Big lead stash is great till you have to move it

[dnepr]

Moved my wheel weights and raw lead stash to the new house yesterday , about 400 to 450 lbs worth , also threw some steel into the truck , I am a hobby machinist, so I have a lot of scrap steel around.promised myself the next hobby will involve lighter stuff, origami, quilting , [smilie=l:

[nagantguy]

Yep moved 3 times in last 5 years guns tools weights lead books. Then appliances and furniture. We pray our move here to hard luck acers farms will be the last.

[C. Latch]

We moved a few days ago. I got a chuckle out of watching the movers pick up the little boxes of lead.

[dragon813gt]

Not that a quarter ton is light. But just wait until you have to move a couple tons. Then you can really complain ;)

[a.squibload]

About a year ago I took 1500 lbs of steel to the scrapyard.
Brought home lead, of course.

Saw an Aussie movie, these guys dug up a huge gold nugget, didn't want anyone to know.
Started melting it in an iron bathtub, left the heat on while gettin' some beer, tub leaked,
gold ran downhill & made a new nugget down the street.
So if you move downhill maybe this could help?

[cdngunner]

Hmmm interesting post. I have managed to get over 700 lbs in the last 6 month and just the other day thought that the pile sure does not look like 700 lbs. I am starting to make wooden boxes for my stock which hold about 50 lbs each. The only way to go I think

[evan price]

Grand total of almost 4000 pounds, two pallets of lead stacked two buckets high. Gawd, my back hurt for the entire weekend. Plus the smelter, the tools, the brass...moving sucks. Still don't have the shop set up. Getting the house set up first, figured I can work in the shop during winter.

[smokeywolf]

Those of you who have moved recently; which was more difficult, 375 lbs of refrigerator or 375 lbs. of lead?

smokeywolf

[WRideout]

One of the proudest moments of my life occurred when the company I worked for moved my family from CA to TN. Included on the moving van was a wooden crate containing a quarter ton of lead ingots; I didn't have to touch a thing.

Wayne

[C. Latch]

Those of you who have moved recently; which was more difficult, 375 lbs of refrigerator or 375 lbs. of lead?

smokeywolf

lead beats refrigerator any day. Lead fits in manageable boxes.



edit: and worst of all is the piano

[dilly]

If you store lead in SMALL CONTAINERS it's not so bad. Just lots of tedious trips.

When you are selecting the containers, ask yourself
"How much weight can I carry back and forth over and over and over again without hurting my back?"

[HATCH]

Don't even get me started when the wife spoke about moving last year.
I got about 5K lbs of lead and I am guessing almost 1K lbs of gear.
The lead is in 5 lb ingots so its not that heavy but it does hurt you back after you move all 1000 ingots.. LOL

[Ron.D]

In my case, it'll involve moving it twice. Once to temporary storage and once to next home. 2000 lbs Not looking forward to it. Ron.D

[BruceB]

If you store lead in SMALL CONTAINERS it's not so bad. Just lots of tedious trips.

Dilly has a VERY good point.

My planning for ingot storage was fine.... I had my crew at the mine make an ingot mould that turns out triangular 3-pound ingots designed to fit in a .50-caliber ammo can.... 10.5 inches in length, with enough room at the ends to get a finger in to lift them out (otherwise they nest so tightly it becomes difficult to do so).

This results in a 100-pound load with a full .50 can.

If I had it to do over, I believe the thirty-caliber can is "mo' bettah". I don't know what a .30 can full of alloy will weigh, but it will be more portable than the .50 version, for sure.

One thing is very obvious.... it is a WHOLE lot better/easier to move ingots, than it is to haul buckets of raw wheelweights or other material.

[PbHurler]

OK, you guys aren't helping a person who wants to move..................

I've got about 3200lb to have to deal with (& still snipe up more when I can)

I guess I'll find out who my real friends are if/when the time comes to move :shock:

[RogerDat]

I try to keep my buckets at 78 lbs. or less. I would rather stack one bucket higher than have to move monster weights. I can feel an extra 5 lbs above 78 lbs. Both when I lift it and for most of the next day.

Pbhurler you may find yourself with fewer friends after 3200 lbs are moved than you had before they started the job. ;-)

[smokeywolf]

30 years worth of accumulated goodies here. In the process of selling my rental house now. Gotta retrieve a 700 lb. Wells Fargo safe from the garage. I'll have to move that again when we move out of Kali; along with a Bridgeport mill, a 2 ton engine lathe and probably another 2 or 3 tons of: rotary tables, dividing heads, surface plates, 3 rollaways, 5 machinist chests. Comparatively speaking, the lead won't be a problem.

smokeywolf

[dbosman]

Quilting as a hobby can grow large.
Multiple sewing machines and sergers. King sized quilting machine with a commercial head. Bulky, bulky boxes of batting in multiple weights and types. Fabric can add up to a ton before you know it.
...Let me tell you about my sister.


