Stolen ingots! Need your help.

[willie]

I need to know what a milk crate full of melted wheel weight ingots is worth in todays market. I foolishly left some in my rental property and it went missing and I want to add the cost onto the damage bill that is mounting. Thanks in advance!

[Beagle333]

It's been so long since I seen one......... just what was the dimensions of a milk crate, and the shape of the ingots?
A USPS Medium Flat Rate box will hold right at 70# if stacked right. (muffin shaped)

[jonp]

Id like to meet the guy that carried that off. Must have been a couple of hundred pound i would think

[Bzcraig]

Just a guess but I'm thinking the volume of a milk crate is pretty close to that of a 5 gal bucket so my guess is 120-150lbs

[jonp]

Sounds reasonable but if im stealing stuff a 150lb box of lead sounds like too much work and work is what im trying to avoid if im a thief

[rondog]

Lowlifes (aka druggies) will steal anything ​that they think they can sell for drug money or trade outright for drugs.

[Hamish]

If a medium flate rate box with a wooden crate inside will hold 62 pounds of ingots, then a milk crate, (what do you mean you need to know dimensions, doesn't everybody have a milk crate out two around?) then a milk crate should hold *at least* a couple of hundred pounds.

Not only is it worth the intrinsic value of the lead, but it is also worth the added cost of fuel to collect it, fuel to smelt it, etcetera,,,,,,easily worth $300.00.

(If you can actually get a judgement against them, you need to make it worth your while to actually try to recover funds, time, and materials lost on and in the property, not to mention lost rental time,,,,)

[ghh3rd]

Why in the world would anyone want to steal those dangerous, poisonous ingots!?

[kenyerian]

a milk crate holds 4 gals of milk.

[Harter66]

Ive put 3 50cal cans in a typical milk crate. I've put 3 bags of shot in several cans.
So just even w/the bottom of the handle cut outs is 225#. Shot is going for $50/bag . Lino is over $4/lb. WW is available for $1.25-1.50 and pure for a buck/lb. Not long ago at a recycler I got 154# of mostly clean WW,flashing and probably range ingots at 28 cents/lb. Some where between $63 and $337. $200 for an average. Unless it was lino then 900-1000. $475 in hard shot 1125 in Buck 00-000B. Seems like I saw it at $4/lb about 3 yr ago.

[AlaskanGuy]

My milk crates weigh over 300 lbs in 8lb flat ingots.... They dont budge a bit when you push on them suckers...

[hickfu]

I guess it depends on what ingots you are talking about.... I have over 500lbs in mine of the 2lb Lyman ingots and it could hold 600. Muffin's probably 300 to 350 easily.


Doc

[IraqVet1982]

Wait I thought you had four milk crates not just one ;)

[altheating]

I'm with Doc's estimate. I just smelted the other day and did up 250 lbs of ingots. Looking at the pile of ingots that I have, it looks like that's about 1/3 of a milk crate worth. I'm guessing it would hols way in excess of 600 lbs. It will hold em, but you won't move it.

[BDJ]

This steel crate is 12X12 and 11 inches deep. It is a little less than a third full. The mix is 96 percent lead and 4 percent antimony ---- 103 pounds.
I'm going with Doc on this one.
107749

[bedbugbilly]

willie - I feel your pain . . . I had the same thing happen a couple of years ago. I gave a guy some scrap metal to salvage as he and hid family were having some hard times. I went to smelt down two 5 gallon buckets of salvaged flattened lead cable sheathing down only to discover it was missing. It was in an out of the way spot in my shop and I know the guy came back when I wasn't at home and went in and got it. (Stupid me, I didn't lock the shop up as we are in the country and never a problem - I do now). Funny thing is that my wife has run across the guy several times in the grocery store and when he sees her, he turns and goes the other way to avoid her. I'm waiting for the day that I run across him face to face so I can make it very clear to him that I have some more lead for him if he wants to come and get it . . . . only it will be in a "different form" than what he stole.

Your lead probably went directly to the scrap yard and is long gone. Based on what you're saying - I'd put a value of around $300.00 on it. It takes time to smelt, flux, etc. and if you had 200 pounds @ $1.50 / pound - you'd have your $300.

It's too bad that it has come to the point that you have to nail everything down. I leave nothing out now (as far as metal, equipment, etc.) on the farm as someone will come along and steal it for the scrap price. I advertised a piece of equipment on C L - the only time I've used it - and put "phone call only" with no address. I couldn't believe the number of sham text messages I received trying to get the address from me. I had so many that I finally stopped answering them with the instructions to call me. In talking with a friend that's a LEO, he said that they were having fits with such things - people advertising on CL then giving out their addresses by text message, etc only to come home and find the item missing where someone had come and stolen it.

I have rental property as well and have gone through the same as you in regards to things "missing". Best of luck to you and I hope you can at least get a judgement and recover your loss.

