Another Possible Source for Locating Lead

[mfraser264]

A bit of a story first, source at the end. As the saying goes, it's who you know. My father is a metal scrapper as a hobby. Told everyone he wants junk, the family, neighbors and friends. It is amazing what he gets for phone calls, stop buys and what gets left in front of his garage door.

While we were talking the other day he was saying how the garage man got ahead of him the other day and took his treasure. Then remembered I have a cousin that drives a garbage truck and scarfs a treasure trove of items, truly amazing what he finds. Opportunity!!!

So, if you know a garbage man or have a network of friends and family that might, have them be "look outs" look out for lead for you. Those garbage trucks cover a lot of ground every week. We have found lead lying beside garbage cans on garbage pickup day and just wonder how much has been taken to the landfill. And by the way, this is free source. Would be interesting to hear how this works out for others.

[country gent]

A lot of the refuse companies here recycle what they bring in before it goes to the landfill.

[JBinMN]

"One mans junk, is another mans' treasure!"
;)

I have friends who are in the "waste management" business..

You would be surprised at what they get, that others just "throw away"...
;)

Perfectly understandable..

P.S. - I would be right ticked off", if the "garbage man" came up & took something that he/she should not...
;)

There would be a "serious talking to" about that type of deal....

[lightman]

I've seen plumbing lead in piles of construction trash at curbs in front of older houses before. You might cruse through older neighborhoods occasionally and look for any remodeling. I've seen shower drains and sheet lead piled up with old flooring a few times. I've even stopped to talk with roofers when I've seen them working in older neighborhoods!

[RogerDat]

The good stuff that shows up at scrap yards can really boggle the mind. Good wood stoves, scooters with bad batteries, lawn tractors with some fairly minor malfunction such as blown head gasket. Weights and weight bench? Clearly not broken just no longer wanted and sold for around 10 cents a pound times 200 lbs of weights and a couple of bars. Tons of wire. I never buy any colored wire for projects at the store without first seeing if I can get some from the yard.

Lawn and patio furniture. People will throw out a set of chairs because one weld broke, or they got rusty and apparently no one wants to brush and repaint.

[kcajeel]

Hey RogerDat, You're not far north of all that lead in Flint. Is there any way a guy could locate some of that?

[richhodg66]

Construction sites are good. They were demolishing a housing area on post here 20 years ago or so. After talking to the crew, they said I could take what I could find. Got some pipe and some phone cable casings, but the big thing was all the cast iron water pipe with big solder donuts in each joint. Got the biggest sledge I could find and walked around smashing each joint, got probably 3/4 lb on average at each joint.

About a year ago, I happened to walk by a remodel going on at a clinic. Apparently, part of it was an X ray room and I was willing to dumpster dive for about 100 pounds of the soft sheeting on the dry wall they were throwing away. Should be absolutely pure and make great muzzle loader bullets.

[Mxrick55555]

My dad has worked for a local garbage company for almost 20 Years. It’s amazing the things people throw away. I learned how to work on small engines as a kid because he would bring home old lawn mowers and say “fix it” usually a good carborator cleaning or starter rope replacement later it would run like new. I also went through a mini bike faze and found out that taking the governor off of a Briggs and Stratton could get it really scootin along before throwing the rod and having to push it home lol. Dad would just bring another motor home and I’d get it running and throw it on the mini bike and be off again.

[Mxrick55555]

Oh yeah and now as a grown man he still brings me treasure like the 5 gal buckets of lead shot (freakin heavy!) and a 50lb lead ballast weight. This is all from smaller town garbage, I can’t imagine the treasures one would find in the trash from larger cities.

[lightman]

Finding free or cheap lead is all about networking. The more people helping you look the better. That and knowing what all to look for and keeping your eyes open. Its pretty cool to see all of the lead objects that members have found that many never would have known about.