I actually turned down a bucket of wheel weights today

[scotner]

< around here not much lead left at the tire shops @ 10% is lead of some kind, the rest is garbage ...>

That sounds all too familiar. This lot is looking much different than what I got from the same place a couple of months ago. So far there is just enough lead in it to cause me to question my first impression that I was not the first scrounger to go through those buckets.

[MaryB]

I sort by dumping the bucket on the floor, then I go over it with a powerful magnet on a stick and pick out all the steel. Then I shovel them into a pile and start hand sorting to get the zinc out. The magnet occasionally grabs a clip on a lead weight but they are easy to see when sort because I test the end of the weight against the magnet as I pull them off.

[scotner]

I sort by dumping the bucket on the floor, then I go over it with a powerful magnet on a stick and pick out all the steel. Then I shovel them into a pile and start hand sorting to get the zinc out. The magnet occasionally grabs a clip on a lead weight but they are easy to see when sort because I test the end of the weight against the magnet as I pull them off.

The magnet that I use picks up everything including any clip on weights that it gets near. I do use it like you said touching the end of a weight to the magnet. I don't have too much trouble sorting out the steel. There is just so dang much of it this time. I poured one bucket at a time into my wheelbarrow to spread them out. Then I can sit on a 5 gallon bucket with several more buckets around me and deal them out like 5 card stud.

Reminds me of a time before I retired. I was in maintenance and between calls supervision was happy to have us in the work area and allowed us to pull up a 5 gallon bucket and sit down. They were metal buckets and had "5 U.S. Gallons" stamped on the bottom. We had a really slow day and one of my buddies said when he got home and undressed to shower his wife wanted to know why he had "Us Gals" stamped on his backside.

[TexasGrunt]

My "sorting" table is the same size as those oil drip pans at Walmart. It's tall enough I can get my legs under it and sit in my nice comfortable chair and sort weights.

I cover the oil drip pan in newspaper, dump the weights and start sorting. The newspaper makes cleanup easy as I just roll it up and throw it away.

It took me less than an hour to build the table.

Work smarter, not harder.

[RP]

Guys I think if your going to get any lead you better get it now before all the lead WWs are gone. Whats going to be left to get ? Range lead medical lead roofing and plumping lead and foundry lead. That is the sources I can think of off the top of my head well the scrape yard but buying it before it gets there should be cheaper.
One of my local scrape yards would sell to me from time to time but I was told some guy made a deal with the owner to buy all his pure lead at a set price and I know he owns two yards both are fairly large yards. So I wonder what this guy is doing with the lead, When I asked the guy I was looking at a easy 10 plus tons sitting to the side.

[dbosman]

Render your weights on the hottest days when the neighbors are all inside with their AC blasting. They shouldn't smell a thing. In Michigan, we can, but I don't, render on the cold days when people are snuggled up inside.

smelting in the city isnt so good my neighbor didnt like the smell , now i figure i will need to go to the public range to smelt , away from the shooters , around here not much lead left at the tire shops @ 10% is lead of some kind, the rest is garbage ...

[scotner]

Guys I think if your going to get any lead you better get it now before all the lead WWs are gone.

Judging from this lot I may be too late.

[308Jeff]

Judging from this lot I may be too late.

I stumbled into a fellow caster's "turf?" the other day. Hit a couple of tire stores next to each other in Scottsdale and both of them told me someone had just picked them up the day before.

[Plate plinker]

Get yourself a PID controlled smelter and sorting gets easy.

[scotner]

Get yourself a PID controlled smelter and sorting gets easy.

I have a PID for casting but I smelt with a turkey fryer. I don't think there is a practical (cheap) way to do that. Besides, this will probably be the last time I mess with this. Not enough lead to justify the effort.

[scotner]

In the end it looks like about 40% to no more than 50% lead in this lot. A little disappointing and not a very good return on the money. Today I took the scrap to the scrap yard. Two buckets at least 3/4 full. Weighed in at 176# and brought $22. HOWEVER, as I was leaving I spotted a couple of people pulling what appeared to be lead pipe from the back of their truck. I went over to see whether it was pipe or telephone cable. It was lead pipe, and not too nasty. After mentioning that I would offer a better price than the scrap dealer I followed them inside. It weighed 135# and the dealer offered $27. I offered $30 and took it home. I spent the rest of the afternoon smelting the pipe into 3# ingots. It made me feel a little better after the wheel weight let down.