Do You Have a Lifetime Supply?

[40-82 hiker]

Due to my worsening spine and pelvis injuries, I am declaring I have enough (pretty sure I do anyway)! I smelted the rest of my CWWs yesterday, and will mine and smelt no more so I can concentrate on casting, reloading, and shooting. I greatly enjoyed the mining and smelting, but need to concentrate on the other aspects of this addiction when healthy enough to do so. Thanks to many on this website who helped me with trades, sales, and info on smelting early on in this endeavor. Selling my ingots when needed paid for my shooting needs and then some lacking income, so it is without a doubt a godsend for me to have had this opportunity. Not to mention the casting lead!

Just to show I am a realist, if given a chance of fate and see a batch of ore in a bucket somewhere needing some tender loving care, I might just have to fire up the burner. 'Till then, though, I'm not actively mining.

Now, as to the poll choice of "hoard for the sake of hoarding", the smiles brought on by the score and seeing that pile of cooling ingots surly transcends any "need", doesn't it? Geez, a hobby unto itself at times, I think.

[lightman]

Sorry to hear about your declining health. I'm kind of in the same boat. The older we get the more we hurt. As to the lifetime supply, I guess that we really don't know. But at some point the addiction causes you to get into the hoarders class! But, maybe somebody else will get a chance at it as long as a caster has it vs a scrap dealer. I've gotten lead from a few different older reloaders and casters over the years.

[Rubino1988]

Never enough I have about 300 pounds

[Retumbo]

Never enough I have about 300 pounds

Thats funny...i think i have close to 3000

[labradigger1]

If I keep making weighted tool bases like these my supply will get lighter, I’m still good for life though.

[lightman]

Making 3# cannon balls will get into your stash too!

[JBinMN]

I have done a bit of thinking due to my health issues also & I think that the 1000 lbs. I currently have in the pile, the boolits I have already cast that are not included in that pile, & the use of multiple boolit traps will keep me shooting until I cannot shoot any more. I will likely not pass up a "deal", but I will certainly think before I purchase much.

Right now, I think other components will now be the focus of any handloading purchases I make in the future.

Although there are still some firearms I would like to have too.
LOL I may be incorrigible... LOL

[Ohiopatriot]

Not a lifetime supply, but added this to my 400lb stash.



Hope to sell them and to buy ignots. New wheel weights are worth a surprising amount, so even 40 or 50 cents on the dollar will do.

[lightman]

Thats a nice score. Care to share the story behind it?

I've got a rule that I won't melt something that more valuable in its original form than the scrap would be. A couple examples are new factory duck decoy weights and factory dive belt weights. So far (40+years) I've stuck with this. An exception might be isotope containers? I occasionally find a new weight in a bucket of old weights that gets melted.

[kevin c]

I asked at the radiopharmacy that sells me their containers why they didn't reuse them: they basically said it wasn't worth it. It may be cost effective to air ship those very expensive and very short lived radioactive materials from the breeder reactors and cyclotrons where they're made to the pharmacy and then to the medical centers where they're used, but afterwards all that remains are empty lead containers. To sort, remove the labeling, inspect and return ship them back for reuse costs way more than just buying a new one, so after the required decontamination they get sold for scrap.

[lightman]

Thats about what I figured and makes sense. Sure do wish I still had a source for them.

[Ohiopatriot]

Thats a nice score. Care to share the story behind it?

I've got a rule that I won't melt something that more valuable in its original form than the scrap would be. A couple examples are new factory duck decoy weights and factory dive belt weights. So far (40+years) I've stuck with this. An exception might be isotope containers? I occasionally find a new weight in a bucket of old weights that gets melted.

I agree, don't melt anything with value you can sell or trade.

A local big tire chain store is going out of business, as they close them they have been forwarding their excess wheel weights to other stores. On a hunch, i stopped in asking for used weights knowing they have EPA rules to follow and won't normally give them up, but i hoped they wouldn't be to concerned about "the rules" during the chaos of liquidating. Sure enough, i scored 2 30 gallon drums of used weights.

We got to talking and i mentioned i own a repair shop and he says, "oh, any interest in new weights?". I'm like, sure, you know thinking a few boxes. He walked me to the storage area and showed me 5 SKIDS of weights, about half steel and half lead. I sheepishly ask, how much? He says $75 and we'll help load. I paid the man and made arrangements to pick them up.

On top of the being lead, zinc and steel weights (plus others the OE use) they come in 8 "styles" for different wheels. I sorted and inventoried them all. Called my suppliers and sold all the steel and the faster moving lead ones to one. 1200 boxes @ $5 a box. That left me with a little profit and 900lbs of clean lead. I figure about 2000lb would be my "lifetime supply" at my age, so I've purchased lead from here as well, to get me close.

Funny thing happened on the way back from delivering the weights last Thursday, i get a call from another closing location asking if i might be interested in a few more weights...... I'll pick up 7 more skids on Tuesday. Oh yeah, 3 more barrels of used to boot. I'm averaging about 130lbs cleaned lead per barrel (x5 at this point).

As mentioned on that other thread, keep looking eventually you might get lucky.

[barrabruce]

Dunno if I have enough to last me.
But if I quit ******* around at the shooting range and only shot food I’d be pretty fat to last out my later years.
Ha��
Should I get a shirt load more now or wait.
2-300 kg’s maybe.
Hard to say.

[kevin c]

Great story there, Ohiopatriot.

Somebody wiser than me told me that good luck is made. Making the effort, following your hunches really paid off in your case.

[truckjohn]

How would I know if I have a lifetime supply or not. .

I may have way too much.... I may run out way early.. .

[kevin c]

Well, gee, truckjohn, I think most here would say just the possibility that you might run out shows you don't have enough

[EMC45]

Counted my buckets this morning. I have 15+ un-processed full 5 and 6 gallon buckets in the shop.

[tecdac]

My shop is in a boatyard.
I buy sailboat keels.
Usually they are 2-3 tons a piece.

So far the supply has been unlimited.

[RoGrrr]

My shop is in a boatyard.
I buy sailboat keels.
Usually they are 2-3 tons a piece.

So far the supply has been unlimited.

C'Mon, tecdac. Keep us in suspense, will ya !
HOW MUCH do you have to pay for them keels ?!?

[triggerhappy243]

does it test pure 99.9% pure lead?