How much in a 5 gallon bucket?

[Mgderf]

Score!
I just found 90lbs of wheel weights laying in the mud and weeds on a job-site.
Property owner didn't even realize it was there. Thanked me for cleaning up the hazardous materials.
Dropped them off to my casting buddy.
I'll have a small boat load of bullets headed my way soon and the only thing it cost me was some time to pick them up, hose them off, and drop them off 10 minutes away.

Good day!

[62chevy]

Score!
I just found 90lbs of wheel weights laying in the mud and weeds on a job-site.
Property owner didn't even realize it was there. Thanked me for cleaning up the hazardous materials.
Dropped them off to my casting buddy.
I'll have a small boat load of bullets headed my way soon and the only thing it cost me was some time to pick them up, hose them off, and drop them off 10 minutes away.

Good day!

That is what I call a score !!!

[tddeangelo]

A buddy of mine gave me a 5-gal bucket from his tire shop that was maybe 80% full. Just gave it to me. I finished melting it into ingots from the COWW's, haven't done the SOWW's yet, and I have 76.25lbs of lead from that bucket. The SOWW's were very few I don't anticipate there being much yield from them....for sure under 5lbs, probably only 2 or 3, if that. By volume, the clips and non-lead ww scrap in the bucket now fill it about 1/3 of what it was originally.

The nice thing is he's told me I can have that bucket whenever it's near full. Just have it.

The bad news, so to speak, is he's a small shop, and he said it takes about a year to fill a bucket. But, 76lbs of free lead is still 76lbs of free lead!

On the flip side, in searching for more sources of ww's or other lead sources, I came across someone with "several hundred pounds" of 1/16" thick lead sheeting meant to be used in a radiology unit. Haven't gotten a price yet....but keeping my fingers crossed it's affordable.

[Budzilla 19]

Scroungin' lead!! Gotta love it!! It's out there if you stay sharp, and know what to look for! If you think THIS is fun, just wait till you get started on pewter hunting! It shows up in the strangest places! Read the pewter hallmark thread on here and now you got ANOTHER hobby to do! Good luck to all lead hunters!

[RogerDat]

Ah yes. Scrounging for WW's and other assorted lead. We know the thrill of victory! And the agony of defeat!
Toss in pewter scrounging and our lives are a virtual rollercoaster.

I was trying to recall the last time I found pewter at a thrift store and yet I check them regularly. That trip to check is starting to feel like a blind date set up by an ex. Why am I doing this, am I crazy? If I get desperate for a fix I guess I could hit the antique shops and pay way too much.

[Uncle Jim]

Last Week I managed to get two 5 gallon buckets from a local tire shop for 20 bucks each. One had about 25 pounds of steel/zinc/trash but the other was all lead w/w I think the 2 will yield over 180 pounds of ingots!

[tddeangelo]

Not sure I need to scrounge for pewter...I have a source of babbitt that may or may not suffice for my tin needs. I am pursuing that first.

The x-ray shielding lead worked out. I'm almost afraid to post what I'm paying, and for how much.

[Budzilla 19]

Tddeangelo, I have a similar connection for Babbitt for tin, it makes the strongest boolits, the stuff I have is Grade 11, it has 86.7%Sn,10.67% Sb, 2.57%Cu, some Zn, and makes wonderful rifle boolits! Special thanks to BangerJim for his help! You can't believe the people here who are willing to help you. Good luck to you, you are starting on a lifelong journey with boolit casting!

[tddeangelo]

I have a PM from a member here who volunteered to test the Babbitt for me once I have some of it. I really appreciate the offer, and let them know I'll send a sample as soon as I have it to send.

And my wife already rolls her eyes at me at the mere mention of lead, casting, bullets, wheel weights.....etc.

[RogerDat]

I saw a bucket of WW's that "looked" pretty good so I bought it. When I started sorting I had to check a couple of times to make sure there where no cutter marks on the weights. So consistently all lead COWW's I thought it might be a bucket I had already checked! Eventually the trash in it convinced me I had not already sorted this bucket.

Noticed that all the clips were very rusty and corroded. Think this is a rather old bucket of WW's because it turned out to be 100 lbs. of 100% lead weights. Some of those were huge, big enough to be considered lead porn. 3 oz. or better weights were common. I'm almost tempted to see if these test as having a different alloy composition than the current crop.

100 lb. bucket. 5 small stick on squares, 12 metal clips without weights, everything else was lead clip on weights. I'm a happy camper.