Poll: What do you pay for your lead?

[alha]

I thought I'd post a quick poll for fun about what people pay for their lead. I've heard a range of Free (lucky dogs) to 2 bucks a pound for virgin lead, from places like Rotometals. If you get it at different prices, choose the option that you got the majority of your lead at.

[badbob454]

free from tire stores , must sort out the few lead , and 75c for clean lead from my recycler last time i bought 94 lbs all the clean ingotized lead he had , or dirty lead , ww ,batt clamps 45c lb.

[Sparky141]

i get my lead from 3 places for free , A large tire shop , a you pull it junk yard , and the outdoor pistol berm at our gun club . The best part of the first 2 is they get dropped off at my house . If I get zinc or steel COWW ,the local scrap dealer trades me straight up for lead .

[imashooter2]

I've ranged from free to $10 a bucket which is well under 10 cents a pound. But that is because I've got mine already and could afford to wait for the right deal. A guy without a several thousand pound stash has to buy what he can find in the market at the time he needs it.

[dg31872]

Last week I picked up 255 lbs wheel weights at my local tire store for a nickle a pound, and my best guess is 95% lead and 5% steel, zinc. I get it for the price the local recycler pays for wheel weights.

[btroj]

I have 600 pounds of range scrap I got for free. I paid 40 cents for monotype and 50 cents for lead pipe in the past 3 years.

[lead4me]

I've been real lucky, I was part of a tear out crew for an old factory and the counter balances were dead soft lead. I was told to take all I wanted, I was not casting at the time and only took around 1500lbs wish I knew then....there was TON'S up for the hauling away in 30lb blocks. I have bought some COWW's for cheep and 1.00 a lb for foundry type to sweeten my stash.

[Ole]

I bought most of my lead in '09. Figure about $.60/lb or so average cost.

[BACKTOSHOOTING]

I've got all my base lead, Magnum shot free, I bought lino and scrap pewter for my mix and it's working out to about 30 cents a LB

[bobthenailer]

The last time i bought WW about 3 years ago , i got about 800 lbs, i paid 25 cents a pound but unfortunatly that included zinc & steel WW
Since i retired 2 years ago ive been doing more range mining, previously i was getting about 150 lbs a year in 2011 i got 362 lbs, in 2012 i got 878 lbs i would have gotten more but in September they made improvemrnts to the range and moved alot of dirt around so the lead bank deposit was just about lost ! in October through December i could only get 32 lbs more, I was averageing about 98 lbs a month before that.
when the weather gets into the 50s again , i have about 1,200 lbs of RL to smelt + some other lead i was given.
I will probly not buy any more WW, theres just too much zinc & steel weights in the mix , not to say anything about all the extra work involved , if i can get 3 to 400 lbs a year from the range it will replace the alloy i use for casting bullets for the year and not even break into stach.

[fredj338]

If I buy alloy, I won't pay more than $1/#. More than that, might as well buy my plinking bullets already cast. I personally like trading & getting it free. 2-1. alloy for bullets, works for me.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

my range lead is free but i like to mix with WW lead

[khmer6]

it all depends. sometimes free, sometimes 10c a pound for mixed bucket of wheel weights with steel and zinc included. sometimes i just buy clean ingots for 1$/lb

[TheGrimReaper]

I pay 20.00 for wheel weights and free for pure x-ray sheet lead.

[HighHook]

I have been real lucky for over 34 years of free WW. I think my luck is running out these days...

[alha]

Thanks for the replies guys. I, like many I've read about here, have had an issue getting wheel weight lead from the usual sources (tire shops, etc), so I went to a local metal recycling center near my work, and asked about purchasing lead. They showed me a pallet that has a few tons of wheel weights in three 55gal drums, and talking to the manager, she said she would sell them to me for a buck 5 a pound. I said I felt that was way too high, that I could purchase bulk lead of known quality for a little over that and not have to deal with loading/sorting them, etc. I said I thought 40-60 cents a lb was more what I had expected. I also made sure that I would be able to sell the zinc/steel ones back to her after they had been sorted. She then mentioned to me that the usual lead buyer had just purchased them the day before, but it doesn't take them long to get that many together and she will call me when she has a quantity again, should be within a month or so, and we could discuss the pricing then.

So... here's my question, after standing there looking at 3-55 gal drums basically full of WW, and absorbing the reality of sorting that much lead, I wonder if this would really be worth it, even if I got them at the lower end of my price range. That is a LOT of WW, and no idea what % is good lead, what is Zinc, and what is steel. As long as I can sell the rest back to her at pretty much the same $ I bought them for, I wouldn't be out more than the time it took. But Man, the time.. Has anyone come up with a good way to sort them, other than putting them all into a pot, CLOSELY monitoring the temp and just skimming out the rejects? The thought of hand sorting that much lead is frankly overwhelming... I am in the middle of making a bottom pour melting pot that is going to be 14" wide by 11" tall, so it could handle a decent amount at one time, but would that be the most efficient way to go, especially as I am going to be selling the rejects back to her? Compared to a 55 gal drum, that pot looks pretty inadequate... I appreciate any thoughts you guys might have for me.

[40Super]

I get most of my lead for between .25c and .40c/lb. My indoor range lead comes out to .25c/lb in 5 gal buckets ,but by separating the jackets out before smelting and keeping them bright and clean I get top copper price so they mostly pay for the bucket.
For ww I have hand sorted them, dump a bucket on the floor and start picking. Lots of time though. As long as I'm doing them I take several brands and keep them separate(to a limit) because some are more pure than others and some tend to make harder alloy when I tested them. Kind of a waste of time, doubt I'll do it much again. I had several buckets from an old source so I wanted to keep them out of the newer ones.

[digger44]

Usually .60/lb COWWs

[fallout4x4]

You do have to decide how much is your time worth to you? For some people who have more time than money (like me) it would be a great deal. Definately get it as low as possible, 30 cents or so because your fuel cost will move it up some. But dont let that much lead overwhelm you. If you can afford it, buy it. Do ONE pot per week, the size of pot you stated is 100+ lbs. And before you know it you will be done with a HUGE stack of ingots to show for it.

[captaint]

While I said I pay .75 to 1.00 for my lead,
I don't very often pay at all. I have, on occasion,
paid up, though. So far, I have always gotten WW's
for free. Yes, my fingers are crossed. Mike