how many pounds in a 5gal bucket?

[lylejb]

About how many pounds are in a full 5 gal bucket of WW?

i know it will vary somewhat with the size of the weight / clips, and of course the amount of stems / junk, but does anyone have a good average or "rule of thumb"?

i asked my 2 local tire stores today, both want $10 / gal of weights. i.e. 5gal = $50
not so sure that's a good deal:???:

thanks

LB

[Matt_G]

Anywhere from a 120 to 150 pounds.
Call it 135 average.
50 bucks is really steep.

Last bucket I got was 4/5's full. Cost was a 20 pack of Coors Light.

[leadman]

Mattt Gs' estimate is right on. I have weighed numerous buckets.

[waksupi]

Man, I wish I had a bucket of wheel weights for every time this question has been asked here!

Welcome aboard!

[fredj338]

More than I can lift. The place I get mine uses 3gal, they weigh in about 100#-110# depending on composition. I give him $20 max a bucket, sometimes he gives them to me free.

[462]

Just finished smelting a 5-gallon bucket of culled clip-on weights and not counting the 30+ pounds of clips ended up with 104 ingots...so 135-pounds is pretty darn close.

[HORNET]

How many pounds of wheelweights in a 5 gallon bucket? Nowhere near enough.........

[HammerMTB]

I just bought one yesterday. Took my bathroom scale to show 'em. 163 lbs, heaping over the top of the bucket. Doncha know THAT was a task to lift into the truck. Made me want my little rice grinder back..... :roll:
Then I got home to find one of my tire shop buddies had dropped one off for free!
I'll make sure he doesn't buy beer for a while....8-)

[lylejb]

thanks for the info. That's interesting, guess wheel weights don't pack down as much as i would have thought.

i did the math, and a 5 gal solid ingot of pure lead would be 472 lb. (i'd take it if i could get it, just not sure how...)

i know WW is slightly less dense that pure lead, and i know there will be loss of clips, junk, and dross, but still i was expecting more useable weight than that.

Thanks for the info.

to Waksupi, i looked it the "sticky" threads, couldn't find it. Maybe you could make a sticky with this answer if you get asked this question alot.:-D

Thanks all

LB

[Marlin Hunter]

Man, I wish I had a bucket of wheel weights for every time this question has been asked here!



If you did get a bucket of wheel weights every time the question was asked, how much would each bucket weigh? :kidding:

[snaggdit]

Yeah, this gets asked about once a month. +1 on 135 ave. big weights net more, less clips. Once you separate out stick ons you should expect to get 120+ from a FULL 5 gallon pail. I always carry some 3 gallon pails in my jeep. If a source has some I will dump them into my buckets so I don't strain my back as much loading them. Also helps with the goodwill if they don't lose their buckets.

[shotman]

How much does a 5gal bucket of 1lb ingots weigh? How much does a 5gal bucket of No 7 1/2 shot weigh? You cant pick up either one . The bail/handle will strip out.

[shotman]

Surprizing but answer is very close to the same for the ingots and the shot 325#

[TheCaptain]

When I buy my wheel weights (I have several tire dealership accounts - and I travel to them), I weigh each bucket since I do this as a business. I notice different kinds of "5 gallon" buckets. Not all the buckets I run into are like the Home Depot's 5 gallon bucket. I am sure you all have seen what I have seen. Some buckets are a bit taller than Home Depot's, some a bit shorter and squattier, etc.

On Saturday, here is how the "5 gallon" buckets weighed in (and they were not all like Home Depot's): 125.5, 127.5, 180, 164, 168.8, 71.7 and 54.4

On another run, the buckets weighed in at: 100.2, 125.8, 150.4, 106.9, 143.2, 123.9, 155.5 , 105.7, 152.8, and 151.7

HammerMTB has the right idea about bringing a scale. I think looks can be deceiving! I bring industrial trays to the shops - and after the buckets are weighed, the wheel weights are off-loaded to my trays. And, yes, you do get other stuff mixed in like lug nuts, valve stems, cigarette buts, screws, nuts, valve caps, pieces of latex gloves, pieces of moldings, washers, candy wrappers, etc.

When back at my shop, I do a preliminary sort when I offload from the trays to smaller containers for storage for a future casting session. I remove most of the above mentioned debris prior to putting the weights into the smaller containers. I don't bother removing the "non-lead" weights. I do not run a hot pot, so the zinc, steel, and other alloys are skimmed off the top of the pot.

I keep the batches separate, so as to track my yield and propane usage. I average about 3500 pounds of ingots for a 100 pound tank.

Some examples:
366.7 Raw WW in - - - 299.1 WW ingots out - - approx yield: 81.6 %

770.7 Raw WW in - - - 673.6 WW ingots out - - approx yield: 87.4 %

320.1 Raw WW in - - - 245.0 WW ingots out - - approx yield: 77 %

Hopefully the yield will not decrease too rapidly... but the push is on to ban lead wheel weights.

WW's are already banned in Europe (since 2005); and being phased out in Japan and Korea. California has SB 757, which the Senate passed, that makes lead wheel weights illegal next year. I obtained this information from a blog that is tracking the progress of this bill: http://www.changecalifornia.org/2009/05/leadwheelweights.html

So, scoop up all you can, while you can!

With kind regards to all,

~ Kathie
:Fire:

[JMtoolman]

I weighed the one that I got the other day, it was overflowing with wheelweights. It weighed 180 lbs. Hope to smelt it down today. Best regards the toolman.

[TAWILDCATT]

I wonder what they will do with the mines.I do believe they get more than lead out.it may even turn out better as if they cant sell there may be a low cost market ,that casters can take advantage of.:coffee:[smilie=1:

[ghh3rd]

Heavy enough that if the bucket handle gives out, you might be missing a few toes :-)

[evan price]

I figure that after I pull out the steel and zinc and all the trash, and melt the clips out, I get 100# of actual lead per 5-gallon bucket. So far that's been pretty close to right on. I have been paying $10 per bucket full.

There's regular buckets, tall skinny buckets, and short fat buckets. In general I've been getting the standard bucket. I always carry a skinny 3-gallon inside a fat 5-gallon in my Jeep for just in case. It really helps you get weights when you have your own buckets. Just don't get attached to them, it's eaiser to just trade buckets than it is to dump 5-gallons of weights.

[redbear705]

Well I think I hit a jackpot of some kind today.

I was at the range trying to clean up a bunch of junk that was making an eyesore of the place.

I found three pieces of steel covering up a plastic barrell so I when I looked into the 55 gal drum I see a couple of mouse nests and an old birds nest so I get that stuff off the top and wholly cow!

I find the barrel 2/3s full of used lead bullets and fragments plus some shredded rubber! not much rubber but some.

So far I got out two six gallon buckets...so now I got to go back and get the rest before anyone else finds my treasure! [smilie=1:

From what I can tell this is from a backstop that used shredded rubber and most of the big stuff has been removed and only the small shreds are mixed in with the lead. At some time someone must have thought that they would store this stuff outside out of mind and they never came back to pick it up.

I hope the alloy of the bullets will be useful enough that I wont have to put too much tin in to get a good fill an or hardness.

