Getting out of casting, making lead ingots to cleanup. Fair market values?

yomomma said:
Last quote I had a few years ago was $1.30/lb min 500lbs and need to pick up
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Different vendors probably have different minimum order size. Antimonial lead is more $.

vagrantviking said:
I didn't realize that commercial could be sourced at that low a price.
Will have to reconsider how I source my soft lead. That would leave me sitting pretty for a few years.
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Shipping is extra to the price I posted. I get it shipped to the closest freight depot 20 miles away and pick it up myself from there.
 
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sillymike said:
If you are short on "time", or if your time is worth anything... I doubt it would be worth it for you to process your scrap-lead into ingots.
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Some people don't value their time much.

Recently offered a guy in this area (who had a wtb add for a few hundred lbs) nice clean and hard ingots for $1.35/lb
all from the same melt and no impurities due to bottom pour and he thought that was too much...
So I guess he prefers spending hours driving around to find or pick up lead, sort it, melt it all and pour it instead..
 
Some people need a smack in the head. Had a guy offer me $6/lb for my pewter. Before I had mine up for $10, there were two individuals who had it listed for $14/lb

Takes a while to research and learn all the hallmarks so that you know you have pewter. Don't know how much stuff I tossed because I could not verify the mark.




bertn said:
Some people don't value their time much.

Recently offered a guy in this area (who had a wtb add for a few hundred lbs) nice clean and hard ingots for $1.35/lb
all from the same melt and no impurities due to bottom pour and he thought that was too much...
So I guess he prefers spending hours driving around to find or pick up lead, sort it, melt it all and pour it instead..
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bertn said:
Some people don't value their time much.

Recently offered a guy in this area (who had a wtb add for a few hundred lbs) nice clean and hard ingots for $1.35/lb
all from the same melt and no impurities due to bottom pour and he thought that was too much...
So I guess he prefers spending hours driving around to find or pick up lead, sort it, melt it all and pour it instead..
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How many people still cast?
How much lead do they go through?

10-20 years ago, when the wife and I were active in a pistol league. I knew about 10 guys that cast, and I went through +/- 50lbs of lead a year. Lead that we'd pickup on the annual range clean up.
- Fast forward to today, I'm down to about needing about 10lbs, mostly for shotgun slugs... and I know maybe 2 guys that (probably) still cast.

My last supply of lead came from a guy who was scrapping a sailboat...
 
sillymike said:
How many people still cast?
How much lead do they go through?

10-20 years ago, when the wife and I were active in a pistol league. I knew about 10 guys that cast, and I went through +/- 50lbs of lead a year. Lead that we'd pickup on the annual range clean up.
- Fast forward to today, I'm down to about needing about 10lbs, mostly for shotgun slugs... and I know maybe 2 guys that (probably) still cast.

My last supply of lead came from a guy who was scrapping a sailboat...
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maybe not many now but it will go up with increased prices and availability issues.

The lead is not going bad if it does not get used so no problem keeping it around.

For me its a matter of "better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it".
Once I have some more spare time I wil be casting my own 9mm and 357's and dripping shot so I will be shooting for hardly more than the primer and powder cost :)
 
I sold 37# of that super hard COWW lead- not sure what its made of, fills a mold nice. Useless for muzzleloader. made ok 303 bullets, but they shattered on impact, generally leaving just a broken base. Will make outstanding fishing weights and cod jiggers. Got rid of it for .50 a pound. Sold on facebook marketplace in less than a minute. Knew i priced it too low then.

I am, however , shipping 400# of nice soft stuff across the country very soon. Along with the rest of my stuff. So happy to be leaving the rock.
 
Sorry for the derail, I melted a bunch of WW and had a deep blue scum constantly on the surface. Fellow caster told me that was the zinc. It was a b!tch to get rid of.
 
Tex Critter said:
Sorry for the derail, I melted a bunch of WW and had a deep blue scum constantly on the surface. Fellow caster told me that was the zinc. It was a b!tch to get rid of.
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I had it on my first lead melting adventure, had a hard time getting the temp high enough and lead did not flow as nice as it should.
Next day I looked in the melting pot and it had a beautiful cobalt and green colors at the bottom.

Turned out I had melted the zinc wheelweights as well because the pid temperature controller I used was set to celcius instead of Fahrenheit and I did not notice it.
Lessen learned and I sold the 100lb or so ingots (go big or go home lol) that I made to the scrap yard. Got a buck per pound so wasn't so bad after all.

here is a picture of the pot I took back then.

 
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bertn said:
I had it on my first lead melting adventure, had a hard time getting the temp high enough and lead did not flow as nice as it should.
Next day I looked in the melting pot and it had a beautiful cobalt and green colors at the bottom.

Turned out I had melted the zinc wheelweights as well because the pid temperature controller I used was set to celcius instead of Fahrenheit and I did not notice it.
Lessen learned and I sold the 100lb or so ingots (go big or go home lol) that I made to the scrap yard. Got a buck per pound so wasn't so bad after all.

here is a picture of the pot I took back then.

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Yeah, that's it!
 
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