how should ww cost

[bk92]

I'm new to casting and i found a junk yard that sells wheel wheights for 68 cents a pound. Is this a decent price? I'm in southern indiana if that matters.

[jmort]

I would pay that price for lead COWWs, which are rare here in So. Cal

[paul h]

That's a pretty good price, assuming you're only getting lead wheel weights and not any zinc or steel ww's mixed in.

As a rule of thumb, ww's that are melted down, fluxed and cast into ingots sell for $1/lb. Figure you'll loose 10-15% of the weight in steel clips, so anytime you can get ww's for $.80 or less/lb you're doing well. If you can sort them, try to get as many truck wheel weights as possible, less weight is loss in steel clips.

[fredj338]

It's ok, but for $1/#, you can often find ww already smelted. Smelting takes time & fuel, so unless I can get raw 22 for less than 50c/#, I would rather buy form someone that has doen the work. Check the buy/sell forum here.

[bangerjim]

Melting/cleaning up old WW's is a tedious, messy, dirty job that I do not do anymore. In the past I have melted down thousands of them to get free (history) lead. Today with the greenies roaming the byways of our nation, you will be lucky to find any WW's at tire stores. Junk yards do have them, but as stated above, you have an ~15% waste......if you are lucky to NOT have a bunch of zinkers and FE's in there. And the yards have to make money on what they are selling!

Today if I needed an alloy like WW's (which needs to be doped with tin anyway), I would buy the raw lead and get the tin and antimony from sellers on here or rotometals and make your own soup.


It's more fun and a whole lot easier on your lungs! I think the old mindset of using WW's it a thing of the past.

banger

[ruizhernandeztrust]

Melting/cleaning up old WW's is a tedious, messy, dirty job that I do not do anymore. In the past I have melted down thousands of them to get free (history) lead. Today with the greenies roaming the byways of our nation, you will be lucky to find any WW's at tire stores. Junk yards do have them, but as stated above, you have an ~15% waste......if you are lucky to NOT have a bunch of zinkers and FE's in there. And the yards have to make money on what they are selling!

Today if I needed an alloy like WW's (which needs to be doped with tin anyway), I would buy the raw lead and get the tin and antimony from sellers on here or rotometals and make your own soup.


It's more fun and a whole lot easier on your lungs! I think the old mindset of using WW's it a thing of the past.

banger

I agree, don't worth anymore, too much trouble.

[shadowcaster]

I'm new to casting and i found a junk yard that sells wheel wheights for 68 cents a pound. Is this a decent price? I'm in southern indiana if that matters.

Research the market in your area and in the swapping and selling section on this site. Make a comparison to what all your other scrap lead sources are to determine what is a good price. Ultimately you have to be satisfied with your purchase. I have been fortunate in that I have never had to pay more than 25 cents per pound for any type of scrap lead.

Shad