How much in a 5 gallon bucket?

[walker77]

How much weight in a 5 gallon bucket? Im having a hard time finding some one that wants to give me wheel weights. So i guess im forced to buy them. I have a guy offering me 30 bucks for a 5 gallon bucket full. He says they take them to the scrap yard, so i assume that is what they are giving him for it. Thanks

[Blammer]

call the scrap yard and ask them what they are paying, odds are it's a LOT less than $30

The last few Full 5 gal buckets I wt'd came in at 150 to 180 lbs,

[walker77]

I looked at a local scrap yards web site and it said they were paying .20 a pound

[putteral]

I would grab it at that price. If it is full it will be well over 100Lbs. Probably closer to 125-150 range. I have been paying up to .40 a pound for wheel weights from a recycler here although I found a 40# pail for $5 the other day.
:castmine:

[walker77]

I just did the math and it looks like they are selling it for what they are getting for it. I think i need to start stocking up on it, just for the fact it looks like they may switch over to zinc weights nation wide. Twenty cents a pound is alot cheaper than buying lead from midway or something on top of shipping.

[snaggdit]

Remember, though, a full bucket does weigh 130-180lbs depending on lots of small or large weights. BUT you will have loss due to garbage, zinc/steel and mainly clips. You can usually expect to get between 75-85% in actual WW alloy. If I end up with 100#+ from a full bucket I think I did good. Still, $.30 a lb is not bad I guess if you can't find them free. I pay for half of what I scrounge, too. I try to limit it to $20 a bucket, though. Just an arbitrary price I try to stick to. My cost per boolit is so minimal either way what does $.10 a lb really matter?

[hammerhead357]

I haven't called any of the local yards around here but about 2 months ago I was quoted from 25 to 40 cents per pound for WW and pure lead. One yard in San Antonio want 45 cents for WW and 55 for pure lead IIRC.
I think they were paying from 6 to 15 cents per pound for the stuff....Wes

[finishman2000]

may? it's only a matter of when not if. I've been buying as much as i can get. going rate around here is $20 a bucket. some fill them up more than others. One shop was selling them at $15 a bucket and I had a hard time timing it right before the "other" guy got to them. Finally got a pail from him and gave him a $20 and told him that is the going rate. I'm now his new bff!

[462]

Yep, the bucket will be full and heavy, but, as stated, you'll have to toss the zinc and steel weights, valves and stems, candy wrappers, cigarette butts, tire stickers, lug nuts, the odd bolt or two, etc. There will be the almost-pure-lead stick-on weights, too, which you may or may not want.

Culled, and the clips skimmed during the smelting process, you might realize 80-pounds. But, it's more than what you had before.

[walker77]

I dont get what is so bad about the stick on weights. As long as it isnt zinc, whats the big deal?

[462]

Absolutely nothing. Last week, I smelted 76 ingots from them. Smelting is a rather malodorous and very messy process, though.

[snaggdit]

Many sort them out separate to use for slugging or ML applications. You can also just toss them in but as many have pointed out, it is impossible to get them back out later while it is easy to separate before smelting. It's nice to have the ability to mix up various alloys, hence pure, WW, Lino, etc.. I always sort them, but count it toward the total yield of course!

[stillwell]

i just bought a 5 gal bucket for $25. seemed fair to me

[uncle joe]

I have a friend that works at the scrap yard in sales, (or buys) depending on which side your on. He said he can't sell wheel weights because of the alloy mixture. The people he sells to would like to have pure lead rather than led antimony mix. Therefore the scrap yard may be a good place to buy WW if the local tire guys are asking to much. My sales guy buys them from folks sometimes just to help them out but he really can't re sell them.

[snaggdit]

My sales guy buys them from folks sometimes just to help them out but he really can't re sell them.

Lets see one of us get the guy at the yard to agree he might as well sell them to us cheap cause he has no other market for them when we are trying to buy some...

[Lead Fred]

before I got so much I can never use in my lifetime. My friend had a wrecking yard. I went thru the yard pulling them off of cars before they scrapped them. I have a 55 gallon drum full.

A lot of wrecking yards around here will let you pull them, then they can tell the EPA they are lead free. (they contain thier batteries already)

[Shiloh]

The volume of zinc weights increase every bucket full. A 5 gal bucket is all I can do to lift into a vehicle.

Shiloh

[Jon]

I'd say that's pretty reasonable. I've been melting down range lead, and wheel weights are so much easier to deal with. Snag all you can get your hands on. I'm having trouble finding weights free or otherwise.

[roarindan]

tire store up here I get my w/w from gets $20 a 5 gal pail.but I did buy 'em a pizza also last month. goin up tommorow,if i have an extra twenty i'll stop in.

[fredj338]

Good price. As noted, that is well over 100#. I get 3gal buckets from my source & they weigh in @ 100#-110# full. Lots of tape wts (pure lead, weighs more) & about 10% garbage. Subtract another 10% for clips, tape, crud melted off & that is about what you get in alloy. I sort mine first & smelt tape wts. sep. for LHP or 50/50 for general purpose handgun bullets. Straight WW are great for magnums. Buy all you can get, the supply will shorten.

[TheCaptain]

Hello to all,

As many of you are probably already aware of, Lead WW's have been banned in Europe for new cars and after-market wheels in Europe, starting a few years ago.

And a push here in the United States to do the same. And to ban lead bullets as well. Old news, yes...

Internet searches will provide some interesting reading on this topic!

http://www.leadfreewheels.org/release20070823.shtml
http://www.rifleshootermag.com/ammunition/RS_leadfree_200906/index.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article63683.ece

So, as time goes by, our supply of lead reclaimed from WW's and Range Lead will obviously diminish. As others have done, I track my "yield" (weight of WW's in vs. ingots out). For those of us who track the yield, we will see the downward trend (unfortunately). In the past year or so, my yields for varying batches of range lead have been averaging about 75 percent, and for WW's: about 85 percent. About 2 years ago, I got closer to 80 percent for the range lead (so I have already seen a noticeable decline).

Some tire dealerships are starting to disallow the tire "mechanics" from selling the buckets of WW's to people off the street. Because I am a licensed company, I don't foresee an immediate problem as of yet - but "Corporate" may want to do business with a company of their choice.

So grab all you can and if you are dealing with independent garages, all the better!

In regard to 5 gallon bucket weights, some garages use buckets of varying sizes and height. I had one bucket (taller than the usual, like a home depot 5 gal. bucket) weigh in at 196 pounds! On the average, it is not uncommon to have a 5 gallon bucket (normal size), when filled to near the top, weigh in at around 150 pounds. My service entails going to the job site, weighing the product at the site, and paying for same... so I need to be accurate in regard to the weight.

However, in my opinion (and others on the forum), buying a bucket of WW's for $20 is very reasonable.... since you can be getting anywhere, on the average, of 100 to 150 pounds (depending upon how full the bucket is). That is like 13 to 20 cents a pound. And I pay by the pound, much more than 20 cents a pound (as incentive for them not to go to a local scrap yard, plus I save them from lugging the stuff and having to show their driver's license at the scrap yard {a law enacted in CT in October 2008}).

And if you get the bucket for the cost of pizza, all the better!!!

Scoop up all you can, while you can!!!

With kind regards to all,

~ Kathie
:Fire:

[XWrench3]

i just bought my first 5 gallon bucket of w-w today. i smelted about 1/2 of it tonight. so far, i have 61 ingots from a lyman mold. i did not seperate any of the ww's at all. i just threw them in and melted them down. i hope i am not scewing up the mix?! i figured that only about 5% of what i am getting so far has been stick on wights (which i ASSUME is straight lead) so it should not make the alloy to much softer. i did notice that the zinc ones float out and do not melt into the mix though. which is cool. dont have to worry about those buggers that way. but you guys are right about all the junk in there. so far, i have two brand new rubber valve stems, 2 used metal valve stems, three lug nuts, and more trash than i would care to admit.

[snaggdit]

i did notice that the zinc ones float out and do not melt into the mix though. which is cool. dont have to worry about those buggers that way.

Yep, that works but make sure you keep the heat low, just enough to melt the weights. Hot spots can develop and if you are running a jet engine on afterburner under your pot you could inadvertantly melt in some zinc.

[Nora]

The auto scrap yard I get mine from sells them for the same price as the market scrap value. Last month it was $.22 a lb, this month it was $.38, and was told to get what I can now. He said it's rumored to be over $.50 next month. He had no idea why, that's just what he'd heard from where they send their scrap to. I hope he's wrong but he normally isn't when it comes to things like this.

[mold maker]

http://www.universalwrecking.com/Sections-read-37.html
This is the site I go to before making a trip to scrounge weights. For the last several weeks the price has been from .22-.23 a lb.
They also show scrap price on several different kinds of lead,ie Linotype and even lead dross.
Last trip out, I got 205 lb of soft lead in linked bars of ingots, and disc. I paid .20 lb since it was soft, clean and already in useable sizes. I left about 60 lb. of flashing because it was very oxidized, and I had to come down the mountain in a KIA with 4 0ther people.
Today I talked to a garage that said they had 8 buckets of WW stored in back. I asked why they didn't sell while the price was up. The answer was, they were waiting for the price to go higher, and waited too long.
I'll go back next week with pizza, and a hand full of $20. to see just how bad they want to keep stumbling over them.

[Nora]

http://www.universalwrecking.com/Sections-read-37.html
This is the site I go to before making a trip to scrounge weights. For the last several weeks the price has been from .22-.23 a lb.
They also show scrap price on several different kinds of lead,ie Linotype and even lead dross.


