Poll: What do you pay for your lead?

[alha]

I thought I'd post a quick poll for fun about what people pay for their lead. I've heard a range of Free (lucky dogs) to 2 bucks a pound for virgin lead, from places like Rotometals. If you get it at different prices, choose the option that you got the majority of your lead at.

[badbob454]

free from tire stores , must sort out the few lead , and 75c for clean lead from my recycler last time i bought 94 lbs all the clean ingotized lead he had , or dirty lead , ww ,batt clamps 45c lb.

[Sparky141]

i get my lead from 3 places for free , A large tire shop , a you pull it junk yard , and the outdoor pistol berm at our gun club . The best part of the first 2 is they get dropped off at my house . If I get zinc or steel COWW ,the local scrap dealer trades me straight up for lead .

[imashooter2]

I've ranged from free to $10 a bucket which is well under 10 cents a pound. But that is because I've got mine already and could afford to wait for the right deal. A guy without a several thousand pound stash has to buy what he can find in the market at the time he needs it.

[dg31872]

Last week I picked up 255 lbs wheel weights at my local tire store for a nickle a pound, and my best guess is 95% lead and 5% steel, zinc. I get it for the price the local recycler pays for wheel weights.

[btroj]

I have 600 pounds of range scrap I got for free. I paid 40 cents for monotype and 50 cents for lead pipe in the past 3 years.

[lead4me]

I've been real lucky, I was part of a tear out crew for an old factory and the counter balances were dead soft lead. I was told to take all I wanted, I was not casting at the time and only took around 1500lbs wish I knew then....there was TON'S up for the hauling away in 30lb blocks. I have bought some COWW's for cheep and 1.00 a lb for foundry type to sweeten my stash.

[Ole]

I bought most of my lead in '09. Figure about $.60/lb or so average cost.

[BACKTOSHOOTING]

I've got all my base lead, Magnum shot free, I bought lino and scrap pewter for my mix and it's working out to about 30 cents a LB

[bobthenailer]

The last time i bought WW about 3 years ago , i got about 800 lbs, i paid 25 cents a pound but unfortunatly that included zinc & steel WW
Since i retired 2 years ago ive been doing more range mining, previously i was getting about 150 lbs a year in 2011 i got 362 lbs, in 2012 i got 878 lbs i would have gotten more but in September they made improvemrnts to the range and moved alot of dirt around so the lead bank deposit was just about lost ! in October through December i could only get 32 lbs more, I was averageing about 98 lbs a month before that.
when the weather gets into the 50s again , i have about 1,200 lbs of RL to smelt + some other lead i was given.
I will probly not buy any more WW, theres just too much zinc & steel weights in the mix , not to say anything about all the extra work involved , if i can get 3 to 400 lbs a year from the range it will replace the alloy i use for casting bullets for the year and not even break into stach.

[fredj338]

If I buy alloy, I won't pay more than $1/#. More than that, might as well buy my plinking bullets already cast. I personally like trading & getting it free. 2-1. alloy for bullets, works for me.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

my range lead is free but i like to mix with WW lead

[khmer6]

it all depends. sometimes free, sometimes 10c a pound for mixed bucket of wheel weights with steel and zinc included. sometimes i just buy clean ingots for 1$/lb

[TheGrimReaper]

I pay 20.00 for wheel weights and free for pure x-ray sheet lead.

[HighHook]

I have been real lucky for over 34 years of free WW. I think my luck is running out these days...

[alha]

Thanks for the replies guys. I, like many I've read about here, have had an issue getting wheel weight lead from the usual sources (tire shops, etc), so I went to a local metal recycling center near my work, and asked about purchasing lead. They showed me a pallet that has a few tons of wheel weights in three 55gal drums, and talking to the manager, she said she would sell them to me for a buck 5 a pound. I said I felt that was way too high, that I could purchase bulk lead of known quality for a little over that and not have to deal with loading/sorting them, etc. I said I thought 40-60 cents a lb was more what I had expected. I also made sure that I would be able to sell the zinc/steel ones back to her after they had been sorted. She then mentioned to me that the usual lead buyer had just purchased them the day before, but it doesn't take them long to get that many together and she will call me when she has a quantity again, should be within a month or so, and we could discuss the pricing then.