[Digger]

I'm with Doc's estimate. I just smelted the other day and did up 250 lbs of ingots. Looking at the pile of ingots that I have, it looks like that's about 1/3 of a milk crate worth. I'm guessing it would hols way in excess of 600 lbs. It will hold em, but you won't move it.

another vote , 600 lbs at least .... I have milk crates stacked , filled completely with two pounders and a cracked slab to testify .....:x

[500MAG]

I saw a post just yesterday about one of the fellas talking about his score of lyman lead ingots at the scrap yard. He paid $.70 a pound. Maybe they were yours. Either way, there's your price.

[C. Latch]

One cubic foot of lead will weigh around 700 pounds depending in alloy. A milk crate full of ingots will easily go 400-600 pounds depending on how well it was stacked.

[rondog]

FWIW - I have a four cavity Lyman ingot mold, I don't know if they're 1lb. or 2lb., never weighed one. But they stack neatly into a .30 cal. GI ammo can, and when those are full they weigh more than enough to suit me, yet I can still rassle 'em around. I should weigh one just for giggles.....

[Pilgrim]

I can't even slide mine on a smooth concrete floor. I guesstimate 500 pounds each. My ingots are the Lyman 1# and 1/2 # (another guess, never weighed them) and the RCBS ingot mould version of the same. Stacked "carefully" to maximize the amount of lead in each. Prolly stupid as I've still got a couple of milk crates sitting around empty and there is no way in hell I'll ever move 'em without emptying them at least 1/2 way.

[dondiego]

I once had a milk crate collapse into ruin from overloading it with ingots. They must have shifted to one side causing the overloaded side to collapse. I prefer the metal 5 gallon buckets now.

[montana_charlie]

FWIW - I have a four cavity Lyman ingot mold, I don't know if they're 1lb. or 2lb., never weighed one.
If you fill the ingot mould totally full it makes a single, segmented ingot that weighs five pounds.

It's one way to make a 'unique ingot' to designate it as a particular alloy.

CM

[MrWolf]

Doc's estimate is good. I have mine in milk crates and they are a mix of cornbread and rcbs ingot moulds. I have probably about 450-500lbs in mine.

[mold maker]

The dimensions of 12X12X11" seams universal, and a cubic foot of solid lead is 749 lbs. There will be a little air space and the height of only 11" together should be about 10% less than the 749 lbs. Depending on the ingot shape and how carefully their stacked, there should be between 550 and 650 lbs per crate.
I've got quiet a few crates full, on dollies, and they will barely roll. I tell everybody, they are to keep the chimney from blowing away from the house in a storm. So far it's worked.

[bangerjim]

Why in the world would anyone want to steal those dangerous, poisonous ingots!?

OMG.......they may extrude it into thin wires and solder copper pipes together with it....and contaminate the entire city drinking water system!!!!!!!!

What is this world coming to???????? Pb terrorism?

banger

[DR Owl Creek]

If you're dealing with someone who could run off with a crate full of lead, I don't think I'd want to stand in their way and tell them NO.

Dave

[rondog]

If you fill the ingot mould totally full it makes a single, segmented ingot that weighs five pounds.

It's one way to make a 'unique ingot' to designate it as a particular alloy.

CM

So, I can assume that the single cavities just filled individually to the top would be approx. 1lb. each? I tried filling the entire mold to the top to make one big segmented chunk but didn't care for the result. The singles are much easier to stack in ammo cans.

[SciFiJim]

What you are looking for is the replacement value of the lead (already in ingot form ready to use). To replace that lead from Rotometals (a sponsor here) is about $3.09/lb. If you are using a ballpark figure of 600 lbs, then the total could easily be $1800.

[lightman]

A milk crate will hold between 600 and 700#. The Lyman style mold make ingots that weigh about 1# unless you fill the whole thing. Processed lead in the classifieds is going for $1 a pound or more. Sorry for your loss.

[willie]

Thank you all for your responses! They were helpfull and interesting. The ingots we from RCBS, Lyman 1 lbs molds and 3 lbs homemade angle iron molds. If anyone in central MN has run across a "good deal" please let me know. You guys are great! Thanks again.

[waynem34]

It was at least a ton 2500 lbs.or better.

[pls1911]

Add the replacement cost of 600 pounds of Rotometals Linotype.
Trust me... a 20 inch cube of minimuffin lead is more than you, a friend, and a hand truck can budge or cuss at.
If you can get the Rotometals settlement, take it and buy the lino, then start collecting roofing lead to allow it with.
60/40 lead/lino is pretty sweet.
This weeks take is about 600 pounds from my own roof (yards of 24" flashing), and 6x 80 pound sheet rolls the contractor over bought.
Added to the other 1200 pounds or so waiting to be smelted to clean up, and another 55 gallon drum full waiting for pickup, I'm about ready to quit collecting, except for pewter, linotype and babbitt material.
Probably won't get back to a smelting day before cold weather returns.