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Thread: Price to pay for WW and Linotype

  1. #41
    Boolit Master
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    That golden hue on the surface of the bright and shiny ingots is your clue. Not sure if pure or just high tin content. Bend the little one and listen for a crackle sound. You did very well. Guard that "honey hole" and maybe try to get back for more if the budget will allow it. You have done very well. Very, very well.

  2. #42
    Boolit Master
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    Well this sucks, I now have 1,000 lbs. of wheel weights in buckets in the back of my truck that got rained on for three days and now snowed on and going down to 13 degrees tonight. Oh, No holes in most of the buckets either. So much for speed melting my nice dry weights. This is where it is nice to have two burners. One I use for my smelting but the other one just does not get hot enough for some reason and I haven't played with it but it will be perfect for drying a pot load of weights while the other load is melting and being processed. I knew there was a reason I never throw stuff out!

  3. #43
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rickf1985 View Post
    Well this sucks, I now have 1,000 lbs. of wheel weights in buckets in the back of my truck that got rained on for three days and now snowed on and going down to 13 degrees tonight. Oh, No holes in most of the buckets either. So much for speed melting my nice dry weights. This is where it is nice to have two burners. One I use for my smelting but the other one just does not get hot enough for some reason and I haven't played with it but it will be perfect for drying a pot load of weights while the other load is melting and being processed. I knew there was a reason I never throw stuff out!
    I am laughing at your misfortune only because of your recent good fortune!

  4. #44
    Boolit Master

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    Congratulations Rick, you done good, real good.
    “Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem.” Ronald Reagan


  5. #45
    Boolit Master
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    Yea, I think that I can handle the bad with the extreme good. Good almost never happens with me, I am always 5 minutes late to the party with these deals.

  6. #46
    Boolit Master
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    Well, I started melting down the weights today and I am glad I was doing it in the garage because my smelting pot made from a Freon tank sprung a leak! a couple of them as a matter of fact. So shut it down and scooped out the unmelted weights and once cool I popped out the chunk that was in there and found out that because this tank had been sitting outside for a long time the three tits on the bottom and the bottom center were rusted through. Funny it did not leak the last time I used it a few weeks ago with a lot more lead in it. So I just rolled it over and cleaned up the areas that were rusted and brazed everything up and back to work. I only did the smallest bucket in the pictures, it had 58lbs. of weights in it and it has yielded 55 lbs. of lead! After sorting I had 2 plastic weights and one valve stem. Period. No zinc, no steel. I am a very happy caster!!!

  7. #47
    Boolit Master



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    Freon tanks are not as thick as propane tanks. Me, I just buy large heavy duty SS stew pots from the Goodwill.

  8. #48
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Springfield View Post
    Freon tanks are not as thick as propane tanks. Me, I just buy large heavy duty SS stew pots from the Goodwill.
    Yea, but that is just to easy and uncomplicated. I actually was going to stop at the local goodwill the other day to see if they had a scale and they were PACKED! I didn't need it that bad. I have to go out that way again tomorrow and it is supposed to be snowing so might not be as bad.

  9. #49
    Boolit Master
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    Well, I am about 800lbs. into my converting the wheel weights into Cast boolits ingots and to this date I have not found another plastic weight or anything. I did get one more valve stem. I have never seen anything like this. I spread the weights out on steel plating I have on the garage floor because they had gotten water in the buckets in my truck and all I am having to do is scoop them up with a shovel and put them directly in the pot, no sorting!!! I am keeping everything that is left over like the metal clips and what very little dross there is, that is mostly dirt from the floor and the buckets. I am going to weigh everything when I am done just out of curiosity to see how much is lost to clips and such. I weighed it today after 800 lbs. and I weighed the clips. How much do you think I have in metal clips after processing 800 lbs. of weights? I was kind of surprised myself.

  10. #50
    Boolit Master

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    You have been busy!!!!!
    I firmly believe that you should only get treated by how you act, not by who or what you are!!

  11. #51
    Boolit Master
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    I weighed it today after 800 lbs. and I weighed the clips. How much do you think I have in metal clips after processing 800 lbs. of weights?

    96 pounds of clips, dross included would be more.

  12. #52
    Boolit Master

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    that's not bad getting 12% clips. I have had as low as 10% (just once) and as high as 18%. For cost planning I anticipate 15%.
    “Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem.” Ronald Reagan


  13. #53
    Boolit Grand Master

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    I want to say I see 12% or so loss to clips. I save them and take them to the scrap yard. 10 cents a pound isn't much but I sell the steel weights, Zinc weights, junk brass, ect at the same time. I sold 628# once.

  14. #54
    Boolit Master
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    I kind of worded my weights wrong so it is a little misleading. What I have so far is 800 lbs. of processed lead and roughly 10 lbs. of dross. Dusty guessed 96lbs. and that was so close it was scary. LOL.
    Let me start over.
    I started with 1,000 lbs. of wheel weights. I now have 800 lbs. of ingots, 90 lbs. of clips and 10 lbs. of dross.
    900 lbs. total and a small pile on the floor still to be done.
    8 lbs. per hundred loss on wheel weights? I will take that all day long!!!! I will give the final tally when I finish up that last pile, It was wet from the half water filled bucket so had to dry. Now it is 15 degrees out there so may not happen today. But if I get 880 lbs. out of 1,000 I am not going to complain. Then I still have the other 500 lbs. I went back for. They may wait till spring.

