Scrap lead smelting for finished ingot trade value?

[dave33]

Looking for some insight if this would be a worthwhile idea to pursue. I have access to lots of bullet splatter range scrap. Its basically 100% handgun bullet splatter, pretty clean, not much in the way of dirt mixed in, some copper jackets etc. I would love to smelt this down and try casting but there is just no way I could possibly find the time to do it. If I provided the lead for someone already set up to smelt, what would be a reasonable deal to work out. Perhaps whatever weight in scrap I provide, get back 1/2 of it in clean ingots? Or would that be way off base?

I would probably need to find someone fairly local to do this to make sense but if its not worth pursuing I will go on to my next great idea.

Guess I should add, right now I have collected about 150lbs of scrap, if thats not enough to get started I could probably have another 100lbs or more collected in the next month or two pretty easily.

It looks like this:

[Walter Laich]

I agree a local smelter would be the very best idea. shipping would eat up the value pretty quickly (back and forth for you part of the split)

Back in the day I did my own smelting in my pot. Was always having to empty it and clean it out but it worked for me till things improved

good luck

[DerekP Houston]

I agree shipping would probably kill the deal. Why not just buy some ingot lead from S&S to try out before you stock up more? Ive melted some range scrap down but for me it isn't worth the time and effort either. Hopefully someone local will help you melt it all down.

[OS OK]

I think you have an excellent idea and equitable to both. If I were a neighbor within 50 miles or so I'd jump at the deal. Especially since you intend to keep the collection going...I bet someone will reply and you will have a deal soon.
That lead 'as is' should be just fine for non magnum pistols.

[dave33]

I agree shipping would probably kill the deal. Why not just buy some ingot lead from S&S to try out before you stock up more? Ive melted some range scrap down but for me it isn't worth the time and effort either. Hopefully someone local will help you melt it all down.

I kind of put the cart before the horse and collected a bunch of lead before I was set up to do anything with it. Going on 6-8 months its still sitting around and Im not finding the time to get to it. Figured if it was already in ingot form finding the time to try casting would be more likely. With a full time job, two little kids and a wife that need attention, its hard to fit much more into my day. Only saving grace is I function well off little sleep.

[dave33]

I think you have an excellent idea and equitable to both. If I were a neighbor within 50 miles or so I'd jump at the deal. Especially since you intend to keep the collection going...I bet someone will reply and you will have a deal soon.
That lead 'as is' should be just fine for non magnum pistols.

Thats what Im looking for, mainly 9mm pistol boolits that I will powder coat myself.

[merlin101]

If you were closer I'd go for it, 50/50 or if your were a little farther we could work something like meet somewhere and I pick up 100 lbs of 'ore' and hand over 40lbs of ingots. Unfortunately your a little to far for that. Good luck and keep looking , you'll find someone.

[DerekP Houston]

Thats what Im looking for, mainly 9mm pistol boolits that I will powder coat myself.

I hope you know 9mm is one of the more difficult pistol rounds to start with =). I'd be happy to send you some unsized 9mm cast bullets, I have no intention of using them. They are already coated, but it would give you a chance to start with before you get around to casting em yourself. Shoot me a PM if you want.

[OS OK]

That lead looks awful clean as it is. With a little effort to prepare it for the cast pot, cleaning out obvious junk and lightly blowing out the majority of the dirt, I don't see why you couldn't use it 'as is' for your casting, especially since you intend to PC the cast boolits. The worse that could happen is that the bottom pour pot starts to dribble from debris caught there and you'd have to empty and clean the pot.
You would have a more stable hardness overall if it were all blended and cleaned first though. Why not give it a try once just for giggles?

[project]

If I were closer I would defiantly do it. I have a 900lb bottom pour pot and could make quick work of it.

[runfiverun]

keep collecting it, get all you can.
store it in the 5 gallon buckets.
you'll find someone.
you might even be able to swap it to a caster for finished boolits at a 3-1 ratio or something like that.

little kids are closer to the ground, it's easy and fun for them to pick more of them up.
just get them a pair of gloves and let e'm go at it.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Yep, if you can find a caster near you that can do a labor for ingots swap, that'll be the way to go. I've done that with one friend who came across a couple 60 lb boat anchors, which seemed to be made of cast wheel weight alloy in (circa 1970s) coffee cans. I got 80 or so 1 lb ingots, he got about 1000 lubed ingots that were about 210gr. measuring .411 round

[triggerhappy243]

Dave33, if you have 150 pounds of what is in the picture, you have about 115 pounds of ingots. and about 25 pounds of copper. I do my smelting after 7pm when it cools off a bit. takes me about 3 hours per batch start to finish. each batch is 60 pounds of lead. A cast iron pot on a turkey fryer burner is the way to go. The young kids will be in bed with no worries.

[just.don]

I might be interested. I'm in lexington. PM me.

[Walter Laich]

Does your wife want another hobby?? Great way to bring her in

[lightman]

I was going to comment but I see you have an interested member so I'll be quiet and let you guys make your own deal. Local would be best as shipping both ways would eat up a lot of your savings. This has the potential to be a good deal for both of you, Good Luck!

[2wheelDuke]

If you were local I'd find a way to help. I let one local guy use my setup and showed him the ropes for a while until he got going. Once he was up and going on my smelting pot, I went over to my pot and cast some boolits and showed him that process while his WW melted. Then I showed him coating and gave him some boolits to get started with. He did insist on leaving some ingots after that, so that wasn't bad.

[imashooter2]

I just don't understand the replies so far. The labor is far and away the most valuable part of range scrap ingots. I wouldn't give you more than 15 cents a pound for the raw material.

[melloairman]

I have 2 well now 3 lee pro 20 pots . One I have smelted over 5 tons of range strap in . Well let me restate that to say I now have over 5 tons of clean ingots from the smelting . Takes some time . But I am retired so I have the time . Some say I am retarded for doing it . But this was done in town and no one really noticed the 3 years I was doing it in town .Marvin

[bangerjim]

........and people on here are always whining about running out of Pb!!!!!!!!

It's everywhere!

Find somebody F to F to do this. Shipping will kill you. Just keep hoarding. You will find a use someday.

And listen to the comments 'bout 9mm!!!!!!!!!