Wheel Weights and EPA

[coffeeguy]

It seems that the pickin's just ain't what they used to be. About a year and a half ago I picked up 65 lbs of wheel weights from my local recycler, and got about 22 lbs. that were usable for boolits; the rest were zinc and steel. This week I stopped by on a whim and saw that metal prices were way down, and bought 55 lbs of WW's...And after sorting them, I had maybe 5 lbs worth of lead WW's which works out to around $4 per pound of boolit alloy. Ouch.

I know I can recoup some of this by waiting for prices to go back up and then re-selling my zinc/steel WW's back to the recycler...But for the immediate future, I'm re-thinking my WW strategy as follows: It seems the lead WW's are really starting to work their way out of the system now. In the past I've melted down a bunch of lead for fishing sinkers, so what I have left are going to be repurposed as boolits, and a bunch of those zinc WW's are going to be turned into sinkers. (Zinc'ers??? Ha ha...) It's really a shame and for now I'm thinking that I'm going to have to plan more of my smelting around fluctuations in the price for scrap lead, etc where I can't score it for free.

[Crazyrcflier]

My scrap yard here wants $.75 a pound to resell lead to the public. I was on the fence about that price.

I already have lots of range scrap lead that I want to try. I also don't think I could buy it, smelt it down and sell it for any profit.

[coffeeguy]

Yeah, mine is buying for $.40 and selling for $.80, which is about as low as it's been over the past few years. Fortunately there's been an abundance of scrap steel, appliances, etc around my area so sometimes I'll just work out a trade and, when I do have to actually buy scrap lead, end up paying around $.50 per pound.

[truckerdave397]

I was digging through the gaylord box of wheel weights about two weeks ago at work and I will say that only about 25 to 35% were lead. I will say that the smaller weights I pass over and just go after the big ones.

[Schrag4]

There's a scrap yard nearby that sells WW for 0.75/lb, and they let me sort through and pick them out myself. I'd say it's 60% lead, 25% steel, 10% zinc, and 5% plastic. Luckily for me, it's 100% lead that I took home (unless I messed up on a few).

Another shop nearby sold me 96lb of WW, unsorted, for 0.30/lb. Great price, but the ratios were about the same so the prices were actually pretty similar when all is said and done. I've called them a few times since then and they never have any. I'll stick with the place that lets me sort them for now. They told me they see 2 or 3 55gallon drums of the stuff come through every month or two - they should have more than I could afford to buy.

[fredj338]

The only way I would buy ww today is if allowed to sort them. IN Kalif, you would be lucky to get 10% if you get them at all. It's been coming, since Kalif banned the lead ww 4yrs ago. SO now it's on to other sources. Always keep your eyes & ears open.

[RogerDat]

Problem with buying a bucket from the WW bin at the yard is the last guy (or two) might have sat right there and picked the lead ones out for his purchase. Then you grab half a 5 gallon bucket of the already picked through leavings.

At $4 a lb. it would make a lot more sense to purchase already smelted COWW ingots from swapping and selling section. Closer to $1 a lb. Use the yard to pick up some plain lead while the price is down to stretch the WW lead.

[ballistim]

Problem with buying a bucket from the WW bin at the yard is the last guy (or two) might have sat right there and picked the lead ones out for his purchase. Then you grab half a 5 gallon bucket of the already picked through leavings.

At $4 a lb. it would make a lot more sense to purchase already smelted COWW ingots from swapping and selling section. Closer to $1 a lb. Use the yard to pick up some plain lead while the price is down to stretch the WW lead.

Amen! I'm done with getting ticked off at how many zinc weights I'm stuck with, wish I'd traded with Shady Grady before he ran out of lead to trade even up.

[coffeeguy]

Amen! I'm done with getting ticked off at how many zinc weights I'm stuck with, wish I'd traded with Shady Grady before he ran out of lead to trade even up.

Yeah, and the $4 per pound net cost of the lead WW's hurt; I'm glad I only got a small batch. Like I said, my plan is to either sell the zinc ones back, keeping some to cast into fishing sinkers, or smelt them and sell them back as zinc ingots since I'll get a much better price. So in the end I'm not really out any money. I think they'll let me pick through the bin in the future, but if the ratio stays as bad as it was the other day I'd rather do my normal trading and pay $.50/lb for scrap lead.

