BUYing wheelweights!

[jhalcott]

I called a local recycler and he said pure lead is fifty cents a pound but wheel weights were only fourty cents. With MOST of the tire shops and garages around here under contract to some recycler,I may HAVE to go this route soon!

[Dale53]

I did the calculations and 100 lbs of ww would yield about 85 lbs of bullet metal. Using your costs, you per bullet cost for a 250 gr bullet would be $.017 per bullet (nearly 2 cents). That is getting a bit pricy until you figure what commercial cast bullets (probably not as good as you will cast for yourself) cost. When you compare them against "store bought" it is pretty economical. So far, the most I have paid is 20 cents a pound but that was many years ago. Most of my ww's have been free. However, I just KNOW that that would change if I was on the street, now (I have all that I will need for the forseeable future).

Dale53

[Maven]

There's only one recycler locally that deals in WW's. Two days ago his price was $0.75/lb., which strikes me as extremely high.

[John Boy]

... ever consider shopping on eBay? I just scored 100# of pure lead ingots at 78 cents a pound. Remember, the price of lead has sky rocketed!

National Bullet hasn't been shipping for a couple of months now because they are having problems buying their skids of alloy ...
http://www.nationalbullet.com/index.php?name=News

[Ed K]

Wow,

and I was feeling bad last month after paying 14 cents a pound.

Ed

[PatMarlin]

I just ran an ad in a weekly classified...

"Looking for scrap lead and wheel weights. Will pickup, pay cash. Leave message."

We'll see what that drums up... :roll:

[1Shirt]

Last 5 gal. pail I was able to buy ran me $.15 a pound.
1Shirt!

[Doc - J]

Last batch I got ( half a pail ) smelted down to 58#'s cost me 3 bottles of water. Wish I could offer them guys some beer may get more lead.

[largecaliberman]

I called a local recycler and he said pure lead is fifty cents a pound but wheel weights were only fourty cents. With MOST of the tire shops and garages around here under contract to some recycler,I may HAVE to go this route soon!

Going to a recycler is the best way to go. [smilie=1: The only drawback is (with the one I deal with) I have to purchase the whole 55 gallon drum, around 1300 - 1400 lbs that he sells to me for $.30 per pound. The best thing about this deal is he will buy back the clips for $.09 per pound. The last time I got 1387 lbs I ended up with around 250 lbs and got around :Fire: $25.00 for the clips. Better than throwing the waste in a landfill. :castmine:

[largecaliberman]

Wow,

and I was feeling bad last month after paying 14 cents a pound.

Ed


whew, some people just have the luck, good for you.

[waksupi]

Going to a recycler is the best way to go. [smilie=1: The only drawback is (with the one I deal with) I have to purchase the whole 55 gallon drum, around 1300 - 1400 lbs that he sells to me for $.30 per pound. The best thing about this deal is he will buy back the clips for $.09 per pound. The last time I got 1387 lbs I ended up with around 250 lbs and got around :Fire: $25.00 for the clips. Better than throwing the waste in a landfill. :castmine:

It looks like he would give you back .30 per pound, as he is selling you non-lead weight. [smilie=1:

[Ed K]

whew, some people just have the luck, good for you.

Well, paying at all seems like a raw deal at first when there's plenty of reports of fellas scoring lead for free.

At the same time, how much can I afford to drive in circles begging tire shops for a "free" bucket of WW's here and there? Not too much as it turns out if you have to figure in gas and time.

[PatMarlin]

I've see supply's starting to dry up in my neck of the woods.

My ad starts tomorrow, and we'll see what happens. This is pretty serious really, as if lead availability became scarce and real expensive, we' all would have a problem.

There's no way I'm going to buy condom bullets.. :roll:

At least I have a metal detector, and can mine a great deal of my lead back... :mrgreen:

[PatMarlin]

Also, I have to drive an hour and 45 minutes one way, just to get to a city to find lead, then I have to drive from area to area at that point.

But....................:castmine: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :Fire: :Fire:

[wmitty]

I work for the highway dept. (TXDoT) and I'm convinced the shoulders of our major
roadways could be profitably mined for wheel weights. I walked along the edge of IH 30 for less than 50 yards and found a handfull. If someone were to use a metal detector to alarm on the clips a large quantity could be found; especially in areas where the pavement surface is rough. Maybe someone sees an easier way of collecting what's spread along the shoulders of our highways.