Moved my wheel weights and raw lead ...promised myself the next hobby will involve lighter stuff, origami, quilting , [smilie=l:

[remy3424]

OK, you guys aren't helping a person who wants to move..................

I've got about 3200lb to have to deal with (& still snipe up more when I can)

If I were going to move any distance and I had 3200 pounds of lead, I sure as heck would be shooting more than collecting at this point...what are you thinking man! I am only 50 and it would take me 2 weeks just to move out of my garage....time to start paring down the non-essentials brother.

[Hickory]

When I get down to 500lbs. I consider myself almost out of lead.

[square butte]

My back is starting to hurt just reading this. I may have nightmares tonight.

[Hogdaddy]

My back is starting to hurt just reading this. I may have nightmares tonight.

Mine too ; )
H/D

[RogerDat]

I'm not planning to move again so I just have a touch of lead envy.

[Hawkeye45]

Just got done moving two 1700 lb Fort Knox safes, haven't started on the lead and loaded stuff yet. Been here 20 years last Feb. it is amazing how much stuff you can collect one piece at a time.

mr. Ed

[a.squibload]

Cast it all up & shoot it to the new location
(calculate high-angle trajectory).

[lightman]

I've moved mine a couple of times. You can load a truck up pretty quick, even a 3/4 ton one. Makes me question why I put so much in the same container (milk crate) but I still do it!

[RogerDat]

I've moved mine a couple of times. You can load a truck up pretty quick, even a 3/4 ton one. Makes me question why I put so much in the same container (milk crate) but I still do it!

I finally got around to dealing with some milk crates from when we moved several years ago. Found that while one can stack milk crates of lead three high the bottoms tended to blow out, top two were not heavy but that bottom one was immovable.

[sw282]

An empty metal gallon paint can will hold around 50 pounds of lead ingots..Lots easier to move than 3 or 5 gallon buckets and stack well too...

[Eagle66]

Moving my lead won't be any problem for me. The next move I'm making is to the big range in the sky where there'll be all the boolits & powder I need for eternity. It'll be my kid's problem to move the lead.

[1845greyhounds]

I recently dealt with this issue. I had about 30 5 gallon buckets full of unprocessed WW. Originally I stored them outside. Learned pretty quick to drill drain holes in the bottom of each bucket... When we put our house on the market, I lugged everything into the garage and hid it under a tarp. I didn't want to risk freaking potential house buyers out with "dangerous" lead. Once the house was under contract, I hustled to move the lead before the buyer's home inspector visited. That sucked. I moved 8 - 12 buckets at a time in my SUV on an eight hour round trip to and from my new home. Tip: put lids on your bucket otherwise your vehicle will smell like / be covered in all that crud/garbage that ends up in the WW buckets. My SUV was practically bottomed out on the rear axle. I used a dolly to move lead buckets across the ground and my brute strength to lift them in and out of my SUV. My back felt it for sure. As others have said in the past, don't trust the bucket handles... If I were to start over from scratch, I'd process my WW as I got them and store them in 50# containers. One pays for their lack of planning.

[Dan Cash]

Two words: Pallets; forklift.

[RogerDat]

An empty metal gallon paint can will hold around 50 pounds of lead ingots..Lots easier to move than 3 or 5 gallon buckets and stack well too...

I like this idea, big box home improvement store sells empty paint cans, don't recall how much they charge but I am going to check while I'm out running errands.

[johnho]

When I moved from So. FL. to north of daytona I had about 3000 pounds. Movers look at that and asked what I wanted to do with it. Well, I have a large wooden box with most of it in it and a number of smaller cardboard boxes. had to unload the ingots out of the wooden box, put the wooden box on one of those small 4 wheeled dollies and loaded it back up again. Barely got that on the truck. Loaded the rest of it up and threw it on the floor of the back seat of a company trailblazer, didn't want all that weight on the rearend. Started up 95 and about at Melbourne it seemed the transmission went out. Ha. So a full car, with plants, guns, lead etc and a cat. Turned out it was the catalytic converter. Rented car to go to new house and waited for truck the next day. Guys got wooden box off finally and asked me "now what?" Decided to just buy the damn dolly where that box still sits. Cat arrive OK too.