I called a tire shop today and asked if they had any wheel weights. Guy on the phone said they had some, so I went in. Total weight including buckets was 253 pounds. One bucket was completely full and the other one was 2/3 full. I told them I was going to get a couple buckets and write my phone number on them. They seemed eager to give me their used wheel weights.
Sometimes you get lucky. I have a couple small shops i get them from. They don't get a lot but any helps. Most shops here have a contract with the battery suppliers to pick them up and will not even sell them.
if they gave them to you, as least buy them a pizza lunch so the supply doesnt dry up.
if you are ever being chased by a taxidermist, don't play dead
That's the plan.Originally Posted by rancher1913
Congratulations! Nice Score.
Congrats on finding a new source.
Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.
Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.
Feedback page http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...light=RogerDat
Congratulations. That's nice score!
There's a small tire shop that will give them to me for free but with 2/3rds of it being steel and zinc it is not worth it. At my local recycler I can (and do from time to time, because I'm a lead hoarder) buy wheel weights for .50c a pound and ingots at .60c a pound. I keep thinking that one day I may regret it but at my current rate I have more than I'll ever get to shoot.
I keep going there because every once in a while they have more valuable stuff on the lead buckets. I'm hoping to find a bucket of lino or more solder bars.
Was just given 3 buckets of wheel weights on Friday and in the process of getting it melted down into ingots.
Total weight (unsorted): ~120 lbs per bucket (360 total)
Stick-on (sorted): 54 lbs yielded 51.3 lbs
Clip-on (sorted): 154 lbs should yield about 120 lbs have about 1/2 processed for 60 lbs
Other (steel, zinc, junk): 152 lbs
Cost: Bottle of Crown for the owner and a couple dozen donuts for the maintenance department.
Not worth free? I don't understand that, if 1/3rd of a hundred pound bucket is lead that's 30+ pounds of lead for nothing except sorting. I'm all about free lead.
I occasionally will get some wheel weights from a tire place. A lot of them are zinc, been seriously considering throwing them aside until I get a sizeable amount and breaking out the sinker molds.
I did a few buckets of that stuff. It is filthy work with a ton of garbage and toxic dust to sort through and dispose of. All the added handling of loose bits and pieces feels like added risk to turning my property into a toxic waste site. When I get a clean bucket from the recycler I can pretty much go straight into smelting. Buying cleaner ready to smelt stock saves me time and effort best spent elsewhere and reduces my exposure to nasty stuff.
Then there's the fact that I can buy it for .50c a pound. If it was a dollar a pound I would be a lot more inclined to go through the 'free' buckets. There is also the fact that I like going to the recycler to see what goodies are stuck on the lead buckets. So far I have found a few solder bars and rolls and keep hoping I'll find a bucket full of linotype for cheap. Buying from him on a regular basis keeps that line of communication open.
I guess I'm different? Sorting dirty weights don't bother me. I rather enjoy it, in fact. I've also sorted enough that it goes pretty fast for me! Same thing goes for brass. The last partial bucket of weights that I got had about a cup full of brake fluid dumped into it. Yuk, it was kind of messy! Prolly smoke too, this winter when I get around to melting them.
I expect that I'm well past needing lead but I still enjoy the chase. And the score! I mostly just try to score enough to cover my current needs but if you don't have a lifetime supply you should still be actively looking.
It's hard to have a life time supply if you don't know how long you'll live. In my twenties I purchased a life time supply of razor blades. They only lasted forty years. Bad planning on my part I guess.
Its all in how you look at it.
If I could make $75 hour and or have access to more hours and over time i probably would just buy alloy.
i have not paid much of any cash out of pocket for used lead. I have not driven off my daily path much more than a few times to get lead.
You can get pallet of recycled lead known alloy for $1.49 shipped by the ton or right now they have alloy#2 for $2.10lb per ton.
i just sorted and smelted 3 buckets.
Had a total lead smelt of 140lbs.
All was free. Including a partial full 30lb LP tank
In all I spent 3 hours sorting ,melting, pooring all while doing some general cleaning and maintenance in the area.
To buy the recyled alloy at 1.49lb I would need to make a extra $210ish bucks. Or $70_hour or so.
