Molten Metal Finds

MrHobby

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I bought my metal detector a couple of years ago and hit my yard a little bit.... found about 8 nails, a old cookie cutter, a 1/4" socket and an old dog chain that had my year of birth as the date (and I just hit a very small piece of my yard). A couple of weeks ago I got out my detector to give it another go in my yard. I found a piece of metal that I realized was molten aluminum then shortly after that about 10 feet away I found another. A couple of days later I found my first money (a state quarter and a 64 penny). Then I found this piece of molten metal (about 20 feet from last aluminum find) that was about the same size as my first aluminum, but it was a lot heavier. I took it to work today and showed it to a co-worker (which he gave an immediate guess) I sand blasted it (to look it over real good), then took a propane turbo torch to it to see how easy it would melt. I think I know what it is now (and I will take some pics and post here later). But I would be interested to know about other finds of molten metal (that are not aluminum cans) that others have found. Also I haven't looked it up yet but I am also interested in the rocks that are found MDing (I would figure that quarts are picked up as they are used in electronics and have electrical properties). I will take any type of enlightenment.


Mike
 
Here is my pics

Left is aluminum right is the question metal. I wish I would have taken a pic of the question metal before I sand blasted it and then melted it. The top part of the question metal is like a slag.
 

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Thanks Ice....that is very cool. Do you have any info on rocks? I am not looking for rocks (other than the expensive ones), but I am interested to know what might be picked up in the field.



Mike
 
Thanks Ice....that is very cool. Do you have any info on rocks? I am not looking for rocks (other than the expensive ones), but I am interested to know what might be picked up in the field.



Mike

I know a lot more about metal, but a lot of rocks have iron in them, also copper, silver, and gold and be found in their natural pure form i.e. nuggets..

Good luck!!

<*)))>{
 
I will go ahead and say now. It is Zinc. The co-worker said because of color (which was blueish) was Zinc and that it was used to seal flashings in homes. And that is how it looked when it got a patina on it . He has worked with stained glass that used Zinc (all the separations you see between the glass is zinc). A zincoln had the same melt properties of this :shock:
But it also cool that you could tell this from the "go no go" truth table :cool:


Mike
 
I will go ahead and say now. It is Zinc. The co-worker said because of color (which was blueish) was Zinc and that it was used to seal flashings in homes. And that is how it looked when it got a patina on it . He has worked with stained glass that used Zinc (all the separations you see between the glass is zinc). A zincoln had the same melt properties of this :shock:
But it also cool that you could tell this from the "go no go" truth table :cool:


Mike

I always thought stained glass used lead, i.e. leaded glass? Also I don't think a propane torch could melt zinc?

I am going to try right now... lol...

<*)))>{
 
When I grabbed the turbo torch and told him I was going to try to melt it he said "good luck with that" and I said you can puddle a zincoln with this and that if it is zinc then they should melt about the same. It turned out that way. Both melted and looked the same way.
 
It does melt and look similar, but lead is far easier to scratch with a nail..

<*)))>{
 
This was a lot harder than lead. I could not nick it with a knife. Filing it did cut it, but you could feel it was hard. Not a "soft metal clogging up the file" like lead.
 
This was a lot harder than lead. I could not nick it with a knife. Filing it did cut it, but you could feel it was hard. Not a soft metal clogging up the file like lead.

Yep, zinc it would be then...

I have found all sorts of metal globs lol, I set some aside, hoping to test for silver later on...

<*)))>{
 
Yeah I was really hoping it was silver. But I am also glad to learn. And I look forward to finding my first silver or gold. I know it would be hard to imagine that someone could "spill" silver on the ground. But you hope that it could happen and that silver in coin or melted would be just fine with me :yes:
 
Molten metal

Left is aluminum right is the question metal. I wish I would have taken a pic of the question metal before I sand blasted it and then melted it. The top part of the question metal is like a slag.

I recently found a piece of metal in my sisters yard that looks very similar to yours. Its smooth and rounded on one side but rough and looks almost stamped on the other. I thought it was a rock at first. I'm not sure what it is. I thought I would carry it around as a good luck charm then decided I needed better luck than I had when I found this item!
 

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I am not a expert but be careful, through tool making and blacksmith as a apprentice i was always told to be cautious when working with zinc always was told it is very toxic at high temps.

That aside I find a lot of melted lead / zinc in places you would never expect, wish I knew where it came. Last week found 1lb of lead in a steam near my house.

Found a large quantity of zinc globs some time last year turned out neighbor said his kids were melting pennies in a fire pit that was there on his property near the river. oh to be a kid again :lol:

Love finding lead to make fishing weights so expensive to buy anymore ;)
 
Yeah, it is always best if you don't inhale zinc that is heated. You don't want to weld or torch heat galvanized metal (treated in a bath of zinc), or be careful if you do, Zinc fumes are a hazard for humans, as are a lot of other things.
 
Hello!!

I'm sorry for getting to this forum so late, DO NOT THROW AWAY THAT BLOB.. I've recently found 10 of those here in Kansas, my first thought was aluminum aswell but my detector went ape !!!!. Definitely not aluminum otherwise it would've said its aluminum. It came up as jewelry/Silver. I've read alot of posts tonight and people are revolting this stuff.. STOOOOP. Dont lick it, dont eat it, and dont burn it! I took every one of my blobs to a spectrometer and they all pretty much weigh the same 5-7 grams. My Blobs are Identical to yours and everyone else's I've seen online. This is what our stuff is composed of:

Ag: Silver
Au:gold
Ni: Nickel
Cu: copper
Zn: zinc
Pb: lead
Cd: cadmium (More poisonous than cyanide)
Fe: iron

I'm almost guaranteeing you that your blob is also in that order from silver being the most of its content and iron being the least. I've called a lot of people here in Kansas for the last few weeks and they are stumped. Nobody knows what this is and everyone says its man made and melted junk.. It's literally a chunk of silver and almost every other metal including gold. It's not junk. The bad thing is the cadmium. There is no safe way to separate the cadmium from any of the metals you want to keep like gold or silver in your blob. Touching it is safe but licking it or it somehow getting into a wound or you breath it in while its burning then your screwed my friend. I thought this was just a weird Kansas thing but I've seen people asking about this from Scotland and their silver blob looks just like ours. Please spread this message. I dont know any other way to find out what this is or where it came from, perhaps carbon dating is our only option. I can see where this Could be a meteorite but its non magnetic despite iron and nickel and such. However metals in their RAW form are not powerful enough to be magnetic. So could this be a freak occurence? Or riches waiting for a name to be put on this stuff. It's not aluminum.
 
Zinc is toxic when heated. the sickest i have ever been was when a welder was cutting a galvanized pipe with his torch. He did not tell me the pipe was galvanized (zinc) and i was breathing the fumes.

Never again do i want to be that sick. Be very careful when heating zinc and make sure you have plenty of ventelation.
 
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