How much in a 5 gallon bucket?

[jlala504]

I picked up a bucket and a half of WW for $50 and smelted them down, got 201#s of ingots so I was pretty happy with that, although there was a lot of trash in the buckets but very few steel and zinc weights.

[RG_86]

WOW I guess I am really lucky. I get em for free here. But I have been noticing more and more zinc and other junk in the buckets.

[Roundnoser]

I just smelted a 5-gallon bucket full-to-the-top with COWWs. I didn't weigh it, but it was 95% clean WWs...no valve stems, lug bolts, etc....very few zinc and steel weights.

When it was all said and done, I ended up with 124 pounds in ingots.

[birdadly]

Sorted a bucket last night:

34lbs of Iron and Zinc
26lbs of stickies
53lbs of clip-ons

The last time I took the Iron to a scrap yard I 'taught' him that they weren't lead, so got a **** price for them (like .08/lb I think)... so I think I'll take them to a different yard this time and just ask to trade them for pure lead, maybe get a better deal. -Brad

[dRok]

Im keeping all my zinc and iron in a separate bucket. Hoping to cash them in for standard WW prices at the recycle place, currently .30/lb.

[40Super]

Here is my bucket. 120lbs=$30 80% cast bullets

[RP]

Well I got some range lead last weekend I just put 100 lbs in a bucket so the handles will stay on there just a tad over half full. So I say a full bucket will hit 200 lbs easy most of mine is jacketed bullets.

[40Super]

Maybe his scale was off and there is more in my bucket than thought, because mine is 3/4+ full and the lead is quite broken up from hitting a steel plate,it is pretty well solid packed.hmmmm.

[joe4711]

local tire changer wanted $1 / # today for stickons,just said have a good day and walked away.

[sig2009]

Here is my bucket. 120lbs=$30 80% cast bullets

I have 3 of those 5 pounders with range lead on my back porch this minute!

[S.B.]

I would grab it at that price. If it is full it will be well over 100Lbs. Probably closer to 125-150 range. I have been paying up to .40 a pound for wheel weights from a recycler here although I found a 40# pail for $5 the other day.

The problem with your reply is any charge by an unknowing supplier is high and after you pay one, the sky is the limit. I mean, how much alloy do you need or use a year?
Steve

[John in WI]

local tire changer wanted $1 / # today for stickons,just said have a good day and walked away.

one of my recent stops, the guy wanted $0.25/weight. I said "per pound?" figuring that's a screaming deal! And he said "no, so try and find big ones".

I also said, "ok, thanks for your time" and politely walked out.

[Jaybird62]

The first time in over a year that I've asked for WW anywhere, I stopped by the local tire shop where I do business and picked up a 6-gallon bucket full. Only a double-handful of zink and steel. Looks like almost 5 gallons of stick-on WWs and the rest stickies. I've noticed quite a few stickies that seem to be harder than the typical "pure" sticky. I'll be smelting these harder stickies in with the clip-ons, since the last time I smelted both types of stickies together they wound up being a tad harder than pure Pb.

[I'll Make Mine]

I checked with my local chain tire store yesterday. Nope, they "have to" have all their lead picked up by a recycler contracted by their warehouse -- that's right, they're paying to have it hauled and "not allowed" to part with any of it.

Fortunately, my next stop was the independent tire store a half mile away. They're selling them for $35/bucket to a recycler who also buys their used catalytic converters, and they're happy to let me have them for the same price any time (helps, I'm sure, that I've spend most of a thousand bucks in there for repairs and tires in the last year). I bought a bucket today (didn't trust my cat litter pails to make a good first impression), and if the budget permits, I'll swap it for a full one tomorrow. Got a cast iron pan to smelt in, and I'm demoting a 7-hole cast iron muffin tin for ingots (haven't baked in it in years, holes are too wide and flat for muffins and I make corn bread in a square pan); just need to find a suitable heat source and I'm ready to smelt.

Any idea whether a hot plate from the kitchen wares department will handle melting lead?

[bakrzdzn]

I have been looking around here since I started thinking about getting into this "hobby" a few months ago. and I found a local recycle shop that had around 100# of sheet lead that was offered at .70/#. they also demo cars and had ww for 1.00/#. found a tire shop that said come by next week and he should have some ww I can have, and another tire shop has 5 gal buckets for $50.00 each. have to see what the budget allows on that one. most places seem to already have ww set aside for the friends of the owners. but it is funny that every one I see in a parking lot gets picked up, no matter how big/small.

[I'll Make Mine]

Okay, I managed to have $35 to spare from my pay, so today I stopped by my local independent tire store and bought a bucket of wheel weights. A completely full (rounded up from the top, any more would have fallen on the floor and had been doing so) five gallon plastic bucket of weights and trash seems to have weighed in excess of 150 lbs by calibrated muscle strain. I have no doubt there's some zinc, and I saw a couple that I'm not sure what they were (and I'm told by the owner of the tire store that we should be expecting, not zinc, but steel weights as lead is phased out -- cheaper than zinc, apparently), but I'll spend some time this weekend sorting. Figuring it's 70% lead by weight (probably a decent minimum), I should have in excess of 100 lb of actual lead alloy from that bucket. I should be able to smelt it all for around a gallon of camp fuel through my little stove, when I get that working, so my ingots will cost close to forty cents a pound all told (and once I get it smelted, I can store the ingots and go back for another bucket full). I should be able to order my ladle and mold next month; likely I'll be casting by Christmas.

[canyon-ghost]

You did good, $50 for a five gallon bucket isn't bad, $35 is great! The more you deal with these guys, the more lead you have in advance.

I loaded my first bucket of wheelweight for ten years. I had two TC Contender single shots set up as silhouette handguns. And, owing to the fact that the barrels interchange, a dozen calibers. I made a lot of 22 hornet, 32-20 and 7mm bullets from one bucket of wheelweight.

Welcome to the quest for the best,

Ron

[I'll Make Mine]

Well, I'll be casting for my Mosin Nagant initially, then for .357 Magnum and possibly .380 ACP (110 to 125 grain could be used in both); a hundred pounds of wheel weight ingots should be thousands of boolits. One or two more buckets and I might have that "lifetime supply" I keep hearing about, unless I move someplace where I can shoot more...

[csmopar]

I managed to get a 5 gallon bucket of 112 lbs, a little over half full of lead wheel weights, only found one weight that wasn't lead and it was steel. so I'm pretty happy with that.

[bslim]

I smelted a full 5 gal. pail of jacketed bullets yesterday. I ended up with 150 Lbs. of lead and 50 Lbs. of jackets. 14 more pails to go! That's if I don't burn out first?