Lead wheel weight – a thing of the past

[texasmac]

I know this won’t come as a surprise to many of you, but lead weights are quickly being phased out. While having my truck inspected I picked up about 50lbs of wheel weights for free. The same shop sells a lot of tires. I’ve been getting weights from the same guy for many years. This time he said not to expect a lot more in the future as his suppliers are only providing zinc weights from now on. I was aware that weight suppliers had plans to phase out lead but had not given it much thought until now.

So, being curious, I check the price of pure lead on Midway, which is running over $4/lb, not including shipping. You guys better stock up while you can.

Wayne

[maglvr]

And all for no logical reason whatsoever! Seems to be a lot of that going around these days.
I am certainly glad my life is closer to the end than it is to the beginning, at least I got in on a lot of great things our grand kids will never know or enjoy.

[eldoradolee]

Amen brother

[texasmac]

I'm gonna date myself here, but many of you younger fellows will find it hard to believe that tooth paste once came in pure lead tubes. Hard to imagine, right? As a youngster in the late '50s and early '60s I was into casting lead fishing weights and lead-headed fishing jigs. I scrounged all the free lead I could get my hands on including discarded tooth paste tubes. I still have a couple of thick lead blocks made from tooth paste tubes dumped in a can in heated over a single burner stove, then the can peeled off. I use them as a support when disassembling and reassembling firearms and other machine work.

Wayne

[cbrick]

So, being curious, I check the price of pure lead on Midway, which is running over $4/lb, not including shipping. You guys better stock up while you can.

Wayne

Midway is really high on alloys. Check out Roto Metals, link at the top of this page, they are one of the sponsors of this site. Any alloy is pretty high these days but Roto Metals will save ya a buch over Midway, last I checked tin was about $5.50 per pound less.

Rick

[Defcon-One]

On a positive note, things can change back just as fast as they went wrong! New President, new focus, new policy. I'm tired of being green for the sake of green. It is all based on their baised junk science.

They decide on a conclusion then plan an experiment to get there, all the while manipulating the data as required to acheive their desired outcome!

I melt the Zinc and save it in ingots. Maybe some day I can sell it to the wheel weight manufacturers at a profit, Ha Ha. I used to trash it, but now I find too many to trash so I stock up and smelt them every once in a while, in a seperate pot, when I have enough.

Zinc is pretty hard stuff. Someday I'll cast SOMETHING out of it or just sell it all.

[Longwood]

I'm gonna date myself here, but many of you younger fellows will find it hard to believe that tooth paste once came in pure lead tubes. Hard to imagine, right? As a youngster in the late '50s and early '60s I was into casting lead fishing weights and lead-headed fishing jigs. I scrounged all the free lead I could get my hands on including discarded tooth paste tubes. I still have a couple of thick lead blocks made from tooth paste tubes dumped in a can in heated over a single burner stove, then the can peeled off. I use them as a support when disassembling and reassembling firearms and other machine work.

Wayne

I have always heard the tubes were made of tin.
Could be they were lead with a tin coating inside.

[texasmac]

Longwood,

Nope, they were actually made of a lead/tin alloy just like soft cast bullets made for black powder cartridge rifles. Only a small amount of tin was added for the same reason we use tin when casting bullets. It improves alloy flow (castability). Do a Google search for lead toothpast tubes and see what pops up. Here's some comments from a dental trivia site.

======================
Lead in toothpaste: Toothpaste was first placed in collapsible tubes in the 1850's, and they were made of lead. This practice, though known to be potentially poisonous, continued though the 1950's. During WWII, containers were placed on the streets for collection of toothpaste tubes so the lead could be use for making bullets.
======================

Go to the following site and page down some for more details: http://blog.news-record.com/staff/architecture/2005/12/readers_have_po.shtml

Since I was born in 1947, I know for a fact that lead was used in the tubes into the early 1960's. The large round ingots I have, which were made only from toothpaste tubes are very soft and easily indented with a fingernail. I do have some pure lead I use for making lead/tin alloy for BPCR bullets and it yields to the fingernail test the same as the toothpaste tube lead.

