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Thread: Storing lead

  1. #21
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    JonB_in_Glencoe's Avatar
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    you may as well plan that you'll be moving the ingots, even if you don't think you will. I have 50 to 60 lbs of ingots on a pallet type thing, then I stack the pallets 3 or 4 high. I used USPS Med flat rate boxes cut so they are 2" tall, then cut a piece of scrap 1/4" plywood in the bottom for support...works slick.
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  2. #22
    Boolit Master Jim22's Avatar
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    If the ingots came from a commercial ingot mould - you mentioned a Lee mould - try this: Stack them one face up and next face down. They use up less room that way. The angled sides fit together. Start each layer opposite the one below so wide sidess go to wide sides and barrow to naarrow. You will fit more in less space and the stack seems to be more stable. If you can turn every other layer 90 degrees as you would do bricks. That will add even more stability.

  3. #23
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    I have some wooden crates that my daughter brought home from the casino she use to work at. They are the boxes the the poker chips came in and are made out of 3/4" plywood. They are about 2 feet long by about 12 to 14 inches tall and the same deep. They hold three rows deep (long wise) with a fourth row set side ways of "Twinkie" size ingots. The boxes hold between 400 and 450 pounds of ingots each. I got tired of having to empty them when something important fell behind them. So I got several of the small four wheel dollies from Harbor Freight and the boxes fit almost perfectly on them. They can be rolled around but I still have a slight problem getting them started when the wheels are pointing the wrong way.
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  4. #24
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    Do not try and move a plastic milk crate of ingots. I asked my son to move one to the cellar from the garage, he who smells strong and is strong promptly tried to lift it. The milk crate sheared off at the floor level asap.

    Milk crates "may" keep them from falling over but that is all they will do.

  5. #25
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    Piled higher and deeper. Do. Ot go above 18 inches tall and you will
    not exceed the floor loading in most garages. Your bench may not hold that much. The avg person exerts 40 psi on a floor. 40 x 144 square inches is a lot of weight per square foot, static load. Do the math.

  6. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by shootinfox2 View Post
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    Piled higher and deeper. Do. Ot go above 18 inches tall and you will
    not exceed the floor loading in most garages. Your bench may not hold that much. The avg person exerts 40 psi on a floor. 40 x 144 square inches is a lot of weight per square foot, static load. Do the math.
    So how do you get your lead to hang up in mid-air like that....diet lead???


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  7. #27
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    5 gal plastic buckets ended up cracking from the weight of the ingots inside of mine. 55 gallon steel drums took care of that. Clamping band on lid toof care of lead oxidation. 55 gallon drum holds about a ton of cupcake size ingots.

  8. #28
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    no need to worry about storage not much can happen to lead in the garage
    weight may be a concern but only if you have to lift it
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  9. #29
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    5gal buckets are fine but more than 80# & the handles pull off. HD has 1/2 size milk crates which work pretty nicely, holds 100# easy & move & stack well too. In the garage on the floor.
    Last edited by fredj338; 07-29-2021 at 03:00 PM.
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  10. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by MrWolf View Post
    Bit of advice. Those lead ingots get heavier over time. Just saying be ready when you have to move them again
    OH ...I forgot about that ... I have half a 5 gallon bucket of COWW squirreled away out in the garage ... I better go get them and move them into reloading / casting room ... they must be twice as heavy as when I put them in the garage and they probably gaining more weight every day ... pretty soon I'm not going to be able to pick that bucket up .
    Thanks for reminding me .
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  11. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by fiberoptik View Post
    So how do you get your lead to hang up in mid-air like that....diet lead???


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    PFM and not enough computer skill to rotate the pic.

  12. #32
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    10 inches high huh? I will bet that the bottom of that unit will blow out of there before you get that high. You are looking at probably a ton of lead in a small elevated wood area. just to give you an idea of how much these add up, a 50 cal. ammo can not completely full is 100 lbs! That is 6" wide by 7" high by 11" long and not full to the top. Looks like you could get quite a few of those cans on that shelf.

