% lead out of raw

[686]

i gust melted 960 lb ww and weighed the clips and scrap left over . it was 120 lbs. that would be about 12-15 % scrap. i took out the stick on ones and counted them as good lead. almost no zink. came from small tire shops.

[Trey45]

You did a lot better than I do normally, I usually count on at least 25% waste when I render ww into ingots. That includes tire stems, zinc, chewing tobacco, spark plugs, and lug nuts.

[fredj338]

Yep, 15% is about right if you get all useable ww. The last bucket I got was almost 35% waste; too many zinc & steel wts now.

[geargnasher]

I get 15-25% waste by weight, just depends on how many little ones there are and how much trash. I had a batch recently (~100 lbs raw) that had a couple pounds iron and zinc and still yielded 88 lbs of clean ingots IIRC. That's a record for me.

Gear

[BSkerj]

This is a 50 gal drum smelted down with about 25%-30% waste. Still worth the smelt. I have another full one to smelt in the barn and starting to collect the 3rd.

[WILCO]

That includes tire stems, zinc, chewing tobacco, spark plugs, and lug nuts.

Some of those items can be re-used.

[Matt_G]

I get about 13 to 15% waste also. Luckily not to many zinc or iron weights from my sources yet. Every time I get a bucket full I expect to see more and more zinc etc., but it hasn't happened yet. I'm sure not complaining about that!

[686]

i got about450 lbs from a car dealer one time and there was about 40% scrap. a lot of zink. most of this wsa from small tire shops and some was 1-2 yrs old.