Wheel weights, where to find them?

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Could anybody give me an idea of where to find wheel weights in the Montreal area? I've been trying to find some for some time now, but every single garage I've been to, except for one, seems to have plans for them already. The big chains seem to prefer to PAY some kind of recycling company to get rid of them, instead of letting take them away for free.

Also, other than wheel weights, is there any other source of lead I could use for casting bullets obtainable in the MTL area? Thanks.
 
They wind up at your local scrap yard who has paid the "recycling company" for them. It's been about a year and a half since I bought any, but at that time, the scrap dealers were charging $0.50 / lb for scrap lead. That included wheel weights even through they are considered contaminated because of all the plastic/zinc/iron weights and the steel clips. Not exactly an economical way to get your bullet casting done.

If you go to the garages, get the name of the scrap guy who's picking them up. Track him down and make a deal before they actually hit the scrap yard.
 
I have quite a stash of WW myself and my experience is that to get them you usually have to pay for them. Very seldom you can count on tire stores to give them away. Sometimes it happens but not very often. Usual price going in my neck of woods is $20 per 5galon bucket.
 
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Gun Lover said:
Could anybody give me an idea of where to find wheel weights in the Montreal area? I've been trying to find some for some time now, but every single garage I've been to, except for one, seems to have plans for them already. The big chains seem to prefer to PAY some kind of recycling company to get rid of them, instead of letting take them away for free.

Also, other than wheel weights, is there any other source of lead I could use for casting bullets obtainable in the MTL area? Thanks.
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Walmart parking lot ?:eek:
 
blacksmithden said:
They wind up at your local scrap yard who has paid the "recycling company" for them. It's been about a year and a half since I bought any, but at that time, the scrap dealers were charging $0.50 / lb for scrap lead. That included wheel weights even through they are considered contaminated because of all the plastic/zinc/iron weights and the steel clips. Not exactly an economical way to get your bullet casting done.
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I was at the local scrap yard last week and they charge $1/lb of WW these days.
Far from economical these days.

Just as other guys suggested. Try to hook up with some tire shops and get friendly with them.
Sometimes it helps.
Always bring an empty bucket with you to replace the one your taking or be prepared to empty the bucket somehow on the spot and return it to them.
Keep asking around, don’t give up.
 
well now with the amount of steel/zinc/alum WW i am only getting about 60lbs of smelted WW per 20L pail, i have a source for pure lead but i need to find a source for tin or linotype, or even babbit metal to make the pure lead hard enough
 
One tip I will add is to seek out tire shops owned by immigrant families. The shops owned by white folks who have been in Canada forever know lots of other white folks who have been in Canada forever, and the largest demographic of shooters/reloaders is white folks who have been in Canada forever, so their supply is almost always spoken for. The big chains, as mentioned, usually enforce recycling through licensed scrap handlers.

Immigrants, though, often grew up in cultures where environmentalism was unheard of, and it may have never occurred to them that scrap lead may be both harmful and useful, and should be treated as anything but garbage. Their english/french is often flawed, so the white folks who have been in Canada forever sometimes avoid them and their lead buckets. When I wanted wheel weights, I focussed on the local South Asian community and it took about an hour of dropping into smaller shops to find two that were throwing their wheel weights into the dumpster. They wanted money to make it worth their while, but I supplied the buckets and offered $15 per pail and now have a steady supply.
 
I imagine you could also talk to a wrecking yard and offer them some $ you may have to go and pull them yourself it doesn't take long to get quite a few of them. Only crappy part is carrying them around.
 
BattleRife said:
One tip I will add is to seek out tire shops owned by immigrant families. The shops owned by white folks who have been in Canada forever know lots of other white folks who have been in Canada forever, and the largest demographic of shooters/reloaders is white folks who have been in Canada forever, so their supply is almost always spoken for. The big chains, as mentioned, usually enforce recycling through licensed scrap handlers.