  13. #33
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    swfl, if in garage most likely putting that bench against a wall will probably have the strongest part of concrete floor where the footing is. the thing ive found very important when storing alloys is knowing what's in the ingots and storing like materials together. since you bought pre cast ingots you probably have a lot of hardness testing to do unless you know for sure what the alloy is you bought. I leave my raw materials in half filled 5 gal buckets and make ingots out of 1/2 gallon pot at a time fluxing/cleaning well then pour into Lyman and lee ingot molds. put those ingots into fairly small sturdy cardboard boxes to keep them free of dust and debris and mark clearly on box and ingot what the alloy is so when I go to casting bullets I put them in the lee bottom pour and I've got good clean alloy that I know the composition of. I don't think that 1000 or 2000 pounds spread out over bottom of your 6'-8'x2' bench bottom shelf will hurt your concrete floor as long as bench is right up against outside wall footer. code there is at least 4" floor with at least a 12"x12" steel reinforced footer under the outside wall of a swfla house. the floor in my garage of my cape coral house got cracks in it over the years but not against the walls. ands I had a Bridgeport mill, a 2 ton lathe and lots of steel stock and cases of tooling against one wall

  14. #34
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    This is part of what I have in my basement area. That's a grade beam behind the stacks of CB bars, most of which (~1000#) are on the unfinished ground with just concrete pavers over a gravel and sand base. I figured I'd save loading too much onto the beam itself, though there's maybe four hundred pounds sitting over an eight foot stretch of it, along with another half ton on more pavers out of sight.

    It's about 40 square feet of paved area that is big enough for alloy, bulk cast boolit and casting equipment storage that's both out of the way and out of the weather and also manages to be dry and convenient enough.
    Last edited by kevin c; 08-03-2021 at 05:54 AM.

  15. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by shootinfox2 View Post
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    Piled higher and deeper. Do. Ot go above 18 inches tall and you will
    not exceed the floor loading in most garages. Your bench may not hold that much. The avg person exerts 40 psi on a floor. 40 x 144 square inches is a lot of weight per square foot, static load. Do the math.
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  16. #36
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    "In the basement"...the lowest point you can find. Your family will laugh about that some day as the grand kids carry it out. I will get the same treatment and mine is ground-level in the garage, boxed and labeled....maybe with less laughing/cursing.
    Take a kid to the range, you'll both be glad you did.

  17. #37
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    That photo shows 1300# of ready to cast alloy. There's about 1700# of lead, pewter and boolits out of sight. My "basement" is above grade, since it's actually the crawl space of my hillside house which is on stilts 62 steps (about four stories) up from road level. I carried ALL of it up myself, and I'm in my sixties.

    I intend to cast and shoot all of it in just the next five years (high volume action pistol shooter) and will bring up more from my main storage off site as needed. If there's lead left at home when I'm gone, it's literally all downhill hauling for those who'll take it, and the main supply is even more accessible to my casting friends.

  18. #38
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    Where ever you can find the room. I would not pile any in the attic though, too much weight. Garage, basement near wherever you do your casting, garden shed. I have a full blue barrel and several garbage cans full of free range lead, buckets of ingots in the garden shed, ingots in the basement and garage, also in many nooks and crannies here and there. Label it if you have different alloys. Remember, a little is good, a lot is better and too much is just enough.
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  19. #39
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    I found a pile of old ammo cans outside an Army surplus store at about $5 each. I cleaned them up, sprayed with some cheap rattle can paint, then mount two of them on a piece of 3/4" plywood with casters. When the ammo cans are half full there's maybe 300 lbs between the two cans, but the casters let me move them around as needed. Multiple ammo cans also let me sort my lead. Pure lead in one can, range scrap ingots in others, wheel weight ingots in others. I also use the Lee ingot molds and storing in ammo cans means I don't have to worry about knocking over stacks of them.

  20. #40
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    I poured all my lead and wheelweights into 1lb Lyman ingot molds, made up hundreds of those little bars. Storing - I keep them in .30 cal USGI ammo cans. I can get 65 in a can, that makes each can roughly 67lbs. Heavy, but portable, stackable, clean, and dry. And no spiders. And if I really need extra traction in the winter, I can put 10 cans on the backseat floor of my truck - that's about 650-670lbs of added weight. But I avoid that, moving those things is hard on a crippled old man.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check