Now since my lead pile has increased to a point where I dont think I could ever shoot it all I cherry pick the buckets for the big easy to spot lead weights. Then scrap the rest.
So things get weird at scrap yards sometimes. Local place was paying .13lb for used unsorted dirty wheel weights. So in I went. While there ended up talking to another srapper and he had a bucket full of lead wheel weights. I offered him to trade his bucket for mine. Took that all most all lead home and he got his .13 cents lb for my steel/sinc/trash.
All happy now.... So for a ride i take everyday i scored more lead and got to scavange through the scrap at the yard.
This is frustrating as the scrap is well picked through or accounted for generally.
My problem is that I can buy it for a lot less than that, .50c a pound for wheel weighs, .60c a pound for ingots. Then as a bonus I keep finding chunks of solder stuck on those buckets, the last one had a few pounds of 50/50.
But I went and got a bucket an a half from the shop that let me have them, about 180 pounds. Based on previous experience less than half will be lead so I may net 70~80 pounds. I meant to get started on it this weekend but the salmons are back, gotta do some fishing. Also gotta do some gardening, the plants are not going to take care of themselves. And work on my cars, got a few projects going. Let's not forget reloading, gotta do that. Some hiking would be nice. And four wheeling. The house needs upkeep, not to mention some hoke improvements I have on my to-do list. Oh, and I have a few buckets of sorted lead I need to smelt, I actually enjoy doing that.
I think I'm going to wait for the next buddy that is into reloading coming over and I'm going to give him the buckets. I can buy that lead for $35 bucks or so but ultimately what I'm really buying is about hour and a half of salmon fishing which ill do tomorrow morning.
Good Luck with the fishing!
Like I have said, I rather enjoy sorting wheel weights. It gets easier and faster after you have sorted several buckets. I'm also still getting a good ratio of lead vs other. That helps! I also enjoy smelting them. Its gotten harder for me and nowadays I usually wait on a buddy to help. Thats not too hard because I have a few that cast and we often share scores. A second person, one on the ladle and one dumping and stacking, makes it go faster and easier.
Sorting Wheel Weights while say baking PC bullets is a good combination. Little music or the game on the radio. Not hard work certainly.
My time has some value but of late I think WW's are the best value for lead as long as the price per pound yield for lead is decent. Even at 50% lead yield if the price is free or cheap.... why wouldn't one snag them? At 50% yield and 50 cents a pound to purchase it would make more sense to purchase for around $1 a pound in the swapping and selling forum. Ready to go ingots for about the same price.
I too like the hunt, and for a good while have been zeroing in on the "premium" alloy scores, such as solder, linotype etc. Those will require some basic ingredients like plain or WW's to be useful. So time to shift gears.
Looked like I was seeing more steel and zinc in last bucket I scored but not sorted yet so we shall see.
Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.
Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.
Feedback page http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...light=RogerDat
I recently found a scrap dealer about 15km from my place. Went to see what they have lead-wise and came home with 85kg of wheel weight, $85. One of the buckets is already sorted truck size weights. The rest is a few SOWW, a few lead head nails etc, but vast majority looks to be wheel weights. Even if 20% is scrap, I'm still looking at $1.25/kg. Hardball from my local foundry is around $11/kg and the copper plated bullets I'd been buying are around $14/kg.
That's enough for around 9000 125gr. Plenty of ipsc practise for not much money.
A little lead is good, a lot is better and too much is just enough.
SMOKELESS IS JUST A PASSING FAD!-STEVE GARBE
FORMER NJ HUNTER EDUCATION INSTRUCTOR
GOA LIFE MEMBER
SASS LIFE MEMBER
ADAPT, IMPROVISE, OVERCOME!
"ANY MAN WHO THINKS HE CAN BE HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS BY LETTING THE GOVERNMENT TAKE CARE OF HIM, BETTER TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE AMERICAN INDIAN!"-HENRY FORD
Nice score I’m lucky a local guy trades me barrels of ww for the soft led from work I get I’m up to 3100lb un prosesed guy intends to bring me up another full Barrel probably loose %20 to%30 in scrapbut im only about $250cnd into them so I’m happy
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