So... here's my question, after standing there looking at 3-55 gal drums basically full of WW, and absorbing the reality of sorting that much lead, I wonder if this would really be worth it, even if I got them at the lower end of my price range. That is a LOT of WW, and no idea what % is good lead, what is Zinc, and what is steel. As long as I can sell the rest back to her at pretty much the same $ I bought them for, I wouldn't be out more than the time it took. But Man, the time.. Has anyone come up with a good way to sort them, other than putting them all into a pot, CLOSELY monitoring the temp and just skimming out the rejects? The thought of hand sorting that much lead is frankly overwhelming... I am in the middle of making a bottom pour melting pot that is going to be 14" wide by 11" tall, so it could handle a decent amount at one time, but would that be the most efficient way to go, especially as I am going to be selling the rejects back to her? Compared to a 55 gal drum, that pot looks pretty inadequate... I appreciate any thoughts you guys might have for me.

[40Super]

I get most of my lead for between .25c and .40c/lb. My indoor range lead comes out to .25c/lb in 5 gal buckets ,but by separating the jackets out before smelting and keeping them bright and clean I get top copper price so they mostly pay for the bucket.
For ww I have hand sorted them, dump a bucket on the floor and start picking. Lots of time though. As long as I'm doing them I take several brands and keep them separate(to a limit) because some are more pure than others and some tend to make harder alloy when I tested them. Kind of a waste of time, doubt I'll do it much again. I had several buckets from an old source so I wanted to keep them out of the newer ones.

[digger44]

Usually .60/lb COWWs

[fallout4x4]

You do have to decide how much is your time worth to you? For some people who have more time than money (like me) it would be a great deal. Definately get it as low as possible, 30 cents or so because your fuel cost will move it up some. But dont let that much lead overwhelm you. If you can afford it, buy it. Do ONE pot per week, the size of pot you stated is 100+ lbs. And before you know it you will be done with a HUGE stack of ingots to show for it.

[captaint]

While I said I pay .75 to 1.00 for my lead,
I don't very often pay at all. I have, on occasion,
paid up, though. So far, I have always gotten WW's
for free. Yes, my fingers are crossed. Mike

[Beagle333]

A buck to a buck-twenty, depending on the seller. 8-) No WW to anybody but recyclers and NO SALES TO THE PUBLIC at all the scrapyards around here. I'm not unhappy paying that for lead. I'm pretty happy just to be getting some! :Fire:

[roarindan]

3-4 yrs ago, I bought 5 gal. buckets of ww at a tire store for $20/pail, bought quite a few. then last spring I traded a single shot 22 for a bunch of pulled lead with a guy that worked for the phone company. This week, a guy at the Ford dealer bought a 223 and was talking about the lack of bullets when I mentioned I cast and reload my own. He offered the 2 pails of ww. so we smelted the first bucket Tues. He tapped on his smart phone for a few seconds and figgured he had 3,600 bullets awating casting.

[John Boy]

I bought most of my lead in '09. Figure about $.60/lb or so average cost. Same for me in 2009. Grade A sheet lead at the recycler - 280 lbs
Over the course of prior years, all WW's were free and amassed over a 1000 lbs of ingots - now have about 200 lbs

Then last year, a friend called and said bring your truck, it's yours. Hard ball strips @ Bhn 19.5 - 375 lbs

Plus mixed Bhn alloy ingots amassed from various sources over the years - have about 6-700lbs left

[tinsnips]

I get soft lead better than free I get paid to remove lead pipe and cast iron pipe joints in the plumbing. So far I get WW for free also as my friend owns a tire shop but more an more WW are steel or zinc.

[Lefty SRH]

Not sure how you would rate what I pay for my lead. My supplier and I have an agreement/trade. I pick up 1-2 buckets of weights per month and he gets 500-600 cast boolits of his choice IF I have a mold he can utilize.
Not sure how to vote on the poll.

[btroj]

Got about 250 pounds of clean, pure lead today in exchange for 2000 cast bullets. Those were bullets I already had cast, just finished sizing the last of them.
Lead is where you find it.