Thanks for posting this, it will make for good future reference. I've got no problem paying the $.38 prepared price for what my yard has to offer. They do a nice job of sorting out the crap. Of the 133 lbs I bought last week, for junk it only had 9 valve caps, 5 valve stems, 4 plastic weights, 3 Zn and 2 razor blades. Oh and I almost forgot the partridge in a pair tree.

[Down South]

I remember but just a few years ago that it was thought of as a sin to pay for WW. Shops were glad to get rid of them. Only if I had the foresight to collect all that I could then. At that time I wasn’t casting boolits, I was casting fishing sinkers and a 5-gallon bucket of WW would last me for years. Now I’m in the same boat as everyone else that is collecting WW for boolits. WW are getting harder and harder to come by and when found are usually in small quantities. I stopped at a shop a couple weeks ago and inquired about WW. The guy said he gave them to his grandson and the kid was getting $35 a bucket full for them. I have no idea if that was the truth or not, but $35 a bucket full in my area is a ridiculous price. I have gave $20 for a 5-gallon bucket full before but most of what I collect have been basically free.
I did make a good haul last week and picked up three heaping buckets full from one of my old WW suppliers.

[loosenuts57]

I did'nt check this week at my local yard, but the other week when I was there, they were giving $.05/ lb for W/W lead and .10 for soft. The one scrapper close to me said he'd give me lead for $.10 and I told him I'll take whatever he comes up with.
I guess I better get there and see what I can pick up from them before it starts going up again.
Most of the 5 gal. pail I was getting did ring out about 130-140lbs. With a blown back I usually break 'em down into three buckets just so I can handle 'em. Also I recycle my steel and zinc weights as I balance my own tires, and even thought about reselling them to small garages if the price of steel goes up again.

[oleycow]

I just scored, I have been scouring the town looking for any garage willing to give or sell their used wheel weights. I got all NO's except for one guy who wanted an outrageous $.80 per pound. Which I was and am still tempted to take because it has been so hard to find anyting. But then I stopped by one of the few shops that I hadn't asked at yet and I scored. FREE He was a little stingy on which ones he let me take but I managed a solid 20 lbs with permission to come back whenever I wanted and by the end of my picking through he was throwing in weights that he had laying around the shop. So I am feeling good that the stingyness will subside and soon will be in the 100's of pounds.

[Bob.]

Got my first 5 gal bucket today at a local tire store, the guy had three 5 gal buckets and ask me how many weights I wanted.
I ask him what he wanted for all of them and he said "well we get $20 a bucket" like that would keep me from wanting them all. Then when I said I would take them all he said he would rather not sell them all to one person because there were a few others that buy from him. I felt lucky to get one bucket full so I instantly agreed with him that sounded fair.
Now I'm trying to figure out how soon I should go there again and if I should just bring donuts and coffee some morning?

After reading this post it got my curiosity up so I just went and weighed them on some digital scales and got a big suprise, the heaping bucket full weighed 204.4 lb's[smilie=w:

Bob

[snaggdit]

Great score!

[roarindan]

fri. july 10th I bought a 5 gal pailful from a tire store for $20. it weighed 140 lbs on the bath scale.sorted out the valve stems and lugnuts and it weighs 128lbs,theres still some zinc in there but that ciphers out to be...$0.15625/lb .gonna smelt that down in one day and then see what it's worth.

2wks ago i picked up a pailfull for $20 and a small papa johns pizza.
yesterday i bought 6 cream filled doughnuts from a bakery,but they only got 5 'cause them donuts is gooooood!!

[roarindan]

monday July 13th......weights all melted...
outta a gross weight of 140 lbs/5gal bucket i got.............................79 &1/2 lbs.
that makes my tota cost...$20/79.5lbs=0.25157

[oleycow]

Bob--"Now I'm trying to figure out how soon I should go there again and if I should just bring donuts and coffee some morning?"

That's a great Idea! I think that could really boost my lead profits, the more friends the more lead

[Bob.]

Bob--"Now I'm trying to figure out how soon I should go there again and if I should just bring donuts and coffee some morning?"

That's a great Idea! I think that could really boost my lead profits, the more friends the more lead

Checked around again yesterday at all the closest tire shops but didnt do as good as my first try. Out of the 3 other local stores I tried one contracts them out, one didnt have any and one wanted $30 a bucket.
I didnt want to pay $30 a bucket but thought I should build up a stock before I get picky about price.
I told them I would take 2 buckets but when they brought them out they were only a little over 3/4 full? $55 was as low as he would go so I took them.
One good thing is there was a lot of big truck weights and 3 times as many stick on's as the first bucket I got.

Oh by the way my first heaping bucket weighed in at 204.4 lbs and made 162 lbs of WW muffins and 2.5 lbs of pure lead or stick on's.

Going to go check 3 more places but it will be a little road trip.

Bob

[badgeredd]

Checked around again yesterday at all the closest tire shops but didnt do as good as my first try. Out of the 3 other local stores I tried one contracts them out, one didnt have any and one wanted $30 a bucket.
I didnt want to pay $30 a bucket but thought I should build up a stock before I get picky about price.
I told them I would take 2 buckets but when they brought them out they were only a little over 3/4 full? $55 was as low as he would go so I took them.
One good thing is there was a lot of big truck weights and 3 times as many stick on's as the first bucket I got.

Oh by the way my first heaping bucket weighed in at 204.4 lbs and made 162 lbs of WW muffins and 2.5 lbs of pure lead or stick on's.

Going to go check 3 more places but it will be a little road trip.

Bob


Bob,

To add a bit of perspective to your paying price, today the LTL (less that truck load) price being paid to scrap dealers for WW is $0.21. Your price was reasonably fair since the TR (truck load) price is $0.35. A truckload cutoff is 40,000#. Assuming you got 200#, that works out to 27 1/2 cents a pound so I think that you've paid a fair price. Your processed WW should yield 160# or so and that still a heck of a good price compared to evilbay.

FREE or less than the price you paid would be nice, but reality is you did ok. I checked at a recycler late last week and they were asking $0.78/pound. IT IS ALL IN PERSPECTIVE, if you see what I'm saying. At least they were willing to deal a bit and they did sell you some. The only caveat would be if you got a LOT of FE and ZN weights in the batch.

Edd

A side note...The fellow I get most of my WW from had a guy come in to buy some. Since I have been getting them regularly, except the last month, he had around a 100# that he would sell to the other guy for 50 cents a pound. The guy took them. I pay whatever the LTL price is so the dealer felt that IF this new guy wanted bad enough to pay a higher price, he'd sell them. If the new guy didn't take them, then he'd save them for me at my usual price. He sells the WW to get a little money to buy the guys in the shop breakfast once a week, so I figure he did right by me and his employees. I usually take home-made cookies, pie or cake in once a month for everyone so I do have preferential treatment from them.

[tarheelshooter]

Lucky for me that I work at a tire store,so the WW's are mine,mine,mine all mine.:mrgreen:

I also have the other two stores to get WW's from as well.
[smilie=w:

[Bob.]

badgeredd
Your right I just got lucky on my first bucket @ $20, it was heaping and running over and it made 162 LB's of WW muffins
The two not so full buckets at $55 only made 189 lb's of muffins, So I guess I should look at the average.
But i'm still looking forward to going back to the first store just dont want to go back too soon?

Bob

[mold maker]

Keep their bucket empty. If you don't some body else will.
Remember the price paid at the scrap yard is for weights sorted and delivered to them.
What you buy at the tire store saves them a trip to the scrappie.
By the way, I did get the eight buckets of weights, but had to pay $25. a bucket. Now I've got 8 buckets on the back of the truck and my back wont let me unload them. Tomorrow I'll park in the shade and sort them off the tailgate. Several look as if there is a lot of stick on.
It sure is hot to smelt now so I think I'll save them for Fall.

[reddog]

Just kidding, I've actually gotten a 5 galllon bucket before and if it weighed 150 lbs., I'm waay stronger than i thought I was! I can move it around OK, so I'm thinking 60-75 lbs or so. I used to take the guys sodas and beer and they looked forward to trading me the lead! I used alot for ballast in sand rails (Ohh the misery!!) and some for 38 practice. Nowadays, it's hazardous waste and it has to be accounted for cradle to grave. If you can get it, I'd say jump on it with both feet. They aint gonna take our razors, but they're tryin for the blades! Deep in the peoples republik of kalifornia, southern division Reddog (sorry for the conspiracy theory)

[snaggdit]

If you can move a FULL 5 gallon pail around without grunting, you are in the running for superman. They tend to weigh 140-180lbs. I'm pretty healthy and I tend to prefer separating down to 3 gallon pails for easy moving. Sorry you live in that liberal state... We don't mind the conspiracy stuff. Most of us subscribe.

[evan price]

OK, been scrounging lately. This week I've been to a dozen tire & repair shops that are on the drive home. Out of those, 4 were willing to part with weights. I got two full to the brim 5-gallon buckets full now for the grand total of $20 invested. Plus I have a couple lines on more free lead, one shop I saw three dusty full 5-gal buckets in the corner and the owner wasn't there- the employee said he was wanting to find something to do with it because they can't throw it out anymore!!! Going back there ASAP.

