Worthwhile to 'roll my own'?

[alha]

After ruminating for the last day or so about my purchase of those WW's for .85 a lb, and continually seeing that kitco.com ad above every post I read, saying that a lb of pure lead is about 12-13 cents a lb more, I got the idea in my head to consider purchasing lead as a commodity at I would hope to be close to what is stated above, plus shipping. Whenever you purchase a commodity, there is usually some type of commission, but shouldn't be terribly much. Then of course there is the combining it to what the common percentages like 2/6 alloy that I have see stated. I'm not sure how exactly that would go, depending on melting points, how it would distribute itself throughout the mix, etc. I can't imagine that I am the first person here that has considered doing this, but don't hear much if any talk of it either. Has anyone tried doing this, and if so, how difficult was it to do? I was recently reading the Rotometals thread about how they change the way they are pricing by the ingot, and saw that even the lower price mentioned from the other supplier came in at $1.81 a lb, which is double the commodity price I see. I know there is a cost for the addl components, but they are a pretty small % of the mix, so that can't be much of the difference.

Can someone plz explain if this is a good idea, because it would seem that this is a better way to go than dealing with all the issues of WW, the collecting, sorting, fluxing, etc than just combining clean pure lead with a small amount of components to get essentially the same thing? It seems so obvious, but there must be a reason I don't read about it, possibly because WW were plentiful and relatively cheap? If so, not so much any more for many ppl it seems. Please comment, I really want to know if/why this is/isn't a good idea. Thanks guys!

[shadowcaster]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the price you see above on the Kitco chart is in raw form. If you are wanting clean virgin lead ready to be alloyed you will have to get it from someplace like rotometals at a price of 2 dollars + per pound. Or.. there are people here on this sight that will sell clean ingoted scrap lead for around 1 dollar per pound. For me it is totally worth it to continue to scrounge up scrap lead and make ingots and then alloy accordingly.

Shad

[dbosman]

Shipping is the killer of a lot of good ideas.
Storage and handling running smack into local laws, ordinances, rules, etc. is another.

[alha]

After I posted this, I was doing a little searching for lead suppliers in the twin cities, and came up with a few that are actually fairly close to me. Of course since it's Sat, no way to contact them, but then they aren't in the commodity business, so not sure how close to that pricing they are. At least the shipping to me isn't an issue, though of course they had to pay to get it shipped to them, so that most likely will be reflected in the cost. I'll bookmark them and give em a quick ring just for fun on Mon, and see what they want for their pure lead. Looks like one is in the roofing supply business, so that probably won't be as promising. Still wondering about the actual smelting of the materials together, is that an issue?

[runfiverun]

that's daily world spot price.
it's valid if you buy 5 tonnes of lead on the world market.
it however also sets prices at your local scrap yard, they get about 75% that price for scrap lead and have to ship it.

[alha]

that's daily world spot price.
it's valid if you buy 5 tonnes of lead on the world market.
it however also sets prices at your local scrap yard, they get about 75% that price for scrap lead and have to ship it.
5T? Sounds like it's time to get a Big Group Buy going, eh? ;)

[runfiverun]

we have done g/b's from foundry's before.
you can do a buy from some of the regional foundry's also.
that's how the commercial guy's do it.
you have to buy in quantity and go get it, but you get what you want.
still cheaper than buying commercial by about half.

[Frank46]

Think about this for a minute. With the current shortage of factory ammo, you probably have heard someone moaning about not going shooting cause there is no factory ammo. Then usually at the end of such a post someone will say start reloading. Witness the backlog of orders for reloading equipment and supplies. That's including lead, lead alloys and powder and primers. Investment?, if for you I would say it's well worth while. But buying and selling just to make $$$ I don't think it would be lucrative for me. Frank

[I'll Make Mine]

Before buying from a foundry, I'd check local metal scrap dealers to see if they'll sell scrap lead and in what form and at what price. D.H. Griffin is a national operation, I believe; the local yard was selling scrap lead at 90 cents a pound a few months ago (I haven't checked since everything started going crazy); I don't know if that's as received, or clean ingots, or what if any composition information it has -- but when I finish sorting and smelting the bucket of wheel weights I'm working on, I'll have the information I need to compare their information, and give them a call. If that's clean ingots and they have composition information (regardless of the actual composition; if I know what it is, I can alloy it to a composition I can use), it's a good price; if it's buckets of wheel weights, it's still not too bad if they're already sorted to remove the zinc and steel.

[alha]

I have checked with a few scrap dealers here in the twin cities, none would be willing to sell to me. They have no interest in selling to individuals, just to bulk buyers they have contracts with, as best as I can tell. Might also have to do with the Liability Issue too... The same thing seems to go for steel as well, when I was looking to build my pot, I tried get it as scrap from scrap yards but they weren't willing to sell to an individual either, so I had to go to a retailer called Discount Steel. I bought it at the drop price, but that was still about 40% higher than scrap pricing. At least I didn't have to pay retail for it. That is the situation I've found so far around here, though I probably haven't exhausted all possible sources. A person does have to work for a living, so time to do all this calling around during business hours is limited. If only I could get the Lead Fairy to make a call to my place... ;) I have decided to make a purchase from Rotometals if the places I found locally don't pan out, at least as a starter for my pot to calibrate it. Then on to the WW's!

[white eagle]

I do it because I can
if you would be worrying about how much this costs or what the price of that is you will never be happy
you'll never justify the cost
its way cheaper to buy them pre -made
if you like to tinker and do things yourself and gain satisfaction from it then proceed

[alha]

Def do like to tinker, that's why I am making my own smelting pot. Price does make a difference, as I'm not yet independently wealthy, though working on that one! Regardless, good advice, and I know once I get the setup working, I will def enjoy it, and plan on teaching my daughter how to do it safely as well. She's a very curious gal, always wants to help dad. Now if only it would warm up, I heard upper 40's by the end of the week, we're gettin' there!

[fredj338]

Scrounging will always be cheaper than buying. If I had to pay much more than $1/# for alloy to cast bullets, I would probably buy my plinkers. It's why ww alloy was sort of the std for bullet alloy for a lot of years, you didn't have to do much for it & it was free for the hauling & smelting. Not so anymore, but those were the good old days.

[Love Life]

After I run through the last of my COWW ingots and range lead ingots I am only buying foundry alloy. Makes life easier for me, and living in BFE I would never save money looking for wheel weights with gas prices.

I saw a post for Mayco, and if you buy a large amount (ton) the price for casting ready alloy is very reasonable. Also smelting is at the top of my list of un-fun things to do. Along with case trimming...

[alha]

Well, after some more searching and not finding a whole lot out there in terms of WW's, I did contact a local supplier of bulk lead, and he quoted me a price of about $1.81/lb including tax for a 2000lb quantity. I thought I'd toss out a group purchase in that forum and see if there was anyone interested here in the greater twin cities metro area that would be interested in a portion of it. Still searching for the WW's, but it can get discouraging at times.. Always good to have a backup plan.

[762 shooter]

Reloading for me used to be about fun and savings. Then it was about accuracy. Then it was about custom ammunition.

For the last 6 years it is about controlling the production of my own ammunition, irrespective of availability of components and/or government regulation. I still enjoy the previous benefits.

As I have said before on numerous occasions, nowhere in the constitution are you guaranteed the right to own ammunition.

762 as long as I live.