as a nontoxic substitute for lead in a variety of industrial applications.


AD

Whatever you do, don't let the mercury touch anything made of aluminum. It will amalgamate with the Al and destroy the oxide coating that protects the metal, which then oxidizes again and flakes off while the mercury amalgamates with fresh aluminum.

So, eventually anything aluminum that it gets on will be eventually turned into a pile of aluminum oxide powder and some liquid mercury.

This was used in WWII as a sabotage method for enemy aircraft. Just pour some mercury on the aluminum skin of the wing, and the planes would mysteriously crash from structural failure.

Allan despite the fact that bismuth has been used in many products -- [1978] "Bismuth poisoning has now been reported from regions all over the world...Australians were the first to discover modern bismuth poisoning" "Zinc and other Micro-nutrients" Dr Carl Pfieffer That's 30 year old news , I guess the word hasn't gotten out yet amongst the medical "profession". Mercury poisoning was known in the early 1800s but despite this it was used in medical preperations until fairly recently !! This quote is part of a chapter on bismuth. I'm sure more has been found since then.I was of course very curious when bismuth was regarded as "safe" for the ducks !!!

When I was a kid my uncle got a hearing aid. Somehow we discovered that if you put the dead batteries from that aid in a vise you could squeeze out a blob of mercury---OH NEAT--. We showed the blob to my aunt who played around with it in her hands---wrecked her engagement ring and lost the stone. We got told in no uncertain terms NO MORE MERCURY!!! Lucky for us. Not something you want to fool around with!

quote:

Originally posted by mete:
Allan despite the fact that bismuth has been used in many products -- [1978] "Bismuth poisoning has now been reported from regions all over the world...Australians were the first to discover modern bismuth poisoning" "Zinc and other Micro-nutrients" Dr Carl Pfieffer That's 30 year old news , I guess the word hasn't gotten out yet amongst the medical "profession". Mercury poisoning was known in the early 1800s but despite this it was used in medical preperations until fairly recently !! This quote is part of a chapter on bismuth. I'm sure more has been found since then.I was of course very curious when bismuth was regarded as "safe" for the ducks !!!

Bismuth is regarded as one of the less toxic heavy metals and it is commonly used as a medicine for stomach upsets. Excess bismuth can cause mild kidney damage

Notice it said one of the less toxic heavy metals. All heavy metals aren't really good for us.

While bismuth may be used for stomach upsets it should be understood that it is , like the others, a cumulative toxin.Short term use perhaps but long term use is dangerous.

and excess exposure to water causes death as well.

The human body requires traces of Cobalt, chromium and
less than minute ammounts of copper, but all can kill in sufficient quantity, even if that quantity kills you by causing gangrene from the broken bones after you break your foot by dropping an ingot on it...
Hell everyone knows you need iron but even that is toxic above a certain level...

Bismuth is only about twice as common as gold so exposure to it isn't really a threat, let alone overexposure.

And the toxicity of many materials is overstated by people trying to sensationalize which is how I characterize the original inclusion of "bismiuth" alongside Mercury and Lead.

Frankly If I'm going to worry about metals poisoning it'll be about thallium, strontium and uranium, and my personal past exposure to Thorium, Radium and Radon.

Or how about all the people who expose themselves MULTIPLE times daily to Cerium and Lanthanum.. and I'll bet you can't even tell me how.... I'll give you a hint, they inhale it... though not intentionally.

I find that people who worry about things and warn others are often looking the wrong way when a REAL problem is heading their way... I chalk that up to the basic perversity of the universe.

AD

Don't forget all the mercuty furminate primers that runied the copper cases.

I believe the spill kits for mercury contain powdered copper. The copper and mercuty combine and then you can sweep the copper powder up.

Beside the mercury thermometers mercurchrome used to be popular for putting on cuts and scrapes. it was some compound of mercuty; I remember plating it out on copper pennies.

There is something about mercury and nuclear plants; i recal it was banned from the plants but never did find out why.

And never forget our mouths! how many of us old guys still have the mercuty/silver fillings? I never believed that stuff was good for you; I'm finally getting mine drilled out and replaced with the UV cureable stuff.

Dr Carl Pfieffer was never involved with sensationalism !