Buying lead from a scrap dealer

OverUnder725

OverUnder725

Regular
Super GunNutz
Rating - 100%
28   0   0
Location
Next door to my neighbour
There are two scrap dealers around to buy lead from. They both are asking $1.00 per pound for and say it comes in what ever form you want, you can choose. Is there a specific type of raw material that works best? I have read the sticky on wheel weight smelting and seen the videos but thought if I were to buy prepared scrap, there may be an ideal product to look for. As well, is $1.00 per pound reasonable? I know it can be had for asking at some tire shops etc. but I was thinking buying it from the scrap dealer would be comparable by the time you factor in fuel as well as the odd case of Friday afternoon refreshments that often goes along with the "come get it for free deals". Any input appreciated.
 
I trade wheel weights when I can, and I've heard the $1/lb number before, but that has to be prepared in some way - raw weights with the clips still on, etc, would have to be worth less than that.

Maybe someone with experience can advised how much useable lead you get out of a pound of wheel weights. Does 10% go in the garbage? 20%?
 
Our local scrap yard is selling lead for 0.95$ Per pound right now. But I work at a tire shop and get all mine for free. I got about 2800 lbs prepared and about another 900 lbs waiting to be prepared. But yeah a dollar per pounds seems about right. And as for the type I guess it depends in what you are casting for. Hope that helps a bit.
as for how much per pound on average it works out to 9.0 lbs per 10 lbs of wheel weights. On average depends on weight sizes as you can get them between 0.25 of an ounce all the way up to 6.0 ounce for big truck tires.
 
Last edited:
Yeah they are probably your best bet if going raw. Keep the sticky weight separate as they are pretty much pure lead. Batteries are great pure lead. But bad to get the lead out of. (Bonfire is needed)
 
It depends on what you want to use the bullets for. Wheelweights are good for rifle and I suppose some people use them for pistol (closest I have to a pistol is a 38-40 Winchester)
Pure lead for muzzleloaders, if you don't do the sabot thing at higher velocity, then you need harder alloy.
If there is some plumbing lead, or solder lead, try and get it for the tin content. It'll help with mold fillout and make the edges sharper with better fillout.

You could buy your lead alloy from a proper supplier, but it will cost more. But, you will have the right alloy you want, not something you have to mix and match to get something "close".

It all comes down to what you want in performance from your guns. If you make up a batch of 500 boolits and they don't work worth a darn in your gun, all you are out is the time it took to cast them up, because you can remelt them and start over. You don't have to throw them away.

FWIW most of my lead is wheelweight, that I use in my 30 cals. I have a bunch of pure lead (with a fair bit of tin, so I guess it's not "pure") that I mix 50-50 for my 38-40, or use for my muzzleloader.

It would really help to know what kind of gun(s) you want to cast for, but wheelweight won't be the worst thing you choose to shoot.
 
as for how much per pound on average it works out to 9.0 lbs per 10 lbs of wheel weights.
Click to expand...

Not always.
With all the zinc, ferrous, clips, rubber, schrader valves, candy wrappers and ass't trash my raw buckets contain of late ... more like 75% yield to ingot lead.
Not complaining though, those pure lead stick-ons mixed in there, they sure do make fine boolits for me antique revolvers!.

My problem is that no local scrap yard will sell anything .. at any price I offer them. Blanket policy, across the board, it seems.
Have got me 1000lbs of wheelweight ingots out there under the shop, & cant find any pure soft for love or money.

Last time I sold copper to the yard, they had 45 gal drums full of dead soft sheet ... 1000's of pounds ... <"Sorry, we don't sell">
 
You gotta get in good with the scrappers.

I got a scrapper i bring stuff in and we always chit chat, hes younger, about my age so we get along good.

A year ago i asked for some alu for my mill and he went dumpster diving for me to get me some good stuff. Charged me almost nothing for it. I then asked for lead and he opened up a 55gal drum filled with lead pellets. Said, take as much as you can carry.

Last week i dropped off some stainless steel and we did a trade on rolls of pure lead sheets. Came out to be less than $1/lbs. Only thing he wont sell me is brass. For one he says he hardly ever gets it and he also has to certify that its been destroyed.

vviking said:
Not always.
With all the zinc, ferrous, clips, rubber, schrader valves, candy wrappers and ass't trash my raw buckets contain of late ... more like 75% yield to ingot lead.
Not complaining though, those pure lead stick-ons mixed in there, they sure do make fine boolits for me antique revolvers!.

My problem is that no local scrap yard will sell anything .. at any price I offer them. Blanket policy, across the board, it seems.
Have got me 1000lbs of wheelweight ingots out there under the shop, & cant find any pure soft for love or money.

Last time I sold copper to the yard, they had 45 gal drums full of dead soft sheet ... 1000's of pounds ... <"Sorry, we don't sell">
Click to expand...
 
