How much in a 5 gallon bucket?

[tward]

I scored my first bucket of WW yesterday. Doing a physical on the owner and asked if he had any WW. He wanted to know what I do with them and when I told him casting he said take the whole thing! Brought bagels in for the shop the next day, good price.
Tim

[Capt Crunch]

I wish I had this kind of luck, went down to a local "big name" tire shop that had agreed to sell me a bucket for $30. Now they want $89 for the same bucket. Needless to say I left without any WWs. Back to searching again, that was the only place local that would sell them to me.

[reload68]

I have the answer! A 5 gallon bucket of WW yields 45 muffins & 12 cornbread sticks of alloy, a bunch of steel clips, and a few steel and zinc weights. Didn't weigh them but you can check yours. "the smell of bad cabbage in the morning smells like..........Victory!" (apologies to R Duvall)

[meak99]

Started with a 139lb bucket today... ended up with 103 lb of COWW ingots, 1-2 lbs of stickies and the rest was clips and dirt. Zero zinc, steel or iron! Oh, there was one valve stem and a few leaves. Roughly 75% of the initial weight was alloy. I've got three more buckets and hope to report similar results.

[max range]

The averages here sound about like what I am getting. Both in gross, net and success rate. Even the replies from the shops equal my experience. Today, after a long dry spell, I got a 5 gl bucket full to the top. The man said "$20 and I want my bucket back". So tomorrow I'll get some beer, some empty 5 gl buckets I have laying around and drop by their shop.

Preliminary results for the first 8" of the bucket are: A fistfull of Zinc & Steel weights, about a dozen tire stems, but lots of 3+ oz lead cww's. Maybe a handful of stick on lead squares.
If time permits tomorrow, I will smelt about 50 pounds or so. I actually enjoy the process. From the hunt for the raw lead to the final lube & size. There is something very satisfying about it.

[Dthunter]

I went Wheel weight hunting on friday, for the first time in about 20 years! LOL!
In about two hours, I scored a little more than 6- 5gallon pails full!
The best part!?.................All of it for free! WhoooHoooo!

I spent nearly 10 hours cleaning and seperating the Zinc and garbage.
I still have 3.5 pails to go! Wow! long arduous process!
I weighed each pail before I started cleaning. The average was about 145 pounds (about 1.5" from top of pail sides).

so far, I have 350lbs of cleaned wheel weights, and 50lbs of soft lead stickies.

I think I will shoot for three more pails worth, and that should supply me nearly for life!

Take care guys, and good WW hunting!

"MAY THE ALLOY BE WITH YOU!"

[kliff]

Went on my first search this morning....went to an independent Mag Wheel shop, where 90% of the weights are stickies, and got a 5 gallon bucket for $10.00. Is there any advantage or disadvantage to the weights being mostly stickies? Other than the fact that I didn't pay for a lot of steel clips....

[birdadly]

Went on my first search this morning....went to an independent Mag Wheel shop, where 90% of the weights are stickies, and got a 5 gallon bucket for $10.00. Is there any advantage or disadvantage to the weights being mostly stickies? Other than the fact that I didn't pay for a lot of steel clips....

Good job Kliff; great price. Stickies are generally close to pure lead, so that's either an advantage or disadvantage depending on what your needs are. You'll have to find that out by reading thru the forum The only disadvantage I can think of is I hear they smell bad when smelting! And if you need a harder alloy, you'll have to mix in some clip-on weights or lino or mono.

On subject, yesterday's oil change netted me a 114 pound bucket of weights, a little more than 3/4's full I guess. 2 dozen cookies and 1 dozen donuts and we're all happy campers -Brad

[DODGEM250]

After my recent experiences with trying to using wheel weights again, you'd be better off just buying precast ingots and save a lot of time and wasted WW sorting. It's definitely not like it used to be when every single WW was lead.