By the way, as a kid growing up on the farm, I routinely carried lead pellets in my mouth when shooting pellet guns, which I did a lot. It was easy and fast to spit a pellet into a hand for fast loading. No wonder I can't remember much about my youth, but I was tested for lead a few years ago and nothing showed up, at least I don't remember anything showing up. ;)

Wayne

[Longwood]

Longwood,


By the way, as a kid growing up on the farm, I routinely carried lead pellets in my mouth when shooting pellet guns, which I did a lot.

Wayne

I did the very same thing, only sooner. I was born in 42.
Thanks for the info about the tubes.

[Bad Water Bill]

Back in the 60s I worked at a Sears garage and got FULL 5 gal buckets of ww for $5.00 minus discount.:bigsmyl2:

[doubledown]

"By the way, as a kid growing up on the farm, I routinely carried lead pellets in my mouth when shooting pellet guns, which I did a lot.".

That's impossible ! Lead is a deadly poison, algore said so! The next tall tail will be you rode around in the bed of a pick up truck as a kid without a child safety seat! :shock:

[Wally]

Pure lead. by itself, is not all that toxic--it is lead compounds that causes
problems--ie lead oxide...

[texasmac]

Midway is really high on alloys. Check out Roto Metals, link at the top of this page, they are one of the sponsors of this site. Any alloy is pretty high these days but Roto Metals will save ya a buch over Midway, last I checked tin was about $5.50 per pound less.
Rick

Rick, you are sure correct on that. I just checked Rotometals and lead alloy is around $2/lb with free shipping. What a difference.

Wayne

[ColColt]

By the way, as a kid growing up on the farm, I routinely carried lead pellets in my mouth when shooting pellet guns, which I did a lot. It was easy and fast to spit a pellet into a hand for fast loading. No wonder I can't remember much about my youth, but I was tested for lead a few years ago and nothing showed up, at least I don't remember anything showing up.

Wayne

I don't recall doing that but we sure did keep BB's in one side of the cheek. Guys in furniture factories in NC, and I'm sure other places, routinely would keep a mouth full of tacks while on the assembly line. They called it "spittin' tacks". Fresh out of high school I worked at Kroehler's for awhile but couldn't get the hang of that. I was afraid I'd "swaller" them.

[Longwood]

I don't recall doing that but we sure did keep BB's in one side of the cheek. Guys in furniture factories in NC, and I'm sure other places, routinely would keep a mouth full of tacks while on the assembly line. They called it "spittin' tacks". Fresh out of high school I worked at Kroehler's for awhile but couldn't get the hang of that. I was afraid I'd "swaller" them.

Between your (mouth) lips is a good place to keep a razor blade handy.
Just don't do it if you have a runny nose.

[madsenshooter]

I can't believe what I read on some greenie site about the change, how dust from lead weights was contaminating the environment. Somehow they missed the fact that it was the tetraethyl lead from auto exhaust that did that. There's something on this planet that eats pretty much anything we could possibly contaminate the planet with. Lead is by far, the least of our worries.

[fredj338]

Yep, since I live in Kommifornia, the writing was on the wall when they banned lead ww here 18m ago. It is the largest auto market in the USA. So I started scrounging harder as the free/cheap lead ww is going the way of the honest politician. Get what you can now & stack it deep. I am thinking before 2015, it's done but for the occasional few you find here & there from old stock.:violin:

[Fugowii]

I know this won’t come as a surprise to many of you, but lead weights are quickly being phased out. While having my truck inspected I picked up about 50lbs of wheel weights for free. The same shop sells a lot of tires. I’ve been getting weights from the same guy for many years. This time he said not to expect a lot more in the future as his suppliers are only providing zinc weights from now on. I was aware that weight suppliers had plans to phase out lead but had not given it much thought until now.

So, being curious, I check the price of pure lead on Midway, which is running over $4/lb, not including shipping. You guys better stock up while you can.

Wayne

There are literally millions of tires with lead wheel weights on them. Unless Obama
decides to spend a few trillion more to have them removed and replaced, I'm guessing
that there will be a few lead wheel weights around for years to come.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I remember taking a trip up highway 61 to St Louis about 1946. As we were passing through Farmington, Mo. I noticed all the trees were covered with something white that looked somewhat like snow. I asked my Dad what it was, since winter was long passed for the year. He said it was dust from the lead smelters. Missouri had many lead mines at that time. I don't know if they are still operating. By the way, I was twelve at the time. You do the math. As a side bar, the state mental asylum is, or was in Farminton. You don't suppose?