[wrench man]

Lead is free, I operate this at work (see the pic) there are three buckets and one box to the left of the balancer,one is for "ZN" and "FE", the second is for lead "TRUCK" weights and the third bucket is for "CAR" weights, the box is for me, funny how the "TRUCK" bucket never seems to accumulate anything?[smilie=1: especially since about 99% of our tire work is trucks and coaches, nothing but lead comes home.:mrgreen:
http://i754.photobucket.com/albums/xx190/ramblerinternational/brakes024.jpg

[fishnhunt]

alha,
With that many ww, you need to invest in a thermocouple thermometer (reads temp almost immediately) - and you can buy one on eBay for around $20. I just looked and there's one for $20.99 with free shipping!! Go ahead and order a few extra probes while you're at it. Pour the ww's out on a flat surface - I use the utility trailer, and sort out the valve stems, screwdrivers, cig butts and other **** you find that you don't want to burn in the mix. Be careful, those mechanics are bad to put their old razor blades in that scrap bucket! Get your self a large smelting pot (I use a large cast aluminum pot that will hold 200 pounds of melt) - but wide and shallow may be the best way to go. The first few melts go with just a few inches of ww's, reason being the ones on the bottom will melt and be over 700 degrees before the top weights melt. Go slow at first and then add to it as you go - don't dip out until you have a pot full. Be certain that your turkey frying stand - or whatever your pot is resting on - will take the weight!! Also - be certain that the ww's are DRY when you introduce them into the pot of molten lead. I like to use a large plastic refrigerator drawer - you can use it as a "shield" as you pour the weights in. The emphasis here is to keep the mix below 725 degrees, and that is pretty easy if you take it slow with the propane and test temps OFTEN!! After a while you will be able to look at/stir the mix and tell about what the temp is. Dip off the clips each time. Dip them into another pot (I use an old pressure cooker aluminum pot), and when it's half full pour those clips on a steel sheet (I use an old 3 foot removable shelf) to cool. When the clips cool - pour them up into a 5 gallon bucket ready for the scrapyard. The steel and zinc ww's will be with the clips. After a few times doing this you will get into a rhythm. Just be careful and use common sense. Sorting that many ww's by hand is nigh impossible, and after many years off messing with these things - this is the best method so far for me. You may want to consider a bottom pour rig so you won't have to dip. As you develop your system, if you use a bottom pour rig, you'll want to figure a way to slide/roll the molds under the spigot so you won't have to lift and carry each mold full of hot melt. If you can slide it down the table/conveyor till it cools - that's MUCH safer. That's my next improvement. Dipping 400 pounds a dipper at a time is tuff. Go to the welding supply store and get a couple pair of welders gloves ($6 a pair) and use them all the time around the pot (safety glasses too!). All the pots, molds, dippers, skimmers, stirring spoons, etc. I get from Goodwill or Habitat. Good Luck with your new hobby - go slow, and safety first.

[bobthenailer]

Just picked up 2, 6 gallon buckets overflowing with old pre Zinc/steel WW about 350 + lbs for $120.00 , or 34.2 cents a pound but no junk except for the clips.

[fryboy]

a buck five is too much for raw ww's - even if no zinc nor steel or the aluminum one i found there's still 20-30% clips in the mix , the current market price for lead ( note not scrap lead but ingots ) is in that box on the top of this page - right around $1.09 per pound
i dont find many ww's , pretty sure a bunch of old retired guys with longer known contacts and 10,000 #'s sitting at home have all the local possibilities sewn up ( it's what i repeatedly hear when asking anyways ) i've seen bidding wars for them on the local CL
the worse part ? i recall when it was $.02 a pound ....

[nwellons]

I pay .50 to local tire shops but my son also scrounges for me and get his for free from about 5 friends who have automotive/tire related jobs. Even though I clicked .50-.75 since that includes what I pay, I guess I average .35 overall for wheel weights. I picked up about 150 lbs. last week and have 2 or 3 more shops to check.

[duck hollow pete]

Free at work soft sleeves from elec.joints, scrap solder 40%tin and wheel wts car and truck from the garage. I still have babbit from the steel mill and power plants, never had to pay for it and hope
I never have too !

[slim1836]

Just remember that what you pay for them is not what they buy them for. If you give .75 a pound, they may buy back zinc and steel weights for .25 a pound.

Slim

[gutthooked]

I just got 625lb of wheel weights over the weekend for $100 bucks.

[wv109323]

I found a honey hole. I bought 200 pounds of COWW for .35 cents a pound. I also accepted quite a bit of plumbers lead pipe so I could have some soft lead. There were very few steel weights involved as I picked them out as they weighed out the lead.

[alha]

fishnhunt, All very good advice, thanks for taking the time to lay it all out there. I really couldn't do it any other way in a practical sense, with that many weights. I am designing my pot to actually be controlled by a furnace valve, with thermocouples inserted in the pot in a couple places. It will have a jet burner setup, and an auto-igniting pilot setup. It's coming together pretty well, my biggest issue is the thermocouples, but I think I have that one licked as well. This is getting to be fun, can't wait till it's all together, and spring. Then the fun will begin!

