Alloy Scrounging - an Australian field report.

[sthwestvictoria]

Being new to casting, I had to locate some base metal for transmution to boolits.
I have been slowly picking up bits and pieces - some soft lead roof flashing, old sinkers from yard sales. While also on the look out for pewter and smelting utensils.

Last week I popped into the two tire shops in my small country town. One place obviously has people come in for casting - fishing and shooting purposes. He stated $AUD10 per bucket. I had a rectangular mop type bucket that ended up holding 29.4kg (68.4 pounds - $AUD 0.34/kg or $AUD 0.15/lb). So pretty happy with that. Very clean, nil trash other than 1.4kg of Fe/Al/Zn weights when sorted.



The small tin contains the Fe/Al/Zn weights, gratifyingly only 4.7% of the haul from this bucket - a marked difference to what US members are reporting with more Fe/Al/Zn than lead for some people. However it will likely happen here in Australia in time.



The other shop in town gave the a bucket for free but this was nearly all rubbish - valve ends, dirt, cigarette butts with only 2kg of WW. Free however at that.

The WW smelted today into my new muffin pans will be tested with the Staedler technique after a week or two of aging.

I have been able to pick up a bit of Selangor pewter as well so will be able to start a ACWW plus 2%tin alloy operation soon.

Next goal at the yard sales is a bigger smelting pot and gas stove.

[gbrown]

Congratulations on a great find! Love the look of that pewter, also. Something I'm always looking for. Good work! Great looking alloy.

[runfiverun]

i am pretty sure the ones with AL on them are marked that way for aluminum rims.
they are usually painted so the lead don't react with the rims.
scrape them on the cement you'll feel the lead grab at it.

[John in WI]

That would be my suggestion too--I've seen lead WW that had some kind of thick paint on the clip, I think so it wouldn't scratch or react with aluminum.

Good haul though! The only local source I could find recently was an actual metal recycler--they had some lead alright--a forklift ballast for one of those outdoor fork lifts. The guy said "that's what I got, take it or leave it!"

I love some boolits--but 4000# of lead and it would end up in divorce!

[sthwestvictoria]

i am pretty sure the ones with AL on them are marked that way for aluminum rims.
they are usually painted so the lead don't react with the rims.
scrape them on the cement you'll feel the lead grab at it.

I think that in Australia these really are steel, not coated lead. Even though they have Al stamped on them. They don't yield to the cut test with some diagonal cutters and feel too light for their size for lead but the are are magnetic.

[WHITETAIL]

Try the cut test.
And if there is any doubt
put them in a seperate can
and sell them to the recycler.

[ssnow]

They look like steel weights to me. Test with a magnet, just so you know for future reference.

[Wal']

sthwestvictoria, your little haul has given me the confidence to tackle my own local tyre outlets, have been relying on range lead up till now.

I'm in Nth East Victoria so I'm guessing were not going to cross paths in the seach for that elusive lead supply.

[sthwestvictoria]

sthwestvictoria, your little haul has given me the confidence to tackle my own local tyre outlets, have been relying on range lead up till now.

I'm in Nth East Victoria so I'm guessing were not going to cross paths in the seach for that elusive lead supply.

I would go for it Wal. As the writings of our American cousins suggest, the lead WW is getting scarce there and like most trends it will come to pass here.

The local chaps were very happy and obviously had other people in. I was straight with them that this was for bullet casting and we talked a bit about making bullets the old fashioned way.

I then got the WW home, did have to hand sort them with a magnet and pair of diagonal cutters to test the suspect ones. Fortunately still nearly all proper WW and little non-lead ones currently.

These were then melted in a cast iron pot over a camping stove. A blowtorch from above helped get things going until there was a good lead puddle in the pot.

I found that when nearly all the weights were softened, adding sawdust flux helped the steel clips to separate and they then floated on the lead with the burnt sawdust for skimming off.

[Wal']

You could be right with the lead becoming scarce, especially when Gillard gets wind of us casting.

She'll slap a carbon tax on casting.

[sthwestvictoria]

I have now smelted all the WW from my first pick up.

I have ended up with 21kg of clean, fluxed WW lead in muffin tin ingots, each about 800grams.

I was surprised how much the steel clips made up weight - 8kg in this batch or just under 1/3 .