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Thread: how many pounds in a 5gal bucket?

  1. #121
    Boolit Bub
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    How many gal. In a 5 gal. Bucket . Or which weighs more Ton of feathers or a ton of lead...

  2. #122
    Boolit Master
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    Picked up 3 heaping full 5 gallon tractor fluid buckets today of WW and trash and all weighed 654# unsorted cost $90.00 i know about 20% will be zinc still pretty good deal as i can still do this in my old age. Going to Chiropractor next week. Sure smoothed out that ride back home in that old truck tho.

  3. #123
    Boolit Mold HH928's Avatar
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    I think the problem with the question of how many pounds of lead in a 5 gallon bucket is that it varies from year to year and state to state. For example, some states (like Washington State) are phasing out lead wheel weights and a 5 gal bucket from there will have considerably less lead than lead from many other states that have not done this yet. Also, each year it seems that the composition or amount of lead/antimony/tin in wheel weights seems to change, not mentioning the increasing number of Zink and Steel wheel weights. If you buy WWs from eBay, it probably depends on the seller what you get....and what state it's from....and whether or not the seller is good a sorting out everything but lead. Therefore, because of the above, "the weight of a bucket of wheel weights" is always changing. And, this question remains valid.

    Same thing goes for scrap range lead. Pistol ranges will give more usable lead than rifle only ranges.

  4. #124
    Boolit Mold HH928's Avatar
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    That said, I know of a range that is used for muzzle loaders only so that range lead may be nearly pure lead.

  5. #125
    Boolit Mold HH928's Avatar
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    Then, there is the lead that comes from skeet and trap ranges...hard stuff....but iron shot occasionally gets mixed in (don't ask me why, I don't know, unless waterfowl hunters are tuning up for the hunt). A magnet should be able to remove this but that sounds like a lot of trouble.

  6. #126
    Boolit Mold HH928's Avatar
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    And, of course, some dentists still use lead shielding for x-rays but I've not seen anything published about reclaiming dental photo lead.

  7. #127
    Boolit Mold HH928's Avatar
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    What about lead aprons that dentists use?

    I have a question, what would a bucket of dental lead shielding weigh and how would you extract it from the flexible lead apron that dentists use? I suspect that a bucket of that "lead" would not weigh much as WWs and am not sure how or if it could be extracted for making boolits. Does anyone know? I have a source for worn out lead aprons.

  8. #128
    Boolit Mold
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    As 95% of w/w here in the uk are zinc or steel I don't care what a bucketful weighs just wish I could get a bucketful

  9. #129
    Boolit Buddy Knightflyer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hossfly View Post
    picked up 3 heaping full 5 gallon tractor fluid buckets today of ww and trash and all weighed 654#... Going to chiropractor next week. Sure smoothed out that ride back home in that old truck tho.
    lololol!!
    Knightflyer - Pesky newbie with a 30-30 & a zillion questions
    "And what I want to say is this, that I'm the King's man; and if this Parliament of Owls is any sort of plot against the King, I'm having nothing to do with it." - C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair
    Shalom y'all!

  10. #130
    Boolit Buddy Knightflyer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by HH928 View Post
    I have a question, what would a bucket of dental lead shielding weigh and how would you extract it from the flexible lead apron that dentists use? I suspect that a bucket of that "lead" would not weigh much as WWs and am not sure how or if it could be extracted for making boolits. Does anyone know? I have a source for worn out lead aprons.
    If it were me, I'd start with a seam ripper and just tear one apart, then go from there. Where the heck did you score used lead aprons??

    Update: I did a search and found this on HPS.org: Protective clothing worn by radiographers contains lead and often other metals (e.g., tin, tungsten, antimony, barium) to shield the wearer from radiation. These metals are homogeneously mixed with synthetic rubber or polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Between two and five thin sheets of metal-impregnated rubber/PVC are placed between sheets of nylon fabric coated with urethane on the side against the lead-impregnated rubber/vinyl. The materials are cut into a pattern and sewn together to form the protective garment. The manufacturers of these garments vary the number of sheets, the percentage of metal, the grade of rubber or PVC, and the mixture of metals to affect flexibility, durability, radiation absorption efficiency, and weight.

    So... you could get the lead by melting the whole thing down I suppose, but it would be a tedious and stinky operation, and potentially dangerous from the junk in the smoke of burning PVC.
    Last edited by Knightflyer; 04-17-2018 at 11:45 AM.
    Knightflyer - Pesky newbie with a 30-30 & a zillion questions
    "And what I want to say is this, that I'm the King's man; and if this Parliament of Owls is any sort of plot against the King, I'm having nothing to do with it." - C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair
    Shalom y'all!

