Possible Lead Score - trying to figure out a price

[LeadRecycler]

A friend of mine works in an auto shop. He recently asked me where to "get rid of" some lead. I asked how much he was talking about - (2) 55 gallon drums of wheel weights, which have accumulated over the past 20 years! Owner just wants rid of them, as they're taking up space. I am not about to take something of value from him, with no payment. I am trying to figure out if I can sell some of these (after I sort them out), and if I do, how much of a split would be fair? I (and my friend) would be doing all the work loading these things into buckets, transporting, sorting, and possibly selling. My thought is to take my "cut" as lead. My friend would likely do the same (he picked one of the worst times ever to get interested in reloading).

Next question is interest here: would anyone be interested in raw wheel weights? I don't mind processing them, but raw wheel weights are guaranteed to be wheel weights. If so, what's a fair price? I guess the worst case here is that I end up splitting this with my friend, and just processing the lot of it. My issue is going to be storage, as my family is looking to move within the next year. I have some land I could put a shed on, as I really don't want to be storing this much outside, but that is added cost, and risk.

[GregLaROCHE]

First you need an idea of what percent are lead based and how many are zinc. Zinc is close to worthless for casting, however you may be able to sell it or trade for lead to a scrap yard. If the person just wants to get rid of it, they might be happier with something in trade or a bottle of booze.

[45DUDE]

Wheel weights aren't lead for the last 6 years or so. Melt it and skim the junk off the top and pour into molds and I am in for $1.25 a pound shipped for at least 200 pounds. You can put 60 pounds in a usps flat rate box. The post office will hate you. My salvage yard charges .65 cents a pound for wheel weights. A wrecking yard friend said I could have all the wheel weights I could find at his place but it is nasty greasy and wet. 80 pounds of wheel weights made me about 35 pounds of lead last year. I have never had to buy lead in 15 years of casting and have about 300 pounds left. You have about $2500 of lead sitting there. Don't let it get away. I would try to find a way to get a wrecker<rollback flatbed> to haul it to your place.

[Winger Ed.]

That's about a once in a life time score for most folks.

If you can handle & store it, I'd give them at least a couple hundred bucks for it.
Is it worth more? Oh yeah, it sure is.

I'd figure its mostly going to be Lead wW.
The stash is old, and if all new cars have Zinc weights,
he probably didn't start getting too many in the shop until 2-3 years ago.
And they should be on top of the pile.

But if they want it gone more than they want to mess with all the work to get it smelted down, and marketed properly,
I wouldn't think you're really ripping them off either.

I wouldn't build a shed just to store the stuff. WW don't tarnish nearly as much or as fast as pure Lead.
I'd put it on the ground on top of plywood or boards.
Just be careful and aware it might be wet or damp when ya go to melt it again or process it.
Or let it dry out well before ya pack & sell it.

[40-82 hiker]

That's probably going to be around 3,000 pounds of wheel weights if the barrels are mostly full (at least based on mostly full 5-gallon buckets I've gotten at times - still just a SWAG. If you are up to that kind of a commitment for hauling, sorting, smelting, and marketing/selling if you not going to keep them (some ?), I would be very tempted to make an offer based on what the local yards are willing to pay for mixed wheel weights. Offer something well less for starters, as the owner is not on the hook for hauling it to the yard.

YMMV

[Conditor22]

scrap yards are paying around .10-.15¢ a pound for lead, less for FE steel and ZN zinc.

I'm guessing apr 1320 pounds per barrel so offer $130-$150 a barrel scrap price. $300 seems cheap to us but could be a lot to the owner for "scrap junk"

some tire shops are getting greedy and want $75 a 5 gal bucket for mostly junk, you likely have a higher percentage of lead.

IF you or he sorts the WW you should be able to fit 60# in a doubled up box, tape the seams and corners with filament tape.

I recently shipped out 3 68-pound boxes of lead

[dimaprok]

So the owner wants to get rid of it for free because he knows its a lot of labor to haul 2500 - 3000 lb of WW to scrap yard. My local scrap yard pays 2 cents for steel and I think 25 cents for lead and I don't know about Zinc. I keep all my Zinc and melt it in to ingots. If lead supplies dry up I'll start casting Zinc. I have already tried and it works. I just need heavy duty, bottom pour pot for casting.