Finally a break on the price of lead! :drinks:

[jawjaboy]

But what if the entire bucket is full of nothing but 4(minimum) to 16 ounce truck weights? [smilie=1:

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g194/jawjaboy/IM000652.jpg

[redbear705]

more lead=less crud! :lol:

JR

[sleeper1428]

I live in Southern Oregon just a few miles from the Kalifornia/Oregon border and after my most recent experience with WW melting, I have to say that one's locaton may well dictate the yield that one gets from each 5 gal bucket of WWs. I say this because I just finished melting down about 25 gallons of WWs - six 5gal buckets, each filled to about 80+ % of capacity - with a total yield of 250lbs of 1lb ingots from clip-on WWs and an additional 59lbs of 1lb ingots from stick-on WWs. So my total yield was just about 310lbs which is a good deal less than what others commenting on this thread seem to be getting.

The reason I think my yield was so much lower was the fact that a lot of Kalifornia drivers come to Southern Oregon to buy their new tires just to avoid the sales taxes that are imposed in Kalifornia. And since Kalifornia has gone almost completely to zinc or steel WWs - deadline for the change is Dec 31 of this year - I'm beginning to see a lot more of those mixed into the buckets of WWs that I get via my family member who works for Les Schwab who, by the way, has stopped using any lead based WWs and is now using only zinc or steel. I was just amazed how many of those useless - as far as boolit making is concerned - WWs I had to scoop out of the pot along with the steel clips from the lead WWs. About twice as many as I saw when I did my last melting about 4 months ago. And my guess is that the number will only increase as time goes on and more and more tire dealers cease using lead WWs in favor of zinc or steel. So that's why I'm getting all I can from anywhere I'm able 'cause it won't be long before the lead WW will have gone the way of the Dinosaurs!! But I guess there might be a bright side to this story since once the lead WW is gone, my ingots will do nothing but go up in value and pretty soon they'll really be worth a LOT of money!! But since I love casting boolits so much, I'll probably never even consider selling them so I guess it really doesn't matter how much they're worth.

I forgot to mention that my family member who gets me the WWs refuses to charge me anything - I used to take him hunting when he was a kid - but I still give him a few bucks each time as well as making sure that I get all my tires and brakes from the store where he works. Like they say, it pays to have a friend in the business!!

sleeper1428

[Fugowii]

Save the zinc to trade to your junkyard for lead, or sell to him and then buy lead/tin.


I live in Southern Oregon just a few miles from the Kalifornia/Oregon border and after my most recent experience with WW melting, I have to say that one's locaton may well dictate the yield that one gets from each 5 gal bucket of WWs. I say this because I just finished melting down about 25 gallons of WWs - six 5gal buckets, each filled to about 80+ % of capacity - with a total yield of 250lbs of 1lb ingots from clip-on WWs and an additional 59lbs of 1lb ingots from stick-on WWs. So my total yield was just about 310lbs which is a good deal less than what others commenting on this thread seem to be getting.

The reason I think my yield was so much lower was the fact that a lot of Kalifornia drivers come to Southern Oregon to buy their new tires just to avoid the sales taxes that are imposed in Kalifornia. And since Kalifornia has gone almost completely to zinc or steel WWs - deadline for the change is Dec 31 of this year - I'm beginning to see a lot more of those mixed into the buckets of WWs that I get via my family member who works for Les Schwab who, by the way, has stopped using any lead based WWs and is now using only zinc or steel. I was just amazed how many of those useless - as far as boolit making is concerned - WWs I had to scoop out of the pot along with the steel clips from the lead WWs. About twice as many as I saw when I did my last melting about 4 months ago. And my guess is that the number will only increase as time goes on and more and more tire dealers cease using lead WWs in favor of zinc or steel. So that's why I'm getting all I can from anywhere I'm able 'cause it won't be long before the lead WW will have gone the way of the Dinosaurs!! But I guess there might be a bright side to this story since once the lead WW is gone, my ingots will do nothing but go up in value and pretty soon they'll really be worth a LOT of money!! But since I love casting boolits so much, I'll probably never even consider selling them so I guess it really doesn't matter how much they're worth.

I forgot to mention that my family member who gets me the WWs refuses to charge me anything - I used to take him hunting when he was a kid - but I still give him a few bucks each time as well as making sure that I get all my tires and brakes from the store where he works. Like they say, it pays to have a friend in the business!!

sleeper1428

[evan price]

OK, I just shoveled my pile into 5-gallon buckets for safekeeping and set them on a scale to fill.

The bog-standard 5-gallon bucket, when filled to the top, holds about 170 pounds of mixed lead wheel weights.

With the level low enough in the bucket that I could snap on the lid, I had 150 pounds of mixed lead wheel weights in the bucket.

I did find I had a couple of buckets that were slightly taller or shorter than the "standard" bucket, and these held about ten pounds more if taller or ten pounds less if shorter.

These were cleaned, sorted wheel weights, with the zinc, iron, stick-ons, and trash removed.

Hope this helps.

[squid1230]

Just sorted a 5gal pail and after the inordinate amount of lug nuts and valve stems I had 4lbs of stick-ons and 65lbs of actual wheel weights. Not too good I would think - good thing they were free. Not too many Fe or Zn weights either.

[First Big Foot]

Hi LB:
I generally walk up to ask with a select sixer in my hand in trade. So far it has worked, and I get 30-40 pounds at a time.
BUT....now that there is a bunch of the weights having zinc and steel for weight, that won't be so good, (see my other entries).
Consider the last time I went to buy an ingot, about 15 years ago, and it was a buck a pound then, you might stlll be getting a good deal.

[Stick_man]

Yesterday, I stopped by one of my usual sources for wheelweights and got a pleasant surprise. It was right near closing time and they were not busy at all, so I got to chat for a few minutes. I asked if I could talk them out of a bucket of used weights (not too hard to do lately) and the manager turned to one of the employees and requested he empty several smaller buckets into one 5 gallon bucket for me. While we talked, the employee even loaded it into my truck for me plus an extra 3-gallon bucket just over 1/2 full. I told him I'd be back next week for another bucket and will bring some "refreshments" for the shop to enjoy. I haven't weighed the bucket yet, but my guess is it will tip the scales are right close to 160# as is. The place has been good for about 250-300 lbs per month of raw weights with about a 70/30 split clip-on to stick-on. I have also found an average of less than 5 lbs of Zn or Fe per bucket but don't expect that to last too much longer.

[carpintx]

I've found that the old cast-iron pans that are used to make corn bread in the shape of a split ear of corn makes an excellent first step in melting down and then casting the wheel weights and/or scrap lead. The ingots then fit into most electric pots nicely.

I cant lift the 5 gallon bucket that I have full of those - perhaps I am getting weaker with age!

[fortrenokid]

Some years back, the tire shop I patronize gave me a 5-gallon bucket of ww's -- this being before the zinc and steel ones became such a hassle -- that was full-to-overflowing. My first thot was that those would last me for years and years to come. Spent a whole 3-day weekend meltin' 'em down to ingots. Was disappointing how big the pile of clips, lug nuts, tire valves, and dross was (plus quite a few cigarette butts) and how small the pile of ingots was. And lasting me for years to come? Between Cowboy Action Shooting and Vintage Military Rifle matches, the pile of ingots was GONE before I knew it. Oh well ... pure enjoyment in the shooting!

[desteve811]

I just scored (4) 5 gallon buckets of ww from my resource for $15 a bucket. woot woot!

[RugerBob]

I got four 5 gallon buckets of wheel wieghts from a friend of a friend. I ended up with 285 lbs in 1lb ingots. After all said and done, I had 1 full bucket of old inspection stickers, valve stems and misc nuts and bolts and ww clips. Glad and grateful that it was free.

