Sorting Wheel Weights for $.20 a lb? Worth it?

[Hanzy4200]

My local scrap yard told me a few weeks ago they are paying $.10 a lb for unsorted wheel weights. They're usual sale price is double their buy price. Would you guys bother sorting through them at that price? I mine basically all my lead from dirt berms. It works for me, but dang is it hard, dirty work. Considering the state of things, I figure having plenty on hand is probably wise. I'm only 36, so I've got a lot of pours left in me, Lord willing. Last time I was there they had 3/4 of a 55 gallon drum full.

[Hodagtrapper]

I just purchased 90 lbs of wheel weights sight unseen. Ended up with 47 lbs of lead wheel weights and 42 lbs of steel or zinc. Not happy with the results and will be a quite a bit more vigilant when buying wheel weights again!

Chris

[farmbif]

that's a great price considering the price of lead has gone up like $0.20/lb in the past two months or so. but then again its all the time and money thing, me ive got more time than money so a bargain like that I would not pass up. bring a pair of dikes and several buckets, gloves, work cloths and shoes and go at it.
thing is if you have good relationship with a scrap yard that will sell stuff to you, there are all kids of other stuff that come through the doors there.
I remember when ruger first came out with the sr556 and I just had to have one I found two buckets of new moen shower valves at the scrap yard, they cost me like $200 or $250 and I sold them within a week on eBay for about $4,000.
but if I had more money than I knew what to do with maybe I'd just get a pallet of Lyman 2 from rotometals.

[reddog81]

Depends on what percent is lead. All lead would be a steal. 50% lead would be OK. Any 25% lead would be waste of time and money.

[JimB..]

If you’re saying that they’ll let you come pick the lead ones and walk out at $.20/lb that’d be worth doing if you have time. Don’t know that I’d bother with mixed.

[Rooster]

By my math if you purchase at .20 and they buy at .10 and the ore has a 50% lode: 100lbs is $20 yielding 50lbs alloy. Minus the return $5 you get back from the recycler. Therefore a final price of $15 for 50 pounds is a rate of .30/lb.

[Winger Ed.]

I'd think the scrap yard wouldn't buy them if Zinc ones were mixed in.

If they are old school Lead ones, I'd buy 'em.
If they're the modern Zinc ones, I'd pass.

[scotner]

I'd think the scrap yard wouldn't buy them if Zinc ones were mixed in.

If they old school Lead ones, I'd buy 'em.
If they're the modern Zinc ones, I'd pass.

The local scrap yard will buy them either way but they pay the scrap lead price if sorted and what I think they call shredded steel price if mixed. That was about 4 cents a pound at the time of my last visit which was pre plague.

[358429]

Farmbif beat me to it, two buckets gloves and good strong side cutter pliars to select the good stuff.

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[quilbilly]

This afternoon at a scrapyard I saw a 3/4 full bucket of wheel weights and what turned out to be 34# of sheet lead. I left with the sheet lead at $1 a pound.

[poppy42]

I get my wheel weights from a tire store, they save em for me. I sort em, pull out the lead ( usually about 30% 5 gallon pail full). Then I scrap the rest for $.15 an lb. So yes if I had to pay $.20 lb it would not be bad paying $.05 a lb for lead.

[Green Frog]

I’m about twice your age, OP, and have what will probably be a lifetime supply of wheel weights already sorted and smelted into Lyman ingots. If OTOH, I were your age and didn’t have a lead stash, I’d buy a 100# sample of the ones you found and sort them just to see what I could get. If the return was sufficiently good, I’d go back for several hundred pounds more, if not, I’m only out something less than twenty bucks.

Froggie

[Hanzy4200]

I should have been more clear. My plan was to sort them on the spot. I'm not lugging them all home to sort them. My scrap guy is a nice fella. I'm sure he won't mind a bit if I sit and dig for an hour. When we talked, I asked him how they avoid zinc weights. He said they don't, that his commercial buyer said to just take them all. Thinking more, he might have even said they paid $.05, which would make my cost $.10.

Are stick-on weights more or less predominately lead? I remember there was a good number of those as well.

[oley55]

Are stick-on weights more or less predominately lead?

I won't guess on the ratio, but my recent experience is they are either steel or lead, with a few something else. The stick-on weights with raised letters aren't steel but something much harder than lead (probably zinc?).

[bangerjim]

Back in the "BZ" days (Before Zinc), I loved COWW's. Got many of the for free. Paid 50-60¢ for 100% Pb alloy. Then the Zn monster came in and all the greenies forced most states to Zn and Fe.

Now I never mess with weights. I have over a ton of ingotized COWW's from the good old days.

