How much do you pay for WWs?

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

After exhausting my free supply of WWs at local tires shops, I have begun to look elsewhere for lead. It just so happens that there is a metal scrap yard about 3 miles from my house...and I never even knew about it. This is how I found out about it: This ONE local tire shop was being stingy with their WWs. I went in and asked the lady at the front desk if I could talk to the shop manager about maybe buying used WWs. She immediately told me that they don't give them away anymore...and that was it. She was a real...well...you know what! So I chalked it up as a loss. My parents don't call me a pitbull for nothing. Yesterday I decided to go back in there and see if I could talk to someone else. I walk in and the owner is behind the counter. I strike up a conversation with him and we chat for about 15 minutes about guns. He told me that 15 years ago, some yahoos supposedly got lead poisoning by melting WWs that were given to them by this tire shop. He told me that they haven't given them away since that incident. So I asked him what he does with them. He told me about the scrap yard and told me where it was and who to talk to. I was shocked. Never even knew it was there! So I made a trip there to see what this place was all about. Got to talking to the owner of the scrap yard and he told me that he gets WWs and lead shot very often...and that he would be willing to set it asid for me and call me when he gets some. All he had sitting there was 135 pounds of WWs so I snatched that up. I gave him .25 cents per pound. That is the most I have paid for it...but I can't complain. It is close to home, and a one-stop shop, and he will call me when he gets some in. I also asked him if he had any tin...more specifically 50/50 tin solder. He gave me 2 FULL one pound rolls for 4 bucks! SWEET! I didn't think I made it out of there too bad. I figure the price of the WWs will go up with scarcity. I am trying to get as much as possible. He has THOUSANDS of pounds of pure lead, but it'll go for a little more. I am not interested in that now. So, after the worlds longest post...How much do you pay for WWs?

[Buckshot]

...............The last WW alloy I bought was cast into ingots and it was 50 cents a lb. The last actual wheel weights I bought I paid $10 for 5 gallon buckets, but that was some time (years) ago.

...............Buckshot

[epj]

Bought two buckets today, from a local tire shop. One was real nice clean wheel weights, mostly big ones that yield real well. The other was the stick on kind. They are more of a pain to smelt, but may produce a better alloy, since I can closely control what gets mixed with them. Anyway, I paid $49 for both. Owner asked $50, but $49 was all the cash I had on me.

[ghh3rd]

I found a shop willing to give me "about 10 lbs". Drove through the 5:00pm rush hour traffic about 12 miles -- 45 minute trip, hoping it would be worth it.

It was. 1/2 of a 5 gal bucket full for free :-) He's in my little black book now.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

It sure is funny how some people just don't understand how heavy lead really is. I mailed 100 (230 grn) bullets to a buddy in a little box. When I gave it to the old lady at the post office, she said, "Wow! This is the heaviest little box I've ever felt!" She then proceed to holler at one of the workers and told him to come up and take the box and put it in one of the sorting carts. He reached for the box, and when he grabbed it and the old lady let go, he just about dropped it. The 10 people that were in line all busted out laughing. The worker snickered and said, "Ohh man, you guys got me!"

[Gunslinger]

I just scored some WWs today from a big local tire shop. There's about 325 lbs I think. By the look of it there's a lot of zinc weights... but I paid $25 for it, so I'm not complaining.

There isn't many casters around these parts, so pretty much everywere I go they have weights and are willing to sell.

[sheepdog]

So far think I've only paid once $25 for a 5 gallon bucket. Everything else has been free but I usually reward multiple "donor" sites with bags of tacos or burgers and a case of beer now and then.

Talk about not realizing how heavy lead is that goes for us too. How about a ton of lead, enough to make 14 million grains of boolits. A ton of lead sounds like alot..... til you think of it as six 5 gallon buckets. Then a ton doesn't sounds like much lead.

[Ancesthntr]

I've only recently gotten interested in casting (as in about 2 weeks ago). I was so anxious to get WWs last week, after several "we don't have any" or "we have a contract with our supplier or a recycler" answers that I paid $15 for about 50-60 #. I also got about 15# for free. This week, got about another 15# for free, and yesterday paid $5 for 2/3 of a 5 gallon pail, which has to weigh about 90#.

I made the mistake of dumping all of this week's collections into the same bucket, in my trunk. The trunk with the big lip on the bottom. DAYEM, but lead is heavy!

I don't think that I'd pay more than $20 for a full bucket, $10 for half, etc. That works out to somewhere in the $0.15/# range, which is more than acceptable to me.

[Gunslinger]

The few time I've found the tire shops was demanding too much, I try keeping in mind that 1lbs lead will give me 56 120gr boolits
:castmine:

[Ancesthntr]

The few time I've found the tire shops was demanding too much, I try keeping in mind that 1lbs lead will give me 56 120gr boolits

Gunslinger, that's the truth. If you're looking at this from the standpoint of money, you have to look at the cost per boolit, all things considered. The cost of lead can be either effectively zero when you get a bucket of WWs, but there's still a cost to melt it down and you have to go get it (i.e. gas + wear & tear on your vehicle), or it can be about $1/pound buying on Ebay or wherever, or more to buy from Rotometals and other vendors for known alloys.

Your equipment - heat source, ingot molds, bullet molds, pot, handles, etc., etc. are also part of the equation. These things can be amortized over a long life (i.e. X thousands of boolits), so their cost per unit is almost nothing, assuming you actually use it a lot.

