Price of lead?

safehunter

safehunter

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South Western Onterrible
A friend of mine is contemplating scraping his sailboat. The core is rotten (failed a survey), marina fees run $4K+/year, and he has no time. It's been for sale for awhile for next to free but no takers.

I figured a good chunk of the salvage value would be in the 1800lb lead keel. However I visited the local scrap yard and was appalled by the prices offered: $0.40/lb dirty and $0.80/lb clean. After fiberglass disposal fees, gas, time & risk it seems like too thin a margin to bother with.

Any thoughts on a better market for lead than a scrap yard? I do minimal reloading but I've never cast. (Edit: although once I made a backyard popcan smelter for the kids)

Thanks in advance.
 
sounds like you are offered a bit better price than my local Benmet recycler, see copied prices below.

How much is your friend asking for the boat and where is it located?
If you know the model you can find out the weight of the complete boat. Landfill dump fee here is $95 per 1000kg.

I've never hacked a keel in sizable pieces but read that it's quite a bit of a job. One guy did it with a chainsaw over a tarp to catch the chips.

I'ts not easy getting more than a buck per LB nowadays, even if you pour it in nice small ingots.
Bullet casters are usually pretty cheap and will often melt down their own scrap rather than paying you for an ingot.
I have had ingots for sale at gunshows and no takers at all.
If you really want to make more money out of a pound of lead then get a shotmaker and make #8 shot but that is not that easy and will be time consuming.




Clean Lead0.75
LB
Wheel Weights0.15LB
Lead Acid Batteries0.35LB
 
The boats in dover. S2 8.0b. 27 foot. My bud bought it last year for $2k (without survey) after it was abandoned on cradle for about 4 years. I feel a hair responsible as I ran the moisture meter over the deck before he made his offer. Thought it was good but he got a survey this year that said it was unsafe. He doesn't have the time or energy to recore. Neither do I tbh. It's down to $800 (without outboard) and no reasonable offer refused but beware the 4k+ marina fees for a deep(er) keel boat on erie. I am in love with dover marina though....except for the 25% increase this year alone.

Scrap yard assumes it's dirty so 1800×0.4 less expenses doesn't seem like worth the time and health exposure cutting it up. There are other components but I was hoping for a bigger pay out from the lead.

Thanks anyway for the reality check.
 
bertn said:
sounds like you are offered a bit better price than my local Benmet recycler, see copied prices below.

How much is your friend asking for the boat and where is it located?
If you know the model you can find out the weight of the complete boat. Landfill dump fee here is $95 per 1000kg.

I've never hacked a keel in sizable pieces but read that it's quite a bit of a job. One guy did it with a chainsaw over a tarp to catch the chips.

I'ts not easy getting more than a buck per LB nowadays, even if you pour it in nice small ingots.
Bullet casters are usually pretty cheap and will often melt down their own scrap rather than paying you for an ingot.
I have had ingots for sale at gunshows and no takers at all.
If you really want to make more money out of a pound of lead then get a shotmaker and make #8 shot but that is not that easy and will be time consuming.




Clean Lead0.75
LB
Wheel Weights0.15LB
Lead Acid Batteries0.35LB
Click to expand...


I've been getting $2-3/lb.

Can't keep up with people enquiring.
 
safehunter said:
Scrap yard assumes it's dirty so 1800×0.4 less expenses doesn't seem like worth the time and health exposure cutting it up.
Click to expand...
I think if you go to another scrapyard they will give you the clean lead price. A sailboat keel should be really nice lead.

There might also be some stainless and aluminium on the boat that's worth something in scrap but overall not a great deal if you have to pay for the boat considering the amount of work disassembling all that and hauling it away.
 
bertn said:
sounds like you are offered a bit better price than my local Benmet recycler, see copied prices below.

How much is your friend asking for the boat and where is it located?
If you know the model you can find out the weight of the complete boat. Landfill dump fee here is $95 per 1000kg.

I've never hacked a keel in sizable pieces but read that it's quite a bit of a job. One guy did it with a chainsaw over a tarp to catch the chips.

I'ts not easy getting more than a buck per LB nowadays, even if you pour it in nice small ingots.
Bullet casters are usually pretty cheap and will often melt down their own scrap rather than paying you for an ingot.
I have had ingots for sale at gunshows and no takers at all.
If you really want to make more money out of a pound of lead then get a shotmaker and make #8 shot but that is not that easy and will be time consuming.




Clean Lead0.75
LB
Wheel Weights0.15LB
Lead Acid Batteries0.35LB
Click to expand...
Does your local Benmet sell lead as well
 
fwm said:
Does your local Benmet sell lead as well
Click to expand...
Unfortunately they don't sell anything...

It was locally owned and the owner always let me browse the yard for metal and sold me once a bucket full of linotype for lead price.
About two years ago he retired and sold the scrap yard to this large corporation and that was the end of the fun : (

Not that I need lead from them as I have a few lifetimes worth of lead squirreled away. I got most of my lead from tire places and plumbers.
 
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