[imashooter2]

There are literally millions of tires with lead wheel weights on them. Unless Obama
decides to spend a few trillion more to have them removed and replaced, I'm guessing
that there will be a few lead wheel weights around for years to come.

There's still linotype out there too. The trick is in finding it.

I'm not in a ban state and scrap buckets around here are already more than 50% steel and zinc.

[cbrick]

I remember taking a trip up highway 61 to St Louis about 1946. As we were passing through Farmington, Mo. I noticed all the trees were covered with something white that looked somewhat like snow. I asked my Dad what it was, since winter was long passed for the year. He said it was dust from the lead smelters. Missouri had many lead mines at that time. I don't know if they are still operating. By the way, I was twelve at the time. You do the math. As a side bar, the state mental asylum is, or was in Farminton. You don't suppose?

Can anyone wonder why/how the eco whackos get as far as they do and cause as much damage via mis-information as they do?

Rick

[ColColt]

That sort of reminds me of when I was a teenager and my Mom(passing along misinfo) use to tell me that chocolate and peanut butter caused zits. I guess she would have included pizza had it been around then.

[Fugowii]

There's still linotype out there too. The trick is in finding it.

I'm not in a ban state and scrap buckets around here are already more than 50% steel and zinc.

You need to look at the glass half full instead of half empty. Pay accordingly if you are paying for them.

[imashooter2]

You need to look at the glass half full instead of half empty. Pay accordingly if you are paying for them.

I was speaking to the premise that because there are lead weights on millions of tires today, lead ww will be available to casters for years to come. There is a big difference between available and viable.

[Exclr8]

What are people paying for a 5 gallon bucket of WW. I pay $50/5 gallon bucket and get around 100lbs of processed alloy.

[t_dickinson]

I pay .30/lb for WW and nothing for indoor scrap. I get 60/40 solder for free too.

One source is absolutely full of valve stems and junk but nothing heavy so I'm satisfied since they produce 150 lbs per month.

I cleaned a bucket from another source this weekend. 140 lb bucket let go of only 5 lbs of steel and zinc. Junk and gargage was less than a pound!!!

A local chain store switched to steel and has an entire rack of new lead ww. They are sending them back to corporate and won't sell them for all the money in the world.

I am lucky for what I get and will get all I can.

Good luck out there. At least we aren't in line at Wal Mart!

[merlin101]

I've had terrible luck getting WW lately but did manage to get a half bucket of brand new lead WW from a shop that was scared to use them now! Seems almost a shame to melt them down. I wonder if some day they will have a value to some car show guy?

[mongo]

I can remember the lead tooth paste tubes. I also remember putting lead tinsel on the Christmas tree. Shooting squirrels with a mouth full of pellets, spittin them out as needed. Still kinda new to casting, WW's are hard to get around here. A buddy and I cleaned our gun club indoor range last weel. Just dumped the lead in the smelting pot and put it on the camp stove. Poured into muffin trays and refilled the pot. Ended up with over a hundred pounds. Seems some of the members think lead it a deadly neuro-toxin. I agreed with them, LOL The more I cast the more I can afford to shoot and I love to shoot. Tommy

[MikeS]

I was speaking to the premise that because there are lead weights on millions of tires today, lead ww will be available to casters for years to come. There is a big difference between available and viable.

Not necessarily true. All it takes in one law requiring all businesses that deal with lead to dispose of it ONLY to hazmat licensed recyclers, and we're out of WW forever! Or a law making private ownership of lead illegal, etc. And before you say that can't happen, try buying some surplus R-12 refrigerant, unless you have the proper licenses it ain't gonna happen!

What might be a smart move would be to try and find another metal that we can use to cast boolits, with our current inventory of moulds, that would approximate the properties of lead. Along those lines, while it would be very expensive to do, could pure tin, or tin/antimony be used to cast boolits without any lead? I realize the resulting boolits would be much lighter, but if lead gets banned or otherwise becomes unavailable, light boolits are better than no boolits!

[Exclr8]

I wonder if the NRA is doing anything about this? If not maybe they should be. I don't believe big brother want us making/producing our own lead ammo! They cannot keep records of it as easily!

