Wheel weight culture ...

[trebleplink]

I have now acquired what may be a lifetime supply of soft lead. Most of it is sheet lead vents or lead pipe from metal recyclers for $0.60 per pound. Much of the discussion on this forum references wheel weights and type being used for getting antimony and/or tin into the casting mix.

I have never seen type for sale at anywhere close to reasonable cost, but have been offered wheel weights at a decent price - the recyclers seem to think they are lead, but all the buckets I've sorted through are 90% Zinc and Steel.

As a result, all of my additives have been Pewter bought from ebay, and chunks of Antimony from the same source. Are you really still buying wheel weights and Linotype? Or was this stuff bought 30 years ago?

[joe leadslinger]

I just bought 3 buckets of wheel weights after sorting and smelting I ended up with 166 lbs COWW and 61 lbs of SOWW the zink weights go to freinds casting zink boolits a win for them, steel weights sold at the scrap yard not worth much but it helps pay for the lead.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Put out the word to your friends and family, Lead and various Lead alloys will just show up at your door, but might take a few months or a year or two. If you can't wait that long, then order what you need in the mean time.

[bangerjim]

I have so much Pb/Sn/lino/hard alloys, I will NEVER run out! Let the dark clouds of lead shortages roll. I am prepared over the past years, knowing this would come to pass very soon.

Good luck to those that are new to this game. Finding economic and bountiful sources of what they need will only become harder as the greenies take over every niche of our lives.

We had better develop some serious techniques and popular load data handbooks for casting pure ZN boolits! I am in favor of that. A PC'd boolit of Zn will be only slightly lighter that it's Pb partner. But will be "a bit different" in the casting phase!

banger

[joe leadslinger]

Zink boolits do not require coating or lube. Same as a j-word.

[dtknowles]

I just read a few posts about hard lead for sale. Have you check here lately?

Tim

[Winger Ed.]

Just get the word out ya want them, that's about all you can do.
The old school Lead wheel weights are pretty much out of production, and are drying up.

Something to check out is cruise around on youtube, and check out the guys who are already moving over to casting Zinc,
and there are a few older threads about it here.

Like cars have gotten more and more electronic over the years-- its the future.
Breaker point distributors and 4 Barrel carbs. aren't coming back.

Neither are cheap and plentiful Lead wheel weights.

[kevin c]

Isotope container lead is about 2.5% Sb, good for pistol but maybe not for rifle. Rotometals' SuperHard is my go to source for Sb mixing alloy (30%) if I need to cast at a higher Sb content.

The recycling company I go to that specializes in metals and that sells to the public has had typemetal, but it's hit or miss.

[markmars]

I actually just ran out of wheel weights I'd bought 10 years a go. Picked up a 5 gallon pail of them for $10 mostly zinc. Decide to just buy harden lead for RotoMetals. If they roll back regulations maybe lead will make a come back. But for now I'll just buy it online.

[jdfoxinc]

What are the Canadians using for ww?

[Petrol & Powder]

What are the Canadians using for ww?

Hockey pucks

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I have now acquired what may be a lifetime supply of soft lead. Most of it is sheet lead vents or lead pipe from metal recyclers for $0.60 per pound. Much of the discussion on this forum references wheel weights and type being used for getting antimony and/or tin into the casting mix.

I have never seen type for sale at anywhere close to reasonable cost, but have been offered wheel weights at a decent price - the recyclers seem to think they are lead, but all the buckets I've sorted through are 90% Zinc and Steel.

As a result, all of my additives have been Pewter bought from ebay, and chunks of Antimony from the same source. Are you really still buying wheel weights and Linotype? Or was this stuff bought 30 years ago?

I'll confirm your suspicions. I got lucky and found a tire shop in a small town where the owner saved take off wheel weights just for bullet casters. I'd been looking for a couple of years, and always found that the fishing sinker people had contracted for all the wheel weights from the various shops. But this guy was an exception, and I got 5-5gal. buckets full to the top for $35 each. Back then there were almost no zinc weights, and this amounted to a lot of lead. I've still got one bucket that hasn't been touched.

[Mitch]

I stared collecting lead about 8 to 10 years ago.WW were never my go to source.Most is soft lead from scrap yards and recycling centers.This has about all dryed up to.
I to have never found any type metal for sale local.Use to be some bars of solder now and then but that is all but gone to.I have always been short on tin and have used Rotometals super hard for a long time now.Pewter has been all but a dream to find to.One day i was hopeing to run across the mother load of solder or some sort of tin i have given up on that idea.went to the scrap yeard this am got 128lb of soft stuff sheet.soil pipe joints mostly.use to be i could go get more lead than i had money not anymore.My saying from the beginning has been coww is just another alloy.now my quest is more for hi tin and antimony stuff but wont turn my nose up for a good soft lead either.