[wiersy111]

I picked up 75# of ww's togight for $8. Since I am new here I have some rookie questions/
1. Should I seperate stick ons from clip ons?
2. How do I tell zinc and other prior to melting?

[Matt_G]

1) Yes, do seperate stick-ons from clip-ons.
Stick ons are a softer alloy; but not pure lead.
2) I don't bother to seperate zinc PRIOR to melting. I let the temp of the melt do that. Zinc melts at 780 degrees Fahrenheit roughly. Don't let the melt get any hotter than 620 or so for clip-ons and you won't have any zinc problems. They will just float with the clips and can be skimmed off with them.
If you really want to sort them out, you can use a pair of diagonal cutters to test them. Zinc is pretty damn hard and cutters hardly touch them.
That's a lot of dang work though.
Letting heat do your work for you is the easiest way.
I've done over a ton of WW's this way and have never had any zinc contamination.

[wiersy111]

I think I'll go with the easy way. I hate to make more work for myself. I'm getting the feeling a thermometer is going to be very important.

[VintageRifle]

I got 396lb of wheel weights today for $47. Had to bring my own buckets and a scale. Ended up buying the buckets and the scale just so no one else could get those wheel weights. Now, I just need more buckets or a bigger smelting pot.

[WHITETAIL]

jawjaboy, great pics!:bigsmyl2:

[a.squibload]

I've found that the old cast-iron pans that are used to make corn bread in the shape of a split ear of corn makes an excellent first step in melting down and then casting the wheel weights and/or scrap lead. The ingots then fit into most electric pots nicely.

I cant lift the 5 gallon bucket that I have full of those - perhaps I am getting weaker with age!

I have used the bottoms of beer cans (inverted), makes a nice size ingot that
pops out easily. Make sure the cans are steady on a flat surface!

[stephen perry]

First we do live in the United States true? Let's see what items do you Orgonians slip across the border and buy and since the this is the US of A transport duty free like the earlier colonists tried to do pre 1783 back to their local principality. That's the beauty of this Country that there is no transport fee (duty) to those that transport from State to State for the local consumers who drive the interstate highways, truck companies pay the transport fees and pass them on to the consumers. Of coarse the local businessman loses out and the State when taxes are not collected. Working in Trans/Flood for San Bernardino County like I do I am well aware of the drivers who gas up in a County or State like Arizona or Nevada burn rubber down our roads leaving no money and call us Californian's (Kalifornian's), you foreigners of the surrounding states of California have nothing on us whether it be wheel weights, produce, shooting, hunting, fishing, or anything outdoorsie.

Look back Gomers from outside of California, who protected the West Coast during the Second World War and where were the majority of soldiers, sailors, airmen trained and stationed. Lots of soldiers, sailors, and airmen and ladies were de-commisioned in California after World Wars 1&2, Korea, and Vietnam some stayed in California to live out their lives like my dad ( WW 2 Vet ) and step dad ( Korea Vet ) and helped build the aerospace, car manufactures, tire manufactuers, beer guzzling companies, housing industry, drag race industry, computer technology, clothing industry, sporting good industry, fishing industry, and more. The States of this great Country all build or provide services that the locals and surrounding States use and enjoy.

So all the loose lipped shooters and loaders from States outside California need to take a lock as Barney would say on the Andy Griiffith show and recognize California as one of them, no better no worse. I wasn't born in Califronia but my dad a WW II vet drove our family mom and 4 yuts, me being 5 at the time, to live in So Cal. I was born in Maine July 4, 1950 the son of Russian immigrants and boot leggin French Canadians. People on the West Coast hire it done when the choose to get intoxicated my reatives made the stuff and bootlegged it.

Gettin back to wheel weights and scrap lead for Cast. Most states if not now in the next year or so will mount lead free wheel weights. And as the pinch is put on tire shops and salvage yards will be encouraged by either laws or money incentives to return distressed lead to authorized return stations. SOOOOOOOO get what you can get now and quit telling the you got em free stories to rub it in to the new Caster that has no source for Cast metal and paying up to and will pay over a buck a pound for what's left. Some of you lead scavengers me included were fortunate to have the connections they have. I still get WW in California, truck WW the 1/2#and 1# variety, I leave the small WW for the other guys, for a price always a price now a 12 pk of Old Milwaukee probably brewed in Irwindale, that's the Miller So Cal brewery.

So the day will come or has come that those with a stash of lead and money will be beaming like proud peacocks and writing about it here and other places making the little guy feel like they have been left out. I have so much WW, not so much money, that if with a thousand pounds of ingots like I have and many buckets of WW I would share with a new Caster refusing to take money out of a young Casters families budget for what I got for near free by slavaging.

I turn 60 today and I have been Shoot Director at San Gabriel Benchrest for 11 years and will be the Shoot Director at Angeles Benchrest this year. Hope to do some Cast Bullet Shoots seperate from my NBRSA Shoots not part of CBA, time will tell.

One last eye opening California heads up. We still shoot, fish, and hunt more than most States in the good old US of A. If I recall correctly RCBS, Sierra Bullets, Berger Bullets, STAR Reloaders, Brown/Six Stocks, SAECO Molds, Penn reels and many shooting ranges, hunting and fishing clubs were and are in California. Other States have theirs and should feel happy they have such.
Done.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR

[SciFiJim]

I was born in Maine July 4, 1950

Happy Birthday, Stephen.

I am in CA as well and still get WWs for free. Supply is dwindling, but still get some.

[stephen perry]

Jim
Find a tire shop that does big work trucks. You will be much happier with the 1/2 lb and 1 lb WW. Less clips to deal with and the ones I have been getting are cleaner than the smaller weights off those Ford's with lousey brakes.

I have been dealing with the same tire shop for 30+ years and make one of the managers a beer deal for the weights. Not the owners they want cash, I always trade for beer long before I dig for cash.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR

[mold maker]

A large pizza with the works isn't expensive, and those that say no to a brew will wolf down a pizza before you can load a bucket of weights. The buckets (I provide) have " contents property of", and my name, on them and usually have very little trash in them.
One tire man even brought me over 200+ lbs of lead pipe from a torn down house. He took 2 special pizzas home for his family's supper.
BTW The zinc weights sell for, or trade at a premium for lead at the salvage yard. They really bring a premium if melted and the clips removed.
Steven is right. Ya better stockpile all ya can while it's still there.
Don't turn up ya nose at any form of lead.
The end of easy lead at less than refiners prices is not too far away. It's coming to your village sooner than ya think.

[mold maker]

I just today found several big truck weights that were zinc.
Is nothing sacred????

[mac1911]

scored my first FULL 5 gallon bucket a few weeks ago. 140lbs all the WWs where 1oz or larger. I paid my friend 20bucks. He picked them up for me,delivered them to me and even brought a 2 wheeler to bring them to the shed. He did not want the money, I had to sneak it into his ashtray of his truck.

