Best source (price and availability) for bulk lead wire?

[NoZombies]

Any idea who has the best prices on bulk lead wire? I want spools of at least 50lbs each of continuous wire. I'd be willing to work with spools as large as 100lbs each, possibly a little more, but they start getting unwieldy after that. I'm happy (and would prefer) to buy largeish quantities to make the price and shipping work out.

Where are you guys getting your lead wire? What are you paying for it?

[ReloaderFred]

I'll PM you with some information.

Fred

[NoZombies]

Thanks Fred!

I'm still looking for other sources or info, I'm interested in bulk quantities, and wouldn't mind buying 1000+ lbs at a time to get a good price.

[ReloaderFred]

You might contact Jake Wilcox, the owner of Rocky Mountain Reloading (RMR) and see if he'll hook you up with his supplier. He's currently making his own 9mm and .223 bullets by the millions, and is using a lot of lead wire. He has some videos posted of his machines in action somewhere on his site, I believe. If you contact him, you can tell him I sent you.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Zbench]

If you have $3000 to spend, you might consider getting a Corbin Hydro press and make your own for free. That's what I do. They aren't in continuous spools, but, you can look past certain things when you are rolling your own for free.

[MIBULLETS]

We get ours from Crown Metal Company Inc in Millwalkee, WI. Ask for bullet wire, they sell quite a bit of it.

[NoZombies]

If you have $3000 to spend, you might consider getting a Corbin Hydro press and make your own for free. That's what I do. They aren't in continuous spools, but, you can look past certain things when you are rolling your own for free.

I've got the hydro press already, but not the extrusion dies. I'm under the impression that it can't make long continuous lengths of wire though correct? I'm needing long(ish) lengths for an automated core cutter. What lengths are you able to get when extruding something like say .312 wire?

[NoZombies]

We get ours from Crown Metal Company Inc in Millwalkee, WI. Ask for bullet wire, they sell quite a bit of it.

Thanks, I'll give them a call!

[DAVE A]

I made an extrusion die for a hydraulic press I built and due to the pressure and heat created by the extrusion process the wire it produces comes out in a continuous coil no matter how many lead slugs I put through it.

[Zbench]

No Zombies, for .312 that would give you a length of wire about 24" long

[NoZombies]

I made an extrusion die for a hydraulic press I built and due to the pressure and heat created by the extrusion process the wire it produces comes out in a continuous coil no matter how many lead slugs I put through it.

This sounds like it could be a solution, could you give a little info on the press and dies?

No Zombies, for .312 that would give you a length of wire about 24" long

10-4 thanks for the info, that would be too short to be practical for my purpose, but I'll keep it in mind for sure.

[DAVE A]

The die is just a tube with a polished reducing die at the end and the punch is a close fitting steel round bar that pushes the lubed slug through the reducing die ,the reducing die is removable so I can make any size wire I want
https://youtu.be/9FuToaWVLW8

[Zbench]

That's how Corbin's works. The amount of wire is limited to the size of the billet. His standard billets are .75" in diameter and 4 inches long. You are somewhat limited on the stroke of the press as far as length, but I know he builds custom presses with longer strokes and bigger diameter cylinders. I often thought if a guy had the space, making one to fit on a cheap log splitter would be no big deal. It's not rocket science, the length of wire is directly related to the volume of the lead billet you start with.

[NoZombies]

That's how Corbin's works. The amount of wire is limited to the size of the billet. His standard billets are .75" in diameter and 4 inches long. You are somewhat limited on the stroke of the press as far as length, but I know he builds custom presses with longer strokes and bigger diameter cylinders. I often thought if a guy had the space, making one to fit on a cheap log splitter would be no big deal. It's not rocket science, the length of wire is directly related to the volume of the lead billet you start with.

Yeah, I've been considering making a larger press to make the wire myself. There's some kind of sweet spot (apparently) where the lead wire gets heated enough in the process to become a continuous extrusion even with the addition of new billets. I was hoping that the Dillon press would be able to hit that sweet spot, but everyone who talks about it says that the wire length is limited by the billet size.

What I don't now is where that sweet spot is that is both practical in a small shop, but large (powerful?) enough to make the continuous extrusion. I guess these questions would be the subject of a new thread really...

[B R Shooter]

We get ours from Crown Metal Company Inc in Millwalkee, WI. Ask for bullet wire, they sell quite a bit of it.

+1, good people, good price

[deltaenterprizes]

I made a Die with a 1” bore and can do one pound billets.
I use a 20 ton press with an air over hydraulic jack to extrude the wire.

[BlackoutBuilder]

Hi there. I lost track of you. A few years ago, you made a custom expander for a Lee die for the .40, as I was having leading issues with it. I've still got it, still use it, and have run about 35,000 rounds through that gun alone, and another 5-7,000 out of the M&P. Thank you for that part.