Dumped them out on the bed of my flatbed trailer and started picking out the garbage. Had a 10-qt trash bucket full of valves & stems, tire stickers, cig butts, misc. metal junk/nuts & washers & broken lug studs, and non-lead weights. Plus a very nice ARO air-blow gun that was in the bottom of one bucket and a handful of brand new valve stems.

There were quite a few iron and zinc stick-on weights. Plus I found some of those plastic BMW weights. A bunch more clip-on iron and zinc weights. All in all for $20 I think I did OK.

There is one spot where there are 4 mechanic shops all on different corners of the same intersection. Went to all four. The first two were under contract. The third one the guy sells them to someone already. The fourth one was SCORE! Funny how that works.

What I found out:

Goodyear (company stores): Under contract nationwide for all lead. Get put into little flip-lid Nestor type plastic bins and sent out monthly to the central warehouse.

Wal*Mart & Sam's Club: Under national contract to Exide Battery for all lead; Exide truck picks up at the store with core batteries.

Tire Discounters: Under national contract to Exide Battery; all lead and scrap gets sent back to home warehouse on supply trucks weekly.

Sears: Under national contract to send all lead back to their central warehouse for Johnson Controls.

Firestone (Company owned stores): Under national contract to Interstate battery for all lead. Gets sent back to central warehouse. Recently stopped (in some stores) sending lead weight in because they switched to iron weights and they are unpopular. Some stores saving used lead weights for use with rebalances and only using new weights on new tire installs.

Pep Boys: Under national contract to send all lead back to central warehouse for their battery vendor.

National Tire & Battery/Tire Kingdom: See Sears

Costco: Sends all lead out with core batteries. Didn't say who.

Bear in mind that this is the "official" company line for lead disposition. I find that if I go to the lead mechanic in the tire bay they often are willing to sell lead for cash money. One Pep Boys employee very deliberately told me that they don't sell lead, then pointedly turned his back on me after showing me how much lead was in their bucket and mumbled something about what he didn't see he can't get in trouble for. He also offered me a Pep Boys shopping bag to put the lead in.

One other large chain (I'm not naming who)their mechanic and shift manager took my money and dumped all the "EXIDE LEAD RECYCLING!" buckets into my bucket.

One heavy-truck repair shop offered to give me all their weights in exchange for dropping off some .357 slugs for them. Deal!

I was also surprised how many other people are looking. Some places said there were other folks already been there. A couple really good places turned out to already have an employee who casts.


The secret to this is:

1. Show up in the early morning when they are cleaning up to open, or at the end of the day when they are cleaning up to leave, or sometime when they are not really busy. Don't bother them.

2. Dress like a hardworking guy. Be polite and look decent. Jeans, work shirt, boots. Introduce yourself and shake hands.

3. Have cash and bring your own buckets.

4. Ask nicely, and ask the mechanics first before the owner. Phrase it as- can you help me out with some lead? I'm willing to pay $X per bucket.

5. If they say yes, make sure you pick up all the loose weights laying around on the floor by their buckets.

6. Some people ask what they are for. My standard answer is that they can be melted down for fishing weights. I don't say bullets. One of the places I got a lot of free lead, the guy said a previous job he had somebody coming in to get lead for bullets, and he thought that guy was a little crazy and wouldnt sell him lead. Nobody is worried about fishing weights.

[oleycow]

Wal*Mart & Sam's Club: Under national contract to Exide Battery for all lead; Exide truck picks up at the store with core batteries.



Even though they may be under national contract does not mean that they won't give me my old weights back when I have my tires changed or balanced. Got four new ones put on at walmart two days ago and asked for my old ones back, THEY ARE MINE got them back. Paid for the lifetime balance and I will be going in for balancing as much as I can. I have begun asking friends to do the same. Things are looking up.

[First Big Foot]

You might try scuba weights, since half or more of the tire weights now are steel and zinc.

[walker77]

Thats why living in california sucks, ive hardly got any around here.

[desteve811]

Just smelting down a 5 gallon bucket full of WW tonight. The bucket weight about 120lbs. Once they were smelted down and clean up, i ended up with 85lbs of clean lead ignots.

[walker77]

Huh????

[walker77]

Too bad they dont teach common sense to engineers in school.

[AKsoldier]

I just picked up my first 5 gallon bucket of weights today. I paid $25.00 at the local tire shop. It's full to the top and according to my bathroom scale, it is 145 LBS on the nose.

[TreeKiller]

Paid $60.00 for a 5 Gal. bucket and got 182# lead after smelting and removing iron and zinc WW

Dan

[Bladeforger]

Got two prices here locally: One fellow quoted me $60 and one much more friendly fellow $40. The $40 place is out, but I'm going back in a week. Good to know what the approximate weight is because I feel pretty good about those prices. Thanks, everyone who posted the weights they got out of 5 gallons!!!

[sheepdog]

Even though they may be under national contract does not mean that they won't give me my old weights back when I have my tires changed or balanced. Got four new ones put on at walmart two days ago and asked for my old ones back, THEY ARE MINE got them back. Paid for the lifetime balance and I will be going in for balancing as much as I can. I have begun asking friends to do the same. Things are looking up.

Yeah I get some from Walmarts at times but got to get in and out quick, not seen by a manager. Even then high percentage of a zinc and WW. Low shops that tend to favor non-import cars (mom and pops, non-chains) tend to have a higher % of lead than zinc to steel. One shop right by my house about almost zero, as they specialize in domestics.

[johnlaw484]

I never thought about the scrap yard. I'll try that.

[farky]

After working at a tire dealer I can tell you what you probably allready know.
Lead wheel weights are slowly dissapearing. If I fill up a 5 gallon bucket and
slowly go thru them I will find that 50% of them are not lead, they are some
other kind of alloy and they just go into the junk pile. Every year that goes by another percent gets added to the junk pile. Do the math.


farky

[fredj338]

badgeredd
Your right I just got lucky on my first bucket @ $20, it was heaping and running over and it made 162 LB's of WW muffins
The two not so full buckets at $55 only made 189 lb's of muffins, So I guess I should look at the average.
But i'm still looking forward to going back to the first store just dont want to go back too soon?

Bob
Pretty soon I am gonna have to have you start mailing me lead ingots here in Kommifronia.[smilie=s:

[Pirate69]

I picked up a full 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights this pm for $25 dollars. They were clean and a few stick-on weights were present. Weight? pretty darn heavy. One or two more of these will get me through my fishing and shooting career.

[Mattog22]

Yeah I get some from Walmarts at times but got to get in and out quick, not seen by a manager. Even then high percentage of a zinc and WW. Low shops that tend to favor non-import cars (mom and pops, non-chains) tend to have a higher % of lead than zinc to steel. One shop right by my house about almost zero, as they specialize in domestics.

I managed to get a few of those smaller black exide buckets (2 or 3 gal?) from walmart. There were a lot of steel and zinc weights. It was my first time smelting ingots but I was surprised that after going through 2 of those buckets I had a 5 gal bucket about 3/5 full of clips, zinc, and steel WW. I have about 105 mini muffin ingots and about 2-3 inches of clean lead still in the cast iron pot. I don't know if this is good recovery or not but it doesn't seem like much for what I think is about 6 gallons of WW. I did notice that the bucket I got from a local shop didn't seem to have hardly any zinc or steel WW.

[awaveritt]

So far I've been pretty lucky here in central Texas. Since October 2009, I've collected enough wheel weights to yield about 180 lbs of ingots, clip-on (70%) and stick-on (30%), all just for the asking. However, my last two scores have been paying gigs, arranged by a buddy in a nearby town - 82lbs (after sorting/culling) for $30 and then he scored about 95 lbs. for TEN DOLLARS. So, for a grand total of 40 bucks, I've managed to scrounge just over 350 lbs of lead, since I started. Guess that's about 11 cents per pound.

That's over 15,000 boolits of the average weights I shoot. :lovebooli

[Fugowii]

Last bucket I had, some nitwit dumped a razor blade in it. I just missed cutting my hand wide open.
When you start rummaging through those buckets, make sure of what you are reaching for.

[Mattog22]

I got some nasty ones, bucket smelled like it had a dead rat in it. There was other trash and about an inch of nasty smelly green liquid in the bottom. Washed it out with the WW in it, set it in the sun for a few days and they still smell horrid! Can't wait to get them melted and be done with the mess. All that for about 3 or 4 inches of WW in the bottom of the bucket, but I can't bring myself not to use them. It's amazing since I started collecting WW it's like I have Tire Shop radar everywhere I drive.

[Munkeyjoe]

WOW you huys are pretty lucky.... I am having the HARDEST time finding anyone to sell lead let alone give it away. I usually buy the lead on ebay and other vendors and spend close to $1 a pound for the stuff. Even more if its ingots and not raw WW........

I also know of a range that has pure lead (Civil war era shooting team) but digging them up and the drive is just..... not fun.

I live in Frederick MD and if anyone knows a cheaper place to get some let me know!!

[Black Powder Bill]

How much weight in a 5 gallon bucket? Im having a hard time finding some one that wants to give me wheel weights. So i guess im forced to buy them. I have a guy offering me 30 bucks for a 5 gallon bucket full. He says they take them to the scrap yard, so i assume that is what they are giving him for it. Thanks

Mine run around 150 to 175 depending on the size of the bucket. I know once I set them in the shed they don't get moved around much.

[fishnbob]

Yesterday I got a plastic sheet rock compound bucket full and it weighed out @ 108 lbs. No charge was the price so I left a case of Bud Light in their shop fridge. They even carried it out and set it in the back of my pickup. Gonna smelt next week when it's supposed to be in the
90's again.