Here scrappers are paying 90 cents a pound and selling for 1.20. Most of the guys I know that were making their own shot & bullets are back to buying new. Also the old wheel weights are drying up fast over the past 2 years since most of the big users like ford etc stopped using them on new vehicles.
Best to stock up while you can
 
Just go to a tire shop.. Our local one has 5 gallon pails full of wheel weights for $15 pail.. Yes you have to sort them but there should be about 130 lbs in the pail. He told me he gets 7 cents a pound for them.
 
Hi,

Not as experienced as Kenneth Carlson (#3 above), but I recently melted down 33kg of wheel weights, and got 23.5kg of clean lead alloy (29% waste). The most common piece of waste was "Zink??" wheel weights, and iron clips. For a small timer like me, it is not worth the effort, but it was fun, and I shall just buy bullets from JetHunter on CGN.

RSA1
 
I pick up ww from the shops I deal with and found out that many shops are going back to lead cause the steel ww do not work as well as lead.
One ford shop I scrouge from had at least half a bucket of new steel ww that they threw out. I asked the foreman like wtf and that is what he told me. YMMV
 
Just some comments on earlier posts in this thread;
Battery lead is not pure lead --- I have been warned that it contains cadmium, the vapours of which are very toxic

locally it is difficult to buy wheel weights from the tire stores because they always seem to have a deal with someone local who casts lead cannon balls (for fishing). What does work is to say "would you take $X for what is in the bucket right now" and odds are they will sell them as well as ask you to bring back the bucket. I would consider wheel weights to be a dubious economy when you factor in the time and trouble of melting them down and removing the scrap.

If offered large ingots of lead, you can test its hardness and therefore make a guess at its purity by standing over the ingot and dropping a large (1") ball bearing on the lead and measuring the diameter of the dent with accurate digital calipers. Start with a sample of what you know to be pure lead and measure the diameter of the dent in it. Index the height you drop from by holding your thumb against your xyphoid process; CPR types will know what it is ---- it is the point of bone at the bottom of your sternum. My experience has been that there is a significant difference between the diameter of the dent in pure or nearly pure lead and in wheel weights or high allow lead

cheers mooncoon
 
OverUnder725 said:
There are two scrap dealers around to buy lead from. They both are asking $1.00 per pound for and say it comes in what ever form you want, you can choose. Is there a specific type of raw material that works best? I have read the sticky on wheel weight smelting and seen the videos but thought if I were to buy prepared scrap, there may be an ideal product to look for. As well, is $1.00 per pound reasonable? I know it can be had for asking at some tire shops etc. but I was thinking buying it from the scrap dealer would be comparable by the time you factor in fuel as well as the odd case of Friday afternoon refreshments that often goes along with the "come get it for free deals". Any input appreciated.
Click to expand...
To answer your question. I buy old down spout and roofing lead for 65 cents a pound in Prince George B.C. from the metals scrap yard. Wheel Weights are not 100% lead and are useless for my shooting purposes wheel weights are too hard. I shoot 54 caliber cap lock Hawken muzzle loaders and Flint locks. These guns require 100% lead when using patched round ball or Great Plains Bullets. Pure lead is needed in these old smoke poles because the Patch and ball needs to be soft enough to crave the rifling in the bore. When shooting bullets the lead needs to be soft 100% pure as well. A harder lead alloy would make trying to push a bullet down the bore almost impossible.
 
mooncoon said:
Just some comments on earlier posts in this thread;
Battery lead is not pure lead --- I have been warned that it contains cadmium, the vapours of which are very toxic

locally it is difficult to buy wheel weights from the tire stores because they always seem to have a deal with someone local who casts lead cannon balls (for fishing). What does work is to say "would you take $X for what is in the bucket right now" and odds are they will sell them as well as ask you to bring back the bucket. I would consider wheel weights to be a dubious economy when you factor in the time and trouble of melting them down and removing the scrap.

If offered large ingots of lead, you can test its hardness and therefore make a guess at its purity by standing over the ingot and dropping a large (1") ball bearing on the lead and measuring the diameter of the dent with accurate digital calipers. Start with a sample of what you know to be pure lead and measure the diameter of the dent in it. Index the height you drop from by holding your thumb against your xyphoid process; CPR types will know what it is ---- it is the point of bone at the bottom of your sternum. My experience has been that there is a significant difference between the diameter of the dent in pure or nearly pure lead and in wheel weights or high allow lead

cheers mooncoon
Click to expand...
Hey mooncoon another thing U can do is take a lead ingot and drop it on a concrete floor. If it goes ding it ant pure lead, if it goes clunk, you can be pretty sure it's pure or close. Anyway thanks for the old ball bearing tip.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom