Best source of pure lead.

[Dadswickedammo]

So the scrap yard I went to today calls all their lead scrap buck a pound.
It is in all forms semi sorted.
We have thin x ray lead. Lead sheeting. Roofing lead, cast boolits lead pipe very few w/w fishing weights and piles of the same items made of lead not a clue what they are.
I am after a stock of pure buck a pound lead.
Thanx

[Bookworm]

I've rendered down some plumbing pipe, and some sheet lead. Both are very soft lead, testing 6B with the pencil test. They both have a blue tinge to the ingots.
If not pure, they are very close.

[Yodogsandman]

Sheet roofing lead will be the purest lead, followed closely by the lead pipes. Any lead pipe joints will probably be soldered together with 50/50 lead/tin solder.

[runfiverun]

x ray lead, sheeting, and roof lead.
take a chunk and drop it on the cement.
if it goes tudud it's soft stuff.

[Bookworm]

Good point about the pipe joints. Prior to rendering the pipe I had, I just chopped out the joints with an axe.
I then rendered the joints separately, and labeled the ingots TRPL (Tin Rich Plumbing Lead).
No way to know how much tin is in it, but if I'm having problems with fill out in a mold, I toss a pound in the pot and it clears up.

[Beagle333]

Buck a pound is okay for clean sheeting or xray lead. I'd try to haggle if I had to smelt tar or paper or paint off of it. It's still worth a buck, but you gotta provide the free labor to clean it up.

[Dadswickedammo]

Yeah this place has rolls of unused roofing lead they sell as scrap.
I just melted down 75lb into ingots really clear what is purer it's far more shinny the scrap range lead has a Matt finish to it.

[Beagle333]

Yeah this place has rolls of unused roofing lead they sell as scrap.

Oh that brings a tear of remembrance of joyful days gone by. I wish we still had a scrapyard that would sell to the public. :( I did so love digging through the various chunks, hunks, rolls, bent pipes, and bars of wonderful lead for .25-.35 a pound. I would gladly do it again for a buck a pound but nobody goes past the scales now. The back of the yard is off limits.

[lightman]

Yeah, none of the bigger ones around here will sell to the public. I suspect the off limits deal is due to liability but part of me thinks its because they buy so much stolen stuff, like copper.

[Springfield]

X-ray lead is the best, as it has FAR less **** in it. Lead roofing sheet is good soft lead but I find I get about 15-20% dross that looks like a mix of dirt and rust flakes. Plumbing pipe is OK if it is new, but used pipe can have all kinds of junk in the middle, some that smells bad and some that likes to boil over in the pot. I suspect calcium, but who knows. Plus the pipes hold moisture, a tinsel fairy attack waiting to happen.

[6622729]

Yeah, none of the bigger ones around here will sell to the public. I suspect the off limits deal is due to liability but part of me thinks its because they buy so much stolen stuff, like copper.

Liability around here. There's no stolen stuff making it into the 2 big scrap yards around here. Everything is on camera, the authorities come around a lot and everyone's ID get's copied. It is actually a relief because for a while anything that could be scrapped was getting cut off buildings, telephone poles, etc.

[Dadswickedammo]

This place drivers license thumb print and they mail you a check

[boatswainsmate]

This roofing lead is the purest I've ever bought. It will tear just with hand pressure.
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn271/ericlee1971/DSCN2776_zpsrg8gktmx.jpg (http://s306.photobucket.com/user/ericlee1971/media/DSCN2776_zpsrg8gktmx.jpg.html)

[Hardcast416taylor]

Some years back I visited a local junkyard that had a large bin you could sort thru. I found several hundred lbs. of pure plumber 10 lb. ingots and a roll of soft sheeting lead that took a forklift to load in my truck. My wallet was lighter for that trip yet I haven`t needed to look for soft lead since, even after I traded 100 lb. for some tin back then.Robert

[Dadswickedammo]

So the scrap yard I go to has all the lead sorted they gotta have 1000 tons maybe more going this weekend

[Soundguy]

x ray lead, sheeting, and roof lead.
take a chunk and drop it on the cement.
if it goes tudud it's soft stuff.

I smelted 84 pounds of thin xray sheeting lead last year.. it was dead soft.. 5-6

[DanishM1Garand]

Scrapyards here will not sell you anything. I asked about a thousand cast boolits in the bin. I nearly wept when they said no.

I see lead scrap on Craigslist here all the time.

Roto metals site site has dirty reclaimed shot at a buck a pound. I may just pull the trigger on a ton. I have a place to store it and a buddy has a forklift.

[siamese4570]

another source not mentioned is shower pans. Back in the day, shower stalls that use ceramic tile had drain pan underneath them. With age, they all leak and have to be replaced. It's got a lot of sand in it that has to be fluxed out but it's another source. Check you local tile companies.
siamese4579

[Soundguy]

Scrapyards here will not sell you anything. I asked about a thousand cast boolits in the bin. I nearly wept when they said no.

I see lead scrap on Craigslist here all the time.

Roto metals site site has dirty reclaimed shot at a buck a pound. I may just pull the trigger on a ton. I have a place to store it and a buddy has a forklift.

Same here, our scrap dealers won't sell. :(

[472x1B/A]

Same here, as the local scrapyard won't sell to anyone either. The closest one that will is 25 miles from me. But, guess I am lucky that my neighbor works at a lumber yard and is close friends with most of the local roofing contractors. He brings me 10-20 roof vents every couple weeks.

[Soundguy]

Nice!

[Orchard6]

Local yard here sells lead for $1 per pound. They'll scan it for you so you know what the content is before you buy it. It's mostly roofing lead (99% pure lead) but my last trip yielded a 50 pound ingot of antimonial lead (95% lead 5% antimony.) It's nice knowing what it is before buying it!

[Vinne]

Same here down south, about a buck a lb but I have to dig in drums or large bins. Just not worth the time. They do buy my steel WW so I can get rid of them when I have a few buckets.

[Budzilla 19]

When I received my money for my scrap metal today, I KNEW BETTER than to go by the lead drum, but no, I was like an addict, just had to look! OMG, in it was about a hundred "corn bread stick "style ingots of pure soft lead! Some haggling, and 57 lbs followed me home! No, I don't need it, but you guys understand! At .80 per lb, and local,it's hard to resist!

[Soundguy]

Wow, nice score!