Haven't gone hunting for lead wheel weights since I moved to Calgary. For the local casters, whats your experience been like? Am I better off going to the scrap yards? For me to pay $7/lb is just ridiculous, essentially makes it solely a hobby rather than cost saver. I'm a young guy, university student, so i'm trying to save money wherever possible with this hobby. Any help would be appreciated!
Going hunting for lead wheel weights Calgary
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I have a place I get mine from. I tried the larger shops and all said they can't sell them anymore. I'd hit up some smaller independent shops and offer $20-$25/ bucket. A box of donuts and coffe can help too sometimes. The last couple of buckets I've picked up had maybe 50% useable weights.
Auggie D.
Auggie D.
I'm in Manitoba so this isn't directly applicable, but I've had best luck asking at small shops in small towns. Often they'll give you what they have just for asking. Couple times I paid $15 for the bucket. The places that gave them to me for free I made sure to drop by with donuts next time I went through town.
Auggie, I often see 50% or even less quoted but that hasn't been my experience. I just finished sorting 4 buckets that were mostly full and ended up with the vast majority being lead weights. A couple large coffee cans worth of zinc weights and a three gallon pail full of steel weights and assorted garbage. Ended up with , rough estimate, 350 pounds of clean ingots.
Auggie, I often see 50% or even less quoted but that hasn't been my experience. I just finished sorting 4 buckets that were mostly full and ended up with the vast majority being lead weights. A couple large coffee cans worth of zinc weights and a three gallon pail full of steel weights and assorted garbage. Ended up with , rough estimate, 350 pounds of clean ingots.
I managed to find some lead from scrap yards in the past as well... Reloading EE section has some good deals pop up every now and then... There is an offering of linotype from Edmonton for $4/lb as an example; he may give you a good deal if you grab enough...
Well, had a few places say no but when I was out getting some steel I decided to try one of the scrap yards. Got a huge bar of linotype! a bunch of lead sinkers and a couple gallons of wheel weights. Asked them to give me a call the next time a pile builds up. Now the work begins sorting and making ingots. Thankfully the guys were rather busy and I got to sit and sort out nearly 5 gallons worth of non-lead! Worth it for sure. I think from now on I'm going to keep some cash on hand to stop by the private companies while I'm running errands.
I’m on the hunt now, too. Casting bullets is interesting and I need about 300 lbs for a sailboat keel.
Seems like the tire shops around here sell a 5gallon pale for about 40-50 Bucks. The guy I talked to today said come back in the fall when they’re changing over everyones tires for winter. He also said I have a lot of competition from local fishermen.
Williams scrap in Victoria sells it for a $1/lb (as of yesterday).
Good luck
Seems like the tire shops around here sell a 5gallon pale for about 40-50 Bucks. The guy I talked to today said come back in the fall when they’re changing over everyones tires for winter. He also said I have a lot of competition from local fishermen.
Williams scrap in Victoria sells it for a $1/lb (as of yesterday).
Good luck
Over the past year, I've picked up close to 100 pounds of Pewter from places like Valu Village, Thrift Shop etc. It comes cast as picture frames, candle sticks, beer mugs, decorative plates, liquor flasks, lamp bases and old coffee/tea pots that had the coffee poured into them for serving containers.
It's easy to tell that it's pewter because it's usually marked with a triangle of purity and sometimes even spelled out as pewter.
Another easy test is to try bending it with relatively light hand pressure.
My cost on all of this has been less than $100.
Good lead is getting difficult to come by. Some club ranges offer it for sale, after they've gone through clean ups
Trap ranges will have lots of relatively hard lead pellets by the barrel full, after such a clean up.
Thats awesome bearhunter! I was telling my dad to keep an eye out for pewter for me since he frequents Value village regularly.
Overall my haul has turned out pretty good, I picked up around 900 lbs from a scrap yard at .4/lbs which had a much better yield than the tire shop I went to. I think I picked up close to 1200 lbs of wheel weights from a shop at $25/5 gallon pail, I have finished melting all the wheel weights now and am just in the process of sorting out cutting a 200 lb square block into something manageable.
Overall my haul has turned out pretty good, I picked up around 900 lbs from a scrap yard at .4/lbs which had a much better yield than the tire shop I went to. I think I picked up close to 1200 lbs of wheel weights from a shop at $25/5 gallon pail, I have finished melting all the wheel weights now and am just in the process of sorting out cutting a 200 lb square block into something manageable.
Anyone ever use lead from lead acid car/truck battery’s ? I rember seeing my grandpa taking a chainsaw to his used battery’s. Cut around the top and off she comes. He would melt the lead for fishing weights and other things. Car battery’s aren’t hard to come by. Baking soda neutralize the acid. Aparently the ones with side and top post have a lot more lead. My grandpa has passed. I am wondering if it’s hard soft? Has anyone tried it ?
I bought an old cast iron pot to cast blocks of lead/pewter into more manageable three pound billets. Another billet mold I use is an old cast iron dipper, used for scooping melted Babbitt, used for making journal bushing type bearing surfaces on large diameter shafts today but used to be the norm for just about everything.
Shaving Babbit bearing, pillow blocks for most things has become a lost art. I did some recently for a farmer with an old tractor, motor that had the bearing pounded out and he couldn't find replacement parts. He had to send the crank shaft out to be resurfaced and ground, then we installed it into the block and poured the Babbit around it, through the holes in the covers. Of course, we sealed them with proper caulking material so the Babbit would stay in place. When everything had set up properly and cooled, I hand shaved the journal faces with triangular scrapers and used Prussian Blue, along with plasti gauge to set the clearances and take down the high spots. Not nearly as pretty as the modern pre cast shells we purchase today. They just weren't available for the old tractor.
I must admit, it's been close to twenty years since I've had to pour, shave and cut lube channels into cast Babbit journals and felt pretty good about the job. Hopefully I don't have to eat those words.
Sorry about the hijack.
You can often find those Babbit pots at junk stores for five dollars. They're pretty good for our purposes because they have a pour spout on one side and hold exactly three pounds. They come in different sizes, for pouring different sized journals. I saw one that held 25 pounds. The biggest I've had to use was 10 pounds for and eight pound pour on a high pressure, low volume, seventy five year old, recip compressor shaft journal.
It's weird stuff to work with. The acid soaking of the plates makes it very hard and it isn't pure lead. The fumes are horrific, to say the least and a nasty black scum forms on the top. Sometimes there will be little black calcium bits suspended in the lead you get out of it.
It's usable but only as a last resort.
Most lead/acid batteries used a mix of 90% lead, 8% antimony and 2% calcium for the Cathode the Anode side was mostly Lead Oxide. The activating solution was Sulfuric acid and water mix for the most part.
Lots of real nasty stuff in there nowadays and yield is low for all the work.
BattleRife
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Today's batteries are not the same as yesteryear's. The modern additions to extend life of the battery contaminate it for bullet purposes and you will end up with a low yield of anything useful. There is also a small chance of producing some accidental compounds that serve as pretty effective nerve toxins.
I am certain a good recycling process could be done, but it would require good control of the process, well beyond the average caster's technique of melting it down over a propane torch in cast iron pan picked up at a yard sale.