[fredj338]

I agree, the cheap/free ww is going the way of the honest govt worker. I got my last (2) 5gal buckets for a 12pak of Coors. About 75% of it was useless non lead stuff, but I was happy. We'll all be down to berm mining within the next two years, about the average life of a set of tires in Kalif. Get it when you can for any reasonable price. $1/# is going to look like a bargain in 2012.[smilie=f:

[stephen perry]

My Casting bud in Arizona goes to an open shooting area and dredges for bullets.
He has got as many as 700lb at a time. Takes them home in buckets spreds them out, washes them, tumbles them, and melts them down in a SAECO 20lb pot. He's a true scavenger of the best kind. Does the same for brass too. He once traded me 315 22 hornet brass from his shooting area and plenty of 45 acp, all tumbled clean and bagged up. We do allot of trading never for money though, like in the Old West days.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR

[XIT]

That is a sweet bucket. I just finished my first bucket. It was likely three quarters actually full. I weighed the ingots from the wheel weights and it is right on a hundred. There is still the stick on weights to go and there is likely at least 30 pounds of waste. :popcorn:

[perimedik]

Thanks for the info. I am new to casting and will be hitting the dealer and tire joints.

[perimedik]

Just got 182# from a tire shop for 10 bucks
1 full pail and half of another

gotta start melting

[Matt_G]

That's a good start. Congrats.

[*Paladin*]

Holy zinc and steel!!!! I bought a 5 gal bucket today for $20. When all was said and done after sorting, I ended up with 85# of clip-on and 20# of stick-on. The rest was fe and zn. But, its another 100+ lbs in the stash.

[GrumpyFinn]

Just scored 3x5gal buckets, barely 100 lb's of lead

[perimedik]

Just got another 40 pounds of sinkers (8-12-16oz) and duck decoy weights for free.
insert happy face here

[Fly]

Tell you guy's this!I have been to many tire places & scrap metal yards.75cents to 85cents
a LB.I wish I could find a place as you guy's have.Maybe the tire shop's here are smarter to
the price of metal now days?

Fly

[bslim]

Enjoy the low prices while you can and build up as much inventory as you can handle. The average price here goes for around $.35/lb for WW and going to the scrap dealer will cost you $1.24/lb no matter what type of lead it is. In the last month,I've found the percentage of steel and zinc getting higher, so I'm learning how to tell myself to be happy with whatever I get out of a pail. Cost will be a non issue when the demand will be much greater than the supply.

[Gripmaker]

I would say that you have hit the jackpot since they lay so well in the bucket that there is very little air and darned few clips. ENJOY!!!

[Molly]

A simple little trick for consistency fellows: Melt down each potfull of WW and pour it off into twenty 1-lb ingots. While they are cooling, fill the pot again, and run over to Harbor Freight for a set of punches. Bu the time you get back, the first batch will be cool, and the second batch will have started melting. Scrape off the clips and put more WW in to be melted.

While they melt, go over the first batch and stamp each ingot with a #1. When the next batch has been melted and cooled, stamp each ingot with a #2. Continue until you run out of lead, or you've run 18 to 20 pots, each with its own lot number.

When you fire up to run a batch of bullets, add one ingot from each lot back into the pot. run your casting session until the pot is enpty. Do the same for each and every potful you melt. This way, you will get the same alloy composition for up to 400 pounds of bullets.

Of course, if you're not using 1 lb ingots, you can alter the scheme for the ingot mold you are using, whether it's an old cupcake tin or whatever, and whether you have a 10 or 20 pound pot. Just weigh out the number of ingots to fill your pot, and the rest should be obvious.

[williamwaco]

Anywhere from a 120 to 150 pounds.
Call it 135 average.
50 bucks is really steep.

Last bucket I got was 4/5's full. Cost was a 20 pack of Coors Light.


I think you misspelled that.

50 bucks for 5 gallons of wheel weights is really CHEAP.

It is about fifty cents a pound. in most markets that is half price.

[Matt_G]

I think you misspelled that.

50 bucks for 5 gallons of wheel weights is really CHEAP.

It is about fifty cents a pound. in most markets that is half price.

Statement was accurate on the date posted.
In August of 2009, 50 bucks for a bucket of wheel weights was outrageous by the standards of most members here.

[letsmeltlead2693]

How much would a 55gal oil drum weigh if it was full of lead WW?

[SciFiJim]

How much would a 55gal oil drum weigh if it was full of lead WW?


Multiple the weight of a five gallon bucket times 11. Probably 1500 to 2000 lbs. You ain't gonna move it by yourself without powered assistance.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

Stephen Perry,

Kalifornia does have a "K" in it for a lot of us. Since the fifties Kali street rodders have substituted the "K" for "C" in several words. Like Kool, and Kustom, and Komps.

In this particular context, however; the "K" indicates a disdain for Kalifornia's very restrictive form of state government and the Kalifornia mentality that so many of its inhabitants (can't say citizens, too many are illegals) exhibit.

Here is Idaho we have a very popular bumper sticker that reads "Don't Kalifornicate Idaho."

You'll just have to, as the kids say, "Deal with it."

regards,

Rich

[fowl_language]

I wish I could find WW at that price I stopped in at one of the local tire shops today and they wanted $100 bucks for a 5 gal (doubtful more like a 3 gal) bucket, looked mostly like import car weights and I could lift it easily with one hand.

I'll keep surfing around but it's getting ridiculous, shipping on lead off ebay is killing me and I can't find a plumber!

A little off topic but the guys/gals that have posted previously about melting down the WW and pouring to ingots, what is the best method you've found for doing the melting of large quantities? Propane stove top cast iron pans? Thermometers? Thanks for the information, great forum you got here.

FL

[a.squibload]

Search for "propane tank" in Casting Equipment area.

[Longwood]

Stephen Perry,

Kalifornia does have a "K" in it for a lot of us. Since the fifties Kali street rodders have substituted the "K" for "C" in several words. Like Kool, and Kustom, and Komps.

In this particular context, however; the "K" indicates a disdain for Kalifornia's very restrictive form of state government and the Kalifornia mentality that so many of its inhabitants (can't say citizens, too many are illegals) exhibit.

Here is Idaho we have a very popular bumper sticker that reads "Don't Kalifornicate Idaho."

You'll just have to, as the kids say, "Deal with it."

regards,

Rich


Now now Rich
Tell it like it really is.
The reason people hate Californian's, is because they moved here, where good paying jobs were, and still are available, bought a little house that they could actually afford, (It was different then), put up with the smog, traffic, foreigners from a backward assed country, and other breeds of annoying neighbors, long enough to retire with a good pension, sell the house for a half million, (the one they paid 25,000 for) then move to where they always wished they could live, and buy 50 acres of property the locals can't afford to rent an acre of to set a cheap mobile home on, and then build a home no-one that worked in that state could ever afford.
I used to live in Oregon. I saw the envy and hatred many times.
However,,, I had lived in California for a while also and knew the truth.

[Mooseman]

Well this has sure taken a bunny trail...lets stay on subject here.

[fowl_language]

Thanks @a.squipload ... I just ended up hooking an old coleman camp stove to my 20lber it worked good...not great though.


I just did two buckets from the local recycling center.

1 bucket was 100 lbs of wheel weights, second bucket was 130 lbs of wheel weights.

I think because I had to buy the buckets at the metal recycler, a lot of the slack was removed, but none the less, I got about 43 lbs of slack out of it (steel weights and clips).

So that ended up being an average of about 85 lbs or so per bucket, granted one was more full than the other.

From now on I am assuming a loss of 20-30% from slack within a bucket and my negotiations will be adjusted as such.

I think it'll be harder and harder to find true lead in the future stock up while you can!!!

Hope this helps.

[SciFiJim]

I sorted a bucket of weights today. I am finding more steel weights now and less zinc. It seems about half goes into the "not WWs" bucket.