[adrians]

:lovebooli
i got 138# in mine

[Rangefinder]

Today's score was one of the best I've had. I get my WW's for nothing anyway, so long as I drop in and get them regularly. Today I made my usual pick-up and the bucket was just a little more full than usual--bonus--but a LOT heavier than usual. There was a genuine strain getting the damn thing up onto the tailgate. Well, after I got home and unloaded it, I didn't think much of it except that it was nice coming away with a little more than usual. Then I got to wondering what could have made the bucket so much heavier since there really isn't much they could have thrown in that would be heavier than lead... When I pick up a bucket, I kinda figure on about 60% usable material prior to melting. The rest is the zinc, steel, lug nuts, trash, valve stems, what have ya. Well, I got overly curious and up-ended the bucket of today's haul. On a rough sort through the pile, I'd say less than 10% of the bucket wasn't lead, and about a third of it was dead-soft stick-ons! Almost no zinc or steel in the entire mix! No wonder it was so darn heavy---it was all the good stuff!!! Easily 160+lbs on this one--it actually hurt to pick it up.

[Tazman1602]

Always keep a good relationship with your tire store, I buy my buckets from several local places.

...........happened to be going to get tires on wife's truck today (20" ers...........OWWW!) and in the process showed my bud behind the counter what I do with his wheel wieghts I buy, had some bullets with me. He said "Wow look at that you put those in the polisher and everything?????" He almost died when I told him that's how they come out once they're sized and lubed. They've been selling to a scrapyard but I just happened to ask if they had any buckets of wheel wieghts he wanted to sell.

.......got out of there with two five gallon buckets FULL.............he told me $20.............I told him "not enough for that much lead" and gave him $40 for both buckets. He thought he'd died and went to heaven. I'm happy, win-win.

They used to be free but more and more people are finding out you can get money for them, all you have to do is check fleabay and see all the wheel wieghts being sold there.................if I'm gonna cast I'd prefer leadandbrass.com's foundry cast stuff, but it ain't as cheap as wheel wieghts for handgun shooting!

He then asked for my card and told me he'd call me when they got more buckets..................<GRIN>
[smilie=w:[smilie=w:[smilie=w:

[22Short]

Stopped at a tire store (I actually buy my tires there, always have) and got two more four gallon buckets full. At $20 / bucket I'm glad to be able to. Five gallon buckets are too darn heavy! This makes six buckets full for me in the last two weeks from that store. After sorting and melting I get about 2/3 return with mostly Zn weights as the remainder. Stupid California laws. I'm old and can remember when rifles were legal here! Any way I plan to keep going back as fast as I can melt it to ingots, no room for 20 buckets of ugly wheel weights, but I'll make room for a neat pile of ingots! Remember - you only get 35 200 grain H&G 68's from a pound!

[BoolitSchuuter]

Just picked up a 5 gal. bucket friday. weighed 153 lbs unsorted. Got a handful of steel weights and 12 lbs of stickons. Not one Zinc weight this time. I noticed there were a lot of the larger weights in this bucket. :drinks:

[*Paladin*]

I got a full 5 gal bucket today for free. I've sorted half of it and only come up with a handful of ZN and maybe two handfuls of FE. I dang near turned my rectum inside out lifting that bucket outta the truck! I'd guess at least 140ish lbs...

[stainless1911]

I got someone to scale a bucket full for me, it came up at 163 lbs.

[Boolseye]

pretty heavy. enough to badly strain an already bad shoulder:violin:

[shootingblanks00]

If any of you wheel weight collectors would like to help out a fellow caster in california, I'll pay $.75 a lb for wheel weights and I will pay the shipping if you use the large box from the post office. 50 lbs ships at $14.50 anywhere in the U.S. (Ebay is not fun trying to get lead) Every tire shop I have gone to in my area refuses to let the guy off the street have them and will not sell them to us. I have only been casting for a few months and havent had a hobby that is as much fun as casting and making my own boolits and then shooting them and have them actually work with pretty good accuracy but I am afraid with the way things are going, it wont be long before will will become outlaws if we use lead. Anywho, if any of you would see fit. PM me and lets work something out. Thanks.

Eliot

[Jean Mario]

In Canada I paid $0.20/pound

Jean Mario

[bowfin]

I bought a three gallon bucket full for $28.00. The bucket weighed 96 pounds. I sorted them last night and found almost 20 pounds that weren't lead, mostly steel and three or four zinc ones. Almost ten pounds of lead stick on weights.

That means I have 76 pounds of wheelweights for $28.00, or 37¢ a pound.

Once I melt them down, I will see what I get for lead, but to tell you the truth, a dollar a pound for clean lead doesn't seem like such a bad deal, because I am always short on time. I would rather be heating the pot to cast rather than to flux.

[WILDMAN]

If you can not talk the local tire shops into donating lead for "fishing weights" (politically safe) then Ebay will probably be your best bet for lead which is already smelted and fluxed into ingots for $1/ pound. I think local scrap yard price is about $0.70 / pound. The time expense in smelting into ingots is well worth the extra 30 or 40 cents after shipping charges. IMHO

[theinfamouselguapo]

.60@pound x 136 local metal recycler different sizes shapes of cleaned ingot.

Out of a dozen tire players and half as many junkyards got hits on exactly two. Corporate tire chains are responding to Californistan's ban by just banning the stuff everywhere.

A wheel weight that went for a nickle in lead costs about ten times that in steel at wholesale prices. Consumers are not really noticing because it's a small portion of the price of a set of tires, balancing, etc etc. You can probably forget about getting any w/w from any national chain going forward.

Here's something for you to think about.

If just one state passing a law like this is enough to make it difficult nationally to buy lead, how tough would it be for a forward thinking anti-gun congress to simply make the component parts impossible to get by declaring something 'hazardous' like California did?

It seems to me that somebody in corporate amerikka must have woke up and eaten an entire bowlful of stupid for breakfast before they came up with this policy.

[*Paladin*]

.60@pound x 136 local metal recycler different sizes shapes of cleaned ingot.

Out of a dozen tire players and half as many junkyards got hits on exactly two. Corporate tire chains are responding to Californistan's ban by just banning the stuff everywhere.

A wheel weight that went for a nickle in lead costs about ten times that in steel at wholesale prices. Consumers are not really noticing because it's a small portion of the price of a set of tires, balancing, etc etc. You can probably forget about getting any w/w from any national chain going forward.

Here's something for you to think about.

If just one state passing a law like this is enough to make it difficult nationally to buy lead, how tough would it be for a forward thinking anti-gun congress to simply make the component parts impossible to get by declaring something 'hazardous' like California did?
It seems to me that somebody in corporate amerikka must have woke up and eaten an entire bowlful of stupid for breakfast before they came up with this policy.

I think that is the hidden agenda.

On topic, I got almost 150 lbs of ingots out of a over-flowing 5 gal bucket of stick-ons. I hate smelting them because of the adhesive burning off, but man they make some pretty ingots!

[bumpo628]

150 lbs of clip-ons in a 5 gal bucket

[*Paladin*]

265 lbs out of 2 full buckets today. Found a lot of steel and zinc, unfortunately. But, all in all, a good day. I paid $35 for the 2 buckets, by the way...

[LatheRunner]

Picked up 3 2 1/2 gallon buckets and 1 5gallon bucket the other day. Large truck weights. after sorting had 1 2 1/2 gallon bucket full of large wheel studs, nuts,and 5 inch long valve stems. There must have been 50 to 75 valve stems. Ended up with 300 lbs. clip on and 35 lbs. of stick on. Not to bad for $50.00.

[.452dia]

I went lead hunting today with ZERO luck. Large tire stores like Sears, Walmart and Goodyear won't give or sell them to you around here. They are picked up by a company that has a contract with these companies and treated like hazardous material. I found one local tire store that two 5 gal. buckets full of mixed metals. (WW,screws, bolts, stems, cigarette butts and candy wrapers) They wanted $55 each so I left them. I found a plumbing company that was replacing a lot of cast iron piping in a large manufacturing company and they are going to save me the lead from the joints. Should be a couple of hundred pounds of free lead.

[*Paladin*]

Welcome .452! I need to call a few plumbers. That's one of the few sources I haven't hit up yet...

[t_dickinson]

Hi,

New guy here. Been lurking for awhile and finally got my first bucket-o-lead. I called 14 places and got some pretty blunt "no's". I kept at it and now have 4 sources for weights.

Sent a couple pizzas to the first place and coffee and dougnuts to the other 3. A little schmoozing went a long way and all 4 spots said they will sell only to me (we'll see).

So, I picked up my first load. A heaping 5 gallon bucket weighing in at 140 lbs. Cost me $30 and I think that's a good deal considering how hard it is to get.

I thought I was a pretty strong guy. I work out regularly and am in my early 30's.

NOPE! This **** is a different kind of heavy man. Almost blew a few organs out the ...

It looks like the llead is going to pile up here in a hurry and I don't even have the equipment to melt it yet! Got some work to do.

Stand bye for lots of ?????????????????

Regards,

A. in NH

[birdadly]

Hey dickinson, I'm in the same boat! Although I've only gone to 5 places so far. I started strong with my first place GIVING me a 170lb bucket! That was a week ago so I thought by now I'd have a garage full from visiting the other shops in town... nope... they either said no or already have buyers they deal with, hmpf! But I still have a few more to stop at!

Also don't have the equipment yet, but wanted to get a stash built up for when I'm ready!

