Moving My Ingots

[Tonto]

Will be moving from Ohio to Minnesota sometime early in the new year and wonder if anyone has thought of the best way to move a small mountain of Lyman/Lee and cornbread shaped ingots without hurting themselves, their friends or even a mover....I have about a ton or two or clean ingots in pure pb, ww and linotype plus some salvaged backstop metal and I will not sell it or give it away.....if I can avoid it! Thanks.....

[grumpy one]

Seems to me it's just a weight management issue. The Lee and Lyman ingots stack extremely well - your ton or two would just be a thin layer on the floor of even a small U-Haul trailer, leaving pretty much the whole trailer space to be filled with household goods - which usually don't weigh much. Make sure it's a two-axle trailer, and keep the whole load including ingots down to the rated gross trailer weight, and you'll be fine. Most removal jobs travel with almost no weight on board, because of their bulk. All you need to do is add some bulkless weight, in the form of lead ingots, to even up the picture. Just be sure to do your weight calculation, and don't overload. Overloading causes tyre blowouts, which are dangerous and aren't any fun either.

Geoff

[Tonto]

I should have been more specific....I now have my ingot supply in my basement. Will need to package them somehow, carry them to a van or moving truck, probably store them temporarily and then load them in a moving van for the ride west. I would like to know if there is a better way to store and haul ingots that need carrying to and from the old/new digs up and down steps. Is there a box size that works best or some bag system? They now rest in neat piles under the bench or in old mail bags too heavy to carry. I figure a 40-50 pound package won 't kill me with multiple trips....just wonder what folks might use for that ideal package? Surely others have faced this issue. Thanks.

[Bullshop]

Ammo cans. The scrap yard on Badger road in North Pole has the 30 cal size at 2 for a buck or the 223 size three for a buck. You should stop by there and get a bunch. I bought a bunch of them for storing brass, primers and ?.
I use them for hauling boolits to gun shows. On the 30 cal size they will hold 20 boolit boxes and full of something like a 500gn 45 cal will run about 80 lbs. The smaller 223 size should be about right for you.
BIC/BS

[R.M.]

You can rent conveyors I think that you can fit through a window. I could just be dreaming here too.
Someone here should be able to verify this.

R.M.

[shooter575]

I like plastic milk cartons to tote stuff around in.Handles work well,easy on the hands.Anything more than two layers would be a load to hump up the stairs.
Know of any highschool jocks looking to prove their manhood?
I was given 3000 lb of soft lead back in the spring.It was in 2" thick X 22" wide pieces. One was 4 foot long.So I feel your pain!

[floodgate]

Tonto:

If they are the standard "1 lb." ingots from the SAECO, LYMAN or RCBS moulds, or the two 1-lb and two 1/2-lb. ones from the Lee mould, you can put them in .30 / 7.62 ammo cans; fill them up until they are a comfortable weight to lift (for me, about 2/3 full - but I am 75). Keeps them nice and shiney, and the carrying handles are relatively comfortable for hauling two at a time up the stairs. They also stack nicely (the cans, as well as the ingots).

floodgate

[Lloyd Smale]

hire some neighborhood kids to haul them to the truck for you!

[zuke]

Neighbourhood kid's, couple case's of pop with pizza and you should have plenty of help.

[NVcurmudgeon]

I had nearly half a ton of ingot to move. I put 100 lb. in each of nine common plastic buckets, put the lids on, and used the space on top for bulky stuff. Now I have a dedicated casting bench in the garage, with room for the same nine buckets underneath. As the garage floor is very smooth concrete, it is no trouble at all for even a feathermerchant like me to slide buckets with up to 150 lb. of ingots each wherever I need them.

[jballs918]

hey just a idea what about the small flat packs from the usps. they are free and it is easy to stack and it is fairly easy to only put in 40 or so pb just a idea

[nighthunter]

Tonto ... I will come and help you with this unfortunate problem. The only thing I ask is that the path from your basement to your source of transportation goes directly behind my pickup truck and that you promise not to be wearing your prescription eye wear. I can be trusted to get at least 50% into your choice of transportation. Honest. .....
Nighthunter

[Tonto]

As always, an idea on the list made sense and I took a step today to implement....with some success too! I called Pat at Pat's Reloading in Massillon, OH and asked about a supply of ammo cans...today I drove down and purchased 50-30 caliber cans and just loaded the first with Lyman ingots and neatly stacked, it easily fit 64 ingots...I will weigh a full can and post, starting with the wheelweights...ultimately have pure lead, lino and salvaged bullet metal to load as well. The can is heavy but compact, neat and stackable, will move and store nicely. Now to figure out packing my loaded ammo mostly in MTM and Midway plastic boxes and my cast inventory packed in those squarish freezer tubs. I'll miss being a short drive from Pat's too, the feeling there was like being at a toy store when I was a kid....Thanks!

[WBH]

Hey....I am in Ohio...give them to me and you won't have to move them. I'll even buy the pure lead.

[Willbird]

I suppose it depends if your basement steps go straight up or have a twist in them, if they go straight up, I would lay plywood on them and use a 2 wheel cart, put the ingots in milk crates, then you can pull the cart up the ramp, and wheel it to the vehicle your using to move stuff, and when you get there, wheel it out. I move 150-200 lb buckets of indoor range scrap that way so 50-100 should be a lot easier to work with. No way would I manually lift that lead and carry it out once on each end unless I had to :-).


Bill

[Tonto]

loading ammo cans mostly with WW and lino but I probably have more than I care to move with so see the Sellin and Swappin Title for some details...thanks!

[toecutter]

Glad you got your issue solved. I had a similar issue when moving recently. I built plywood boxes (I think they were 5/16 thick?) that were 6x6.5x6 (lxwxh) and found I could stack 100 lbs of RCBS ingots in one. Once they were all loaded into thier boxes, I would dump 300 lbs on a hand truck at a time.

[carpetman]

When I was unexpectedly transferred out of Alaska,I had a weight issue. I also had a large amount of bullets cast. I sold bullets to a gun shop and more than recouped what I had invested into casting equipment.