Is 20¢ / # for only 15-20$ Pb worth all the trouble of sorting, re-melting, fluxing and ingotizing? I think not. Just buy pure and some good known alloys from Roto and other sources and mix your own COWW alloy. Cleaner, safer, and probably cheaper in the long haul.


Good luck!
banger

[downzero]

I would buy every spec of mixed wheel weights I could get for 20 cents a pound, unless history showed that there was no lead in them at that location.

Like others, I usually get about 50 pounds of lead from a full bucket of mixed.

[fredj338]

Time v money. I would sort them at that price. You could easily pull 100# in an hour & save $$ too. If you bought them mixed you would still ne sorting, at least I do.

[The Dar]

I would only do it if they had a large sorting table. Sorting from a 55 gallon drum sucks. I take a large commercial baking sheet, several buckets, leather gloves and a three tine hand garden rake. The rake is to pull weights from the drum to a bucket, not too many at a time. Set up the baking sheet on two buckets. Sit on another bucket and have two empty buckets. One for lead WW and the other for zinc and steel. Usually only sort for about an hour, come home with about 80lbs. A sorting table would work better, they had 3 drums last time I was there.

[NyFirefighter357]

The more you sort the easier it gets, you will be able to recognize the different ones on sight, most steel are marked FE & zinc ZN. You can pick tell most of them by looking at the shape/color. A pair of dikes or side cutters will help you figure out the rest. The steel & zinc stick-ons are easy to tell apart. I sorted into 5 piles because I save the zinc. Coww lead, stick-on lead, Fe, Zn & questionable I then go back & use a cutting pliers to sort the questionable. After 15-20 minutes you'll know by the looks which pile it goes into.

[gwpercle]

I would much prefer sorting / testing wheel weights than mining a berm .
I'm 71 years old but can take a wheel weight , test nip it and throw it in a bucket ... a heck of a lot easier than shoveling dirt / lead and sifting it ...that's back breaking work .
Plus , to me wheel weights and range scrap in a 50-50 blend make for a great general purpose boolit metal . I would sort the wheel weights .
Gary

[reddog81]

Are stick-on weights more or less predominately lead? I remember there was a good number of those as well.

Maybe... Depends on the shop and how old the bucket of weights are. The lead ones are easy to identify but nowadays I think even most shops have switched to non lead for stick on. I got 6 5 gallon buckets last year and some had SOWW that were almost all pure lead, while others were 50%.

For $.20 a pound I'd sort through some and try and see how long it takes to come up with a 5 gallon bucket of lead. The bigger weights are simple to identify. It's the 1/8 ounce, 1/4 ounce and 1/2 ounce WW's that take forever to sort through. Anything larger than 1 ounce is easy to grab, identify and sort.

[Ural Driver]

If I could sort thru them first, yes. $.20 a pound is a good deal.

[Helka]

I’m basically doing the same thing as you. Buying buckets of wheel weights for $0.20/lb sight unseen. Then I sort it. It’s about 40% lead. But the left over scrap I send to the scrapper and get $0.17/lb back so in the end your still under $0.25/lb for lead. Way cheaper then buying pre-cast commercial stuff.


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[ShooterAZ]

The last buckets of WW's I bought was .20 cents a pound, and that was several years ago. There was a few zinkers in there, but it was 95%+ lead with lots of stick on in there too. So yes, it's a good deal at that price as long as it's mostly lead. Side cutters are your friend here....Lately I've just been buying the Isotope Cores when they come available, much easier and cleaner to deal with.

[Photog]

Considering I recently went to GT Bullets' lead at 2.50 a pound, you are getting it cheap; BUT now I don't mix in tin and antimony, and don't have to mix and then pour and flux all the dirt out and the boolits come out the same every time and it takes way less time to cast and I know what the alloy will be and yep it means that a 125gr boolit is 10 cents, but it save me lots of time and aggravation.

[Hanzy4200]

I went today. Time was short, so I only spent about 20 min sorting. I pulled about 30 lbs. I was surprised at the number of lead weights, must have been a old batch. As a plus, I found 2 half sticks of 50/50, maybe 2.5 lbs, and 7-8 lbs of ingots that appear to be lino or similar. They ring when smacked and have a slight crystalline appearance. Best of all, I cashed in 3 1/2 buckets of smelted jackets. $508! Copper is HOT right now! Might have to buy a pistol..............

[reddog81]

It is kind of a time consuming process to sort through WWs, but it sounds like a good score for the day.

[lightman]

If they will sell you weights for 20 cents and let you sort them I would do it. Take some rubber mechanics gloves, a pair of dykes and a few buckets and stay awhile! Expect to loose a small percentage of total weight to the clips.

As a few others have said, sorting gets easier and faster after you have sorted awhile. I've sorted so many that I seldom have to make a test cut anymore.