Stick on wheel weights

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Skyhawk

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I've been sorting these out and accumulating them for awhile now. I have several hundred pounds. How much would these be worth a pound if I were to sell them? I suppose I might offer to trade them pound for pound with clip-on WWs too if that were fair? But then again, I doubt anyone having clip-ons or clip-on ingots would need stick-ons! :rolleyes:

Worse comes to worse I guess I could get the 50/50 solder or linotype or whatever and use it myself one day. I just hate the fact I might have more than just a couple buckets in the garage within the next few years.
 
What do you do with them now? Kinda sounds like you already cast your own bullets, but don't want to be bothered with the softer stick-ons. I cast my own, and the last batch I did I never bothered to sort the clip-ons from the stick-ons. I got a fairly hard bullet that if allowed to air cool expanded quite nicely into wet newspapers. Classic musroom. (flatnose 30-30 and 348 winchester loads) If I dropped the hot bullets into cold water, they got brittle and fragmented wtihout penetration.
I've also made "softnose" lead bullets by pouring a pure lead nose and a harder lead body. Haven't killed anything with this yet. It'll take a long time to use up a 5 gal pail of this, as it only takes about 40-50 grains for each bullet.
Maybe a muzzleloader guy near you would want that lead. Or somebody who casts thier own fishing weights or jigs.
I paid $.60 /lb for my last lead purchase. Cash. If it was cheque or credit card the price would have been $.90 /lb.
The commercial lead price has been trading around $1 /lb for a while now (last couple of months) sometimes a few pennies higher or lower.
 
I bought soft lead a month or so back for a buck a pound.

Could always cast it into nice clean ingots and stick it on kijiji?

I use mine both to make #2 alloy and for BP applications

I wasn't aware of Linotype still being available. I've not seen it in years. I guess you need to be in the right place and time for that. I've a bucket full yet so I can make a few hundred pounds of alloy still.

Sounds like a lot, until I go casting 500gr .45 cal stuff at something like 15 boolits per pound!
 
I've been sorting these out and accumulating them for awhile now. I have several hundred pounds
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Consider yourself a blessed man,you can always trade that lead at a later date for a harder alloy or other reloading components you need. Not all bullet caster have easy access to pure lead or lead based alloys.

I smelted down and made 380 + lbs. of pure lead ingots over the weekend,I use it as is for sub-sonic or low velocity loads that don't require a hard alloy. You can also cast it into BP bullets,shotgun slugs or buckshot.
 
Lionel I used to just melt them with the clip-ons, but someone at the range told me I should sort them out because there was a separate market for them and nearly pure lead was getting hard to find. I was thinking about getting into shotshell reloading more. I didn't bother to ingot them yet since they probably wouldn't take less room in that form, but I would first if I were to sell it. Perhaps it would make good buckshot. It would definitely make good slugs. I guess I'll just hang on to them for now. I started this thread because the wife was complaining about the buckets of stick-ons already taking up room in the garage (along with all the other stuff), and she knew I was getting more buckets of wheel weights today. I actually scored 7 20-litre buckets today - not quite full, but almost - too full to lift anyway.

There's a couple garages that I have once a year deals with. They save them up over the entire year, and I pick them up around Christmas so they use the money to buy booze for their staff Christmas parties. Works well. My back aches though. I'm starting to wonder if I'm getting too old for this!
 
I found a source for Linotype but in small amounts. The numbers for tattoo hammers for pigs is made out of it. I save the broken numbers up for a while and then cast them with other lead like wheel weights and toilet fittings.
 
vviking, too bad you don't live in Ottawa. I've been saving up these stick-ons for quite some time. Anyone know if this pureness of lead would fill buck shot molds well enough, even with the lack of antimony and tin in them? I'm thinking of those Lee aluminum molds, maybe the 00 or #4? I'm also toying with the idea of getting the Lee 7/8oz Slug Mold too for fun. I only have a smooth barrel though.
 
Raton57, I was the guy in Ottawa trading 1 pound Linotype for 2 pounds ww ingots on EE. Lately I'm starting to think I should have kept all that Linotype. I still have about 30 pounds of letters, numbers, symbols, and seals. But I can't bring myself to melt them. It's like they have some historical value to me or something. They're too cool, and they came in these neat wooden boxes...
 
Antimony makes the lead harder, less likely to deform. Tin also helps with resisting deforming, but helps better with filling out the mold (think nice crisp sharp well defined corners and shoulders)
In a round ball mold I don't think that you would need tin to help fill out any corners. Using the 7/8 oz slug in any amount will use up your supply quickly if you start shooting a lot.
Don't worry about only having a smooth bore. My neighbour says he had a 20 gauge that would shoot slugs accurately out to at least 200 yards. Smooth bore single shot. I never seen it shoot as he sold it long before he moved to mb.
In the bush, hunting for deer, the 12 gauge is a darn good choice. Carry slugs and bird shot for when the two seasons are on at the same time. You'll always go home with meat of one kind or another...
If you're going to be casting buck or smaller shot, get a gang mould that casts a bunch of pellets at a time, or you'll be casting for 20 minutes to load 3 shells. Starts sucking the fun out of things.
 
what are you paying for a bucket of weights? just curious as I am trying to get some garages on board to sell me theirs? do they separate out the lead vs other metal weights or do you have to sort them afterwards?



