Fair price for pure lead

[medicdave]

Hi there all first post from the ***. I have zero casting experiance so talk to me as a total beginner. I switched entirely to cast bullets (commercial) in my handguns 2-3 years ago, and have reloaded for about 10 years, haven't bought commercial ammo except for rimfires in who knows how long. I like to try new things in my reloading/shooting/hunting career and I've decided sink or swim, I'm going to learn to cast so I can enjoy bullet designs that were either not avalible or outrageously priced, and be able to keep shooting when the inevitable happens if the political system in this country doesn't change soon. I've ordered a lyman bottom pour furnace, some molds to start with etc., and now I need some lead to get going with. Wheelweights are not a viable option where I'm at, no shop I've asked will part with them free, paid, bribed or otherwise.

So my question to you my fine fellows is what is a fair price for lead? I'm interested in alloying the lead myself to try different hardnesses etc. I've found a source that will ship 500lbs of 99% pure foundry lead to my door for $550, or $1.10/lb. Is this a fair price to pay, or do I need to work them down. I want to be fair to the seller, but not get ripped of at the same time. Thanks for the help, and I look forward to learning alot from all of you...Dave

[southpaw]

That sounds like a reasonable price. Check scrap yards. You may be able to be it cheaper there but you are gonna have to do the smelting. Also check the swapping and selling section. Their are some fine fellows selling lead over there in that price range.

You are gonna need to get the pure harder for most of your cating needs tho. You will need tin and antimony. A good source of this would be type metal (lino and mono).

Good luck and welcome aboard and don't hold back with questions.

Jerry Jr.

[medicdave]

Thanks! I understand the need to allow, and had been recomended to a 1-16 or 1-20 tin to lead alloy for the majority of my handgun needs (45acp, 44spl, 45 colt ) in plainbase and cascheck designs. I belive the Old Man himself Elmer keith decided on 1-16 as his alloy of choice for the 44 special/magnum and his 250gr beauty. I don't throw mine anywhere near that hard....

[lwknight]

It is fair if you can get lead delivered at $1.10 per pound.
Foundrys are paying $0.89 to scrapyards for lead
scrapyards can pay up to $0.65 to individuals for lead.
Rotometals is now $1.39 delivered if you buy a ton at a time.

[medicdave]

It is 500 lbs to my door for $1.10/lb.

[littlejack]

Welcome to Castboolits.
If you can get the pure lead, all you need is tin to help the melt to fill out your mould and some antimony, 5% to harden things up some. You can get drippings from radiator shops. When they repair the radiators, some of the solder drips into their water tankls. They have to clean them out periodically. The solder used here at one shop is 60/40. That is 60% tin and 40% lead. You may find some pewter at your local Good Will or St Vincent De Paul stores. It is 92% tin, 6% antimony and 2% copper. Go to the ( Tin from pewter) thread for discriptions. You can use pewter as pure tin in your alloys.
Check your local roofing businesses for lead flashing.
Jack

[montana_charlie]

I get good quality lead from the scrapyard for forty cents. But, there is quite a bit of work involved in getting it ready to make ingots.
You called yours 'pure foundry lead'. If that means they certify the purity, I think it's a very decent deal.
If you have your heart set on 20-1 and 16-1, you should see if they can give you a similarly decent price on tin.
CM

[medicdave]

Foundry certified reclaimed lead sheeting. 99.97% pure per the foundry. Just bought it. Gonna have a good time getting started when I finally get home. (I work offshore as a remote location Paramedic. I'm currently in the Gulf of Mexico, but will be going to Singapore at the end of the month to start a new job/project. Looks like it will be 7-8 weeks before I get to see the family this time.)

[Tazman1602]

WELCOME to the best casting forum on the web!!!!

At the bottom of the page www.leadandbrass.com (http://www.leadandbrass.com/) has fair prices and you can also do a web search for "the antimony man" and there's another one I *think* called rotometals.

If you're wanting to alloy your own metal you can get tin and antimony from those guys too because you're going to need some for a bit of hardness and mold fill out like the guys already said, I see you've already bought your lead so check them out for the metals you need to alloy with!

Too bad about the wheelweight situation around you, I just smelted about 100lbs today (took forever outside in the cold weather....) and I ran into my first three zinc weights, even as far north as I am they're starting to trickle in so I'm scarfing all the WW I can get my hands on NOW..

Lead And Brass:
http://leadandbrass.com/zencart2/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=65&zenid=cdb7fba1de5bd86d80830b8f92b94294

Antimony Man:
http://www.theantimonyman.com/index.htm
.........VERY good info on metals here...............

Rotometals:
http://www.rotometals.com/Bullet-Casting-Alloys-s/5.htm

Again Welcome!!!!!

Art

[lylejb]

Welcome to castboolits

You're going to need to harden that lead. The alloys you mentioned, 16:1, 20:1 are simple lead - tin alloys. While that will work, that's using alot of tin. At $10/lb for tin, that adds up fast

Antimony will harden lead to a greater degree, for a given percentage, than tin. It's about 3X greater hardness increase than tin, for the same percentage in the alloy.

This is one of the reasons you see so many people basing their alloy from wheel weights. Clip-on wheel weights are about 3-4% antimony.

You might ask your lead source if thay have any lead-antimony alloys, or any typemetal alloys, such as linotype or monotype. While these are higher priced than pure lead, you use small amounts to mix with your pure to harden it. This way, you can make an alloy that will fit your needs, at less cost than just adding a bunch of tin.

