A friendly source for scrap lead in lansing, michigan

[michiganmike]

If you live anywhere near Lansing, Michigan, or will be passing through, I would like to introduce you a reliable source of lead. It is:
Friedland Industries, Inc.
405 E. Maple St.
Lansing, MI. 48906
p: (517) 482-3000 | f: (517) 482-5956Friedland's is a family owned business that has been in Lansing for 120 years. The recycle everything from old cars to card board boxes. They buy and sell salvaged materials. And a large contingent of entrepreneurs bring in a wide variety of materials daily.

One thing they buy and sell is lead. They have a 4'X4'X 3' deep crate that is usually full of various types of lead. This may include sheet lead, lead pipes, lead solder, clip on and stick on wheel weights, even manufactured ingots. What they have on hand depends upon what the independent entrepreneurs bring in for sale. I would have bought the manufactured ingots of pure lead, but I didn't have anymore money on hand. BRING CASH.

Today, despite the cold, I drove into Lansing, Michigan's Old Town District. I went to Friedland Industries. And about an hour later, for the price of $50 I drove home with 100 pounds of clip on wheel weights. While I didn't check each one, there were few if any zinc weights in the lot. I picked until my fingers started to freeze through the gloves.

I don't quite understand their pricing structure. But wheel weights sell for 50 cents. What they call soft lead (lead pipe, sheet lead, etc.) sells for (I believe) 75 cents. The buyer has to pick through the crate and gather his own lead. Today there were 5 manufactured ingots of (as marked) pure lead, a lot of stick on wheel weights, and some lead pipe.

If they have 5 gallon buckets available, you can use one of theirs - AND keep the bucket. It's then weighed on their scale, the buyer is given a receipt, and he pays at their office kitty-corner to shop.

These are good people to do business with. One day I brought in some bullets I made from their scrap wheel weights, so they could see what I was turning the scrap lead into. So, they know that there are casters out there looking for lead.

Happy hunting (for alloy) and casting,

MichiganMike

[Yodogsandman]

Sounds like a good place. The scrap yard near me gets $.70 for anything lead and they don't know any compositions. Plenty of caster's ingots, casting pot bottoms, WW, pipe, pure lead bricks. They have the WW in 55 gallon drums, the rest in 4x4x4 crates. What a sight!

[truckerdave397]

The pure lead is worth more when the scrap yard sells it because there is no steel attached to the lead. I am surprised that they do not have it seperated into different containers. If you want to see a sight you should have seen the load I hauled this past summer. A little over 50,000 pounds in Gaylord boxes. Talk about a life time supply.

[zuke]

Thank's for sharing

[Blanket]

The local small town tire shop owner has been giving myself and a buddy ww for the past few years. He has always been the want to share between his customers type of guy but I have gotten about a half of ton this past year alone from him. He shoots a Henry 44 mag rifle and I dropped off a bag with 200 rounds of cowboy loads at Christmas. Guess what come home with me. He is not a reloader, but I think it will work out

[Yodogsandman]

The pure lead is worth more when the scrap yard sells it because there is no steel attached to the lead. I am surprised that they do not have it seperated into different containers. If you want to see a sight you should have seen the load I hauled this past summer. A little over 50,000 pounds in Gaylord boxes. Talk about a life time supply.

I live on a curve, mind driving that load by kinda fast?

[jwber]

Lansing isnt super close to me but if I find myself in need it could be worth the drive.

Once it warms up I've got a bunch of casting and smelting to do before USPSA and IDPA kick into high gear.

[daniel lawecki]

I'll be going thru Lansing in March I stop in.

[RogerDat]

I'll be going thru Lansing in March I stop in.

Being as it is only a few miles from MSU I would expect (and hope) that your buckeye license plate doubles the price :-p

On the other hand for tonight's game I have to root for the big 10 over the Ducks even if it means cheering for Ohio State.

[RogerDat]

Older thread but I finally had a chance to hit Friedland scrap yard. Bought a 100# bucket of WW's Fellow by the name of Big D took care of me. The WW's looked pretty good in terms of the steel/zinc I could see in a casual look. They even split the bucket into two buckets when I told them I was going to have trouble with the weight. Post surgery can't handle any weight on left arm, makes putting 100# into the car a real problem. They then used their 2 wheel dolly to take them to the car since I was parked across the street.


They are a bit different in that many scrap yards charge more for WW's than they do for plain lead, possibly knowing that casters really need the WW's and will pay more. Firedland charges more for plain or (soft) lead and less for WW's which makes sense, the clips and mixed nature of a bunch of WW's makes them worth less money on the scrap market. Plain or "clean" lead would fetch a higher price so they charge more for it.

You are going to take a loss on the steel and zinc in that those are only about 5.5 cents a lb. when you bring them back in. As Big D pointed out with all the misc. stuff removed they would be charging the soft lead price. However he did offer to let me pick through to get the ones I wanted so I guess if you do the sorting there it can be a pretty good deal. Supply was good, price was good, service was good. Folks were friendly. I'll be going back I'm sure.