Skyhawk said:
Lionel I used to just melt them with the clip-ons, but someone at the range told me I should sort them out because there was a separate market for them and nearly pure lead was getting hard to find. I was thinking about getting into shotshell reloading more. I didn't bother to ingot them yet since they probably wouldn't take less room in that form, but I would first if I were to sell it. Perhaps it would make good buckshot. It would definitely make good slugs. I guess I'll just hang on to them for now. I started this thread because the wife was complaining about the buckets of stick-ons already taking up room in the garage (along with all the other stuff), and she knew I was getting more buckets of wheel weights today. I actually scored 7 20-litre buckets today - not quite full, but almost - too full to lift anyway.

There's a couple garages that I have once a year deals with. They save them up over the entire year, and I pick them up around Christmas so they use the money to buy booze for their staff Christmas parties. Works well. My back aches though. I'm starting to wonder if I'm getting too old for this!
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I get my lead at a small scrapyard. I can't remember the last time I got lead from a tire shop. I just gave up asking because the answer was always "no".
The lead from the scrapyard isn't sorted. It's in a 45 gallon steel drum that the wheelweights, plumbing lead, valve stems, roofing lead, and cigarette buts have all been dumped in to.
For the bigger chunks of lead (plumbing/ roofing), where I shop they'll let you sort through the barrel. I just reach in and grab the big peices of pipe or whatnot and put it all in a 5 gallon pail to be weighed and then pay for it that way.
When I smelt down wheel weights I dump a layer into my wheelbarrow next to the melting pot and sort out the good from the bad, leaving valve stems, gravel, shop rags etc, behind and only throw in the stuff I want melted.
The price I've paid, on the prairies, is $.60/lb cash or if I want to pay cheque the price goes up to $.90/lb and I have to pay taxes on top of that.
Doesn't matter what type of lead. WW, plumbing, roofing, printers lead, it's all the same price...
This is from a scapyard, and I don't know what they pay the tire shops for their lead. Can't be much...
 
dakotamar said:
what are you paying for a bucket of weights? just curious as I am trying to get some garages on board to sell me theirs? do they separate out the lead vs other metal weights or do you have to sort them afterwards?
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I offer $50 for each full 20 liter bucket, or portion there of. They rarely fill them to the brim, with most shops filling them to the $40 point - 4" to 6" from the top. I know of no tire shop or garage that will sort them for you, but some shops are cleaner than others. The two garages that save them for their Christmas parties are pretty good about keeping most foreign items like tire stems, rags, cigarette butts, and small car parts out of the bucket. I have one particular Midas Muffler that's the cleanest of all for some reason. I've noticed there's also a correlation between the dirtiness of a shop and how much crap they throw in the the wheel weight bucket. If their bay is completely disorganized and looks like something out of a horror movie, expect to find the same in the bucket. I avoid those, because it's just not worth it for me.

I provide my own buckets upon request, with my first name and phone number written on them with a permanent marker. When trying to score a new source, I drive there rather than calling, bringing a couple of those buckets with me. If they don't have lead at the time, I ask if they would like a bucket, and try to firm up some sort of date range when I can come back to check. You will get a lot of refusals due to them having a "contract" or whatever. For that reason, avoid the Walmarts, Canadian Tires, Auto Sales Dealers, etc. But I have had some great luck with independently owned franchises like Midas Muffler, Speedy, etc. Don't be afraid to buy just half or even a quarter of a bucket worth. Remember, depending on location you are in competition with others for this resource.
 
Skyhawk said:
Raton57, I was the guy in Ottawa trading 1 pound Linotype for 2 pounds ww ingots on EE. Lately I'm starting to think I should have kept all that Linotype. I still have about 30 pounds of letters, numbers, symbols, and seals. But I can't bring myself to melt them. It's like they have some historical value to me or something. They're too cool, and they came in these neat wooden boxes...
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Yes, thanks to eco-terrorists all lead based alloys are getting unobtanium lately. Thanks to my packrat character I still have 50+lbs of 50/50 solder, 250lbs or so linotype and over a ton of w-w stashed away....mind you I shot a lot cast bullets. $.40/lb 10 years ago to now at $1.05/lb of lead the "free" casting metals are no more. Funny thing, just for kicks couple of days ago I noticed in Princes Auto that they started selling the leadless solder by 4oz and 8oz only and the price? $40/lb! Unbelivable....
 
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