  15. #55
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by lightman View Post
    I want to say I see 12% or so loss to clips. I save them and take them to the scrap yard. 10 cents a pound isn't much but I sell the steel weights, Zinc weights, junk brass, ect at the same time. I sold 628# once.
    I give that kind of stuff to one of neighbors who does scrapping to supplement his Social Security. The few dollars I would get would not pay for the fuel to take it there. Plus they give him "New" tires every time he gets a flat at the yard, which is pretty often apparently. I do not run on junkyard tires so no thanks on that!

  16. #56
    Boolit Master
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    Finshed up the 1,000 lb. lot that I got the first run with the exception of some monster truck weights that I tossed aside and they didn't make it in the pot. There are 18 lbs. of them. All of the stick-ons I pulled out but I have a sneaky suspicion that this guy had already gone through and checked whether they were soft or hard because all of the ones I tossed in a box are hard to bend. Not zinc hard but not soft lead by a long shot. I am going to test some to see what the hardness is on them before I melt them down 35lbs of them. So 53 lbs. of weights that did not get melted but I am just going to add that to the total at the end since the stickons will have next to no loss and the huge truck weights will only have about ten clips, so again, loss is negligible. All the rest of the weights are now cast boolits ingots and I ended up with 895lbs. of ingots, 105lbs. of clips and about 11lbs. of dross. Total of everything comes out to 1,064 lbs.
    I know the seller was giving me the benefit of the doubt on the weight, but I didn't think it was that much of a benefit! When you figure the other 53 lbs. left to melt that will give me 948 lbs. of clean lead. 52lbs. short of the total purchased.
    Total amount of trash mixed in with the weights amounted to two valve stems, one shock bushing, and a couple valve stem cores. Period!! No zincs at all. In the very first pot I got two small plastic composite weights and I have to wonder if they were not tossed in somewhere else along the line.
    Yes, I am gloating, This never, EVER happens to me!!!!! I am always the guy that is second or third in line on these deals and all I can do is watch someone else walk off with it. The best part is that I left that 500 lbs. behind because he told me another guy had said he wanted it but he had scheduled the guy for another day since he did not know what I was going to get. So I told him I would let him have a chance at them. A week later he had never called back, GONE!

  17. #57
    Boolit Bub
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    My local tire guy is my source for $0. My cost is going to be a lead weight for one of his dragsters.

  18. #58
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Good deal! It sounds like you came out pretty good!

  19. #59
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rickf1985 View Post
    Weeeeeel, I went up to get my lead today. Got there and he has a lot of lead and I was looking through the lino bucket he showed me a wood crate with long spacers in it and he said they pulled these out of the lino but left the thicker ones in. I told him the spacers were pure lead and not worth the same as the lino and he was fine with me separating it out. I mentioned I had seen a lino pig in one of his buckets and he had no idea what I was talking about so we went to the buckets and I pulled it out. Oh, I have some more of them in the garage! SCORE! Then he mentions that he got all of this lead from a guy who did reloading!!!!! At this point I am thinking I didn't bring enough money. Sure enough, I look at the wheel weights and I did not find a single zinc weight. He asked me what the difference was so I got a pair of cutters and showed him how to check them but I could not find a single zinc to demonstrate on. SCORE #2! I was looking through the scrap lead ingots he had and he asked how I knew lino from pure lead so I grabbed an ingot and dropped it on the concrete and it rang like a bell! I said THAT is NOT pure lead! I have no idea how much lino or wheel weights he actually has in the scrap pile but he is asking 2:00 lb. up to 500 and 1.50 over that. In addition to the lino pigs and some very large bricks that rang he said I also have these, you will see them in the pics, bars that shine nice and bright that I am thinking may be tin. The guy was a reloader and obviously into casting. SCORE #3! So final tally was 1,000lbs. of wheel weights that will be at bare minimum 95% lead. 100lbs. of linotype and the suspected tin, about 25lbs.

    Been trying for 20 minutes to upload pics and all get are errors saying cast boolits cannot upload the file number. So have to go with Postimage.







    I realized while looking for this thread to get a link that I never updated the final tally and the end results. I hate leaving a story unfinished.
    I ended up going back up to the guys house a week later to buy the remaining 500 lbs. of wheel weights when the other person never showed up. I also picked out some more goodies from the scrap buckets. Anyone know anything about the Rochester lead works Extra wiping? I got 13 of those ingots at about 3 lbs. each. So here is what I ended up going back for, like the first group of weights these had no zinc or steel in them. They were rusty because they had been stored outside in a barrel with no holes in it and the clips rusted. This surprisingly did not give me as much dross as I thought it would.

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    And here is the end result of the smelting of those wheel weights. I ended up with 1350 lbs. out of the 1500 lbs. I bought at $.50 lb. I am pretty sure he was very generous on the counts as far as weight goes. All told with some that I had from before there is about 2200 lbs. of wheel weight ingots there. I moved all of that in a 3 hour period from the garage over a couple building to where it is now neatly stacked on the pallet! By hand!!!


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  20. #60
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by colchester View Post
    I have heard the same thing but no first hand experience
    Yes, it does remove leading.
    My dad worked maintenance in a steel mill and had close to a quart that he salvaged from mercury switches. He and his buddies would use it to take the lead out of shotgun barrels which was common before plastic wads and shot cups became available. I used it a couple of times when I first starting casting and was learning, the hard way, about velocity limits for various alloys. Forgot all about it for at least 50 years, and re-discovered it when cleaning out his house after he died. I hopefully will never need it again and would be happy to pass it on (free) if someone wants it and lives close enough to Butler Pa. to pick it up. No way I'd try to mail it.

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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