Real world ww ingot price??

[Preacher]

I have a line on about 100 lbs. of 5lb WW ingots and need some help on deciding just what is a fair price per lb. for WW ingots in this day and age. Things (price of lead) seems to have gone a bit skyward of late. I'm looking at $.60/lb ($3.00/5 lb. ingot) for this lot of ingots. Is this a fair price or am I going to pay too much? Heck, as scarce as lead is around here I'll likely buy it regardless but what would YOU pay per lb. for cast WW Ingots? Thanks for your input.

Preacher

[imashooter2]

The price last fall was 60 cents a pound for raw WW at scrap yards in the Philly suburbs.

There is a premium to be paid for someone else smelting them for you, but also a danger in that you don't know what he smelted or how he did it. I don't think 60 cents a pound for clean WW ingots is out of line at all. If I was in need, and thought that the smelter was honest and prudent, I'd probably buy.

[218bee]

For .60 a pound I would buy it, although "imashooter" is right as you don't really know whats in it. It seems to me an "average" price I,m seeing is closer to a dollar a pound.

[Irascible]

If the guy who smelt it didn't know about zinc weights you would by 100 lbs of annoyance. If you offered garages $.60 per pound I think you could buy all you wanted

[Preacher]

Thanks for the advice folks. I've been told it's ww but like you said Irascrible it's sort of a crap shoot. I guess I'll go take a look at them and hope for the best. Things are beginning to dry up around here fast and with the increased cost of cast bullets I'm feeling the pinch to lay in a supply of lead and start stockpiling a supply of my own cast bullets. Who knows where this will end $ wise in the future. Got shell shock (literally) the other day when I went looking for a couple of bricks of 22 LR. Cost of lead and brass is all I keep hearing...along with the war and China. Who knows. Thanks again for your thoughts.

Preacher

[imashooter2]

If the guy who smelt it didn't know about zinc weights you would by 100 lbs of annoyance. If you offered garages $.60 per pound I think you could buy all you wanted

Around here, garages and tire shops won't sell, period. They have contracts with recyclers and that's that. I know lots of folks still get them for free and that's great, but it isn't that way nation wide.

[HORNET]

$.60 a pound for already smelted? Grab them. You're not burning your time and fuel breaking them down and losing 20% or so as clips. Take a small batch and check the melt point (well, refreeze point) with a thermometer and see how they cast.That'll tell you lots more about what you got and if you need to try to clean some zinc out. You can usually get enough out to make the alloy useable but it's not easy.

[Preacher]

Thanks again for your input. But I need some re-educating here. During melt what am I looking for in the pot. If I remember right the lead will melt before the zinc and the zinc will rise to the surface. Right? If so just skim it off and flux and cast?

Preacher

[454PB]

Zinc melts at 787 degrees and is lighter than lead. If you try to keep your smelting temperature down around 650 to 700 degrees, Zinc weights will float and not melt. You can simply pick them off the surface with pliers.

[imashooter2]

Zinc melts at 787 degrees and is lighter than lead. If you try to keep your smelting temperature down around 650 to 700 degrees, Zinc weights will float and not melt. You can simply pick them off the surface with pliers.

That's for raw WW not yet alloyed. Once an inattentive smelter alloys the zinc to the lead, separation becomes nigh on impossible without industrial equipment.

[Preacher]

Well I picked up the ingots. Not a good feeling about them but I just couldn't pass on them. I'll melt a pot full and see what I get. Who knows it may be okay. However I just may need that industrial equipment imashooter2 talked about ....but I thank you folk non-the-less for all your information.

Preacher