[ballistim]

Yeah, and the $4 per pound net cost of the lead WW's hurt; I'm glad I only got a small batch. Like I said, my plan is to either sell the zinc ones back, keeping some to cast into fishing sinkers, or smelt them and sell them back as zinc ingots since I'll get a much better price. So in the end I'm not really out any money. I think they'll let me pick through the bin in the future, but if the ratio stays as bad as it was the other day I'd rather do my normal trading and pay $.50/lb for scrap lead.

I cast flat sliding sinkers for catfishing & make lead head jigs for walleye as well, I figure I'll see how well they work although the larger size/less weight on the jig heads could be a problem plus I've never cast pure zinc so castability in those molds is a question mark as well.

[kweidner]

I still grab stickys for hand casting soft stuff but in all honesty, I buy ead a ton at a time and have it shipped freight for my bullet master and can get deeply discounted prices at the ton mark. Hardball for plinking and soft stuff for hunting. Probably fire 1000 plinkers for every 1 fired on stand probably even more. Think about it.....by the time you drive to recycler, sort, smelt, and organize, you probably have just as much in it. Less messy and guaranteed proper alloy. How much is your time worth?

[ballistim]

I still grab stickys for hand casting soft stuff but in all honesty, I but lead a ton at a time and have it shipped freight for my bullet master and can get deeply discounted prices at the ton mark. Hardball for plinking and soft stuff for hunting. Probably fire 1000 plinkers for every 1 fired on stand probably even more.

I've been fortunate enough to find large sources of roof flashing and other alloys from two local scrap yards nearby. I've also bought ingots of Linotype, COWW, SOWW, & range lead here on the forum, so I have no need to hassle with raw COWW or worse pay good money for them. I'll still take them when I find them for dirt cheap or free however but that doesn't seem to happen nowadays. Back in the day I managed tire shops and had unlimited access to free WW before zinc was a problem, those were the days along with cheap surplus powder.

[leeggen]

Contact Shadygrady on here and he will exchange zinc for lead.
CD

[ballistim]

Contact Shadygrady on here and he will exchange zinc for lead.
CD

He's no longer swapping lead for zinc, just asked him, he's willing to work out other trades however. PM him if you're interested. I just communicated with him over the weekend.

[prs]

With flat rate shipping to my door for processed lead I can take a little beating on the price per pound considering the fuel and time I save compared to scrounging and rendering scrap. Even with foundry metal at a little over $2.00/# with shipping included, I am probably money and certainly time ahead.

prs

[dtknowles]

What is up the graph on the top of this thread show the price of lead has dropped ten cents since December. Looks like lead is only eighty five cents a pound.

Tim

[bobthenailer]

After smelting my last batch of WW 3 years ago, about 1,200 lbs collected over a few years time. im done buying scrap WW from the tire dealer, not counting the bother and time to sort them, i ended up with over 200lbs of zinc and steel ww + the lost lb in smelted clips, ended up with about 800 lbs of useable alloy.
Since ive been retired ive gone strictly to range berm picking !

[RogerDat]

I sell the sorted steel and zinc weights also the clips skimmed from smelting to the scrap yard. Not for big money but a few bucks that I use to purchase soft lead from the yard.

Tire stores are still the cheapest source I can find and if one has room to accumulate them until it is convenient to smelt a large batch it works out pretty well but then I'm not retired so periodic checks of tire stores fit my schedule better than regular trips to the range for some shooting and berm mining. Which frankly sounds like more fun than tire store WW mining.

[jonp]

I think that on saturday I'm going to spend a couple of hours at a scrap yard here and pick through the barrels of COWW for the lead ones. They are selling it for $.65/lb and if I pick I'm getting all pb

[scottfire1957]

Well, you went to a recycler, instead of hitting the local tire shops yourself and making offers yourself. If you are lazy, you pay more. Simple as that.

I went today to a very small tire shop I've been to before. Not much at all. Today though 15 lbs of wheel weights. Not much in the larger view, but it's 15lbs (after sorting) I didn't have before.

I got it cheap, 30 cents a pound, because I made a contact and followed up.

15lbs here, 15lbs there. It adds up. Get off your ***, and you could do even better.