Good price for lead?

[RexDart]

Not quite ready to begin casting, but I'm scrounging for materials. I have secured a decent pile of linotype, but need softer lead for alloying down to #2 or softer.

The local tire shop is getting so desperate, they're not throwing out wheel weights... they're cleaning them up and re-using them! So far, all I've found is a local indoor range owner who will sell me recovered bullets for .50/lb. Is this a decent price?

I'm thinking I may be getting into casting at the worst possible time...

[MtGun44]

Should be pretty good if you can't find WWTs. Ebay is selling wwt metal
smelted ingots for ~$1/lb delivered. So, you will have to smelt and throw
out maybe 25% or so, depending on what percent jacket metal you will
have.

Actually, lead, along with most metals, has come down in recent months.
I haven't checked recently but it seems like it was just over $1 on the
metals market, but that is from memory and may be way off. To get that
you have to buy huge quantites, so smaller amounts will be a good bit
more.

Bill

[Kuato]

http://www.infomine.com/Investment/H...rts.asp?c=Lead

Looks like its just over $0.85 .. & dropping..

[Jim]

I've been told by more than a few reputable tire dealers here in SC that reusing second hand WWs is illegal.

[RexDart]

So, you will have to smelt and throw
out maybe 25% or so, depending on what percent jacket metal you will
have.

I assume that once melting has occurred, the jackets will separate and float to the top? Or will I need to drill, smash, or otherwise rupture the jackets to allow the lead out?

[Jimlakeside]

My range sells lead for $.75/lb. I purchased 33 lbs as a test. It had a lot of trash in it and there was a lot of waste. It melted fine, cast well. The recycle center sells ww for $.50/lb and there is much less waste.

[azjohn]

Sell the copper jackets back to the scrap yard and you reduce your initial purchase price. You are recycling by using ww's ,now further the process by selling the copper jackets.

[James C. Snodgrass]

Rex , You may need to go a little further to find them. I mean ask in every small town tire shop you can find and don't tell em your making bullets but making sinkers . I don't know what the difference is to anyone what your doing with them but it sure seems to mean some thing to some folks . Good luck James

[hershey]

lead can be bought for .50 a pound on average doing the leg work, i/e going to the scrap yards, or ebay seems to still bring near a dollar, but that is allot easier and no gas money etc. involved. i "monitor" several local scrap bins for good stuff locally and do occasional buy either real hard or real soft lead, or ww's from semi truck's if they have a clean bucket, the percentage of waste from semi's is lower as they tend to be bigger, i/e less clips.

in regards to re-using the wheel weights, that tire shop won't be around much longer, they fall off most of the time, one of our local shops tried that on one of our semi trucks once, he lost about $10,000 worth of business from our company annually over trying to save a few bucks, plus he ate the return bill when we took all ten tires back because they were so out of balance he couldn't get then to rebalance by the time we got back to him for a warranty.

[Newtire]

I've been told by more than a few reputable tire dealers here in SC that reusing second hand WWs is illegal.

Yup, In Kalifornistan it is too...but then so is just about anything else for that matter.

[mtgrs737]

Welcome to the forum AZjohn! Glad to see you here and your first post!

You are right about selling the jacket metal back to the scrap yard. Even WW's generate steel clips as scrap.

The poster that said they may of gotten into this casting hobby at the wrong time because of lead availability/pricing, have you checked on the price of jacketed bullet lately? I think it is the right time!

[Fatman]

RexDart

Yeah re-using wheel weights is illegal!!! Using wheel weights is no problem you can get all the lead out of them just make sure to flux while you're cleaning it.

Fatman

[Alvin in AZ]

Yeah re-using wheel weights is illegal!!!
Fatman

Cool. :)

I mount my own tires and fix my own flats and balance 'em too. :)
I even made a weight pulling tool from some old slip-joint pliers.

Of course I use "used" tire weights. :)

Theoretically the spring clip being mashed back down again and again
makes the spring slightly stronger than the first time, since it's getting
work hardened. (?) The lead part gets a little "bending back" too.

Anyway, I don't use any weights more than 1+1/2 oz because I don't like
the idea of having anymore lead than that per-clip. Just doesn't feel right
to me because it doesn't fit my sense of "doing a good job".

My setup is sensitive to 1/4 oz and one wheel I have right now needs/has
zero weights.

235/85-16's load-E

Anybody else on here fix their own flats and balance their own tires? :)

Alvin in AZ

[jleneave]

I just recently sold all the metal clips from WW that I have melted down to a scrap yard. I got $20.00 out of them. I had one of those plastic Rubbermaid tubs (medium size) about 3/4 full. The tub weighed just over 90lbs. I'm not sure if that is a good or bad price for them, but the $20.00 will buy me a pound of powder that I wouldn't have otherwise had.

Jody

[monadnock#5]

I assume that once melting has occurred, the jackets will separate and float to the top? Or will I need to drill, smash, or otherwise rupture the jackets to allow the lead out?

If just a few, I'll crush the fmj's in a vise. A hammer and anvil would work just as well for a bunch.

[cohutt]

I assume that once melting has occurred, the jackets will separate and float to the top? Or will I need to drill, smash, or otherwise rupture the jackets to allow the lead out?

My experience with berm bounty has been that the jackets on fired fmj bullets have almost all been damaged to the point that there is no need to do any further drilling or cutting.
I always start the melt in a covered dutch oven to be certain that I won't get splattered from a fabled "explosion" caused by lead escaping a copper jacket. I stir and push with a 3 ft+ fire pocker once up to temp to insure the last of the floaters are melted empty.

I've heard a modest pop or two but never anything that gave me any concern.

[Alvin in AZ]

Jeeze Co... I do mine in a coffee can. :) LOL :)

I have a few picked-up-bullets here that are completely covered by copper.

Never thought about them "popping open"... sounds like a real-enough possibility
to me to take their warning seriously. No harm in that. I wear glasses, that makes
it easier for me to "listen to 'em" too?

Co, when you tell your story, you get to tell 'em about how smart you were
you didn't get your ass burned instead of how long it took to heal? ;)

Alvin in AZ

[cohutt]

Haven't burned my self smelting over a ton of lead in all shapes and sizes and types.
For real...

But i have burned the willy out of myself casting before. Condensation on an ingot allowed a tinsel fairy to tatoo my forearm once.

[Chunky Monkey]

Digging out the back part of my basement that was an old fruit cellar to make room for a nice winter bullet casting nest. Needed to move the large barrel of smashed alum cans so I just took them to the recycling center.

While there I asked them if they sell WW. The guy checked and said I could get as much as I want for .40/lb. Is that a good price right now? I'll probably stop in on Friday and get at least 100 lbs.

[deltaenterprizes]

Be careful with indoor range lead,some people throw live rounds down range if they have a problem like a semi not feeding or a round is tight in a revolver cylinder! I used to get 3000 lbs every 2 months from a local indoor range.
Always start with a cold pot and use a cover, A round going off is exciting but unless it is close to the top it will just make a pop and scare the %#@& out of you!