Shipping is not so bad with flat rate boxes though your mailman might build up their biceps
Shipping is not so bad with flat rate boxes though your mailman might build up their biceps
Any recent prices on wheel weights? I have a supplier at 65 cents per pound, but not sure how that compares right now.
I have had to buy scrapped diving weights for $1 per pound up here for lack of any other sources about 6 months ago. Since joining this forum, I see that there are better sources .
I recently paid .35/# for a bucket of them. I have a guy who will sell me large sorted ones for .75/#. Hope that helps.
God Bless!
Ron
Shoot more, type less.
fwiw, with some rounding at the counter it was $38/113#=33.6 cents/#
Shoot more, type less.
Awesome, thanks for the information. Where did you source this? I can't get any tire shops to sell these to me, and have had to resort to Craigslist to find anything at all.
Do you have a tire/scrap shop that sells them?
They get stupid with the price down south. I went to some tire shops and they want $30 a bucket!!! That's $3 a lb, by the time I melt down and remove the clips then make shot I just as well buy the shot and save all the work.
Vinne--$3 a pound for a $30 bucket would be the size of a soup can. Here in South Carolina our wheel weight buckets are a little bigger at around 3 to 5 gallons. They go for around $30 also. 0urs usually weigh a hundred plus pounds. That computes to around 30 cents a pound.
Local salvage yard here want 1@# unsorted. Told him I could get clean allow for about same price shipped to my house and he said to buy that.
Local scrap yards in my area are giving .35 per pound raw wheel weights. Tire shops are getting $30-40 per full five gallon bucket from casters in need. its getting way harder to get a hold of scrap lead.
I paid $35 for a bucket of scrap wheel weights a few weeks ago (got an independent tire shop just a couple blocks up where I'm a regular customer). I've got 37 pounds of ingots already smelted, at least that much metal remaining in the "sorted" bin, and a bit over a third of the original bucket yet to sort. I'm pretty sure I'll have over 100 lbs of alloy (looking like 75% clip-on, remainder the softer stick-on) by the time I'm through sorting and smelting, for a total outlay including fuel for my camp stove well under $50.
With my local scrap yard asking 90 cents a pound for scrap lead, unless it's already smelted and in ingots, it's not worth paying that (for me). I should call, though; if it's ingots, and known composition, and they'll sell in fifty pound lots or smaller (because I rarely have more than $50 to spend at one time)...
After visiting about 10 places Monday, I came away with *about* 90-100 pounds of scrap wheel weights for about $34. I paid a bit more at one place because I was trying to establish an on-going deal.
The big stores, such as Walmart and Sears, will absolutely not sell you their used wheel weights. Many of the slightly smaller chains have made deals to have some company pick up their scrap every other day or so and won't sell. The scrap yards won't sell to an individual.
So I scrounge WW any chance I get and if I pay more than 30 cents a pound some times, I'm just glad I was able to get it. It's still less expensive in the long run than store-bought boolits.
Richard
Isn't a 9mm just a .45 set on stun? -- Amy W.
"When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred."
-- Niccolo Machiavelli
USPSA A32025
NRA Life
New wheel wt lead with 4% antimony was selling for about 90 cents per lb. Dirty wheel wt lead with clips, valve stems, grease, oil, bubble gum, papers, spit, tabacco, I refuse to pay more than 1/2 what lead costs new. If you want new lead call Wiley Sanders in Georgia they will deliver a 20 ton truck load to your shop door in 55 lb bars.
Well, I guess I got lucky. I spent a couple of hours last week going around my neighborhood going to garages and small tire shops. I now have 4 locations that will save the wheel weights for me. Free!!
I went to my local scrap yard last Saturday got 200# for 100.00 yealed 170#, it was all large WW weights. Think maybe I'll go back for more.
Found a local scrap place that said they have lots of wheel weights, but they want 80 cents a pound. Ouch. If it were nicely sorted, perhaps, but with zinc and iron weights, I've been running 15 percent rejects on the wheel weights I've been able to buy.
The number of places that used to sell me scrap wheel weights has diminished hugely. Either corporate policy, or there's a friend of a friend, or they have a deal with some scrap scrounger, or ...
Bother!
Richard
Isn't a 9mm just a .45 set on stun? -- Amy W.
"When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred."
-- Niccolo Machiavelli
USPSA A32025
NRA Life
I just picked up a pail of WW's yesterday from my favorite tire shop. The pail was no quite full to the brim and asfter sorting I ended up with 30% zinc/steel/tire stems etc. I still have to smelt it all down into ingots and I'll loose more on the clips. Still cost me $30 for the pail, so the writing is on the wall, no matter what area you live in.
Mmmmm... I got a bucket full of weights last week for a cold case of "light". Was able to sift through it all a pull out a few nonlead items, but all in all, felt the trade was fair. Buddy at the tire shop keeps them for me. Might try making a friend or two here and there and see if a 'barter' is cheaper than a 'buy'. Plus... City Engnieer hollers a me when he demo's old sewer lines in old part of city.... I don't mind the mud and crud, his boys leave the 'gasket's laying about and, another one of those boxes of 12oz. containers full of what they like makes all happy. Bit smelly sometimes. Nasty lead for sure...takes a bit of time to slow smelt the water and nastyis out of the subject matter, but, all comes out in the end. (no pun intended). Haven't had to purchase lead in a while, but don't shoot that much any more. Fella on the board sells good, clean NUCLEAR waste lead. Ships it to your door and is indeed qualtiy stuff.
Nose Dive.
Cheap, Fast, Good. Kindly pick two.
Im in illinois and scrap yards get $.85 per # but we have a local smelter that I can buy pure lead for market price of $1.03 per #. So I have give up on ww not worth it.
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 |