Lead Question

Tire shops are a good place to get wheel weights.
As far as pure lead is concerned try any demolition company. I have seen some buildings that have been torn down that have lead sheet as noise deadening material.
Other than that, scrap metal recycling companies.
Best of luck.
257Roberts
 
I get mine at garages that sell and install tire.... they save me a 20 liter bucket, 130/140 lb. of used wheels weight that i melt down to separate from the steel clips and dirt. Usually I end up with 90/100 lb of clean ingots.
 
Lead Loader said:
i do know of one shop that has 100lb buckets but he wants $50 each for the scrap wheel weights
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Way Over priced $20-25 for a 3gal bucket =90=110 lb = 50 to 65lb clean lead depending on how much junk is in them
steel & zinc ww
tire valves garbage etc

I have never seen a 5 gal pail of ww how would you pick it up
 
That is $.80 a pound cheaper than what I paid for pure lead and you don't have to blend it. If you do this sort out all the zinc, iron and plastic wheel weights and tire stems first. Stick on wheel weights are closer to pure lead and the metal clip on variety are probably the most usefull as they are a slightly harder alloy.
 
Pretty much every tire shop I go to have a contract with a scrap metal dealer already. Many also require the person who picks them up to be "green certified" by the province for hazardous waste disposal (I'm pretty sure getting rid of the lead at 2000fps into a dirt berm isn't "proper" according to the province.)

I managed to get about 300lbs of wheel weights from a local Costco tire centre once before my friend got ratted on by a fellow employee. They give the stuff for free to the scrap dealer anyway so it was kind of silly. They have a "green mandate" though and I'm not a "green certified waste disposal business". After sorting the zinc, aluminum, and steel wheel weights out I had maybe 80-90lbs of lead alloy. With everyone going green there are fewer and fewer lead wheel weights being used.

Twice now I have had to buy bags of lead shot because I couldn't get lead any other way. It's cheaper than ingots from metal supply companies but a lot more expensive than unsorted scrap from scrap dealers. It was $50 for 25lbs of lead shot which is actually a medium strength alloy and not pure lead. I have heard of scrap dealers selling unsorted wheel weights they pickup from tire shops for $0.75/lbs but haven't found any personally that sell that way. Most old guys I know who cast have agreements with smaller tire shops to pickup all their wheel weights and they wont give up their specific sources.
 
It all depends on how you are set up for casting/smelting. If you find a 5 gallon pail of wheelweights, you still have to melt them down and skim out the junk. I started out with a 110v hotplate and a scrap frying pan. Not so much work, but a lot of patience to melt all the lead from a 5 gallon pail. Also needed is a way to put the lead into usable ingots. A 2nd hand store spoon to skim the crud off, and ingot moulds or muffin tins.
Don't breathe the smoke at any time during the process!
It can be a labour of love or a real pita.
Finding the lead could be as simple as calling up a scrapyard from the yellow pages and asking if they have scrap lead "to make fishing weights to take the kids fishing".
 
I get 5 gal pails from local shops and I pick them up and put them in the truck myself. I usually bring back new empty pails to leave them. All the big brands use scrap/recycle companies here too.
 
Lionel said:
Don't breathe the smoke at any time during the process!
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I understand this causes progressive brain damage, the signs and symptoms of which are as follows:

1) Dizziness and blurring of vision.

2) Short term memory loss.

3) Dementia.

4) Eating apple sauce through a straw while masturbating in public.

5) You become a Liberal.
 
I have never seen a 5 gal pail of ww how would you pick it up[/QUOTE said:
back up the van to the garage door and one guy put it in, at home I take it out and use a dolly to bring it in the garden, melted over the BBQ side burner on a big cast iron 5 liter dutch oven. +- 1 hr each smelt.
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Look for a local refinery that disposes of old car batteries. They should have pure lead pigs for sale. The last one I bought in Richmond, cost $1.14 per pound. 67 pounds goes a long way.
 
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