Columbia sc leading

[garryb]

Does anyone know we're I could get some free or cheap lead. I am going to try casting my own. If I like it and have the spare time to do it i will start reloading my own cast boolits .i am in Columbia sc thanks to all for the help

[truckerdave397]

Try the scrap yards and tire shops.

[twc1964]

There are usually several folks in the swap and selling section that have good clean lead for sale.

[lightman]

Start looking at tire stores, mechanic shops, wrecking yards and car dealers. Try the ones that you do business with. The smaller shops usually are better.Try the scrap yards, some still sell to the public. If you belong to a range or club, try mining the berm or bullet trap. Check with any older, smaller newspaper offices or print shops. Make friends with your local phone man. Talk to your plumber, and check with roofing contractors. If you are around a marina, look for net weights or fishing weight. A sailboat would be a great score! Read back several pages of this thread, lots of ideas here. Good Luck!

[jsizemore]

Some of the flea markets in my area have used tire sellers that offer mount and balance. The parking lots around them and the closest stop signs/lights have WW laying on the ground. It ain't much but they're FREE.

[roberts1]

Free might be tough to come by unless you know someone at a tire shop or a plumber or a roofer but at around a buck a pound for cleaned up range scrap is a really good deal. I have bought several times from people on this board and will happily do so again.

[JSnover]

Near two of my previous addresses there were demo/recycling operations - companies that would carefully gut and demolish houses and office buildings and resell any useable parts or materials. I could find almost anything in those places, from floor to roof, including lead flashing.

[Sgt Petro]

Your best bet is tire/auto shops you do business with. With the price of lead being what it is, most people know what it's worth. Still you never know what you can find at garage sales, etc. If you know any plumbers or roofers you can ask them to grab lead joints or lead boots from the roof.

You'd be amazed what a 12 pack or donuts can do.

[RogerDat]

I suggest a two prong approach. I also would not expect free, cheap can be had sometimes but free is pretty rare. Scrap lead has value so one has to expect to pay something for it in most cases.

Buy some lead ingots from members in swapping and selling. COWW (clip on wheel weights), SOWW (stick on wheel weights), Plain, and reclaimed bullets from berm or trap at a range are all available. Maybe a little pewter or solder for tin. The cost is probably almost as low as collecting the lead and making those ingots yourself. Allows you to focus money and learning on boolit casting equipment and technique using good lead.

Start reading the threads on "what is this lead" or WW or lead score most mention where or how the lead was acquired. Go out and find what you can, build up a stash then you can start on gathering equipment and learning to make your own ingots. It can take time to locate sources, you often have to try a lot of places before you find some sources in your area. Different areas have different sources too.

You also need to figure out what type and caliber of bullet you are planning to cast and how fast you are going to load the cartridge. It makes a difference in what lead or lead alloy is suitable. Plain lead is too soft for anything but muzzle loaders. Range berm lead is generally good for pistol, COWW lead is hard enough for rifle and can be mixed with plain for pistol. Then there is lino and mono type lead which is a very rich hard alloy that can be melted with plain in different amounts to make a good bullet alloy. Solder or pewter is tin and a small amount really helps the lead flow into the mold and forms a better alloy.

I hauled a hundred lbs. of plain lead around for years thinking one of these days I would make bullets out of it. When I finally started I found there was a lot I needed to learn about lead and boolit casting. This is the right place to do that.

[Southron]

It used to be you could drop by your local scrap yard and they had all the lead you wanted. You had your choice between "Soft Lead" and "Hard Lead" and the price was usually very good.

Then the EPA cracked down and scrap yards kept keeping lead around. When it comes in, they ship it off to a smelter as soon as they can.

What you can do is to go by the local scrap yards, make friends with the owner or manager and ask him to call you when some scrap lead comes in.

I have a deal like that with two local scrap yards and when some lead comes in, I usually pay around 50 cents per pound for it. Now, not much lead comes in, but enough for my casting needs.

[TheGrimReaper]

I think this is the wrong place to ask if we know where to find some Free lead!!!! It would have already been gone!!!!!!!

[RogerDat]

I think this is the wrong place to ask if we know where to find some Free lead!!!! It would have already been gone!!!!!!!

Might have a point. This is the crowd that watches the ground in a parking lot hoping to spot a free wheel weight.

Really going through the posts in Lead and Lead Alloys back through several pages there is a lot of information on where to scrounge lead and useful boolit alloys. Along with the occasional "free score" that might give one ideas.

E.G Sailboat keels get mentioned fairly regularly. Sailboat keels are most often lead, scrapping out a sailboat (S.C having a coast and all) and melting the keel can yield 1000 lb. of lead in one shot. It is work and one may have to pay something to dispose of boat carcass or have costs to transport, or one could get lucky and find a boat yard that if you tear it down you can have the lead keel in a labor for lead arrangement. Generally soft lead BUT one can sell or trade that soft lead for WW lead or other harder alloys to mix with some of the soft lead for boolit casting. Free? Not exactly but TANSTAAFL because at the least you have to haul the stuff and lead is heavy.