$75 a 5 gallon bucket

[292]

Largest local tire store has an endless supply, good price? Can I smelt and offset the cost by selling ingots?

[finishman2000]

not at $75. at $25 a pail you can amke a little by doing the work.

[Moonman]

Paid TOO MUCH to try to make a profit.

You moved it (Gas Money & Your Time)

Sort & Clean it (Your Time) Plus the loss for
Valve Stems, Steel Clamps, Zinc Weights, Trash, & Chew Spit/Wads

Smelt It (Your Time/Propane)

Cast it into ingots (Your Time/Safety)

Take to Post Office to Ship (Your Time and Gas again)

Available here in cast ingots for about $1.00 a pound.

[Freightman]

Do the math that comes out at $0.55 a pound, then you take and loose 15/20% then you have to buy propane $17 a bottle + your time and effort. I have sold already smelted lead for $65 shipped, but not lately, you would be loosing money by buying that. Order some from one of our members.

[captaint]

Hell, if somebody GAVE me wheelweights, I wouldn't smelt them and then sell them for 1 buck a pound. Too much work & hassle. I'll do it and use it myself - that's different. Mike

[292]

Y'all are confirming what I thought. I did right to walk away.

[Roundnoser]

Y'all are confirming what I thought. I did right to walk away.

Good call! In my neck of the woods 75 cents a pound would be extremely high. The most I ever paid for a bucket is 30 dollars per bucket full. -- Most tire shops here will sell them for the going scrap price (25 cents / lb right now), because if I buy them, they don't have to spend time or gas to transport them to the scrap yard.

[fredj338]

It depends. If the 5gal bucket is full & all lead, doubtful, then you are looking @ about 150# less waste, so call it 120# of alloy. Do the math, but that's only 62c/#. A lot of work to sell them for $1/#.

[imashooter2]

And don't forget that your $75 bucket is unlikely to be all lead weights these days. More likely 30% or more zinc and steel weights.

[leadbutt]

Glad you walked away. Keep looking and youll find someone fair. The way it works for me is if i go out to just look for places to pick up some ww's i never find them. When im just riding down the road and stop at a place out the blue i norm walk away with a good bit for free.

L. Bottoms

[Freightman]

Why do you think I haven't sold any lately? too much work to dig it out and smelt. If I need the money I will do it again but thing are easing up for now, but if they tighten up I will sell some more.

[pistolman44]

My local scrap yard sells used clip on wheel weights for .25 lb. That is the going rate for lead here in Pa.

[Roundnoser]

My local scrap yard sells used clip on wheel weights for .25 lb. That is the going rate for lead here in Pa.

Sells them, or buys them at 25 cents per pound? -- If you can get it at 25 cents per pound, I'd say buy as much as you can!

[imashooter2]

My local scrap yard sells used clip on wheel weights for .25 lb. That is the going rate for lead here in Pa.


That hasn't been the going rate here in the Philly suburbs for years now.

[SlimTim]

Largest local tire store has an endless supply, good price? Can I smelt and offset the cost by selling ingots?

I'm not sure I agree with the others. Is your purpose to provide yourself an income, or to have free ingots? If the latter, you should be able to keep around 1/4 of the ingots you make and have nothing in them if you don't count your time. Propane cost should be minimal for a 5# bucket I'd think.

If looking for an income, you'd be better off selling the raw ww. You'd gross ~$120 a bucket I'd think, depending on how much junk you'd have to sort out. This is based on what I've seen lately, folks paying as much or more for raw ww than for ingots.

SlimTim

[Defcon-One]

I did two buckets last night. Both 5 gallon, both full to the brim.

Total as follows:

Bucket #1:

115 lbs. COWW
18 lbs. SOWW
The rest was steel, Zinc and trash.

Bucket #2:

105 lbs. COWW
12 lbs. SOWW
The rest was steel, Zinc and trash. (Quite a few lug nuts!)

So, I got 220 pounds of COWW Lead and 30 pounds of SOWW Lead for $35.00, which is what I paid for both buckets.

That is only $0.14 per pound! Glad you didn't buy yours at $75 a bucket!

[selmerfan]

I just stopped by my local steady supplier. Heaping 3 gallon bucket for the standard rate we've had for two years now - $10. :grin: Still have to sort and melt, but I can't go wrong this way - plus those 3 gallon buckets are perfect for cleaning up, spray-painting and using for containers for my wife's beloved dahlias. It's a win all the way around!

[onesonek]

My one and only supplier of WW's here, is a case of beer for a 5 gal. buck full. Fortunately, I haven't been seeing much for Zinc or Steel WW's here. Last bucket only had 6 lbs of unwanted metals and junk,,, besides the clips.

[257]

i get my wheel weights for 5.00 a 5 gal bucket for every one i buy i get about 6 buckets that people give me

[John in WI]

man--you guys are making me drool here. I'm very new to casting, and the only source I found so far is charging .55/lb for raw wheel weight. The guy seemed interested in guns, so I'm hoping I can sweeten the deal with some cast boolits!

man--at .55/lb, a bucket would cost in the ball park of $75. I need to start making some friends in the scrap industry. Granted a bucket full would give me about 100 pounds of ingots or so--and that would make a LOT of boolits. But I'd like to buy all I can, because sources seem to be drying up!