[HenryC460]

I guess we don't have the zinc rot so much here in Northern West Virginia yet. A full bucket weighs about 150# (bathroom scale), and out of that, I get about 100# of usable alloy and 50# of clips, valve stems, and five or six zinc weights. I don't sort. I float the zinc and valve stems out.

[SciFiJim]

I am getting more and more steel weights. I guess that steel is cheaper than zinc.

[Ted]

Just processed two of the remaining six 5gal buckets of Wheel Weights that I have stashed (the wife wants the space in the garage back). Two buckets full to the top or maybe a 1/2" low.

Processed out 186lb of clean alloy. Maybe 80-100 total zinc, aluminum or iron weights in the two buckets. Kept the stick on weights separate to be rendered down later.

http://shadowsfall.org/mandogandgun/?p=3799

Ted

[paininthe10]

Scored two five gallon buckets from a fisherman for $40 . Went to a tire place and they wouldn't even sell me any. It's a hit and miss where I live.

[Redfishertackle]

Idk how much in 5 gallon, but last month I picked up 3 5gal from one shop 2 3gal from another shop all at $10 per gal (2nd shop accully considered 2 3gal as 1 5gal) local scrap yard called a day later with 35lbs of medical sheet lead (my favorite for split shot molding) 2weeks after picking up all this lead I take 535 lbs of lead sinkers to the florida cost and end up with a little over 1200 on about a 300 investment....yes 50 per 5gal well worth it. On a side note to all others having problems finding lead heres what I do. If your heart is set to cast be ready for a long process of finding lead, dont put all your eggs in one basket, 6 tire shops in my area save weights just for me and heres why, 1. I pick them up asap, tire shops dont like having 3 buckets of useless weights waiting around for you if it takes you 2 months to come get em, 2. If the owner fishes or hunts, take him a free 10 lbs of your product as a thank you every 3 or 4 pick ups, the going rate on lead at scrap yards is 1.15 per lb, I get for .60 per lb and take scrap yard owner 10 lbs of 6 oz weights ever 3 months. 3. Cregislist is not just for basic goods, if your scrap yard pays .30 post a add to buy for .40 scrapers browse crieglist for junk washer dryers fridges and cars, they come into contact with lead pipe, and roof fixtures alot when scraping offer more the a scrap yard and they will save lead for you. 4. Last but not least are buckets, walk into one of the tire shops I get lead and you see buckets labeled redfishertackle call 555-5555 when full to have picked.up...get 3 buckets put your name on them and number drop them off with a shop that sells you lead and no more guess work, normal employees call me to say hey I just filled the bucket with lead. Just make sure to take replacemenr buckets when you pick up the full ones.....i may have only been doing this for 3 yrs compared to some of you who have done it 10-20 im still a rookie but In the last yr I have upgraded to 300-500 lbs a month or more and from exprience I can tell you all a smile friendlly face and good convo about football, huntin fishin or what ever goes along ways

[Longwood]

I went to the recycler today to see what they had.
I got 16 pounds of lead and wheel weights, 5 pounds of solder. two large stainless steel pots and huge turkey fryer type pot for $9.
I expect the big pot would cost over a hundred new. It sure will make a big batch of charcoal, all at one time.
I left about a foot of wheel weights in the barrel and may go back and go though them. Then maybe not. I saw a lot of FE and Zn so I only picked the lead stick-ons that were on top of the heap.
They also had about 100 feet of 1 1/2" cable with sheathing but I can see it would be a job to get the lead off of it.
:idea: Maybe my tomahawk would work.

[badbob454]

all i can say is save the zinc put it in ingots , and sell it it is worth a little more than lead ... and you may be able to swap pound for pound at the scrapyards .., steel is up too and worth saving ....., keep the landfills for useless garbage , if there is such a thing.....my 2 c worth and not much lead anymore in kalifornia , so grab what you can probably down to 10 lbs in a bucket of the fe and zn wheelweights .... boys its getting bad

[paul h]

My past experience has been that a full 5 gallon pail of ww's after discarding the valve stems, lug nuts, cigarette butts and smelting it down to discard the clips and crud yields 100# and change of ingots. I used to have a reliable tire store that would sell them for $20/pail. Then I had a shooting buddy who had a buddy at a tire store and I could trade him 100 cast 475 or 44 hand gun bullets per 5 gal pail. Both sources dried up and I'm down to my last two buckets :(

I'd gladly drop a couple of benjamins on $20 buckets.

[Chamfered]

Heavy enuff that my back went out just looking at it.......

[DarthTater]

I'm thankful that I have a friend who runs a tire store.

The last few 5 gallon buckets that I got yielded around 85 pounds of clip on ingots and 30 pounds of stick ons each. I would say that zinc and steel accounted for maybe 20% of the volume, maybe less. Of that, steel accounted for the bulk of the non-lead metal.

Every few weeks I stop by with a couple of dozen donuts and grab another bucket.

[sw282]

l got my first 5gal bucket of ww this week. Weighing in @ 108lbs l sorted , melted into ingots. Net was 60lbs of lead. Forty little 'muffins' of 1 1/2lb each using an old cast iron muffin pan as a mold. The bucket cost me 50rds of 357 reloads.

[bslim]

I picked up 3 - 5 gal pails of WW's yesterday. Sorted them out and came up with 2 pails @ 140 lbs. each, one pail @ 40 lbs. (Clips still on) 50 lbs. of SOWW and 50 lbs. of scrap. Total cost was $50 + fuel to drive 20 miles.

Finished smelting yesterday. With the odds and ends that I had laying around, I ended up with 420 lbs. of rough WW's.
After smelting I had:
50 lbs. of SOWW's
135 Lbs. of steel, zinc, wheel studs etc.
235 Lbs of good ingots.

[sw282]

l got a gal ful Sat and it weighed in @153 lbs. After sorting/smelting l got 101 # ingots. 23#stick-ons. The balance in steel/zinc/trash and a bag of 2 new valve stems. Cost me a 50 rd box of American Eagle 9mm 115gr fmj

[Matt_G]

l got a gal ful Sat and it weighed in @153 lbs. After sorting/smelting l got 101 # ingots. 23#stick-ons. The balance in steel/zinc/trash and a bag of 2 new valve stems. Cost me a 50 rd box of American Eagle 9mm 115gr fmj

Nice...very nice. :drinks:

[Lefty SRH]

FWIW, I did a marathon smelt yesterday. I fired my burners up at 9am and turned them around 6pm. I did 4 1/2 buckets of GOOD presorted COWW and miscellanious boolits I have collected. Hopefully my numbers are close. I was so tired by th end of last night I didn't care to count all the bars of lead. BUT I counted this morning, 321bars at 2lbs each (average) so thats 642lbs of good boolit lead! That come to about 142# per 5 gallon bucket.
My back and legs really hate me this moring..... :)

[chajohnson]

You have to feel good (after the soreness goes away) about all the boolits you'll be able to make with that stash. I, on the other hand, came home with about 200 lbs. of WW and 100 lbs. of roofing lead the other day and my wife accused me of being a, "hoarder." I was previously down to my last 200 lbs of processed ingots. 37 yrs of marriage and she still doesn't understand.

[N1YDP]

i just got a 5 gallon pail full for free from a friend at a garage.he said come back in a few days and he will have more.

[Texxut]

The last 5 gal bucket I picked up, once separated, cleaned and processed into ingots, yielded only 25 lbs of useable WW material. This anti lead movement is really starting to effect my supply.
I guess it's for the best, it will save a lot of birds from getting hit by cars as they try to peck those lead weights off rolling wheels.