Slim, you're right, I will have to be Very Specific when I make the arrangements to purchase. Especially if the % of non-lead weights is potentially fairly high, as I've been reading about around here now a days. Thanks for the reminder.

gutthooked, nice score at a Nice Price!

[Trapaddict]

Well, The actual out of pocket expense for my lead is zero. The time is another issue all together. I manufacture lead shot and have an arrangement from people that if they send/bring me clean useable lead, I will turn it into shot. My cut is 50% if the lead comes in the form of wheel weights etc and I have to smelt it and 40% if it comes ready to run. I have not bought a bag of shot in years and I go through A LOT with 5 trap shooters in the house. Once all the lead is ready to run and the planets and stars align, I have produced 1000 pounds of ready to load shot in one day. That was one reeeally long day and I will never do that much again. Anything I don't turn into shot is set aside for rifle and pistol boolits.


Jeff

[alha]

Well, an unfortunate turn of events has me in search of (another) new source of lead. Yesterday I was passing by the place I had spoken to before, and as the mgr was out for the afternoon, I asked her to call me in the morning. They didn't have nearly as much as the 1st time I was in there, but thought I could get what they had to start the process going. I got a call early this morning, and was told that since I was there last time, they had decided that they weren't going to be selling any lead to the 'public', even though I was purchasing it thru my business. So much for visons of piles of lead dancing thru my head, back to scraping and scrounging... *sigh*

[gutthooked]

alha

The guy told me there was 400lb in 4 buckets, when I went to get them it was 4 heaping buckets. When I got home I weighed them with my scale 625lb 99.9% older coww. You'll find another source.

Trapaddict I would like to hear more about your setup for shot. I just got into the trap game last year and am wanting to make my own shot.

[fishnhunt]

alha,
I'd really like pics and details once you get it together! I've found that you need to go slow at first when starting a batch - and only melt a couple inches of ww's at a time. Otherwise you'll get the bottom too hot and melt zinc before the top starts to melt. I ruined a big pot full a few months ago (and I've been doing this for years). After you've got 4 or 5 inches of melt in the pot it goes a little quicker - but don't leave it, and keep a sharp eye on the temps. Let us know how it comes out!

[alha]

fishnhunt, I sure will, really looking forward to getting it completed, should be a week or 2 and I will have it good to go. And thanks for the tips. Of course, it'll be kind of useless without anything to put into it... :wink: I expect the insulation I am putting around the pot will be helpful in maintaining the temps, but not sure how difficult it will be to install, as it is still in the box. I'll take some pics and let you guys see the creation. Now to keep up the lead hunt... :)

[johnnybar]

fishnhunt, I sure will, really looking forward to getting it completed, should be a week or 2 and I will have it good to go. And thanks for the tips. Of course, it'll be kind of useless without anything to put into it... :wink: I expect the insulation I am putting around the pot will be helpful in maintaining the temps, but not sure how difficult it will be to install, as it is still in the box. I'll take some pics and let you guys see the creation. Now to keep up the lead hunt... :) Well guys, since I am stocked very well on lead, I will tell you my secrets. Not that most of you haven't heard of these sources before but, I haven't heard them mentioned in this thread.
1. Keep in good communication with construction contractors. Any time they remodel or tear down a medical clinic, rapid response clinic, hospital, cancer center, doctors office with x-ray, etc. they will have several large sheets of pure lead, usually 1/8" thick, that is peeled off the radiation barrier drywall. 1000's of lbs per x-ray suite.
2. Aircraft have large ingots as balance weights with cast in flanges for mounting. Aircraft salvage yards may be a source, but having a brother that worked for a Wichita company was my connection. Everything had to be perfect...if one got messed up somehow it got tossed in his truck bed.
3. Many medium and large sailboats have 1000's of pounds of lead ingots or shot in their keels as ballast. Take a cordless drill and bit to the boat being scrapped for spot checking before buying as some are scrap iron or concrete filled.

Good luck in your lead quest,

jb

[Hogdaddy]

Well what lead I have was givin to me, thought it was pure but it was about a 10 br. I had wheel weights gave to me also,, So I,ve got a good mess to mix as I need except Soft, For my front stuffer ; )
H/D

[floydboy]

Just paid $.75/# for pure lead...Floyd

[fishnhunt]

Paid 40 cents/lb for mixed WW and battery lugs yesterday. Some of the WW's looked like a small trout laying in the bucket! 2 pound WW - goes on a BIG truck!