[PatMarlin]

Awe... that's from runnin' into all those armadillos.. :mrgreen:

[ron brooks]

So if I check the highway rumble strips here by work on 54 I should find some? I'll check and let you know. A few wheelweights is a few more. :)

Ron

[Bullshop]

I found the best places to look are at intersections where ther is braking and excelerating going on, especialy intersections where there are pot holes.
BIC/BS

[Bass Ackward]

Well I was driving by a tire shop and was watching two young guys fighting to get a 5 gallon bucket into a dumpster. Before I could get stopped, they had succeeded. A 5 gallon bucket was lost. Can you imagine?

They said that the recycler would only take them if they washed them and segregated all the junk. And how it was getting too cold and they weren't being paid enough to be foolin around with cold water this time of year.

I sympothized and managed to save three, extremely dirty buckets, from the same fate.

[PatMarlin]

Hee, heee....

SO far I've got three calls off of my classified ad this weekend. One guy has a bunch of underground cable sheathing lead, and two others left a message, but I don't know what they have.

I'm waiting until tomorrow morning to call the scrap yard down there and see what they pay first, before I call these folks back.

I'm thinking maybe offering them half of what the scrapper pays since I'll be picking it up. Prolly feel em out first, cause they may just want to get it out of their place for cheap. We'll see.

Anyone have any idea on prices? I've looked on the net and found some ads of companies wanting to buy and move lead in PRK for around .52 a pound, 40,000 minimum.. :mrgreen:

Then some metals charts show as high as .78!! Geee Gads- :roll:

[PatMarlin]

OK-

THe scrap yard pays only .05 per pound, so that's great news. So far I've drumed up nearly 1000 lbs from my ad but it's all mostly pure lead.

I've only worked with wheelweights and then pure lead for BP shooters. How much is the cost to add tin and antimony to get a harder lead from this soft stuff?

What I'm getting at is wether or not I should hold out and just buy wheel weights if they come up, or offer between 5-.10 cents a pound for this soft stuff?

Thanks in advance............:drinks:

[ron brooks]

If I had a chance to buy 1000 pounds of lead in this day and age for a nickel a pound I would take it and run.

Just my opinion,

Ron

[MT Gianni]

Get all the lead you can even if you have to trade straight up for ww. Gianni.

[Bullshop]

Pat
You get it for a nickle and I will give ya a quarter. I bought 1500 lbs last week at .65 per lb. I also got about 1200 lbs of ww at .25 per lb. The soft lead is much harder to find. What I have found with running ads is once the few local stashes are used up thats it, its gone. The hard lead seems to regenerate, at least thats the way it is here. This year I have bought 3.5 ton of soft lead at between .65 hi and .31 low and am glad to find it at all.
BIC/BS

[PatMarlin]

Well I bought 95 lbs of plumbers lead ingots from a local here for .10 lb today, so I'm on my way. Not bad for clean lead.

Also have a line on 8,000 lbs of dirt free bee's wax. How bout that market?.. :mrgreen:

[Tristan]

Pat, you score that beeswax for a good price (say, .50c per lb), and I'd love to buy some from you... for a profit, even... ;-)

[Hunter]

You should look at wax seals from a plumbing supply house for fluxing. At wholesale that are pretty cheap. Buying plumber's lead from a supply house ain't bad either. So far all the tire shops I been to were glad to give wheel weights away to be rid of them.

[10x]

I just hit the local tire shops with a couple of bottles of Canadian Rye about a month before Christmas. A 26 can suck every used wheel weight out of of the shop. A twenty dollar investment can get me a couple of hundred pounds of wheel weights.

[10x]

OK-

THe scrap yard pays only .05 per pound, so that's great news. So far I've drumed up nearly 1000 lbs from my ad but it's all mostly pure lead.

I've only worked with wheelweights and then pure lead for BP shooters. How much is the cost to add tin and antimony to get a harder lead from this soft stuff?

What I'm getting at is wether or not I should hold out and just buy wheel weights if they come up, or offer between 5-.10 cents a pound for this soft stuff?

Thanks in advance............:drinks:

Pure lead is getting harder and harder to find. I scored a half a ton of pure lead sheeting from the ex ray department of a local hospital the community was renovating. They are no longer using it for cable sheeting and roof flashings and plastic has replaced lead for plumbing.

Go to your local tire stores and garages and check for wheel weights. A $20.00 donation to the staff party fund or a bottle of good rye will get you first consideration, even if they have a contract with a recycler.

Check with the local printshops as well. They might have electro type, linotype, and various alloys that they no longer use. Linotype does give a perfect bullet but it is hard.
Also check with small town newspapers. Some have will have a linotype printsetter and the lead stashed away. You might be able to get both for the cost of hauling it away. Mention the dangers of lead to the editor or owner if he is reluctant...

[jh45gun]

Guess I am lucky the local garage I go to gives them to me for free yet and I seem to be the only one picking them up there. :) Yesterday I picked up two more coffee cans full.