[lightman]

Wheelweights have always been my "go to" bullet casting metal. I still get between 6 and 10 buckets a year from our small local tire shop for free. About every other time I'll take them donuts the following day. They still use new lead weights and my buckets are still running 60-70% lead.

Lead availability varies in different parts of the Country. Around here lead weights are fairly well available but Pewter is hard to find. We also had a few severe hail storms a few years ago and roofing lead is hard to come by, mostly because nearly everyone got a new roof and all of the old roofs have been replaced.

[deltaenterprizes]

I started collecting lead 37 years ago and literally had tons of Linotype when I was doing commercial casting. I got out of the boolit business around 1994 and sold most of the Linotype but still had a couple of tons of lead and alloys. I moved and sold 1200 pounds for thinking I could easily replace it for what I had sold for 10-25 cents a pound like I had been buying it for back home.
What a surprise I had when I tried to buy some!
I ran into a fellow getting out of casting and reloading and was able to get quite a pile of lead and alloys at a very good price.
I just finished sorting and melting 8 buckets of wheel weights and I got at least 3 buckets of steel and zinc! Those will be the last wheel weights I buy for the rest of my life I believe, I am 65 and for what I paid for the last 3 I bought and the amount of steel and zinc and the amount of work to haul and time to sort and melt I could have bought wheel weights in ingots delivered to my door !

[bangerjim]

I just finished sorting and melting 8 buckets of wheel weights and I got at least 3 buckets of steel and zinc! Those will be the last wheel weights I buy for the rest of my life I believe, I am 65 and for what I paid for the last 3 I bought and the amount of steel and zinc and the amount of work to haul and time to sort and melt I could have bought wheel weights in ingots delivered to my door !

Agree 100%. (am of a similar age! ) That is why I left the WW scrounging arena almost 4 years ago. It was getting full of Zn and FE then....now it is almost ZERO Pb. Not enough to compensate me for the gasoline, money paid, my personal time and effort, and the fuel needed to re-melt into usable ingots.

If I need Pb (which I will probably never do, since I have tons of the stuff + alloys) I will buy on here or at the local scrap yards who still seem to get a lot of clean lead sheeting and alloy metals and other "stuff". Having the aerospace industry close at hand, they scrap a lot of "unique" alloys used in making turbine blades.

Good luck with your Pb COWW search!

banger

[trebleplink]

So I tried it. Bought 280 pounds of wheel weights for $0.15 per pound. Can't argue about the price, but considering labor, time, and results, I don't think I'll be doing this again.

6 hours sorting. I HOPE I didn't let any Zinc slip through...
about 40 pounds of stick-on weights (very soft)
about 40 pounds of clip on weights -

Now to sell the residuals back to a scrapper...

[Green Frog]

Back in the 1970s when Dad and I started casting, wheel weights (yep, clip on lead alloy) were considered the lowest form and pure lead for muzzle loaders and to start mixing known alloys were the desirable finds. Dad worked for a commercial roofing company, so he would bring home buckets full of pure lead scraps. also, a friend retired from a printing job and gave us a couple of hundred pounds of monotype and about a hundred of linotype and linotype plus. I had the luxury of custom mixing exactly what I wanted.

Now I scrounge for anything I can get free or cheap and hope for the best. I think I’ve accumulated enough lead and tin for the rest of my active shooting days, but I’ll still scarf up any cheap stuff I find! Just habit, I guess.

Froggie

[bangerjim]

So I tried it. Bought 280 pounds of wheel weights for $0.15 per pound. Can't argue about the price, but considering labor, time, and results, I don't think I'll be doing this again.

6 hours sorting. I HOPE I didn't let any Zinc slip through...
about 40 pounds of stick-on weights (very soft)
about 40 pounds of clip on weights -

Now to sell the residuals back to a scrapper...

Don't worry about a little Zn in there. I have proven up to 5% Zn in a mix will not do anything bad. Mabe lighten your boolits a tad and you will need to add a bit more Sn or raise the casting temp.

But...........PLEASE..........do not throw "the entire pot" out because there is 1 or 3 zinkers in there like so many others on here have talked about. Minor Zn contamination is an olde wive's tale from the bygone daze.

banger

[fredj338]

Linotype is readily available. Some vendors here sell WW in ingot form & are legit. I also have a bunch of pure lead & always looking for trades with guys having harder alloys or type metal.