[woodbutcher]

:shock:Hi guys.Talk about lucky.Last summer(2012)a friend that works for a demolition crew was tearing down some really old buildings,and one of them was an old PRINT SHOP.He found 20
50 lb ingots of LINOTYPE metal that his boss gave him for FREE.
He has more luck than any ten people should be allowed to have by law.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[tking308]

My first adventure into casting, I picked up a partial bucket of WW that yielded me 75#'s of lead COWW and 6#'s stick on lead. I'm hoping to end up with 60#'s of ingots.

[giericd]

I found a sailboat that is for sale, $500 best offer and it is said to have a 4,000lb lead keel, any one want to help salvage that lead? Obviously not a 1 man job!

[mold maker]

If I lived closer, I'd do it in a New York Minute.
If the boat is trash, you might get it even cheaper, or let the owner dispose of whats left. Salvaging the lead will be more of a job that it appears.

[Black Powder Bill]

Make sure it is lead and not cement. Sorry I can't help you either I'm stuck in New Yorkisstan.



I found a sailboat that is for sale, $500 best offer and it is said to have a 4,000lb lead keel, any one want to help salvage that lead? Obviously not a 1 man job!

My last real haul of WW were fromn the local BJ's. I had left a business card and told the guys when you get over run call me I'll come pick em up and by everyone lunch.
Well they got a new manager, one of those experts in everything who looked at the buckets and said in a demanding voice; THORW THOSE IN THE DUMPSTER!
Yea well after the DEC got done with him he was a little more humble so the tire shop reminded him to call me , but he had pulled my card off the board and threw it away.
On a hunch I rolled in one day and picked up 7 or 8 buckets. My yield was around 22 lbs per 28 pounds weighed.

I take all the scag from smelting toss it in a tin can and when I scrap out metal it goes in as additional weight. Hey .09c per pound is better than nothing.

I stood in a auto shop a while back and looked in their bucket with sadness in my heart as a good 80% of that bucket was zinc or iron. Being the thrifty fella I am. I said to myself, zinc brings .70c per pound so we may have an option to make a few dollars by scrapping the new stuff as well.

[RogerDat]

I made a run this weekend in search of WW's. I checked the local scrap dealers price and it was up 10 cents from last week to 30 cents a pound. I offer the tire shops what he would pay. Plus a dozen donuts for the shop.
Results:
One shop with 3/4 bucket with yield of 63# of CWW, 8# SWW and 14# of assorted Zn, Fe and debris.

One shop (part of a national chain) said they could no longer sell to anyone but scrap dealers licensed to handle hazardous waste.

A shop that said they didn't really have any because a "math teacher had cleaned them out for student experiments" just a couple of days ago. Call me cynical but I'm not buying a school allowing students to work with a couple hundred pounds of lead without considerable flack from parents. Me thinks someone is not being totally honest. The shop did say I could come back in a couple of weeks when they would have more.

FWIW when I'm asked I tell the shop WW's are a very good lead alloy for casting. If they enquire further I tell them what I'm casting. I figure they have a right to make their own informed decision.

[Bogone]

I have a plastic five gallon bucket full of lead pucks. It is really heavy...

[hothands906]

I just got though smelting two presorted 5 gal. buckets this past week. I took about four hours and yielded a good bit. 118 round muffin pan (9 per pan ) ingots. Each weighs about 2+ lbs. It is work----period.

[dRok]

I had a similar issue with a tire place in MN, guy told me they save all their WW and donate them to local boy scouts/cub scout leader for use in the wooden car races, said they use the lead to weight their cars. I LOL and told him that those cars can only take a few grams of lead an a single bucket would be enough lead to do about 10,000 cars. He looked at me kind of sideways and said he would have to talk to the guy next time he came in to get his 'free' lead donations.




A shop that said they didn't really have any because a "math teacher had cleaned them out for student experiments" just a couple of days ago. Call me cynical but I'm not buying a school allowing students to work with a couple hundred pounds of lead without considerable flack from parents. Me thinks someone is not being totally honest. The shop did say I could come back in a couple of weeks when they would have more.

FWIW when I'm asked I tell the shop WW's are a very good lead alloy for casting. If they enquire further I tell them what I'm casting. I figure they have a right to make their own informed decision.

[beezapilot]

My tire shop gives me a preference because I GIVE HIM EMPTY BUCKETS- well, mostly empty, they have a 6 pack in them. Everyone picks them up, nobody drops them off.

[louism]

Just finished a 5 gal bucket this weekend that I picked up last week from a friend that owns a tire repair shop. It yielded about 110lbs of ingots. a fair amount of steel weights but very few zinc. Still not bad considering it was free. Only cost was a quart of naphtha for the Coleman stove. Another plus is that I actually enjoy making ingots.

[9w1911]

I got about the same 200lbs in 2 full buckets it cost me 50.00

[Polecat]

I Got 115 lbs from one 5 gal bucket cost 25$101703

[Docjames]

I Got 115 lbs from one 5 gal bucket cost 25$101703

That's pretty awesome!!!

[Docjames]

I pay the scrap yard 50c/# for pure lead sheets from xray shields. I found a guy with a PALLET of shielding but he can't weight that much so he won't sell it. He also got poisoned from melting it with a torch inside so he won't use it. I think it had some paint and other junk so his 2 day puke fest was probably from that, not lead. He was using a oxy/prop torch to melt it into a chair base?! Idk some people want to burn their house and lungs. Point is lead is everywhere. In Arkansas I get tons of ww for free just for asking or trading factory ammo. Got 80+ #s for 16 rounds of 5.56.
Problem is I can't always make my alloy even so I ended up making some really soft boolits, bad leading too. I melted 500+ back into a pot of ww @ 50/50 so maybe that will work. The ingots are nice and hard.

[62chevy]

I Got 115 lbs from one 5 gal bucket cost 25$101703

How much does the ingots from the Walmart stainless cups weight? I'm thinking a little over a pound . Counted 107 ingots. The reason I ask is I'm going to use the same thing for ingots.

[Walstr]

I Got 115 lbs from one 5 gal bucket cost 25$101703

How did you get a bucket of sorted WW's? I don't see any dross, etc.?

[Walstr]

My last partial bucket of WW's yielded 62% of 66# unsorted CWW's & 89% of 11.125# SWW's & 30+# of dross, clips, junk; so the bucket weighed about 110#. I pay this tire store manager $25/bucket. I always bring 2 buckets, one for his use & 2 for me to handle 50# each. It's a long lift to the tailgate!

Including the cost of propane, I figure this romantic process is costing me $.58/# of usable product. After reading these blogs & re-assessing my process, I'm calling our major scrapper (50 miles round trip) to see what they have to offer. It may be worth $8 in fuel to get culled lead alloy WW's. Don't know how they would do it in volume, but it's worth asking.

I also see that the current price for Zinc is $.94/# !! & Lead is $.96/#. So why am I tossing the Mn-Zn labeled WW's? Saving time I suppose, but now it may pay to take a little longer, eh.

[imashooter2]

How did you get a bucket of sorted WW's? I don't see any dross, etc.?

The dross and waste is on the ground behind the pot.