[DeanWinchester]

I hate to sound like a snob but I GENUINELY feel sorry for you guys that have to pay for lead. That must really suck.

I just smelted 3 five gallon buckets of truck weights a couple weeks ago. Mostly eight and ten ounce weights.

[2thepoint]

Just scrounged 1/2 bucket of wheel weights from my HVAC guy and another 1/2 bucket from my mechanic. Last week I traded a bunch of pvc & abs pipe and fittings to a plumber friend for 150lbs of soft lead. Close to closing a deal on a 40lb chunk of tin wit a guy on another forum. I have my eye on my mother-in-law's pewter collection!!

[jdam169]

I lucked out today and got 204lbs of ww's for free! I also took some old batteries and other junk metal to the scrap yard and swapped for 60lbs of sheet lead.

[terminal gravity]

i just paid 20$ for 3 /10 gal buckets of ww...im happy with that..

[Case Stuffer]

Thirty plus years ago I paid 20 cents per lbs. for range lead,20 to 25 for wheel weights and 60 to 75 for Linotype and managed to get hundreds of lbs. for free mining berms at a club I belonged to. Fast forward to now and I am paying a dollar a pound plus postage so realy $1.28 a pound for ww or range lead from members here and $2.95 a pound for 2-6-92 alloy delivered from a commerical caster. My blend is costing me $2.39 a pound but still cheaper than buying cast boolits. Casting 125 gr. 9MM I save 4 cents a piece and can cast 500 an hour without working all that hard and I need the exercise anyway.

[B-man]

I am gonna have to start checking around for those wheel weights here in town, Used to think of those as trash, I wonder how many places still do?

[khmer6]

Good luck finding weights. All the shops I visited reuse or want 100 bucks. I got to my friend only now. 45# a month during slow season

[rbertalotto]

$3.19 a pound for 20/1 from RotoMetals.............This went up quite a bit from November, the last month I ordered. It used to be $2.99 a pound, free shipping over $99.

But they just changed the rules and now it is only sold by the "bar" and it is $15.95 and the bars "will average 4.5-5.5 Pounds each". So it could be anywhere from $3.54 - $2.90 a pound.

Not sure I'm a fan of this new pricing method.....

[hickfu]

When I first started out casting I could get WW from 3 local shops, now they are all either selling to scrap yards or they just say no. I have to pay 1.25 per pound but thats in ingot form.


Doc

[lylejb]

I work at an auto dealership that does tires, unfortunatly, not very many tires.

I can get all the scrap WW that come off there, but once you sort for zn, fe, and junk, that's only 1- 2 buckets a year of lead.

It is free, however.

[khmer6]

1-2 full buckets for free should be quite a bit if you are getting 80% lead weights.

[Arkansas Paul]

I'm paying $25-$40 a bucket of WW, depending on which shop has them. I'm averaging 100-110 lbs of ingotized lead per bucket.
There are some getting $50 and one shop I went to yesterday wanted $80. WOW. I said no way. He said he had 10 buckets. I offered him $400 for the 10 and he turned me down. He kept saying that they were going to ban lead WWs. He must think that WWs are the only source of lead out there. Crazy.
I won't pay over $40.

[383]

I'm just getting started, but so far I procured 38lbs of lead sheeting for free, 150lbs of lead alloy isotope cores for 60 cents/lb, and 10lbs of tin ingots for $6/lb.

[rmark]

50 cents a pound yesterday for 200lbs of clean sheet and pipe lead. Last year 30 cents, year before that 20 cents.

[psychicrhino]

Sorry your deal fell through.

[Y-T71]

My last job was for my local street department and I was getting lead service lines that we dug up and replaced with plastic for free. My buddies that still work there still save it for me but haven't dug any up lately.

They've got a few dig jobs scheduled as soon as the weather breaks that are almost certaint to be lead. So far I've got about 300 lbs.

Also ,my wife works for a car dealership and she brings home wheel weights for free. So far I've scored about 300 lbs (unsmelted but I already sorted out the zinc and steel)

My boss just sold me about 40 lbs of old dive weights for one dollar. Not sure where he came up with that number but I sure didn't mind paying it!