For me sorting even one 5 gallon bucket of WW that yield 10 - 15% of lead is not worth it - its literally huge pain in the back and rear. If you're going to spend literally a week sorting these - you or your friend is going to rethink how much you want to compensate the owner.

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[Petrol & Powder]

I think you are doing the shop owner more of a favor than you realize.
The shop is not in the business of reclaiming lead. The barrels are taking up space. The owner wants them gone.
On your half of the equation, that's a lot of work just to get the barrels unloaded and the contents moved. Then you have to sort them and dispose of the unwanted material.
I think you offer to remove the lead for free and you might break even if there turns out to be enough lead in there to make the work worth the material you end up with.

[Rickf1985]

I would be interested and would also offer 1.25 a lb.. Like was said, offer him a few hundred for the lot but be aware you have a lot of work ahead of you. Picking out the steel ones is easy, the zinc ones are harder to spot sometimes if they aren't marked.

[Huskerguy]

If it really has been around for several years, your chances of mostly lead weights is really high. A friend came upon a guy who wanted to get rid of 5 buckets of COWW that had been around his shop for at least 20 years. Pretty dirty and lots of rust but super nice to melt down, no zinc, steel or plastic.

My advice is keep all you can if you have room to store. It will never get cheaper and more plentiful. Offer him $100 or whatever and sell enough on here to recover that and your smelting expenses. It would be a shame to let too much go now and 10 years from now, lament about all the lead you had at one time.

[Conditor22]

I'm sure some of us would be willing to trade your/his COWW/SOWW for reloading equipment and supplies.

I wouldn't smelt it, just sort it and sell it as it is.

[scattershot]

I’m thinking he may consider it a favor to just get it out of his shop.

[Eddie Southgate]

Keep them all if you get them , don't take much room to store a 55g drum and they are not gonna get easier to find . You need to be hoarding not selling . Give him $50 per barrel and he will be happy .

[Wooserco]

Find out their favorite doughnuts and drop off a box or two. Grab it all. If they have a fork lift, have them load it in your truck and buy them lunch. Get it while you can.

He wants it gone, you want/need it. It is a lot of work to sort and render (smelt) it down into usable ingots. But, it's worth it in these times of zinc and steel weights.

As others have said, he wants it gone, you're helping achieve his wish. The doughnuts are a gesture of appreciation on your part. Get a good relationship going and if lucky, maybe they will sort the zinc and others from the lead for you in the future??? (I know, wishful thinking on my part).

[remy3424]

What Eddie said.

[jsizemore]

I've bought 2 55gal drums of WW's back in the day when there was no zinc or steel. Both weighed about 2000lbs each. Figure 10% loss for the clips. If the COWW's are big then 7% loss from clips. I paid $.25/lb. The yard paid $.05/lb. You have to know that all those are not lead. Now a days they're more like 50%. So your looking at 1000lbs/drum of lead WW's. If my scrapyard offers $.05, I'd offer $.10/lb. That means I'd pay $100/drum.

Do like Eddie said. 55 gallon drum with a lid stores ingots just fine. I got a few. Each takes up less then a 3'x3' footprint and will sit on 2x4's off the ground with a 4x4 doing a better job

[GoldieMI]

following along

[Gtrubicon]

Your doing the shop a favor by getting rid of the lead, I’d go the other way and see if I could get an oil change for removing their haz mat.

[Yogi]

Don't just ditch the zinc weights, a good many guys that are into the cannons use zinc for cannonballs. You could ingot for that just mark;em and keep seperate. It may help pay for your propane .

[lightman]

You will be buying into an unknown. There will probably be valve stems, brake pads, twisted of lug nuts, ect in the barrels and all of the weights won't be lead. I would probably offer him a hundred bucks, maybe a couple hundred. Better yet, get your friend to talk with the owner.

That would be a great score and I would be tempted to keep either all or most of them. Your future move adds a complication but it can be dealt with.

Just be advised that you are facing a lot of work. If you don't have a good smelting set-up you will need one. It would take me and one of my buddies 2 days or more to turn those into ingots after they were sorted. (and yeah, I know that smelting is not the correct wording)

As far as selling raw weights goes, it depends. I gave 40 cents a pound a couple of years ago for a large amount of sorted weights. It depends on the area you are in.

Don't forget that the zinc and steel weights can be sold as scrap. You will also have enough clips to be worth saving as scrap.