[roverboy]

I'm in the same boat as T Dickinson and Birdadly. I'm having a little trouble finding WW but have managed to get 15-20 lbs. I don't have all the equipment yet either. One tire dealer I called and left a message hasn't called back.

[drklynoon]

Local fellers here, just quoted 50$ a bucket. I'm gonna keep looking. I just can't see paying that much without knowing whats in the bucket. 5 gallons of zinc won't make any bullets.

[drklynoon]

Scrap man quoted me .20 $ a # so I'm heading out there tomorrow to get a 100 #'s

[*Paladin*]

Scrap man quoted me .20 $ a # so I'm heading out there tomorrow to get a 100 #'s

.20 cents per lb! Buy it all, because that's a pretty good buy! Around here, salvage yards want $1 or more per lb...

[Philngruvy]

$.20/lb is great. The scrap yards are paying $.12/lb for steel so the steel weights and clips could be sold back making the $.20/lb an even sweeter deal!

[drklynoon]

Nice I'll try that on the sell back. I'll be heading down there later this week. I wish I had the cash to buy all of it but I'll settle for a couple hundered pounds for now. If only I could find some durn tin.

[*Paladin*]

Nice I'll try that on the sell back. I'll be heading down there later this week. I wish I had the cash to buy all of it but I'll settle for a couple hundered pounds for now. If only I could find some durn tin.

Ask your salvage yard if they have any pewter or solder drippings. I just get my "sweetener" from 2nd hand shops.

[morrisammo]

I go to ONE tire shop,,, he is a gun guy,, and I buy the weights from him,,, $20 per 5 gal,,

I just got two,,, Buckets,,, one of the things that makes a caster happy!!!

good old lead!!

[theinfamouselguapo]

I paid 50 last weekend for a bucket that was packed to the top nearly all clip on WW with very little steel or zinc. I'll ballpark the rendered ingots coming out at about 85-90 pounds not counting the stickons because I'm waiting for better weather to burn off the tape.

Today I bought 490 pounds of Ames ingots at 1.60 a pound. More than I cared to pay but less than what it would have cost me to drive to Chicago and bring it back with gas at 3.50 a gallon.

[Duckiller]

Just smelted a 5 gal. bucket of clip-on weights. Bucket was full. I had sorted out stick-on and bad stuff. Based on ingot count I got 125# of ingots. I had sorted this bucket at least twice and got rid of all trash and most of the zinc weights. Found a few zinc weights as I sorted before going into smelting pot. This may give you an idea of what a sorted bucket may yield.

[bumpo628]

I just got two buckets of stick on wheel weights. There was 160 lbs in one and 155 lbs in the other.

Out of the 315 lbs of the two buckets, there was:
48 lbs steel
6 lbs zinc
16 lbs clip-on wheel weights
245 lbs stick-on wheel weights

[Bomberman]

I finally ran out of my lead supply and had the humbling experience of trying to secure a source for wheel weights. I went to a local junk yard (where I've bought car parts before) and the guy acted like I was trying to steal gold ingots from him...wouldn't even quote me a price. I offered $25 a bucket and he said he'd call me...never did. Got the rejection from a couple of other places but one cute receptionist referred me to a small tire place off the beaten path. Went there, gave my pitch, and the guy says "Last I heard lead was selling for 11 cents a pound, figure there's close to 200 lbs in a bucket, how's $25 a bucket sound." I said great, I'll take two. He yells for an employee to come load my truck with the two buckets and tells me that they usually get a bucket full about every month and to come back anytime for more. YES! Now I'm busy melting them down to make room for more.

[Andy_P]

Some interesting things about 5 gallons of wheelweight alloy:

- a 5 gal pail of "raw" wheelweights weighs about 150 lbs;
- a 5 gal pail of wheelweight ingots weighs about 275 lbs; and
- a 5 gal solid ingot of pure wheelweight would weigh about 450 lbs.

It doesn't pack as tightly as you might imagine.

[rickomatic]

Got my first bucket of wheel weights in a long time yesterday. Actually saw an ad on craigslist for them. I see lots of "lead wanted" ads there, but this is the first time I saw a tire shop actually advertising to sell them. I paid $35 for a full 5 gal bucket. They loaded it for me, and I had a nice long chat with the owner of the store about the government messing things up.
Anyway, spent about an hour sorting them when I got home, and this is what I came up with.

lead ww = 106#
lead stick on = 16#
Steel clip on+stick on = 14#
zinc clip on = 14#

That figures to about $.30 per # before smelting off the clips, so I think I did ok.

[sig2009]

Thanks for the stickey. Good info!

[jfischer]

Wow you guys are getting alot better yeild than I am.

Full bucket

35lbs stick on
20 clip on
the rest is garbage

This could be because these are comming from car dealers and not tire stores. We have almost all alloy wheels nowdays and they all have tape weights on them.

[tward]

I scored my first bucket of WW yesterday. Doing a physical on the owner and asked if he had any WW. He wanted to know what I do with them and when I told him casting he said take the whole thing! Brought bagels in for the shop the next day, good price.
Tim:-D

[Capt Crunch]

I wish I had this kind of luck, went down to a local "big name" tire shop that had agreed to sell me a bucket for $30. Now they want $89 for the same bucket. Needless to say I left without any WWs. Back to searching again, that was the only place local that would sell them to me.

[reload68]

I have the answer! A 5 gallon bucket of WW yields 45 muffins & 12 cornbread sticks of alloy, a bunch of steel clips, and a few steel and zinc weights. Didn't weigh them but you can check yours. "the smell of bad cabbage in the morning smells like..........Victory!" (apologies to R Duvall)

[meak99]

Started with a 139lb bucket today... ended up with 103 lb of COWW ingots, 1-2 lbs of stickies and the rest was clips and dirt. Zero zinc, steel or iron! Oh, there was one valve stem and a few leaves. Roughly 75% of the initial weight was alloy. I've got three more buckets and hope to report similar results.

[max range]

The averages here sound about like what I am getting. Both in gross, net and success rate. Even the replies from the shops equal my experience. Today, after a long dry spell, I got a 5 gl bucket full to the top. The man said "$20 and I want my bucket back". So tomorrow I'll get some beer, some empty 5 gl buckets I have laying around and drop by their shop.

Preliminary results for the first 8" of the bucket are: A fistfull of Zinc & Steel weights, about a dozen tire stems, but lots of 3+ oz lead cww's. Maybe a handful of stick on lead squares.
If time permits tomorrow, I will smelt about 50 pounds or so. I actually enjoy the process. From the hunt for the raw lead to the final lube & size. There is something very satisfying about it.

[Dthunter]

I went Wheel weight hunting on friday, for the first time in about 20 years! LOL!
In about two hours, I scored a little more than 6- 5gallon pails full!
The best part!?.................All of it for free! WhoooHoooo!

I spent nearly 10 hours cleaning and seperating the Zinc and garbage.
I still have 3.5 pails to go! Wow! long arduous process!
I weighed each pail before I started cleaning. The average was about 145 pounds (about 1.5" from top of pail sides).

so far, I have 350lbs of cleaned wheel weights, and 50lbs of soft lead stickies.

I think I will shoot for three more pails worth, and that should supply me nearly for life!

Take care guys, and good WW hunting!

"MAY THE ALLOY BE WITH YOU!"

[kliff]

Went on my first search this morning....went to an independent Mag Wheel shop, where 90% of the weights are stickies, and got a 5 gallon bucket for $10.00. Is there any advantage or disadvantage to the weights being mostly stickies? Other than the fact that I didn't pay for a lot of steel clips....

[birdadly]

Went on my first search this morning....went to an independent Mag Wheel shop, where 90% of the weights are stickies, and got a 5 gallon bucket for $10.00. Is there any advantage or disadvantage to the weights being mostly stickies? Other than the fact that I didn't pay for a lot of steel clips....

Good job Kliff; great price. Stickies are generally close to pure lead, so that's either an advantage or disadvantage depending on what your needs are. You'll have to find that out by reading thru the forum :) The only disadvantage I can think of is I hear they smell bad when smelting! And if you need a harder alloy, you'll have to mix in some clip-on weights or lino or mono.

On subject, yesterday's oil change netted me a 114 pound bucket of weights, a little more than 3/4's full I guess. 2 dozen cookies and 1 dozen donuts and we're all happy campers :) -Brad

[DODGEM250]

After my recent experiences with trying to using wheel weights again, you'd be better off just buying precast ingots and save a lot of time and wasted WW sorting. It's definitely not like it used to be when every single WW was lead.

[mold maker]

Some folks have less time and more money than me. No it isn't like it used to be, but neither is the price of lead. Yes there are zinc stickies also, but their easier ti ID. Lead stickies can be bent with the fingers, or easily smashed with plies.
It's the stickies glue that gets the bad rap.
If ya smelt the stickies in a pot with a close fitted lid, the smoke and smell will be much less of an issue. Add a heaping spoon full of sawdust to the stickers, put on the lid, and turn on the heat.
Give them time to melt and open, with lit match in hand to toss in. As the remaining smoke lights and burns away, you will be left with ashes (dross) and a shiny melt.

[Chihuahua Floyd]

Smelted about a bucket and a half this afternoon.
8# soft from stickies.
106.5# of clip on WW.
About a 2 gallon bucket of steel, zinc, valve stems, ect. Did not weigh the trash.
Time to make bullets.
CF
Also in the mix was a large chunk from a roof vent a friend at work gave me. Don't know how hard or soft it was so it went in with the clip-ons.