[Wizzap]

I can only find one shop that will sell it to me for 30$ a 5 gallon bucket After sorting it i had 1 gallon of steel/zinc about 12lbs of Stick on rest was clip on lead ...............I can also get WW for 50 cents a pound at scrap yard but last time i did that out of 1 gallon over half was zinc/steel going to see if they will let me sort it next time

[juan916]

Score 2 5 gallon buckets with lead only clip on and stick on for $57.00
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r142/juan916/Mobile%20Uploads/20150423_153716-1.jpg

[michiganmike]

How many? Way to many lbs. for me to carry up from my basement shop. I have a 5 gallon bucket almost full. I will have to carry them upstairs about a 1/4 of a bucket at a time. Luckily, I have two buckets!:lovebooli Waiting to get a torn meniscus in my right knee fixed.

[mold maker]

Back Dr's and chiropractors make a living off greedy people with five gallon buckets of lead.
Thats from personal experience.

[RogerDat]

Eventually I get about 900 lbs. from a 5 gallon bucket it just takes lots of time, work and Advil. Helps to have more than one bucket too. Plus a total of $8 for the steel clips from the scrap yard, that about pays for the Advil.

[lakeparkv8]

I got a 3 gallon size bucket today for 35 dollars. They weighed in the bucket at 107 pounds. When I got them melted down into ingots I had 22.5 pounds of scrap and junk. net weight of ingots 84.5 pounds. Sounds like .41 cents per pound. Not as good as free but not 2.00 a pound either. Guess I'm HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!

[benellinut]

I picked up 5, five gallon buckets that were about 3/4 full for $20 during a trip to the scrap yard during a clean out of my shop and the guys loaded them for me. Actually I walked away with the WW and $102 for the scrap I took, it was a good day! I've been sorting the last few days, first two buckets were almost all lead, the third was about 50%, I'll have them all sorted in a few days.

I have a lot of spine problems in my lower back and neck so I have to find ways to move things without hurting myself, when I got home with the buckets I set an empty bucket on the ground at the rear bumper of my Jeep, I just tipped the buckets and let the WW fall into the empty bucket, then I wheeled the buckets around with a hand truck. When I got ready to start sorting I just tipped them over then use a flat shovel to scoop some up and dump them on the sorting table.

They are full of dirt, crud, tire lube and who knows what else, don't want to smelt them like that so I decided to just wash them all. I took a couple 3 gal buckets, put 3/4 gallon of Purple Power cleaner I had left in one and dumped enough WW's to just cover letting them soak for ten min or so. I use my media separator (the one below) to separate the WW and drain the cleaner into the other bucket for the next round, a good hosing gets the vast majority of the crud off. To dry them I swept a clean area on the shop floor and spread the WW out in one layer with the shovel and let them dry overnight. Then I use the shovel again to put the sorted and clean WW in a nice clean bucket!

As a bonus I'll never need to look for valve stem caps anymore. :-) I even found one nice valve stem tool, that will replace the one I lost when I twisted wrenches for a living, heck maybe it's the one I lost LoL. One note of caution, I also found six razor blades, I'm damn lucky I didn't cut the hell out of myself!

http://media.midwayusa.com/productimages/504x378/primary/731/731116.jpg

[Chris C]

I got a full 5 gal bucket of WW today. After careful sorting, I'd say it was 60/40 in volume, with the 40% being lead and clips. Turned out to be 43#, so I'm not complaining. I'm gonna try and hit some Big Rig shops tomorrow, looking for the larger weights.

[Chris C]

I didn't do well getting any of the Big Rig shops to be willing to let me have any WW. They all have contracts with people to take the weights away. So I went to the local metal recycling place and they let me sort through and pick up 38# of pure lead stick-ons for $.70 a pound............not cheap, in my opinion, but not the $1.50 a pound I recently paid for pure lead sheeting. Sooner or later I'll get enough for my inventory. Gettin' there, slowly but surely. [smilie=w:

[Bodean98]

Proverbs 21, 5 "Steady plodding brings prosperity"
I have been collecting for a bit over a year now and am well over 2000# of stash material. For wheel weights I have found the big shops and box stores to be as you have found. They are under contract to someone they pay to dispose of them. My job requires a lot of travel and I have the occasion to stop in the small town mom & pop tire shops and those are the best bet. Last bucket I acquired weighed 176#! After sorting I had 3# of steel no zinc and less than 2# of trash. I paid $25 for the bucket! Good Score.

[benellinut]

I didn't do well getting any of the Big Rig shops to be willing to let me have any WW. They all have contracts with people to take the weights away. So I went to the local metal recycling place and they let me sort through and pick up 38# of pure lead stick-ons for $.70 a pound............not cheap, in my opinion, but not the $1.50 a pound I recently paid for pure lead sheeting. Sooner or later I'll get enough for my inventory. Gettin' there, slowly but surely. [smilie=w:

Ah the hunt, can be fun and sometimes not so much. I spent weeks hitting places without much luck, when I figured in how much I was spending on gas I would have better off mail ordering..... Then a couple months later I was cleaning out the garage, had a pile of scrap metal to get rid of and headed to the closest scrap yard. While there I asked if they had any lead or WW, the guy said he had seven buckets but it there wasn't much lead, said he was sick of working around the buckets and didn't want to sort them and let me have them for $25 which yielded four buckets of good weights. I sorted the zinc and steel, took those, more buckets and a box of Popsicles over on a hot day. I gave them the steel and zinc back, thanked them for helping me with my lead search. They appreciated the extra buckets and the Popsicles to help cool off, now they save lead for me and I stop by every couple of months. When you find a source, become their friend!

[Chris C]

Hopefully the yield will not decrease too rapidly... but the push is on to ban lead wheel weights.

WW's are already banned in Europe (since 2005); and being phased out in Japan and Korea. California has SB 757, which the Senate passed, that makes lead wheel weights illegal next year. I obtained this information from a blog that is tracking the progress of this bill: http://www.changecalifornia.org/2009/05/leadwheelweights.html

So, scoop up all you can, while you can!

With kind regards to all,

~ Kathie
:Fire:

Kathie, I'm a newbie at this. I'm only scrounging for my personal use and haven't been doing it but for about a month now, I think. But I've already figured out that in my area, I get about a 25% load of lead COWW and SOWW out of a 5 gallon bucket. Since it's not a business for me, I'm still willing to go through the separating process, but it is disappointing to carry a bucket to the truck I can barely pick up and only get to use a quarter of it. A lot of the guys changing the tires are telling me they are seldom installing lead. The only lead I'm getting is stuff they are pulling off customers wheels when they do work on them.

