Price of wheel weights

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PlaidSon

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Nova Scotia
Just wondering what the price of lead is like these days. I made a call and was told 60 cents a pound sorted. how much usable lead can I expect out of 100 pounds? Would you pay 60 cents for lead only weights or pay less for mixed scrap?

Just out of curiosity are lead weights still being used or are the ones available today from old wheels and cars?
 
Very little being used still that is bare lead. I just went to my local shop that I get weights from and went through a 85# pail. I sorted it myself on the spot quickly. Out of the total amount, I picked out about 25# of lead. It is mixed tape weight, bare lead clip on and coated lead. Most of this was old weights applied years ago coming off of rims that were getting new tires installed. All new stuff is Zinc (marked Zn), Lead Zinc alloy (PbZn - already recycled once weights), Steel (Fe marked) and then some sort of flexi heavy plastic stuff.
I think 60cents/lb isn't too bad if it's all clip on weights as there is very little scrap (just the steel clip) and mess. The tape weights have a lot of 3M foam tape attached and although not heavy, it is very messy/smoky to deal with! Coated weights smoke lots too due to the plastic paint finish! The best source is shots that service medium sized trucks. Tractor trailers use internal balancing but the medium trucks mostly still use clip-ons.
 
0.60/lb sorted is not a good price and is not a bad price.

If it is properly sorted you should only find lead. The odd zinc that might slip through won't make a hill of beans difference.

I'm still getting about 80% lead out of a mixed bucket.
 
after sorting we use a furnace to melt lead and pour into ingots, any zinc that gets thro sorting sits on top with the steel and stuff, we pour lead into ingots then take temp up to melt zinc, this is then poured into ingots, not sure what to use it for but have a hundred or so ingots already, we average 50% lead from the bucket
 
will the zinc float if it's allready alloyed with lead though? I think 60 bucks for 100# lead is affordable but if they all turn out to be useless pbzn then the value goes way down
 
Well...junkyards pay about $0.35/lb for zinc.

Some Muricans cast cannon balls, others have used it to make shotgun slugs.

Best bet is to comb through the casting section instead of the reloading section

p.s. about 3% zinc is acceptable and actually adds to hardness. Don't sweat the little stuff.
 
Some shops around here want 75-100$ a pail. Which in my opinion is way high as I have gotten them for free from a few places. Plus my local scrap yard will sell me lead at 1.00 a pound. Better off buying that in my opinion. At least you know what you're getting.
 
shoot_to_kill said:
Some shops around here want 75-100$ a pail. Which in my opinion is way high as I have gotten them for free from a few places. Plus my local scrap yard will sell me lead at 1.00 a pound. Better off buying that in my opinion. At least you know what you're getting.
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are you referring to what's called soft lead?
 
What would it take to get a ton of new clean lead of known mix from a foundry? The ton part is just a wild guess at what a minimum order might be. Driving around and burning both gas and propane to try to save money isn't exactly free, even if your time is. Paying once and done does have a certain appeal. Semis are going up and down the highways anyway.
 
Dogleg said:
What would it take to get a ton of new clean lead of known mix from a foundry? The ton part is just a wild guess at what a minimum order might be. Driving around and burning both gas and propane to try to save money isn't exactly free, even if your time is. Paying once and done does have a certain appeal. Semis are going up and down the highways anyway.
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These guys could answer that.
http://ww w.canadametal.com/
 
Last time I got a quote it was about $2.19/lb


Dogleg said:
What would it take to get a ton of new clean lead of known mix from a foundry? The ton part is just a wild guess at what a minimum order might be. Driving around and burning both gas and propane to try to save money isn't exactly free, even if your time is. Paying once and done does have a certain appeal. Semis are going up and down the highways anyway.
Click to expand...
 
2.19 seems worth gas propane time and trial and error to me. Will they give you the alloy you choose or do you have to pick something close and work with it.
 
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