[alha]

Well, after all this time, I can finally put my marker down, at .85 a lb! :mad: I went back to the salvage yard I had stopped at a month or so ago since I was up on that end of the cities, and said WTH, I have to start somewhere and as I don't see the lead fairy making any suprise visits anytime soon, I figured I'd rather have something than nothing to put into the pot when it is finished. I was a bit unhappy that they jacked the price up .10 since then, but I did manage to get the mgr in the back to agree to take back any rejects at the same price I bought them for, so I am ending up paying for truely only pure lead WW, and will get a credited back my money for what I return. I may suggest to him to instead just swap them out for whatever he has in the bucket at the time, that way no $ has to change hands up front, I get more WW to go thru, and we're all happy in the end with the result. All I am out is the time it takes to sort them. It will be interesting to see how much of each I get, I hope they are at least 75% lead, but we'll see. It was only around 165 lbs, which was one overflowing 5 gal bucket. Now I am in it to win it! If only we could Finally get some warmer weather here to melt the white sh*t, I heard on the radio that it was almost 80 this week last year. This morning it was around 8... Where's global warming when ya need it??

[alha]

I just completed my 1st attempt at sorting thru my purchase of my WW's , and have discovered something. I am going to be putting a good amount of time and testing into my smelting pot. It is going to be Very good at temp control, because I don't plan on doing this again. Some ppl say they don't mind doing the sorting, but I found that it isn't very productive use of my time. So, the plan is to Carefully and precisely control the temps and skim it all off, weights, clips, etc. There were of course some valve stems, and valve stem inserts that will need to be culled before I toss it all into the pot. I may buy a few ingots from Rotometals to use as a primer for the pot, so I can get it calibrated correctly before putting in the WW's, but then it's going to be dump and scoop. I just can't see spending that much time going thru them, and of the 100 or so I sorted (which barely scratched the surface, it was maybe 1-2% of the bucket, they are not very large ones unfortunately) it turned out that around 1/2 of them were Zinc, maybe 5% were steel. If this ratio continues, then I'm going to search harder for other sources of lead, maybe like I mentioned in my other thread I will look to make my own alloys with pure Pb and the additives. Still waiting on peoples thoughts on that idea before proceeding. At least now I know exactly what ppl are referring to when they said the sorted WW's for a few hours. Some like it, some don't. I think I fall into the latter group, but it's all good.

[Bzcraig]

I get my WW lead from a recycler for .35/lb. They allow me to sort through and cull out all the steel/zinc so I'm just getting lead. It is a pain but living in California it's the cheapest way to get lead which is fast disappearing.

[khmer6]

That's pretty cheap! Considering what most pay for a bucket of mixed ww. I've been stopping by my friends monthly. It's their slow season right now so only 30-60# each time. Not bad for a monthly payment of a jack I am the box combo

[bAd1]

Does anyone in the Dallas Area know where to get cheap lead?

[SlowSmokeN]

Does anyone in the Dallas Area know where to get cheap lead?

Start in the phone book and call all your local scrap yards and put an ad on craigslist saying you buy lead. Most casters around you will not share where to get lead as that would cut in on their source. I have found people will milk you for info but share nothing. There are the few exceptions.

Also the swappin&sellin on this site you can get lead $1# delivered. Also check the vender sponsored link.

Slow

[fishin_bum]

I cast sinkers for the tire guy, I give him a pop can full of fishing sinkers for every 5 gal bucket full about 150# of ww, Have done plumbing work for friends to get their drain pipe, I got some sheet lead from an x-ray machine for a few cast bullets, My brother-in-law gives me lead so I will keep him stocked with .50cal balls for his wrist rocket. Back in the 70's my brother filled coffee cans with lead for boat anchors and I still have a few of them. I trade decoy weights for lead. I got some lead plates off some old printing presses. I spent the day at the police range and came away with several hundred pounds of lead and 3 buckets of brass.

[a.squibload]

Was in a small tire shop yesterday.
The good news: they will sell WWs.
The bad news: $75 a bucket.
Not that desperate, figure SOME non-lead weights in there.

[Larry D.]

Not sure.
25 bucks for a 5 gallon bucket, about 2/3 usable.

[hickfu]

I live in California so I have to PAY for any lead... I purchase WW alloy at around 1.00 a pound cast into ingots. I get pure lead from my brother in law. He owns a construction and he takes out cast iron pipe with leaded joints so I get all the pure lead he brings home.

Doc