More bang for the buck, as they say.

Rotometals is one of the sponsers of this site. If you click on their ad on the top of the page, it will take you to their bullet alloy page. They have alloys up to 30% antimony available.

If you mix 9lb pure lead, 1lb of that 30%antimony, and 2 oz tin you will wind up with an alloy of approx 3% antimony, 1.25% tin, 95.75% lead. This will be close to clip-on wheel weight in hardness, with enough tin to fill out in the mould nicely, and should fit your needs for the pistols mentioned.

enjoy.

[montana_charlie]

Just bought it.

(I'm currently in the Gulf of Mexico, but will be going to Singapore at the end of the month to start a new job/project. Looks like it will be 7-8 weeks before I get to see the family this time.)
What a guy! Won't be home for two months, but orders 500 pounds of lead for his poor wife to take delivery of.

In that situation, my dear spouse would sign for the delivery...then call the scrap metal guy to come get it off of her porch.
CM

[medicdave]

We support each others addictions lol. She puts up with the guns and project truck, and she has her horses. I don't complain about taking delivery of a winters worth of hay, and she'll get my buddy to come and move the lead.

[RKJ]

It is 500 lbs to my door for $1.10/lb.


Dave, I just spoke to the folks at Doe Run (A major Lead Mining Company) and they are selling 3% antimony for 1.15 a lb. I'm in the same situation as you (newbie trying to figure this stuff out) anyway, that sounds like a fair price to me.

[medicdave]

Sounds good, is that shipped?

[lwknight]

RKJ,
Would you post the contact info for Doe Run Mining?

[JIMinPHX]

My recommendation would be to buy a single bag of bird shot from a local sporting goods store & a few 10 pound ingots of pure lead from a plumbing supply store & use a mix of that until you can find a better price on second hand lead. I only stock up on lead when I can find it for $0.50/lb or under. Otherwise, I would just buy a small quantity at retail for my current needs. 30 or 40 pounds is enough to get started, especially if you shoot someplace that you can recover the boolits after you shoot them.

Also, I would not be in a rush to shell out that much money for a big stack of pure, at least not until you are sure that pure will be what you want to cast with. Unless you are only shooting black powder guns, or very lite target loads, you will probably want to mix something with that pure lead to stiffen it up a little.

If you troll the swappin & sellin part of this board, you can usually find clip-on wheel weight ingots for less than $1/lb. shipped. They are a good general purpose alloy to use for most boolits as-is or with 1-2% tin added. You can usually also find someone selling ingots of stick on wheel weights, which are pretty close to pure lead, for about the same price. I just got some of them from Kelbro recently. They were nice & clean. If somebody here on the board just lists their ingots as being wheel weights, with no other description, then they are probably from clip-ons.

Troll what's for sale on the board first. Hit your local plumbing supply or Ace hardware second, troll the scrap yards & tire shops as you get time. Don't be in a big rush. Eventually, a good deal will drop into your lap.

I don't know this guy personally, but this might be a good way to get started -
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=72902

[canyon-ghost]

That's a decent price for pure lead, some parts of the country are cheaper but, I've paid around $1/lb myself to get what I want. The certified alloys from Ney via MidwayUSA are about $3/lb! That makes a difference. I like free, I like .50 a pound, but I'm willing to go higher. Your call, really.

Linotype with pure can make a good alloy, monotype and stereotype are harder yet if you happen to come across them. Old printing shops used this type of lead that's hard and can alloy pure up to very hard. It would only take a small ratio of hard lead to make the alloy.

Hope that helps some,
Ron

[sundog]

Fair price for lead is free. Join a members owned club and miner the berms for your needs. The ultimate in recycling!

[montana_charlie]

RKJ,
Would you post the contact info for Doe Run Mining?
Google knows it...
http://www.google.com/search?q=Doe+Run+Mining&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-ContextMenu&ie=&oe=

CM

[medicdave]

Not to rain on any parades, or sound sacraligeous, but how much does the "free" lead cost you in your time. The companies I work with think my time is pretty expensive, and I tend to agree with them. What does free lead cost in your time after collection, sorting, smelting and alloying? Just a thought. That said, I love scrounging junk yard for truck parts lol. I'm sure I'll be out hunting lead also....

[opentop]

I love scrounging junk yard for truck parts lol. I'm sure I'll be out hunting lead also....

And picking the wheel wieghts off of the old trucks while your scrounging for parts.

[southpaw]

Not to rain on any parades, or sound sacraligeous, but how much does the "free" lead cost you in your time. The companies I work with think my time is pretty expensive, and I tend to agree with them. What does free lead cost in your time after collection, sorting, smelting and alloying? Just a thought. That said, I love scrounging junk yard for truck parts lol. I'm sure I'll be out hunting lead also....

It depends. If I am working for someone else my time is expensive. But if I am not working for them ie days off then my time is alot less. I can't afford to pay myself what my employer pays me so I consider the adventure payment enough. If I could work overtime instead of scrounge lead then I could aford to pay more for it. But that is not always the case and I tend to enjoy scrouging and my days off. What else would you be doing on your days off anyway? :razz:

Jerry Jr.

[RKJ]

Guys, Here is their web site, but I believe montana charlie got it before I could.

http://www.doerun.com/CONTACTUS/tabid/81/language/en-US/Default.aspx

I called the number below and spoke with Amy who got me in contact with Elaine in Boss.

For sales and marketing questions, please contact:

800-356-3786

This is their email:
drsales@doerun.com