  11. #131
    Boolit Buddy
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    Nearly full bucket of wheel weights, about 2” of room left at the top...

    74# steel
    7# zinc
    23# SOWW
    36# COWW

    140# total. Cost $13 for donuts and Mt Dew for the workers. I’ll get that back (plus a little) selling the steel/zinc to the scrap yard and I’ll have 59# of lead for myself.

    Yep. -Brad

  12. #132
    In Remembrance

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    Usta was from the pails I collected long years ago (I still have 10, thanks be to a Merciful God!) I'd net about 80%. A recent gift of 'new' is yielding ~60% if I'm lucky. A friend new to casting says he's throwing away more than he gets, netting about 45% thanks to iron, zinc, and ceramic. The times they ARE a-changin'!!
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  13. #133
    Boolit Buddy
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    Also changing is the dang scrapyard! I haven’t brought my junk (steel) wheel weights there in about 3 years, but today they gave me Steel price ($.08/lb) unless I could tell them they’re all lead! I said no, there’s actually NO lead, since you asked. I never told them that before because they used to just give Lead price. They actually sort them if they pay the steel price, ugh. -Brad

  14. #134
    Boolit Bub Rubino1988's Avatar
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    I usually get a little over 100 pounds of mixed wheel weights

  15. #135
    Boolit Mold Twisted's Avatar
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    My first post I just did 11 bucket and ended up with 682 lbs of ingots. Paid $300.00 for the lot so that makes it 44 cents a pound for finished product. I am new to reloading and am just collecting material while it is available. My goal is to get 3000 lbs stockpiled with hopes it will be a lifetime supply. Most of my shooting will be into a bullet trap so I can reclaim most of it. It is not worth it to me to take the non lead ones to the scrap yard. To much junk getting in and out... I wont take a chance on cutting a tire. I melt no higher then 650 degrees so the zinc ones I miss wont melt. Do the pencil test on some and it came out to 16 to 18 BH. Is that the normal hardness? Click image for larger version. 

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  16. #136
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Welcome Aboard!

    That looks like a nice score! Stocking up is a good idea. So is your bullet trap. Lead has been getting harder to find and probably will continue to do so. Your 16-18 BHN reading sounds kind of hard for wheel weights unless you water dropped them. I usually see between 11 and 13 BHN, sometimes 14.

    Good Job!

  17. #137
    Boolit Mold Twisted's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lightman View Post
    Welcome Aboard!

    That looks like a nice score! Stocking up is a good idea. So is your bullet trap. Lead has been getting harder to find and probably will continue to do so. Your 16-18 BHN reading sounds kind of hard for wheel weights unless you water dropped them. I usually see between 11 and 13 BHN, sometimes 14.

    Good Job!
    I just did a recheck on the same ingots and several others and now get a pencil reading of 10 to 13. Don't know if the first test was to soon after casting or I just had a brain fart. I checked the 32 acp boolits that are in my avatar and they came out 16 to 18. I poured those when casting the ingots to test out my new custom mold. I filed to the center for the test so maybe those little fellows are going to just be harder. Anyway....I am happy to be here and look forward to many of good reads. I hope to pick up another 4 to 6 buckets in the next couple weeks.

  18. #138
    Boolit Buddy shaggybull's Avatar
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    You might check out forklift boneyard is any in your area. I scored a counter balance couple years ago weighs in right at 4400 lbs.

  19. #139
    Boolit Mold Twisted's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by shaggybull View Post
    You might check out forklift boneyard is any in your area. I scored a counter balance couple years ago weighs in right at 4400 lbs.
    Good to know...Thank you!

  20. #140
    Boolit Mold HH928's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Knightflyer View Post
    If it were me, I'd start with a seam ripper and just tear one apart, then go from there. Where the heck did you score used lead aprons??

    Update: I did a search and found this on HPS.org: Protective clothing worn by radiographers contains lead and often other metals (e.g., tin, tungsten, antimony, barium) to shield the wearer from radiation. These metals are homogeneously mixed with synthetic rubber or polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Between two and five thin sheets of metal-impregnated rubber/PVC are placed between sheets of nylon fabric coated with urethane on the side against the lead-impregnated rubber/vinyl. The materials are cut into a pattern and sewn together to form the protective garment. The manufacturers of these garments vary the number of sheets, the percentage of metal, the grade of rubber or PVC, and the mixture of metals to affect flexibility, durability, radiation absorption efficiency, and weight.

    So... you could get the lead by melting the whole thing down I suppose, but it would be a tedious and stinky operation, and potentially dangerous from the junk in the smoke of burning PVC.
    I have a relative who is a dentist and has a bunch of these lead (composite?) radiation shield aprons in a scrap pile but it sounds like the gain in lead is not worth the trouble. Bummer.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check