[dmize]

John,you would be very lucky too get 100 lbs of ingots out of a 5 gallon bucket. When you start looking at it from strictly a $$ standpoint you can get a certified alloy from Missouri Bullet Company for a little more than $2 a pound.

[wlc]

I stopped at 4 different places today trying to score some wheelweights. Its tire change over season and LOTS of folks are getting their studded winter tires changed over to summer tires right now so there should be lots of wheelweights to be found. Two places wouldn't even talk to me about it. Said company policy didn't allow them to give away or sell WW. The other two places wanted $65 and $100 per bucket respectively:eek:. I just said thanks but no thanks. Lots of folks up here want them for fishing weights for halibut and other ocean fishing and to them its cheaper than buying the fishing weights is all I can figure. I'll stick to using what free and cheap weights I can scrounge and then buy off the swap and sell section here.

[gbrown]

I stopped at 4 places today. One fellow said he would sell me a 5 gallon bucket for $60.00. He re-uses COWW and has to pay $25.00 for a box of 50 new. Can't blame him for keeping what he has. He feeds his family. 3 other places said they had none (in one, I saw 2- 5 gallon buckets full, before I asked). I've got lead, but always looking for more. You guys getting lots for free--congratulations, but for many of us in different areas, it is a little difficult, for whatever reason. I'm just trying to build up a stock. I get a pound here, 5 pounds there. Slow but works.

[fatelk]

You guys getting lots for free--congratulations, but for many of us in different areas, it is a little difficult, for whatever reason.

This is very true. I haven't even bothered looking or asking around here for a year or more. Every place I asked, if they would even talk to me, thought they had gold. They wanted $.75 to $1 PER POUND for raw wheel weights. One guy told me they had folks who would pay it. Must be a lot of desperate casters around here is all I figure.

I was talking with an acquaintance a couple years ago, an old timer who also casts. He hadn't gotten any WWs in a while, but made the comment that there was always lots of lead to be had. He said he gets his WWs five or six buckets at a time, never pays more than $10 per bucket. I asked him how long it had been since he had gotten any, and told him to be prepared for a shock. He laughed it off with the certainty that things would always be as they always had been.

Some time later I ran into him and the first thing he asked, with a desperate tone in his voice, was if I had a good source for lead that didn't cost an arm and a leg.

[waksupi]

If someone is reusing wheel weights, they are very likely in violation of the law. Used ones come off easy.

[gon2shoot]

Stopped in for an oil change today, the guy was happy to have me haul off 1/2 bucket of WW so he didnt have to mess with them................just sayin.

[gbrown]

Stopped in for an oil change today, the guy was happy to have me haul off 1/2 bucket of WW so he didnt have to mess with them................just sayin.

Again, anybody that gets some for free--congrats. I'm happy for you. It sucks to be me!! Don't worry, I have resources. I'm not worried, slow, easy and get more!!!:-)

[40Super]

Around me is the same, nothing is for free. Most won't sell any because they are already selling to a scrapyard, even if I tell them I will pay a little more. But so far buying from the scrapyards is ok at $.40/lb and I am able to pick through the tubs to fill the buckets,so I get very little zinc or junk, plus I get all the heavy ones,so less weight in clips also. I can also get buckets of indoor range scrap for $30 with 130 to 160lbs each. I am up to 750-800lbs in just a couple months now, working on 1/2 to 3/4 ton of stock hopefully. May sell some here and there.

[Fredx10sen]

I picked up another 5 gal bucket that I had to split into two buckets to get it in the truck. I had to insist that my tire guy take at least $10 dollars for it, and he loaded it. Told me to come back in two months for another one. Really nice guy and he services a lot of truck / tractors as well so some of the weights are the big ones. He has always known that I cast bullets out of them. Picked up lots of lead and tires at a good price from him over the years. :)

[sixshot]

Some of the smaller tire shops are still selling WW's but most of the bigger shops will not, they have to account for all that they take in. I checked with the local scrap yard 2 weeks ago & he told me he absolutley could not sell any lead, WW's, linotype, etc, said it was in violation of EPA regs. Better get them while you can. I have plenty so its not a problem but if I didn't have any I'd pay the $75. Bought 1200 lbs of linotype a few years ago for 12 cents a pound, wish I had bought all they had. WW's as we know them are just about non existant.

Dick

[Gtek]

Florida appears to locked down all over now. Danged Government and frog lickers! Get them while you can! Gtek

[fatelk]

I checked with the local scrap yard 2 weeks ago & he told me he absolutley could not sell any lead, WW's, linotype, etc, said it was in violation of EPA regs.
It's interesting how the regulations must apply differently to different scrap yards. Some give you the "illegal" line, others sell with no problem. I asked at a local yard and was told no problem, $.65/lb. I'm not desperate so I didn't buy any.