[fredj338]

I was speaking to the premise that because there are lead weights on millions of tires today, lead ww will be available to casters for years to come. There is a big difference between available and viable.
Not really, I give it 3-5 yrs max. Sure, you will always be able to find some, like finding antiques, but the for free or cheap is going quickly. A set of tires only lasts about 3yrs tops. Then the new tires are getting non lead ww.:(

What are people paying for a 5 gallon bucket of WW. I pay $50/5 gallon bucket and get around 100lbs of processed alloy.
If I could be guaranteed 100# net, then that would be a bargain @ $50. The problem going forward is that 140# bucket is going to get more & more non lead ww & soon you are paying $50 for 50# & doing all the work to get it into an ingot. In the not so near future, $1/# ingots will seem like a bargain.

[imashooter2]

LOL! Guys, I'm not the one advocating that because lead was installed on millions of tires it will be available for years. That was Fugowii. See posts 18 and 20...

[Ozarklongshot]

I wonder if the NRA is doing anything about this? If not maybe they should be. I don't believe big brother want us making/producing our own lead ammo! They cannot keep records of it as easily!

The NRA fighting (actually fighting) for our rights. Not negotiating them away... You gotta be kidding.
BTW Life member (Very vocal unhappy one at that)
:bigsmyl2:

[Exclr8]

Not sure what is going on, but the place where I buy WW sold me two 5 gallon buckets, shaken down and heaping full, for $30 each.

[MikeS]

I wonder if the NRA is doing anything about this? If not maybe they should be. I don't believe big brother want us making/producing our own lead ammo! They cannot keep records of it as easily!

I doubt the NRA would be doing anything regarding lead for casting boolits. They have so many other issues they're supposedly fighting, that getting us lead to cast with has to be on the bottom of the priority list.

Something I heard, and have no clue if it's true or not, or even possible for that matter, is that a few states (MA, CA, & NY come to mind) want all bullets,either sold for reloading, or in loaded ammo to have a serial number stamped into them between the lead, and the jacket material, so each projectile would be traceable. If something like this became the law of the land, I could see mould makers being required to serial number their moulds in such a way that it casts that number into the boolit (perhaps in the lube grove?) so that even cast boolits would in the future be traceable! I can also see the government trying to figure out how many projectiles a given mould can produce in it's lifetime, and adding a tax on each of those theoretical boolits.

I mean, what is the government's biggest argument with moonshine? It's not how it's made, or how strong it is, it's that their taxes aren't paid on the moonshine! That's another thing our government does to show their love of their citizens, that is if you buy some alcohol that the proper taxes were not paid on it, it has to be 'denatured', that is POISONED! Drink some of that stuff and it can kill you! They could have just as easily made the denaturing compounds give it a terrible flavor/odor to discourage drinking it, but instead the are willing to kill their own citizens because they didn't pay the proper tax! And then we (as a country) talk about human rights violations of other countries! I'm just using this as an example, I personally rarely drink, so this has no effect on me, but it does show what the government thinks of it's subjects, excuse me, I mean citizens!

All of these are subtle ways the government could make it harder and harder for reloaders to make their own ammo, without an actual ban on reloading. Our government likes to go about things in roundabout ways when they feel a direct attack wouldn't work!

[Bad Water Bill]

Lets see the anti lead folks explain this. Most homes built between 1900 and 1980 have a LEAD pipe running from the CITY water line to your home. If you doubt this scrape the GREY pipe entering your home.

Can you imagine what it would cost to replace every line from the center of the street to EVERY home built over those EIGHTY YEARS?

Strange how we could drink that water for all of our life and still be able to use this outer.

[imashooter2]

Lets see the anti lead folks explain this. Most homes built between 1900 and 1980 have a LEAD pipe running from the CITY water line to your home. If you doubt this scrape the GREY pipe entering your home.

Can you imagine what it would cost to replace every line from the center of the street to EVERY home built over those EIGHTY YEARS?

Strange how we could drink that water for all of our life and still be able to use this outer.

Probably no more than requiring curb cuts at every intersection and then rebuilding all those curb cuts a second time to add traction devices of questionable efficiency. There is no limit to the stupidity of those whose sole purpose is to pander to the electorate in order that they might retain their cushy job for another term.

[a.squibload]

I had to pay $60 for a bucket full of WWs last weekend,
had to split it in two buckets to get it in the trunk.
Got a couple free ones recently so I can't complain.
They're almost all lead, a few steel weights, no trash.

I had forgotten about lead Christmas tree tinsel!