Help with buying lead at scrapyard

[salbanal]

Greetings! The local scrap yard sells lead at $.60/lb. I can pick through whatever they have. What should I focus on? I picked up some roofing lead and wheel weights. I didn't check the wheel weights yet to see if they are lead or zinc. Any way to tell visually what they are (are the larger ones lead, like the truck wheel weights). Is lead pipe at that price a good deal? Some stuff I can't identify I just leave there, but looking for tips on what to look for and what to avoid. Thanks.

[FLINTNFIRE]

lead pipe and the rest at that price is a good buy , try to check your wheel weights for zinc , though if you get some one of the members here will trade you for it , lead pipe and roofing lead usually are pure or close to it , what are you casting for?
If harder lead is your objective wheel weights are good and the soldered joints from the pipe , I have to do a scratch or cut test on weights .

[Smoke4320]

take some large tin snips with you.. on wheel weights they should mark easily with the snips otherwise let them lay ..
Rings from cast iron pipes will be pure lead with maybe some oakum or wire .. smelt outside upwind..
used lead drain pipe same .. up wind.. be careful wear gloves ..bacteria issues
others have done this more than me
my answers come from a plumbing background

[shadygrady]

thats right save up 40 lbs plus ++ in a reinforced medium flat rate box taped on all sides send zinc to grady mitchell po box 62 cookeville tennessee 38503-0062 for ww ingots these were poured about 15 t0 20 yrs ago

[lars1367]

For anything that looks odd, ask them if they can shoot it with their fancy x ray gun. Most scrap yards have them, and it shouldn't cost you anything. Besides, if it turns out that it's not contaminated lead (wheel weights, etc) then they can place it in the right bin and make more money. I ran into a large piece of ships ballast a few months back and wanted to know if it was pure, hit it with the gun and it sure was. They also checked my WW's and told me the alloy blend; wish I wrote it down.

[salbanal]

Thanks for the tips. Never thought about the X-ray gun. Also, since I have a supply of lead free solder, would it be best to try to get the pure lead and add my solder or get the wheel weights and cast as is? Checking each wheel weight with the gun or cutters would take some time. I just grabbed about 10lbs wheel weights and I'll check later to see how many were not lead.

[frkelly74]

You are on the right trail.

[SpotHound]

Shady

What do you do with all that horrible zinc?

[zxcvbob]

I tried to post earlier and the power went out. 60 cents is too much to pay for wheel weights unless you can get all big truck weights -- the loss is too high with car weights. Look for lead pipe, roof flashing, telephone cable sheathing. And linotype and foundry lead, of course (you're probably not gonna find those, but you might get lucky)

[salbanal]

Zxcvbob, what is foundry lead and what does it look like? Also, if I understand correctly, Linotype is too hard to be used as is for pistol bullets. You have to cut it with pure lead. Is that right? What is a good price for Lino? I have seen some advertised locally but I think they were asking $1.25 lb. if I already have a source of tin, wouldn't buying pure lead and mixing with my tin be a better way to go the buying the Lino?

[zxcvbob]

I bought some foundry lead once; just little ingots of pure lead that the seller had bought direct from a foundry years ago. It was in roughly 8 pound pieces that the guy I bought them from chopped into thirds for me. In the olden days hardware stores sold lead, I think that was in 5# ingots that were easy to break into 1# pieces but I've never seen them before.

Linotype is good stuff, it adds antimony and tin. But if you have lots of tin already (solder scraps?) sure, use that.

[TrapperXX]

Greetings! The local scrap yard sells lead at $.60/lb. I can pick through whatever they have. What should I focus on? I picked up some roofing lead and wheel weights. I didn't check the wheel weights yet to see if they are lead or zinc. Any way to tell visually what they are (are the larger ones lead, like the truck wheel weights). Is lead pipe at that price a good deal? Some stuff I can't identify I just leave there, but looking for tips on what to look for and what to avoid. Thanks.

Great post. I have the same questions and posted some of it here. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?195401-Various-plumbers-lead&p=2211801#post2211801
Interesting reply's. If the WW are big, you can sort by hand if they let you climb into the box or bin. Tin snips rock and are all I use now. A lot better than dykes.

[Frank46]

The scrap yard I use usually has plumbers lead in ingots in their lead box. Hate going there as what I sell to them I spend there and have to crack open the wallet. I've seen the darndest things there. Old bronze coffins,grave markers, propeller shafting, scrap cored bronze for bearings, and the list goes on. Frank