[Infidel]

I've been very fortunate. I used to work for one of the repair shops nearby and he will get at least 2 30 gal.barrels a year. I always offer to buy them and am met with "You can't buy those weights!". "You can have them, but you can't buy'em". I always thank him profusely and show him my "Fishin' weights". I've offered to let him come out and shoot but can't get him to. He always asks how many dead fish I have in that big barrel.
I have a second source that I pick up about once a week. I generally get 10# there too. I'm getting way behind on smelting. Then my neighbor stopped me on the way to the range (It's out back on his place) and said he has a chunk of pure lead where he works that he's tired of tripping over and he's going to load it up with an engine hoist and bring it over. Do you think you could use it? :holysheep

[squirrelnuttz]

:cry:I just paid $50 a bucket for mixed 5 gal. buckets of WW.I kinda feel violated, I usually pay a 26er of Crown Royal($30-$33) for a bucket full, at my friendly local tire shop.Am always on the lookout, checking out possible sources on the road.I just got these tonight, not knowing the weight or junk to PB ratio, we will see.One thing is for sure, there are a pile of FE and ZN weights in every bucket I've managed to find since I started casting (3yrs.). I'm just getting all I can.PB WW at decent prices seem to be getting scarce up here....

[badbob454]

Went on my first search this morning....went to an independent Mag Wheel shop, where 90% of the weights are stickies, and got a 5 gallon bucket for $10.00. Is there any advantage or disadvantage to the weights being mostly stickies? Other than the fact that I didn't pay for a lot of steel clips....

stickies are soft compared to the clip- ons.for med to low vel handguns use 50/50 stickies /coww's for hi presslike a 44 mag use 100% coww's

[BIG BEAR]

I last paid$ 20 for a canadian 5 gallon bucket. over150# about3 pounds zinc and a couple valve stems. had a fellow GIVE me about 300 pounds of pure lead flashing from an old building he demolished. s i also shoot b.p.rifle and pistols,i,m set for a while.

[groundsclown]

I'm still new to all this & have yet to melt down my first ww but I've been hitting the local shops for lead these past few weeks & stocking up. Got about 100# of sorted coww's.
So I go to one shop today. A higher end rim & tire place and ask the guy who I should talk to about buying some scrap ww's. I tell'em I'm looking for a 5gal bucket or 2 & he says he's got 2 buckets, both full, give him a moment & he'll give me a price.
So he waves me to the shop & points to 2 buckets...All stick-ons (makes sense, nice rims don't use coww's)
So I say hhmmm. Well whatcha want for them, thinking I'll just stash these aside for a later date.

$200

I choked aloud & said thank you for your time & left.

Not sure if he thought he had copper or I was an idiot. I mean I was born, just not yesterday.

[9.3X62AL]

Welcome to the board, GC!

If those were full-to-the-top with largely pure-lead stick-on WWs, $200 may not have been really way out there. Look at the lead pricing on the Kitco chart on top of the page, which is up near the $1.00/lb ballpark. There could have been close to 300# of metal in those buckets, albeit in feral and untamed state and in need of smelting.

[beastybronco]

I just gave $20 for two 5 gal buckets of WW today. Can't wait to get into it and see what I got.

Another question... If I had a way to get the lead out of some car batteries, would it be good for anything?

[felix]

Nope! ... felix

[letsmeltlead2693]

Anyone know how a person that is weak can lift 2 half full 5 gal buckets of WW in a wheelbarrow?

[jlala504]

I picked up a bucket and a half of WW for $50 and smelted them down, got 201#s of ingots so I was pretty happy with that, although there was a lot of trash in the buckets but very few steel and zinc weights.

[RG_86]

WOW I guess I am really lucky. I get em for free here. But I have been noticing more and more zinc and other junk in the buckets.

[Roundnoser]

I just smelted a 5-gallon bucket full-to-the-top with COWWs. I didn't weigh it, but it was 95% clean WWs...no valve stems, lug bolts, etc....very few zinc and steel weights.

When it was all said and done, I ended up with 124 pounds in ingots.

[birdadly]

Sorted a bucket last night:

34lbs of Iron and Zinc
26lbs of stickies
53lbs of clip-ons

The last time I took the Iron to a scrap yard I 'taught' him that they weren't lead, so got a **** price for them (like .08/lb I think)... so I think I'll take them to a different yard this time and just ask to trade them for pure lead, maybe get a better deal. -Brad

[dRok]

Im keeping all my zinc and iron in a separate bucket. Hoping to cash them in for standard WW prices at the recycle place, currently .30/lb.

[40Super]

Here is my bucket. 120lbs=$30 80% cast bullets

[RP]

Well I got some range lead last weekend I just put 100 lbs in a bucket so the handles will stay on there just a tad over half full. So I say a full bucket will hit 200 lbs easy most of mine is jacketed bullets.

[40Super]

Maybe his scale was off and there is more in my bucket than thought, because mine is 3/4+ full and the lead is quite broken up from hitting a steel plate,it is pretty well solid packed.hmmmm.

[joe4711]

local tire changer wanted $1 / # today for stickons,just said have a good day and walked away.

[sig2009]

Here is my bucket. 120lbs=$30 80% cast bullets

I have 3 of those 5 pounders with range lead on my back porch this minute!

[S.B.]

I would grab it at that price. If it is full it will be well over 100Lbs. Probably closer to 125-150 range. I have been paying up to .40 a pound for wheel weights from a recycler here although I found a 40# pail for $5 the other day.
:castmine:

The problem with your reply is any charge by an unknowing supplier is high and after you pay one, the sky is the limit. I mean, how much alloy do you need or use a year?
Steve

[John in WI]

local tire changer wanted $1 / # today for stickons,just said have a good day and walked away.

one of my recent stops, the guy wanted $0.25/weight. I said "per pound?" figuring that's a screaming deal! And he said "no, so try and find big ones".

I also said, "ok, thanks for your time" and politely walked out.

[Jaybird62]

The first time in over a year that I've asked for WW anywhere, I stopped by the local tire shop where I do business and picked up a 6-gallon bucket full. Only a double-handful of zink and steel. Looks like almost 5 gallons of stick-on WWs and the rest stickies. I've noticed quite a few stickies that seem to be harder than the typical "pure" sticky. I'll be smelting these harder stickies in with the clip-ons, since the last time I smelted both types of stickies together they wound up being a tad harder than pure Pb.

[I'll Make Mine]

I checked with my local chain tire store yesterday. Nope, they "have to" have all their lead picked up by a recycler contracted by their warehouse -- that's right, they're paying to have it hauled and "not allowed" to part with any of it.

Fortunately, my next stop was the independent tire store a half mile away. They're selling them for $35/bucket to a recycler who also buys their used catalytic converters, and they're happy to let me have them for the same price any time (helps, I'm sure, that I've spend most of a thousand bucks in there for repairs and tires in the last year). I bought a bucket today (didn't trust my cat litter pails to make a good first impression), and if the budget permits, I'll swap it for a full one tomorrow. Got a cast iron pan to smelt in, and I'm demoting a 7-hole cast iron muffin tin for ingots (haven't baked in it in years, holes are too wide and flat for muffins and I make corn bread in a square pan); just need to find a suitable heat source and I'm ready to smelt.

Any idea whether a hot plate from the kitchen wares department will handle melting lead?

[bakrzdzn]

I have been looking around here since I started thinking about getting into this "hobby" a few months ago. and I found a local recycle shop that had around 100# of sheet lead that was offered at .70/#. they also demo cars and had ww for 1.00/#. found a tire shop that said come by next week and he should have some ww I can have, and another tire shop has 5 gal buckets for $50.00 each. have to see what the budget allows on that one. most places seem to already have ww set aside for the friends of the owners. but it is funny that every one I see in a parking lot gets picked up, no matter how big/small.

[I'll Make Mine]

Okay, I managed to have $35 to spare from my pay, so today I stopped by my local independent tire store and bought a bucket of wheel weights. A completely full (rounded up from the top, any more would have fallen on the floor and had been doing so) five gallon plastic bucket of weights and trash seems to have weighed in excess of 150 lbs by calibrated muscle strain. I have no doubt there's some zinc, and I saw a couple that I'm not sure what they were (and I'm told by the owner of the tire store that we should be expecting, not zinc, but steel weights as lead is phased out -- cheaper than zinc, apparently), but I'll spend some time this weekend sorting. Figuring it's 70% lead by weight (probably a decent minimum), I should have in excess of 100 lb of actual lead alloy from that bucket. I should be able to smelt it all for around a gallon of camp fuel through my little stove, when I get that working, so my ingots will cost close to forty cents a pound all told (and once I get it smelted, I can store the ingots and go back for another bucket full). I should be able to order my ladle and mold next month; likely I'll be casting by Christmas.

[canyon-ghost]

You did good, $50 for a five gallon bucket isn't bad, $35 is great! The more you deal with these guys, the more lead you have in advance.

I loaded my first bucket of wheelweight for ten years. I had two TC Contender single shots set up as silhouette handguns. And, owing to the fact that the barrels interchange, a dozen calibers. I made a lot of 22 hornet, 32-20 and 7mm bullets from one bucket of wheelweight.

Welcome to the quest for the best,

Ron

[I'll Make Mine]

Well, I'll be casting for my Mosin Nagant initially, then for .357 Magnum and possibly .380 ACP (110 to 125 grain could be used in both); a hundred pounds of wheel weight ingots should be thousands of boolits. One or two more buckets and I might have that "lifetime supply" I keep hearing about, unless I move someplace where I can shoot more...

