Current lead price

[AmericanPatriot]

Hello all,

I am new to boolit casting, and really just learning, so I am looking for lead to stock up with, rather than jump right in and start casting.

What is a good price to "stock up" on lead at?

I found a site online that claims the price of lead is about $0.85 per pound.

I have found a couple of local sellers on craigslist that have lead for around $1.00 per pound.

Should I be looking for less, maybe around $0.50, since I don't have an immediate use for it?

[Trey45]

Welcome to the forum.

If you can find lead at 50 cents a pound, buy every piece of it you can get. If you can't buy his entire inventory, tell the rest of us where you're finding lead at that price so we can buy some too.

[AmericanPatriot]

I haven't yet. The only 2 sellers I've found are about $1.00 per pound, with no guarantee of how pure it is. Is that still a good price to buy a bunch at?

If I buy 5 pounds to test (melt), and it's an alloy, will the metals still separate at the melting temperature of lead or will I have to get it hotter to get the metals to separate?

[SkookumJeff]

If you live in a state where lead wheel weights are still legal, I would NOT pay $1.00 a pound. Look for lead from tire dealers, offer them .50/lb or less.

I live in the feminist utopia of Washington (FUWA) where government is run by women and all things green are revered. Wheel weights have been made illegal in this state. Ebay won't even ship wheel weights to FUWA. Sooo...shopping around on the internet for scrap lead I've been paying $1.00/lb for clean lead (price includes shipping). That is approx the same price on Craigslist in this area on the rare occasion when someone sells scrap lead. Lead goes quickly when it does show up on Craigslist. I envy people who can still collect wheel weights. That said, IMHO the clock is ticking, lead wheel weights are on their way out, get em while you can. I was also paying $1/lb for lino off of Ebay, but I haven't seen that price for awhile now, I just bought 120 lbs of lino @ $1.50/lb shipped. I didn't want to pay that much, but I need it for alloying with the pure lead I have and given the state of printing these days, I figure lino is becoming scarce. That's been my experience over the last year or so...I try to buy pure lead. If I can't find pure lead, then I buy ingots smelted from range scrap. I have no way to analyze metal content, so I use the 'fingernail' test to determine what I get, pure lead is quite soft. I've not had any problems, and I've purchased about 1/2 a ton of lead over the last year, all by mail.

BTW, IF you start buying lead mail order, you'll get to know your US mail carrier! Mine is a small woman, a real nice person, so I try to be home when I know I have 60 lb boxes of lead coming, so I can unload her truck for her. I don't want my mail lady hating me....;)

[AmericanPatriot]

Thanks, they are still legal in my state. I'll look that route.

I have watched a couple of videos online about smelting, and I wonder how much work it really is and how much fuel it really takes to separate the wheel weights (as opposed to short video clips). How long will a pan of lead have to heat before being liquid to skim off the dross and then pour? If I have it over an outdoor wood fire, will that work? I just don't want to spend hours to smelt say 100 lbs of tire weights.

If I could pour them in the pan and 5 minutes later they are ready, cast into ingots, and repeat, that would be nice (and seems even "fun") :-)

Of course, if I use a wood fire, then I still have to build some sort of frame to set the pan on.

[OuchHot!]

Generally, people refer to "swaging" as pressure forming and it is distinct from "smelting" where you are melting lead, cleaning it and putting it into a convenient form (ingot) for further use. Smelting comes down to how big a pot and how big a heat source. A 10# pot on an electric stove can take 15-30min to liquify. A 10# pot on a gas burner with 20k btu can be liquid in 5-10min depending on outside temps. If you are smelting 20-30# it might take 20min on a 20k btu burner. A wood fire can produce a lot of heat and if your pot is resonably located in a stiff fire, I would expect 20min per pot with the size of the pot determining the size of the fire. It is a real problem to try to hoist a 50# pot full of really hot stuff and pour it with any precision! If you do quantities of lead smelting on a wood fire, I recommend you think the process through first and have help just for safety sake.

[MtGun44]

"Liquid to swage"? Hmm. I think you have the terminology crossed up. Swaging is cold
forming metal into a different shape with high forces. I think you are talking about
melting down raw wheelweights to make ingots. This is called smelting around here.

Smelting over a wood fire would work but most folks use some sort of propane or coleman
stove. One problem with smelting over wood is that apparently with the new zinc alloy
wwts in the mix, you want to melt the wwts at the lowest possible temperature to avoid
melting the zinc into the mix and ruining a whole batch. Zinc can't be removed from a batch
if it melts in. If you keep the temps low, the zinc wwts will float on the lead and you can
pick them out.

Wood can be an inexpensive fuel, but it would be hard to control the temps very
closely. Do not use aluminum pans or pots for smelting, it gets real weak up near
lead melting temps and can fail.

Bill

[olafhardt]

I have no real experience coming up with a bazillion pounds of lead; however, Ido have enough wheel weights to meet my modest needs. I got these by taking some kind of bucket when ever I get a car serviced and asking for them. They GIVE them to me. Works for me.

[ku4hx]

There are resources all over the internet, but one of the very best "beginners" manual you can buy is Lyman's "Cast Bullet Handbook". It's worth every penny. Cost you about $16+S&H.

[sqlbullet]

I can generate about 100-150 lbs of clean ingots an hour using my dutch oven and a propane burner. It is best done in the fall/winter/early spring when it is cool otherwise it is a hot, sweaty chore.

A wood fire will work, but will have very poor temperature control. As MtGun44 pointed out this will put you are risk for zinc contamination, more so since you are new and may not catch them all. Second, the hotter the melt get's the faster the precious elements oxidize out, depleting the quality of your lead. Fluxing will put some back in via oxygen reduction reaction, but not all.

I started with an old coleman white gas campstove and an 8" cast iron skillet. Scrounging doesn't apply just to lead, but to most of the tools we use.

[41 mag fan]

Why not just go and buy some off the sponsors on this forum??
You'll know when you buy from them you are getting what they are selling that way.

[happyret65]

To answer your question in a way that best meets your needs - if you need it and don't have to drive a long ways to get it then pay a reasonable price. When you can't find any lead to buy, then it becomes like our primer situation is now overpriced beyond belief. Getting into this game late makes it a financial disaster for you. I got lucky the other day and found 1,000 lbs of dead soft for .35 cents a lb. Good luck.

[smokemjoe]

I have some lead from house roofs that has tar and shingles on yet, called junk yard, they pay .25 a lb., copper pipe $2.50 ,brass $1.50, alm. .52 and steel .08, Didnt sell yet. Joe

[prs]

The US Postal Service is about to quash the good deal we get on shipping in the 70# or less express boxes. In January, of 12 the rates will go WAY up.

prs

[Lizard333]

Look on the Swappin and Selling section here. There is almost always someone selling ingots shipped to your door for a buck a pound. Not a bad deal. Flea Bay can be a gamble, you have to be careful about melting Zinc in with your wheel weights, as this lead does not make very good boolits. People here take better precautions. Roto metals at the top of the page is one of our sponsers here and is a great place to get exactly what you are looking for. Your going to pay top dollar, but you get what you pay for.

Make sure if you do get some WW's, sort out the Steep WW's, ad te Zinc ones. You will also want to sort between stick on WW's, as they are almost pure lead, much softer, and the Clip on WW's. If you arre really anal, you will want to sort your bigger truck WW's are they are different again. Me, I just melt all of the Clip on WW's and call it a day.

Get your self a turkey fire burner and cast iron pot, make sure not to beat it when it hot, and got to town. Stay out of the smoke, as it will make you sick, don't ask.......

Most of all, have fun and ask a lot of questions