5 Gallon bucket of wheel weight price??

[Steve E]

I know it varies from place to place but what is the going rate for a 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights? I might be able to get one in a couple of weeks for $30.00.

Steve...........

[bangerjim]

Refined lead ingots of WW's normally go for $1/pound. You will probably get a 60-70% yield if you are very VERY lucky, what with all the Zn and Fe weights today.

Pricing by the bucket has way too many variables.

bangerjim

[sdcitizen]

I pay $30 per bucket if it is within an inch of the top. Around here that yields an average of 90 lbs of clean lead.

[Jupiter7]

$25-30 is reasonable. I paid $10 for a 3/4 full from local Co-Op that has a tire shop.

[shoot-n-lead]

I average about $35 per full 5gal bucket and it will average yielding about 105lbs of clean lead...works out to be less than a nickel a bullet for lead after buying the propane to render it.

[truckerdave397]

I average about $35 per full 5gal bucket and it will average yielding about 105lbs of clean lead...works out to be less than a nickel a pound for lead after buying the propane to render it.
I think you need to check your math.

[shoot-n-lead]

I think you need to check your math.

I need to check my post...meant to say less than a nickel per bullet...not pound.

[DrCaveman]

I need to check my post...meant to say less than a nickel per bullet...not pound.

Even still...you got some BIG boolits or expensive propane!

$35 worth of propane (about 20 gallons) would get you 1400 boolits @ 525 grains, for a cost of 5 cents a boolit

Am i missing something?

Oh, and those are some frickin good deals you guys have there! Last shop i wandered into about wheel weights said yeah he had...yeah hed sell em...but only by the 5 gallon bucket full. All lead, no zinc, he promised. $200 out the door.

I quickly walked out and drove to my standby tire shop, $.75 per pound, pretty good yield. Things sure are different around the country

[shoot-n-lead]

Even still...you got some BIG boolits or expensive propane!

$35 worth of propane (about 20 gallons) would get you 1400 boolits @ 525 grains, for a cost of 5 cents a boolit

Am i missing something?

Oh, and those are some frickin good deals you guys have there! Last shop i wandered into about wheel weights said yeah he had...yeah hed sell em...but only by the 5 gallon bucket full. All lead, no zinc, he promised. $200 out the door.

I quickly walked out and drove to my standby tire shop, $.75 per pound, pretty good yield. Things sure are different around the country

I said lead cost...should have said total bullet cost...was thinking in terms of hunting rounds (which I mostly shoot) lead cost is about 1.4 cents per round and gas check runs about 3 cents...that equals less than a nickel per bullet...I hope this is clear.

[Lead Fred]

Last bucket I bought was $22,

My Daughter gets me them for free.....

See is such a good girl

[Steve E]

Thanks for all the input, I believe I will get it when it becomes available. Looks like a nice cold weather smelting job.

Steve............

[jonp]

I paid an est. 50cents/lb for last ones i bought. With the gas to go get them and time melting i was happy enough to pay that again

[Green Frog]

This question and variations of it come up so often, perhaps it should be a sticky(?) Also, to the OP, you might want to look under "Lead and lead alloys" since this topic comes up there quite often as well, including discussions of the "quality" of the mix of WWs you get. A bucket 1/2 full of steel weights and floor sweepings is no bargain. :(

Froggie

[CRA]

$20 in my neck of the woods and some pizza for the other place that don't ask for money. I also ask around to find friends of a friend that work on cars. They might let you have them too

[W.R.Buchanan]

Wow, I guess times have changed,,, The last haul I did was 11 buckets for $20. That yielded 410ea. 2lb Ingots and should last me for a while. It was a good deal from a friend who worked at a Sears Tire Store.

Now tin is another story. Luckily I only need the tin for the long skinny boolits. The short fat ones seem to pour just fine with strait WW.

I smelted all of that lead in about 6 hours with a Turkey Fryer, and everything was going just fine until I dumped the last 1/4 bucket into the pot and found that it was half full of Gear Oil!

Never seen so much smoke in all my life! My wife came flying out of the house screaming ***!!! Luckily I was doing all this in the breezeway between my garages and the wind blew all the smoke away in a couple of minutes.

Things were tense for a while though.

I tend to smelt lead or Cast boolits on July 4th or Labor Day. Just one of my peculiarities.

Randy