[RP]

WWs are starting to fade out in my area I was looking so hard for zinc I thought I was just not finding them two years ago but did find alot of steel, One of my sons works at a dealership and he called asking if I wanted some WWs which was crazy I did lol. They were on a pallet three buckets some boxes and just laying on the pallet I paid for them and he loaded them in the truck with a forklift. After sorting I got one really nice plastic HD pallet Two full buckets of zinc and steal and half a bucket of stickons two buckets of clip ons not a bad haul for 40 bucks.
My other son has a deal with a fishing supply shop for a new style fishing weight that is the new must have weight I guess they sold them 200 lbs last year and they just called and wanted 200 more for this year. I stopped by the scrape yard to see if I could still buy lead and was told no more sheet lead someone is buying all they get for 60 cents a lb and he check on the WWs thinks they cost me 30 cents a lb but they too are mixed with steel and zinc. Oh they pay 15 cents a lb when buying them so what I can not use I can sell back at half the price I paid.
His partner in this weight making hit a tire shop told them he needed all the WWs they had which turned out to be 6 5 gal buckets and came to the house and dropped them off since I seem to ground zero for anything the kids are doing since i have a shop tools and supplies and give them a hand. I asked what he paid and he told me 40 bucks.
All that being said it looks like his haul is leaning towards 50/50 mix of good material and zinc/steel. I asked the guy at the scrap yard if I could swap him WWs for WWs since they do not seem to care if they are steel zinc or lead and am waiting on a call to see. The mistake I may have made is when i was telling him the zinc and steel was of no use to me for making bullets or weights he told me he did not know it was mixed so that may soon come to a halt, Which may work out to not buying from the tire shops unless they sort them.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I really wonder how many more readers will ask this old question about weight of a 5 gal. pail of weights? The answer is `more than 1 lb. and less than 500 lbs.`Robert

[mold maker]

I lucked out on a (3 ham biscuits) full five gal bucket this morning and like you said, it was more than my rickety old bones could lift.
All sorted now and there is more Fe and Zn than lead.I too intend to sell the Fe to the junk yard when I get a load together. I don't do it for profit, but rather a way to keep the place more presentable.
There are some new to me weights. I had heard talk of aluminum weights but had never seen one till today. Great big (for weight) hunking CO squares that weigh close to nothing.

[Chris C]

I completed my first rendering the other day. I had a 5 gal bucket of COWW and a 5 gal bucket of SOWW The COWW bucket was full + and the SOWW bucket was about 90% filled. The COWW rendered into 183# and the SOWW rendered into 168#.

[lightman]

Me and Biggin just bought 20 buckets of weights. They were level full, leaving enough room to snap a top on them. The clip-on weights went from 130# to 160# and the stick-on weights were a little lighter at between 110 and 120#. These were weighed on a scale and those weights included the buckets. The lighter weight of the stick-on weights were a surprise, but probably should not have been. They just did not settle in the bucket like the clip-on's did. Many of them were twisted and curled up and used more space.

[mold maker]

Me and Biggin just bought 20 buckets of weights. They were level full, leaving enough room to snap a top on them. The clip-on weights went from 130# to 160# and the stick-on weights were a little lighter at between 110 and 120#. These were weighed on a scale and those weights included the buckets. The lighter weight of the stick-on weights were a surprise, but probably should not have been. They just did not settle in the bucket like the clip-on's did. Many of them were twisted and curled up and used more space.

When I was ape strong and bullet proof, that would have been considered childs play. Now it's a days work to watch somebody else do it, and it still hurts.

[lightman]

When I was ape strong and bullet proof, that would have been considered childs play. Now it's a days work to watch somebody else do it, and it still hurts.

Thats for sure! I was not feeling well that day and Biggin and the other fellow did most of the lifting!

[lightman]

We just returned from another road trip with another 2800+ pounds.

Our first load was;
152
150
140
133
130
149
150
137
133
136
147
138
155
138
142
135
138
140
110--Stick-on
120--Stick-on

Our second load was:
150
145
140
155
140
195--this was reclaimed bullets
180--This was part ingots
120--Stick-on
240--muffin ingots
230--Muffin ingots
175--Partial full of muffin ingots
240--Muffin ingots

These were weighed, including the plastic bucket and were level full or slightly below the top so that a lid would snap on. The stick-on weights don't pack down as much as the clip-on weights and a bucket weighs a little less. Clip-on weights vary some because of the sizes, the smaller 1/4 and 1/2 oz weights pack down more that the larger weights. A bucket of bullets or ingots also weighs more.

Anyway, my experience shows that the other posters are all in the ball park with their weights. Given the difference in my weights I would buy by weight and not bucket unless the bucket was pretty cheap.

[woodbutcher]

:grin:Seeing those weights reminds me why I bought a hand truck[smilie=1:.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[Traffer]

You guys are so fortunate. Here is Central WI, because of the tremendous fishing going on. Tire shops laugh in your face when you ask about wheel weights. I would guess people here pay $75 to $100 for a 5 gal bucket. You are better off going down to the Wisconsin river when it is low and picking up jiggs in the rocks. lol.

[lightman]

Oh yeah, I have a hand truck too! I'm in the process of designing and building a device that you can scoot a 5 gallon bucket into and pick it up with a hoist or maybe the loader on my tractor.

Traffer, we can't find weights in that quantity at tire shops anymore either. Although we can still find them. Those that I posted about came from a fellow caster that is down sizing. We were fortunate to get acquainted with him and he seemed pleased to see his lead go to another caster. So it was a Win Win!

[benellinut]

Yeah, living with a bad back and neck you have to find ways to get around lifting, it's not that I can't lift a bucket of weights, it's just I'll pay for it for days afterwards. My last find I paid a strong young fellow to load the buckets in my Jeep, when I got home I put an empty bucket by the rear bumper, slid the buckets to the edge and tipped them over letting the weights fall into the empty bucket then hand truck them around. When I get ready to sort or melt I just tip the bucket over onto the floor and use a flat shovel to scoop them up, slow and easy keeps me off the heating pad. :grin:

[RogerDat]

5 gallon plastic bucket (without lid) weighs 2# according to more than one scrap yard. They all deduct 2# for the weight of the bucket, buying or selling.
Those big digital scales round up if you go over 1/2 pound so 100.6 pounds would read as 101 which with lead generally doesn't matter unless type strips or WW's that you can trickle up to where it jumps up to next pound, then take them off a little at a time until it drops down to next lower pound, should be a .4 pound "bonus".

I debate on COWW's I feel like I should get more while I can but also sort of think I have enough.

[benellinut]

5 gallon plastic bucket (without lid) weighs 2# according to more than one scrap yard. They all deduct 2# for the weight of the bucket, buying or selling.
Those big digital scales round up if you go over 1/2 pound so 100.6 pounds would read as 101 which with lead generally doesn't matter unless type strips or WW's that you can trickle up to where it jumps up to next pound, then take them off a little at a time until it drops down to next lower pound, should be a .4 pound "bonus".

I debate on COWW's I feel like I should get more while I can but also sort of think I have enough.

I have the same problem with hitting up the thrifty stores for pewter. I've got more then I'll ever use but I can't help but swing in a thrift store when passing by, is there such a thing a pewter fever????

[RogerDat]

I have the same problem with hitting up the thrifty stores for pewter. I've got more then I'll ever use but I can't help but swing in a thrift store when passing by, is there such a thing a pewter fever????

Well I'm going with pewter needs to be saved from collecting dust on a shelf. I look at it like doing a community service, if I can't use it someone else who casts will be glad to get it. Eventually. If I ever part with it. Which I could, if I wanted to, which I don't :-) But if I did part with it then it is like a bit of money in the reloading piggy bank which tends to need all the help it can get.

I mean really, some lady putting flowers in that vase and just letting it sit there or the horror of being stuffed in a closet once the flowers die vs. me giving it an exciting career as bullet alloy. I feel all warm and fuzzy from the good I'm doing when I take that pewter away from the horrible fate that awaits it in a thrift store. I think I need a cape & mask or something, I'm the pewter rescuer.

[Grmps]

I bought apr 1/4 of a 50-gallon drum of linotype/Monotype. The scrap yard loaded it in my truck for me, at home, I home I dumped it on its side in my truck and raked it out into 5 gallon buckets apr. 1/2 full, I've smelted most of it but still have 6 large ammo cans full of monotype.