Immigrants, though, often grew up in cultures where environmentalism was unheard of, and it may have never occurred to them that scrap lead may be both harmful and useful, and should be treated as anything but garbage. Their english/french is often flawed, so the white folks who have been in Canada forever sometimes avoid them and their lead buckets. When I wanted wheel weights, I focussed on the local South Asian community and it took about an hour of dropping into smaller shops to find two that were throwing their wheel weights into the dumpster. They wanted money to make it worth their while, but I supplied the buckets and offered $15 per pail and now have a steady supply.
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Ha, ha, haaaa... I hear ya!!! The only shop I could get the WW from belongs to an immigrant. No asians, though, they seem to gravitate more towards small convenience stores around here. Oh, well, thanks a lot guys, I guess I'll keep trying the small garages way. ;)
 
I hear that lead dive weights aren't as popular as they used to be. A friend of mine works for a dive firm that used to cast their own. He got me a 25kg ingot of pure lead from their stocks because they don't cast anymore. Apparently, they only use them rarely and its easier to just buy them on the rare occasion they do. Dive shops have some, but at full retail value for the material plus some processing costs, figure $3 a pound or more. Even if you have to pay $40 per 20L pail for wheel weights (going rate around here), that's like a tenth of the cost of dive weights
 
Yes it is getting harder to find WW. Most "chain stores" will not sell them to you because you are not a licensed recycler. One manager even showed me the memo that was sent around to all there stores that stated that fact.

If you do manage to find a store that will sell them to you expect to pay 20 bucks a 5 gallon pail. For the most bang for your buck you need to find a tire shop that services the big rig 18 wheelers. They usually have huge WW and very little zinc if any at all. Stay away from import shops as the rest of the world other than US/Canada has switched over to steel/zinc WW years ago.

I have enough to last 3 life times yet when ever I am doing a service call I can usually wrangle out a deal with the owner, I fix this for parts cost and you give me a few of those buckets of WW's.

I don't think it will be long before WW made of lead will stop being made and we will go the same way as Europe has done.

I am seriously considering making a bullet trap for my pistol rounds, might as well try and recover some of that lead.
 
Hmm.... I just had an idea... given the amount of business the company I work for does with a local tire shop, I might be able to wrangle a bucket or two of WW.... and it's a sizeable chain too.
 
hunter64 said:
Yes it is getting harder to find WW. Most "chain stores" will not sell them to you because you are not a licensed recycler. One manager even showed me the memo that was sent around to all there stores that stated that fact.

If you do manage to find a store that will sell them to you expect to pay 20 bucks a 5 gallon pail. For the most bang for your buck you need to find a tire shop that services the big rig 18 wheelers. They usually have huge WW and very little zinc if any at all. Stay away from import shops as the rest of the world other than US/Canada has switched over to steel/zinc WW years ago.

I have enough to last 3 life times yet when ever I am doing a service call I can usually wrangle out a deal with the owner, I fix this for parts cost and you give me a few of those buckets of WW's.

I don't think it will be long before WW made of lead will stop being made and we will go the same way as Europe has done.

I am seriously considering making a bullet trap for my pistol rounds, might as well try and recover some of that lead.
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well hunter i you are right on the money i work in a tire shop and we only have steel wheel weights now no lead at all and we are required to send our weights out for recycling so for all you reloaders start stocking up
 
finding wheel weights, lead sources

:D:D:D
Gun Lover said:
Could anybody give me an idea of where to find wheel weights in the Montreal area? I've been trying to find some for some time now, but every single garage I've been to, except for one, seems to have plans for them already. The big chains seem to prefer to PAY some kind of recycling company to get rid of them, instead of letting take them away for free.

Also, other than wheel weights, is there any other source of lead I could use for casting bullets obtainable in the MTL area? Thanks.
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best I know of, that you can try yellow pages for metal dealers. There was (is?)for arguments sake a place here in Calgary that stocked 35lb lead ingots, and 1 lb tin bars. It's been 18 yrs since I bought it last, but I got 500lbs of lead & 30lbs of tin at a price that made sense at that time. Nice CLEAN lead, multiple cleaning processes not req'd, no funky gases coming off. I would venture if a person adds up the time & energy put into acquiring scrap, and making it usable, it is likely still a reasonable deal.
 
Gun Lover said:
Could anybody give me an idea of where to find wheel weights in the Montreal area? I've been trying to find some for some time now, but every single garage I've been to, except for one, seems to have plans for them already. The big chains seem to prefer to PAY some kind of recycling company to get rid of them, instead of letting take them away for free.

Also, other than wheel weights, is there any other source of lead I could use for casting bullets obtainable in the MTL area? Thanks.
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Scrap metal recyclers PAY the garages and tire shops for their old wheel weights (around $25 for 5 gal pail), so forget about offering to haul it away for "free".

Ask what they are getting for a pail and offer them an extra $5.
 
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