[csmopar]

I managed to get a 5 gallon bucket of 112 lbs, a little over half full of lead wheel weights, only found one weight that wasn't lead and it was steel. so I'm pretty happy with that.

[bslim]

I smelted a full 5 gal. pail of jacketed bullets yesterday. I ended up with 150 Lbs. of lead and 50 Lbs. of jackets. 14 more pails to go! That's if I don't burn out first?

[S.B.]

bslim, why would you do this? Are you a cast boolit only man? If I'm not mistaken, you'ld still have to alloy the pure lead core materials with other(tin, antimony, etc.)stuff? Just seems easier to shoot them as jacketed.
Steve

[badbob454]

bslim, why would you do this? Are you a cast boolit only man? If I'm not mistaken, you'ld still have to alloy the pure lead core materials with other(tin, antimony, etc.)stuff? Just seems easier to shoot them as jacketed.
Steve

im sure they were range scrap.. :oops:

[tbj555]

i stopped buying ww because to many zinc in buckets since the epa made all shops use zinc at the first of the year , now i just pick up what i can from scrapper and if i need any i can buy pure lead ingots from a place for $1.15 per pound as much as i want.

[bslim]

You're absolutely right, Badbobgerman, all of this is range lead from an indoor range. I've got 6 more pails to do and then after that, I'm thinking I'll have enough to last for a long time. I did notice that after some of the first ingots were a couple of months old, they hardened to a point that when you bang them together, they ring? Not like pure lead at all. I do not have a hardness tester, but these jacketed lead ingots are still bright and shiney. When I get time I'll try to cast them as is and see what happens and I'm thinking about buying a Cabin Tree tester for curiousity's sake.

[shadygrady]

if you got zinc send it to me i will trade you lb for lb lead for your zinc grady_mitchell2002@yahoo.com

[fishnhunt]

Received word a couple weeks ago that the EPA will be coming down with regs regarding lead WW's in November of 2012. The manufacturers are not taking a side in this issue because (in my opinion) they would like to get away from lead and level the playing field with steel, zinc, and composites. You can get more info on the EPA site as follows:

http://www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/wastemin/nlfwwi.htm

I anticipate an initiative that will ban lead WW within a certain grace period (probably 6 months to a year). I don't think that this administration is going to miss a chance to rid the world of that "nasty old lead". I don't know if a Romney presidency would make any difference. Car and weight manufacturers are part of this effort - having joined the "Lead-Free Initiative"; I think it's just a matter of time (and short time at that) till we see this source RAPIDLY drying up!!

[Packntchr]

I have only been doing this for about 3 months, but here in southern AZ the ww I get are always just about half magnetic. I only keep that half around long enough to weigh it to see if the percentage has changed (it's always within 1 or 2 % of half). Then I need to be very careful with the temp so I can keep scooping out the zinc ones I missed in the initial sorting. The bottom line is 40%. That's the percent by weight that ends up in ingots. So if you live where ww are still Pb, stock up. It won't be long.

[khmer6]

I'm here in arizona as well and still getting 80% lead. Mostly steel and a few zincs

[Vinne]

Here in the south, we now get about 30% for ingots and 70% steel and zinc. The take is a lot smaller too. I use to get 1 or 2 buckets a month but now I am lucky to get half a bucket a month and then only 30-35% makes it to ingots.

We always had to fight the fisherman for WW. They must lose a lot of sinkers!!

[BrianG1]

How much weight in a 5 gallon bucket? Im having a hard time finding some one that wants to give me wheel weights. So i guess im forced to buy them. I have a guy offering me 30 bucks for a 5 gallon bucket full. He says they take them to the scrap yard, so i assume that is what they are giving him for it. Thanks a chance

I have been checking for the last month. The general amount is $20.00 per bucket and I have found no company that is giving away scrap lead. This is crazy..

I have gone to Craigs list all over the State of California and I can't find anyone who is giving lead scrap away. If you here anything let me know if you get a chance.

BrianG1

[Pmc]

I picked up 8 buckets yesterday. Averaged 150 lbs per bucket. I've sorted about 800 lbs so far. About 80% lead, 15% steel, 5% zinc

[USAVet890]

I have been looking for WW for a few months but cant seem to get more than a few at a time from any of the tire stores, most have commercial recyclers already on line. I know that they will be gone soon and also since they are so labor intensive with sorting and cleaning/ fluxing in preparation for the future I'm finding other scores for lead.

Luckily here in FL you have plenty of fishing weights and dive weights all over, last weekend I picked up about 200lbs for only $15 at garage sales. I went to the local recyclers to check on getting lead and there was no shortage to choose from. From pure lead, roofing lead to large ingots used for boat ballast and plenty of fishing weights all for .60 per lb. I got about 100lbs of pure lead for swaging and smelted it into ingots it was so much easier than the mess of WWs.

WW are last on my list for now I'm stocking up clean lead.

[USMC87]

Here we are getting 5 gal buckets for 25-30 dollars, They are still alot of good alloy but zinc is showing up more and more not to count the steel.

[.429]

i was able to get 175# of ingots out of a 5gal bucket

[44mag]

Within the last couple of years I have been weighting the waste from a 5 gal bucket of wheel weights. Lately the loss has been very close to 1/3 eliminating the zinc. I will not melt the zinc and use that for bullets but, it seems to work OK for shot. Since most everyone uses plastic shot wads the zinc mix doesn`t seem to bother anything. I have observed some trap and skeet shooters obtain a perfect 25 with that mix. Like everyone else, I am ratting away all the lead I can get my hands on before that President "thing" decides to ban lead. Have a great day and good shooting.

[el34]

Around the Ft Worth area the 'brand name' tire shops (Pep Boys, NTB, Walmart etc) won't sell them but small shops that also sell used tires will. Recently I have paid 50c to 65c per lb by weight or $60 for an almost full 5g bucket. The buckets weigh in at 115-125lb, mostly stick-on, and I net about 80lb ingots. Then have to add Rotometals superhard and 2% tin to get my 12.5 BHN casting alloy hardness.

I recently found 165lb of clip-ons at a recycling yard for 50c/lb. Got 117lb ingots, 9.2BHN, net cost 70c/lb. Best score I've had this year.

[.458]

Just purchased 250# of lead at a garage sale today for $125. Some WWs. Some dive-belt 5# chunks, 2 35# cannonball sinkers from a commercial fishing outfit and a gob of old roof flashing. The roof flashing is pure lead. The cream of the crop was a 50# roll of new roof flashing. I unrolled a couple feet of it and it still shines like newly cast boolit. Here in Washington State lead WWs have been illegal for a few years now so I rarely come across any of them. I've started asking at garage sales because old retired fishermen sometimes have lead under the workbench. Got lucky today.

[Full Mold Jack]

Called in to a local small one man shop and asked about his wheel weights. He said the scrap man calls by every two months or so and gives him $65 for his bucket but he will sell it to anyone for that.

I asked for a look see at what he had and there it was in all its glory, an old tall steel hand cleaner bucket at least 6 gallons in size and it was piled high with half as much again on the floor and under the bench. We settled on $90 for the lot.


I came home with 247 lb
77950

Below its all sorted, the oval bucket has 33 lb of zinc and steel, the two middle buckets with 166 lb coww, blue bucket 48 lb stick on.

Total 214 lb usable.
77951

At the end of another happy day in paradise, 181 lb of muffins are done at 50 cents per lb.
77952

[Vinne]

Nice stock...should keep you casting for a while.

[Full Mold Jack]

Nice stock...should keep you casting for a while.

Thanks, yeah I'm pretty happy with what I got.
The guy there was telling me how they're trying to push the non lead weights down here too and how he hates them cuz they're hard to cut.

Only a matter of time I guess before the good stuff is gone for good. I'll be checking in on him and his bucket again soon.

[Outpost75]

$25 per 5 gallon bucket is a great price.

We are paying $0.35 per pound run across the scales, with $100 minimum purchase here and are really glad to get them.

Here's what $500 worth looks like from our last run.

78088

78087

[Old Ranger]

Just finished cleaning up (casted into ingots) a 5 gal pail of WW which was about 2/3rds full. 60 lbs of COWW, a couple lbs of Stick on's, about 5 lbs of Fe's and a lb or so of Zn. I didn't weight the clips and other assorted junk. Cost was $ 30.00. Yield was pretty typical of what is available in rual Ontario.
I probably have a half ton in my stash but only 400 lbs has been cleaned up. Today's bucket was only picked up last week so represents what is out there right now in my part of the world.

[1bilmr59]

I Think .20 a pound is good.

[Clay M]

I pay about .28 a pound for WW.I can sort the bucket and take the zinc and steel back and get it replaced with lead.

[louism]

The last 2 full 5 gallon buckets I picked up were 18 wheeler weights and yeided 370lbs of ingots. I would estimate they weighed in at 200lbs each.

[catman81056]

The last 2 full 5 gallon buckets I picked up were 18 wheeler weights and yeided 370lbs of ingots. I would estimate they weighed in at 200lbs each.

I just payed .20/lb last week. 5 gal bucket weighed 180lbs. I got about 152lbs of good material after sorting zinc/steel and clips.

[fastfire]

You got it good! Here we pay in the .80 lb.

[catman81056]

The local scrap yard pays .20 lb and then sells them for .40 lb . I got lucky and found an older service station that had that bucket, I was happy to give him .20.