Even at $1/pound, those 56 boolits will be under $0.02 per, so we need not get too upset at paying a bit. I found a junkyard near me that will sell me all that I could reasonably use at $0.50/pound, though of course the exact content of the metal isn't known. That's what testing and adding tin or Linotype, etc. is all about, if needed.

The cost of the WWs is important, but it is a bargain, a bonus. Even buying from a large vendor and casting your own is cheaper than buying boolits from a commercial source, so there's some profit (or reduced cost) in this hobby.

[Gunslinger]

Even buying from a large vendor and casting your own is cheaper than buying boolits from a commercial source, so there's some profit (or reduced cost) in this hobby.

For me it's more like a lot! On a good saturday I shoot about 300-400 combined 9mm and .38 special. If I were to buy them at $14/box it'd be $80-90 each week!! But of course if I had to buy the ammo I wouldn't use as much... but still.

I actually shoot as many rounds as possible so I have an excuse to cast more boolits :-D

[gwilliams2]

I've been looking around San Antonio for WW for a while with no luck... Called Ashley Salvage and they said they had some for .65 a pound, headed down there today but when I got there.... no lead... Sooo at this point in time I'd probably be willing to pay .65 a pound... Cheaper than what I can get hard cast bullets for..
:castmine:

[Nora]

Just picked up another 150# last week. Paid $30 for it. That's the most I've paid so far but my normal supply chain has dried up. Can't complain to much, there's another 26 pales to be had when I'm ready for more.

[mikenbarb]

I get 4 five gallon pail fulls every month for a case of Budweiser.:drinks:

[hammerhead357]

For the people on this thread in San Antonio. I think the women working at Ashley's don't have a clue.
There is a salvage place out on the northwest side of town, at this time I can't remember the name, but about a month ago they were selling for 45 cents per lb. Which I thought was to much but maybe not.
If you want some WWs, PM me with the approximate amount you want and let me see what I can come up with. It will take me a week or so but right now I am on vacation and have nothing better to do than look around. I want some for myself so won't be a problem to try to find more.
I will have to have a few dollors for gas if I have to come to SA to deliver them though.....Wes

[troy_mclure]

ive been offering people $25 a bucket, no takers, everybody is either contracted out, or sends them back to be remade.

[Leftoverdj]

I got two buckets today for $10 each. Of course the same shop also got $400 from me for repair work.

[drumgool]

All the free stuff around here is dried up , went to a local scrap yard bought 500 lbs of ww for .20 a lb.

[par0thead151]

this remade business worries me...

[Willbird]

this remade business worries me...

I think that is being driven by the fact that scrap yards were paying over .50 per lb for them last summer, they typically wait to resell until they can double their money, so that means they were selling them to the WW mfg for $1 per lb.

Bill

[Matt_G]

What I pay varies quite a bit. Some free, some not.
Over the last 3 months I've scored about 6 full buckets.
Total cost was two 12-packs of Bud Light, 2 bags of ice, and a 6-pack of Foster's.
(I put the Bud Light on ice in a 5-gallon bucket that has my name and phone number written on it, and give it to the guys in the shop.)

[Fatman]

Don't pay anything for mine!!!! Have two privately owned repair shops in town and they both give them to me so they don't have to worry about getting rid of them. I'm not spending any money in transport as I have to drive by them every day to get back and forth to work so it's just a matter of stopping and picking them up.

I got it good UNTIL Vermont puts a total ban on lead fishing lures, then I'll sell it.

Fatman

[Ancesthntr]

WW mfrs won't pay $1.00/# IMHO. The cash price for lead is now about $0.61/#. See: http://www.metalprices.com/ This isn't last summer - ALL commodity prices have taken a dive. I have heard of scrap yards paying $0.05 and $0.10 per #, so there's lots of room to make a huge profit and sell for considerably less than $1.00 to WW mfrs.

We, of course, want to get in between those two actors and grab some for ourselves. I would find it hard to believe that the entire CB community (including everyone who casts, not just members here) could possibly use up more than about 10% of the WW supply...so there is lots of opportunity for us as a group to obtain all we need. I would suggest group buys in and around many cities across the country to obtain the best price and also secure some type of a reliable supply.

[BenT]

Went to a tire shop this week to get aprice on tires. New manager who was eager to move tires . After talking to him about tires , I asked if he had any WW and I got 2 pails that weighted out at 225 lbs for $20 . So I got some tires and lead and he will save WW for me in the future and he made a repeat customer.

Otherwise the local scrap yard is paying between 10 -20 cents a pound according to their website.

[supv26]

I've hit shops in 3 different counties and have only found one that will sell the WW's. I picked up 220# of WW today and had to pay 40 bucks! It's a bit high for lead but at least I have some more now and that should last me a little while.

I am going to sort through them now and get them ready for smelting tomorrow.

[Steve]

Last week I checked scrap price in MI. .10 to .15 cents per. pound. I picked up 210 lbs. for $31.00

[elkaholic24]

FREE! Have family connections at Tire store.

[mran1126]

A couple of weeks ago I got a free bucket of wws from a local tire shop and I can get more when the bucket starts to fill up again......96 lbs .........and last saturday got 80 lbs of lead scrap pieces for $0.40 a lb..I haven't actually casted yet, but getting my supply ready. Mold on back order.