Value of wheel weights

[cabezaverde]

I have about 3 unsmelted buckets of large truck wheel weights that may be excess to my needs. They have been sorted to remove the zinc and steel.

What is the consensus on what these would be worth per lb on a local sale basis?

[John Boy]

10 pounds plus ...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Plus-Lbs-of-Old-Used-Lead-Wheel-Weights-/201379949030?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ee32e29e6

[dtknowles]

I would say no more than a buck a pound.

Tim

[LAGS]

I stopped buying Smelted Wheel Weights.
I will buy COWW and smelt them myself.
But just about every time in the past that I bought Smelted Muffins, they were softer or had Zinc in them to some degree.
I also sort my COWW by hardness before I smelt them.
The softer ones come out like a BHN of 9, and the harder ones a 11 to 12 BHN
Not that people are intentually trying to rip someone off, but they just dont take the care in selection of what they are smelting.
A buck a pound is a good price for COWW, and I think more will want to buy them unsmelted just to insure the quality, even though they are paying lead prices for the metal clips that are still on them.

[GLL]

My phiiosophy is opposte of LAGS
I now only buy COWW ingots and use THE CAPITANas my source !
She produces outstanding ingots of consistent quality !
great person to deal with.

Jerry

[scottfire1957]

Raw COWW? Not melted or cleaned? 35 cents per pound.

Edit: I might go 50 cents/lb since you have already sorted, and I won't have to drive around to find ya.

[LAGS]

At GLL
I may have to go that route and try it out.
But most of mine has been local stuff to save the freight.
But the scrap yard I get most of my stuff from gives me a 40 cents a pound price and I get to cull thru them.
But his supply is hit and miss.

[lightman]

If you have the storage space I think you should keep them. Lead will only get more expensive and harder to get. Wheelweights sell for between $20 and $50 a bucket, in most places, but yours should bring more since they are sorted. You will have a hard time replacing these in a few years.

[Tar Heel]

They are absolutely worthless and a hazmat. Go ahead and ship it all to me and I will take care of disposal for you.

[Buck Neck It]

Kitco 24hr lead just dropped below $.80. A year ago it was above $1.00. We are in a metals commodity down cycle, but I don't see that in anyones prices.

[scottfire1957]

Kitco 24hr lead just dropped below $.80. A year ago it was above $1.00. We are in a metals commodity down cycle, but I don't see that in anyones prices.


Exactly. Pb is not rare, nor precious. COWW, though sorted, still need melting and cleaning. $.50/# max.

[konsole]

unsorted ww - .20c/lb
sorted lead ww - .50c/lb
lead ingots - $1.00/lb

[dtknowles]

unsorted ww - .20c/lb
sorted lead ww - .50c/lb
lead ingots - $1.00/lb

Some where in there there could be consideration of the size of the wheel weights and how clean they are. I would pay a bit more for clean truck wheel weights. I would not need to turn big truck wheel weights into ingots I put them right into the pot. I thought the OP indicated he had truck wheel weights.

Tim

[mpawlina]

I do buy WW locally from scrap yards. Unsorted at $0.40/lb. Anything above that is not worth to me when I still have to sort and smelt. Some scrap yards want upwards of $0.75 and I just laugh and drive away.

[RogerDat]

Unsorted price would be maybe a max of 45 to 50 cents a lb. if you were local. Truck WW's have better ratio of WW to clips than a random bucket but going price is around 35 cents. There is some but not that much of a benefit to the truck weight in terms of raw material that ends up in ingots from a bucket of those WW's

As ingots you do have a slight advantage in that you should get slightly more lead BUT from a shipping standpoint those big WW's waste a lot of space. If you can hit the max shipping weight of between 63 to 70 lbs. in a MFRB of loose WW's then the uncompact nature of larger WW's doesn't matter. I know you can max the weight of the box with ingots. And if "regular" WW's allow you to get 10 lbs. more in the box because there are small ones to fill in the spaces then yours become less economical to ship in raw form. Your 55# load of "better" WW's for $13 shipping is not worth more than someone else's 65# "lesser" WW's that fit and ship for the same shipping cost.

I would melt them into ingots, they take up less space to store, are ready to ship if you decide to sell (at premium price as clean WW ingots), or ready to use if not sold. One thing I have found is that bread loaf pans make the best "storage" ingots. Picked up several at garage sales and thrift stores, can cast a 12 or 16 lb. ingot that stacks well for minimum ladle work. Goes fast, 4 or 5 ladles dumped then on to the next pan. 8 loaf pans is about 100# of lead in one batch. Do take a bit of time to cool but I can empty a Dutch oven is much less time than I can with any small ingot molds. Takes 83 angle iron mold fills and dumps to cast that same 100#. Can move 100# as 12# ingots in no time, stack well, stay on two wheel hand truck.

[konsole]

Rogerdat,

So your talking about the normal size bread loaf pans? If you use the smaller bread loaf pans that are about 5 inches long you can make a nice 5-lb lead ingot thats about 1" tall. I found that size to be quite nice. You have to use a torch to burn any mold coating off so the ingots dont have bubble craters on the bottom, and the thin steel can warp from the heat causing a little bit of a bowing in the ingot, but I like using the bread loaf pans, certainly better then the muffin pans that are commonly used. The normal size bread loaf pans for ingots in long term storage, the small bread loaf pans for near future remelting, and then there is a tiny bread loaf pan thats about 3" or so long thats great for small quantities of expensive metals like tin and pewter. I've seen those really small bread loaf pans in a stack as separate pans and I wish I had bought them at the time, otherwise I had to settle with a tray of 6 of them from Target

[cajts]

I have to give. .60 a lb from local scrap yard. By the time you sort them it is cheaper for me to pay .10 more for soft lead and mix in monotype to get my desired hardness. I have only gotten about 70 percent when I smelt the coww.

[RogerDat]

I use the full size bread loaf pans for long term storage. When I just want to stack it neatly someplace but may not get around to using it for awhile. I can stack 4 of them on the 2 wheel dolly for moving.

If the ingot oxidizes a bit over time out in the shed or garage there is less surface area for the weight than the smaller ingots and the 12 lb. slabs work out pretty well in this capacity for me.
I have round muffin tins and angle iron molds that are nicer stock I'm going to use for making up recipes.
Have only found 3 of the really small loaf pans, I use them on the reloading bench for "stuff". ;-)