Went to the scrap yard today, found out somethings

[frkelly74]

Yes, they will sell lead to the public. $.75 per pound. Must pay in cash. So I joked about them not taking back the check they had just handed me. Not a big deal but I guess you can't just trade my junk for different junk. So I need to go look at what they might have . That would be too much for wheel weights , even if they had sorted them there is still the steel clips which I could sell back for $.07 a pound. I would pay that for pipe or cast up boolits or of course ingots. Sheet lead might also be okay if there wasn't a bunch of drywall glued to it. I have to go see. And they charge sales tax. Interesting.

[rancher1913]

if you dont have it stocked deep, you had better go buy all they got, lead is getting scarce around here and most yards will not sell to the public at any price.

[Huskerguy]

I just took some scrap to my local yard who just recently changed hands and they now will sell directly to me. The price is .75 a pound! I look over what they had, a big sheet folded up of something, pretty soft and some pipe that was mostly soft with some seeming pretty hard which I assume was due to a solder joint.

[frkelly74]

pipe and sheet. life is good.

[Gewehr-Guy]

Buy all you think you will use in your lifetime, when you can find it. It is not going to ever get any cheaper, it doesn't rot away, or shrink, or die, or need maintenance. It will be a decent investment, unless it becomes illegal to own and use, but that should make it even more valuable.

[Lloyd Smale]

75 cents a lb isnt a bad price for ww. Id rather pay that then a 75 cents a lb for pure. Sure theres some loss with the ww do to clips ect but at least once its cleaned and smelted its ready to go. Pure your going to need to buy other alloys or tin and antimony to make hard enough for most uses.

[redneck1]

Scrap yards in my area have always been good about selling , and at reasonable prices to boot .

But thieving types of people have changed how they do business .
Now you have to show id every time you sell them scrap . and they are no longer allowed to pay out in cash over a certain amount .. Its a fairly low amount to .
And same as you found out buying and selling is always a separate transaction though I believe that's just to simplify accounting as they have to keep track of every pound of metal that goes threw the yard .

[john.k]

The state government here ignored mass thieving of copper wire and roof lead,until one Sunday night ,a family of scrap thieves stole all the bond straps and feeder cable from several miles of the electric train network ......the entire rail system stopped until the wires are replaced.......Then the govt acted against scrap thieving.....Now you get paid by bank deposit,and must have a business registration.

[MrWolf]

I couldn't even find a place around here to take crushed aluminum cans. They said it was because they were afraid of contacting covid from them. Said you planning on trying to drink from them as that is nuts. Didn't go well after that and they won't sell to the public anyway. I agree, grab all you can now especially ww's.

[Thumbcocker]

I have a fair amount of coww. I would get pure to mix with it 50/50 to stretch my supply.

[Winger Ed.]

I'd buy the WW.
They work well by themselves, and can be added to pure Lead for different alloy mixes.

If you pass on them at that price---- check out the prices of the hard alloy ingots you'd need to add into your pure stuff.

[BrassMagnet]

Sometimes you will find solder, monotype, Linotype, etc mixed in with the lead at the same price. It is always worth looking!

[CastingFool]

You're lucky your scrap yard will sell you lead. The one where I used to take my scrap, won't sell you lead. They will buy it, though. I sold some zinc ww's, told them they were zinc, and the guy said them's wheelweights and tossed them in with the lead . I did find another scrap yard that would sell lead, at $1.50 /lb. Wasn't going to deal with them

[dverna]

I have one scrap yard within 50 miles and they will not sell to the public.

You are lucky.

[farmbif]

your very lucky to find a place like that, put on the steel toe work boots, leather gloves, grab the hardhat and reflective vest and off I would be with all the cash I could put together and stuff in my pocket. you never know what will come into a scrap yard at any given time.
for example one lucky day I got two buckets of new moen shower valves out of the brass pile, cost me about $400, had all of em sold online and about $4000 in my pocket in 10 days.
last time I was at scrap yard that would sell me stuff. I got a 55 gallon barrel about 3/4 the way full of lead stuff for about $250, I'm pretty sure they screwed up on the price, they even lifted it and loaded it in bed of my truck, there was some junk in it but there was lots of good soft lead a few rolls of solder some bar solder some wheel weights and some roofing lead with nails, tar and tar paper on it. all in all I would do it again in a heartbeat with no hesitation even if they charged 80 cents a pound.

[VariableRecall]

for example one lucky day I got two buckets of new moen shower valves out of the brass pile, cost me about $400, had all of em sold online and about $4000 in my pocket in 10 days.


What exactly are those shower valves? And who in the world would pay so dearly for them? sounds like you've really turned that around!

[Mal Paso]

They could have been leaded brass. I saw a plumbing supply dumping tons of brass that was over .25%. Like most of the manure spread Lead Free is not Lead Free just less than .25%. High Pressure brass is 3-5% lead.

[Frosty Boolit]

Guess I better snap up all those buckets of recovered bullets for .20/lb

[gbrown]

Yes, I'm very fortunate, over the years to have been gifted buckets of COWW's, SOWW, and plumber's lead, solder, and lead from roofers. Pretty much have a lifetime supply stashed, and, have thousands of cast, sized, lubed and gas checked for rifle, sized and lubed for pistol. All I'm short on is primers (in my mind), but got enough to weather 4 years. We'll see. And, to edit post, have enough j bullets to make it a lifetime, also. I ain't bragging, merely prepared.

[GregLaROCHE]

From what I’ve seen posted here, $.75/ pound sounds reasonable for COWWs.

[Dusty Bannister]

Guess I better snap up all those buckets of recovered bullets for .20/lb

You will find that reclaiming alloy from bullets may take more heat than you are used to. The copper jackets need to be heated to release the alloy inside. If you do a good job, the jacket material can often be sold for scrap and help with the cost of propane. Best to use a pot with a heavy lid because as the FMJ bullets are heated the core expands and if the jacket is not open at some point it can spurt hot alloy. Also, sometimes a live round finds it's way into the scrap and this helps slow things down if you have one "cook off". You are probably already aware of this, but new readers might not have considered this. And you may have to search for a scrap buyer for the jacket material, but it will be worth the effort. Good luck. Dusty

[jim147]

To go with that the solid plated bullets like Berry's can be a real pain. Wack them with a hammer to crack them if they didn't crack when shot.

[Frosty Boolit]

Yes Jim, that's why I haven't messed with them yet. It's so much work to sort and smash all the plated.