[georgerkahn]

In northern New York State, the local metal place buys WW at >.25/lb and sells it for .35/lb. I just bought a full 5 gallon bucket which weighed in at 140 pounds. The questionable part is the lowest 12" or so had water which I obviously paid for, and lots of mud, too. But, I went through a few pounds and found but a couple of steel WW's, no Zinc (I think), and nothing obviously gross... The challenge has been that lead WW's have been illegal in NYS for three years or so; hence, as these were presented as "having been in the corner here for years" I'm hoping others passed on it due to the mud -- but, overall I got a "deal". (I hope...) geo

[hardwood34]

Couple days ago just finished WW melting. Got 2/3 full 150 gal drum for free! from local Tire service center. Medium weight of 5 gal bucket 170 lb and output is 68/72 lb per bucket - a lot of steel, zinc add other garbage. So, in reality output is 50/50 or even less.:x

[Rfieldbuilds]

Oh ****. California sucks. I just sorted a 4 gallon buck 2/3 full got 38 lbs steel ww, 30 lbs zinc, 18 lbs lead! No longer worth my time. May as well work an extra hour or two a day and go pick up soft lead roof flashing for $1/lb at my scrapyard. Yeah, it has a bit of tar on it, but, hey- I won't have to flux!LOL

[KingAirNeal]

I looked on CL, found a guy trading WW for ??? and did a deal. Traded a 410 breech single shot shot gun for 600 pounds of mixed WW.
I got a heck of a deal!
It was in 7 buckets, about 3.5-4 gallon capacity I think. (actually 6 of those and 1 normal 5 gallon)
I weighed them all before the sort, and they averaged 85 pounds each.

Here is the breakdown after the sort.

495 pounds total lead. 450 clip on, 45 stick on.
65 pounds steel (Fe)
28 pounds Zinc
rest was trash... valve stems cigarette butts etc.
I expect to loose some more when we smelt to ingots in clip weight, and mis-sort. I am sure I missed some unmarked Zinc.

Took about 6 man hours to sort. My back is NOT happy with me right now!

Looking forward to getting these WW's into ingots, and sometime in the next month or so, casting into usable boolits! Still doing my research on here for what molds to buy, boolit shape, lube, etc.

I'll keep y'all posted how much we get from the smelt in finished ingots.

Still very hard to find reasonable WW in my area. There is someone locking up the market. I had to go almost 2 hours away from my area to secure my source. There is a local guy willing to sell all lead WW in FULL 5 gallon buckets for 75 bucks a pop. If I had only known years ago what would happen with the lead supply...

[boog]

I just found a 120lb bucket for $70 ~$.59 a pound. Still cheaper than the $.80 at the scrap yard. Still sorting, but it is looking good, very little fe and Zn.

Even if I lose 20lbs in scrap it will still be cheap boolits!

[tmc-okc]

Just last week I was able to purchase a 5 gallon bucket that was overflowing with ww's at a local tire shop. I divided it into 3 buckets to make it easier to pickup and place in the trunk of my car. Weighed all 3 buckets on my "Legal For Trade" scale and the total came to 210 Lbs. Will start the separating process tonight and smelting as soon as everything is separated properly. I paid $ 20 for the overflowing bucket. Even had to pickup several Lbs of stuff off the floor that didn't make it into the bucket.

Ron

[KuunLB]

i'm one of the lucky ones that works at a semi tire shop. get the big uns for free all day and i can get paid to sort em. right now lead WW's seem to go for .15/lb and pure lead is .30/lb. alot less than what it was early in this threads life hehe

[Alexn20]

Prices here have gone up a bit and they seem to be getting harder to find.

Locally I am able to get them for 70 cents /pound at my local scrap yard. (they buy them for ~50 cents a pound I assume)

Going through a bucket it looks to be about 10%-20% zinc/steel/etc...

If you guys know of a better source in Utah please let me know!

[bdecker9]

The last ones I got were from a semi shop, and they were nice, more lead, less clips, I don't remember for sure, but there was only s few zn and no iron.

[khmer6]

Just picked up 2 buckets yesterday in Az. 156# and 168# sorted thru and still same yield as 2 years ago. Roughly 82% are lead weights. Cost was $8 in jack in the box

[Top]

up here in the greath north woods (upper NH) i have had access to the 5 gal pail full weighted in at 150# +/- , sorted out ended up with about 10% steel 20% zink from one shop ( depends on if they deal with alot of new car's most have the zink or steel weights now( trying to be CA compliant) so as an average so far its about 48% in cast ingots after all is said and done last batch was 54% an older shop dealing with off the street cars, i was curious to the price of them, looked it up and US average is 28 cents per # but all in all i water quench the ingots and cast b and ending up with a 14.5 -19 BHN not bad stuff for little money cause we can not count our time in a hobby

Top

[Tenbender]

I can't say about one 5 gall bucket but I just melted down 1 1/2 buckets. After taking out the zink and steel I had 179 one lb. ingots and about 30-40 lb's of stick-ons. Good morning I thought. I poured 20 ingots at a time. Kept me busy filling my pot.

[Mgderf]

Score!
I just found 90lbs of wheel weights laying in the mud and weeds on a job-site.
Property owner didn't even realize it was there. Thanked me for cleaning up the hazardous materials. [smilie=w:
Dropped them off to my casting buddy.
I'll have a small boat load of bullets headed my way soon and the only thing it cost me was some time to pick them up, hose them off, and drop them off 10 minutes away.

Good day!

[62chevy]

Score!
I just found 90lbs of wheel weights laying in the mud and weeds on a job-site.
Property owner didn't even realize it was there. Thanked me for cleaning up the hazardous materials. [smilie=w:
Dropped them off to my casting buddy.
I'll have a small boat load of bullets headed my way soon and the only thing it cost me was some time to pick them up, hose them off, and drop them off 10 minutes away.

Good day!



That is what I call a score !!!

[tddeangelo]

A buddy of mine gave me a 5-gal bucket from his tire shop that was maybe 80% full. Just gave it to me. I finished melting it into ingots from the COWW's, haven't done the SOWW's yet, and I have 76.25lbs of lead from that bucket. The SOWW's were very few I don't anticipate there being much yield from them....for sure under 5lbs, probably only 2 or 3, if that. By volume, the clips and non-lead ww scrap in the bucket now fill it about 1/3 of what it was originally.

The nice thing is he's told me I can have that bucket whenever it's near full. Just have it. :)

The bad news, so to speak, is he's a small shop, and he said it takes about a year to fill a bucket. But, 76lbs of free lead is still 76lbs of free lead! :twisted:

On the flip side, in searching for more sources of ww's or other lead sources, I came across someone with "several hundred pounds" of 1/16" thick lead sheeting meant to be used in a radiology unit. Haven't gotten a price yet....but keeping my fingers crossed it's affordable.

[Budzilla 19]

Scroungin' lead!! Gotta love it!! It's out there if you stay sharp, and know what to look for! If you think THIS is fun, just wait till you get started on pewter hunting! It shows up in the strangest places! Read the pewter hallmark thread on here and now you got ANOTHER hobby to do! Good luck to all lead hunters!

[RogerDat]

Ah yes. Scrounging for WW's and other assorted lead. We know the thrill of victory! And the agony of defeat!
Toss in pewter scrounging and our lives are a virtual rollercoaster.

I was trying to recall the last time I found pewter at a thrift store and yet I check them regularly. That trip to check is starting to feel like a blind date set up by an ex. Why am I doing this, am I crazy? If I get desperate for a fix I guess I could hit the antique shops and pay way too much.

[Uncle Jim]

Last Week I managed to get two 5 gallon buckets from a local tire shop for 20 bucks each. One had about 25 pounds of steel/zinc/trash but the other was all lead w/w I think the 2 will yield over 180 pounds of ingots!

[tddeangelo]

Not sure I need to scrounge for pewter...I have a source of babbitt that may or may not suffice for my tin needs. I am pursuing that first. :)

The x-ray shielding lead worked out. I'm almost afraid to post what I'm paying, and for how much. :)

[Budzilla 19]

Tddeangelo, I have a similar connection for Babbitt for tin, it makes the strongest boolits, the stuff I have is Grade 11, it has 86.7%Sn,10.67% Sb, 2.57%Cu, some Zn, and makes wonderful rifle boolits! Special thanks to BangerJim for his help! You can't believe the people here who are willing to help you. Good luck to you, you are starting on a lifelong journey with boolit casting!

[tddeangelo]

I have a PM from a member here who volunteered to test the Babbitt for me once I have some of it. I really appreciate the offer, and let them know I'll send a sample as soon as I have it to send.

And my wife already rolls her eyes at me at the mere mention of lead, casting, bullets, wheel weights.....etc. :)

[RogerDat]

I saw a bucket of WW's that "looked" pretty good so I bought it. When I started sorting I had to check a couple of times to make sure there where no cutter marks on the weights. So consistently all lead COWW's I thought it might be a bucket I had already checked! Eventually the trash in it convinced me I had not already sorted this bucket.

Noticed that all the clips were very rusty and corroded. Think this is a rather old bucket of WW's because it turned out to be 100 lbs. of 100% lead weights. Some of those were huge, big enough to be considered lead porn. 3 oz. or better weights were common. I'm almost tempted to see if these test as having a different alloy composition than the current crop.

100 lb. bucket. 5 small stick on squares, 12 metal clips without weights, everything else was lead clip on weights. I'm a happy camper.