[mold maker]

Some folks have less time and more money than me. No it isn't like it used to be, but neither is the price of lead. Yes there are zinc stickies also, but their easier ti ID. Lead stickies can be bent with the fingers, or easily smashed with plies.
It's the stickies glue that gets the bad rap.
If ya smelt the stickies in a pot with a close fitted lid, the smoke and smell will be much less of an issue. Add a heaping spoon full of sawdust to the stickers, put on the lid, and turn on the heat.
Give them time to melt and open, with lit match in hand to toss in. As the remaining smoke lights and burns away, you will be left with ashes (dross) and a shiny melt.

[Chihuahua Floyd]

Smelted about a bucket and a half this afternoon.
8# soft from stickies.
106.5# of clip on WW.
About a 2 gallon bucket of steel, zinc, valve stems, ect. Did not weigh the trash.
Time to make bullets.
CF
Also in the mix was a large chunk from a roof vent a friend at work gave me. Don't know how hard or soft it was so it went in with the clip-ons.

[Infidel]

I've been very fortunate. I used to work for one of the repair shops nearby and he will get at least 2 30 gal.barrels a year. I always offer to buy them and am met with "You can't buy those weights!". "You can have them, but you can't buy'em". I always thank him profusely and show him my "Fishin' weights". I've offered to let him come out and shoot but can't get him to. He always asks how many dead fish I have in that big barrel.
I have a second source that I pick up about once a week. I generally get 10# there too. I'm getting way behind on smelting. Then my neighbor stopped me on the way to the range (It's out back on his place) and said he has a chunk of pure lead where he works that he's tired of tripping over and he's going to load it up with an engine hoist and bring it over. Do you think you could use it?

[squirrelnuttz]

I just paid $50 a bucket for mixed 5 gal. buckets of WW.I kinda feel violated, I usually pay a 26er of Crown Royal($30-$33) for a bucket full, at my friendly local tire shop.Am always on the lookout, checking out possible sources on the road.I just got these tonight, not knowing the weight or junk to PB ratio, we will see.One thing is for sure, there are a pile of FE and ZN weights in every bucket I've managed to find since I started casting (3yrs.). I'm just getting all I can.PB WW at decent prices seem to be getting scarce up here....

[badbob454]

Went on my first search this morning....went to an independent Mag Wheel shop, where 90% of the weights are stickies, and got a 5 gallon bucket for $10.00. Is there any advantage or disadvantage to the weights being mostly stickies? Other than the fact that I didn't pay for a lot of steel clips....

stickies are soft compared to the clip- ons.for med to low vel handguns use 50/50 stickies /coww's for hi presslike a 44 mag use 100% coww's

[BIG BEAR]

I last paid$ 20 for a canadian 5 gallon bucket. over150# about3 pounds zinc and a couple valve stems. had a fellow GIVE me about 300 pounds of pure lead flashing from an old building he demolished. s i also shoot b.p.rifle and pistols,i,m set for a while.

[groundsclown]

I'm still new to all this & have yet to melt down my first ww but I've been hitting the local shops for lead these past few weeks & stocking up. Got about 100# of sorted coww's.
So I go to one shop today. A higher end rim & tire place and ask the guy who I should talk to about buying some scrap ww's. I tell'em I'm looking for a 5gal bucket or 2 & he says he's got 2 buckets, both full, give him a moment & he'll give me a price.
So he waves me to the shop & points to 2 buckets...All stick-ons (makes sense, nice rims don't use coww's)
So I say hhmmm. Well whatcha want for them, thinking I'll just stash these aside for a later date.

$200

I choked aloud & said thank you for your time & left.

Not sure if he thought he had copper or I was an idiot. I mean I was born, just not yesterday.

[9.3X62AL]

Welcome to the board, GC!

If those were full-to-the-top with largely pure-lead stick-on WWs, $200 may not have been really way out there. Look at the lead pricing on the Kitco chart on top of the page, which is up near the $1.00/lb ballpark. There could have been close to 300# of metal in those buckets, albeit in feral and untamed state and in need of smelting.

[beastybronco]

I just gave $20 for two 5 gal buckets of WW today. Can't wait to get into it and see what I got.

Another question... If I had a way to get the lead out of some car batteries, would it be good for anything?

[felix]

Nope! ... felix

[letsmeltlead2693]

Anyone know how a person that is weak can lift 2 half full 5 gal buckets of WW in a wheelbarrow?