A Bucket of lead for $20.

[Patocazador]

I stopped by my neighborhood tire shop today and asked the owner what they did with their wheel weights. He said that a guy comes by every so often and gives them $20/ 5 gal. bucket of weights. He said he didn't have a contract with him and if I wanted an overflowing bucket, just give him $20. I did.

It took 3 people to lift it into the back of my truck. A conservative estimate is 125-140 lbs.
I started sorting when I got home and found that about 15% of the weights were non-lead alloys. The purest lead seemed to be the lead stick-on weights.

Does anyone know the actual lead content of lead wheel weights? I've heard that the components will separate when the mixture is molten and the other metals can be skimmed off. TRUE??? Anyway, I have enough lead now to last me the rest of my life.

 

[72coupe]

Stick on weights are nearly pure lead. The clip on ones have a high antimony content that makes a little hard for my likings for muzzle loaders.

I would think a 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights would weigh more than 300 pounds. I bought a couple 3 gallon buckets a while back that weighed 198 pounds each.

 

[zxcvbob]

Unless you have a need for pure lead, just melt them all together, stickons and clipons.

Separate out anything that says "Zn" or "Fe", and heat the lead slowly so if there are any zinc weights trapped at the bottom of the pot they don't overheat and melt. The clips, steel weights, and zinc will float to the top.

Some of the lead weights now are coated with epoxy paint and don't really look like lead (the ones marked "AL-MC", for instance) Don't throw those out.

ETA: I just noticed this is the blackpowder forum. So you *do* want to separate the soft lead form the hard lead.

 

[fdf]

For years the standard has been "pure" lead, not wheel weights for M/L.

Recently there has been a huge swing to using wheel weights over pure lead.

How come and why did things change?

I have seen no printed documentation supporting this change from reliable sources, only on the .www is it being viewed as okay, but un-substantiated thus far.

 

[Patocazador]

Unless you have a need for pure lead, just melt them all together, stickons and clipons.

Separate out anything that says "Zn" or "Fe", and heat the lead slowly so if there are any zinc weights trapped at the bottom of the pot they don't overheat and melt. The clips, steel weights, and zinc will float to the top.

Some of the lead weights now are coated with epoxy paint and don't really look like lead (the ones marked "AL-MC", for instance) Don't throw those out.

ETA: I just noticed this is the blackpowder forum. So you *do* want to separate the soft lead form the hard lead.

Thanks for the tips. I was going to toss the AL-MC ones because I couldn't get a mark with my thumbnail. Most of them are marked MC with a few W and Fe marks which I assume signify tungsten and iron.

I picked up ~ 76 lbs of pure lead at my recycler a few weeks ago for $16 so I have enough for anything now.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

I would think a 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights would weigh more than 300 pounds. I bought a couple 3 gallon buckets a while back that weighed 198 pounds each.

Nope. I've bought probably a hundred 5 gallon buckets, many of them overflowing and the heaviest one I've ever had came in at about 180 lbs. I'd check your scale because there's no way possible a 3 gallon bucket weighed in at 198. It's simply not possible.
Every bucket I've ever bought, I loaded into the bed of a truck by myself and trust me, I couldn't to that with anything near 300 pounds.

To the OP, if you're shooting through a muzzleloader the stick ons will be great, but the clip ons will be too hard.

 

[kanook]

I put good stick ons into one pale (Pure lead)

Clip ons that are good into another

Not sure into another

Junk into another

The not sure pale will get checked with a pair of side cutters, if it marks, it gets melted. No mark, garbage.

In time you will be able to look at them and tell, but not always. That's where the side cutters come into play.

 

[Busyhands94]

Separate out the stick ons, use em' for your muzzle loaders. Those are pure lead.

I like to use the clip on wheel weights for casting .38 special, but then again there's plenty of things you can do with them. I've also used the harder clip ons to cast plinking ammo for my .50 flintlock.

 

[J-Bar]

"I've heard that the components will separate when the mixture is molten and the other metals can be skimmed off. TRUE??? "

No, not true.

At normal casting temperatures, lead, tin, and antimony form a true solution, and the component metals will not segregate out when melted. Some oxides may form on the surface, which can be mistaken for separation, but the liquid composition remains essentially uniform from the first to the last bullet in every pot. Just like a popsicle does not separate into sugar and water when it melts.

Reference: "The Metallurgy of Molten Lead Alloys," pp. 43-53, The Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, third edition.

 

[Hellgate]

When I am sorting out wheelweights I have a pair of wire cutters handy so when I get a mystery weight (especially enamel painted) I pinch the wheel weight with the wire cutters and if there's some nice "give" (pinching a generous dent in the body of the weight) it's lead alloy and not iron or zinc. And yes, toss the stick ons into a different pile for soft lead suitable for muzzle loaders or cap& ball revolvers.

 

[Pulp]

Keep your pot temperature below 700 degrees and the zinc weights will float to the top. Zinc doesn't melt until around 750 degrees.

 

[zxcvbob]

Keep your pot temperature below 700 degrees and the zinc weights will float to the top. Zinc doesn't melt until around 750 degrees.

You still should do a quick sort to remove most of them (and the obvious steel weights, and the valve stems, dead birds, razor blades...)

 

[Foto Joe]

Great score on the bucket for $20. I usually get nailed $70 for a five gallon bucket.

As you've already read, the stick on weights are the ones that you'll want for Black Powder shooting. I usually get 8-12 pounds out of a five gallon bucket.

As far as the clip on weights are concerned they make great boolits for sub-sonic loads. I load COWW's for 38Spc, 44Spc, 44-40, 45 Colt & 45ACP.

 

[robhof]

robhof

When I first started hitting up tire shops for lead, they actually were happy to give the buckets away, seems they had to pay to have them removed back then as they were a hazmat item. This was in the 80's. I had a few hundred lbs, before they started asking for money to get the buckets and the mix had more foreign metals and other trash than previously. I rake the berms at our outdoor range after storms and get buckets of bullets. Cast bullets are considered hard and put in one pile and jacketed are soft enough for b/p use, as the cores are mostly pure lead with some tin for binding.

 

[44 Dave]

I just salvaged 60+ lbs. of plumber's lead from the cast iron drain piping in a building that is to be torn down. It fills a 5 gal. bucket but their is a lot empty space being rings. Took less than an hour with a big hammer. Other wise it would have been lost to a land fill!
I also was given 160 lbs. of lead that was piping in a paper mill but it is about as hard as wheel weights.

 

[Mike OTDP]

Recycle any tungsten weights. They should be worth some money.

 

[Foto Joe]

I just salvaged 60+ lbs. of plumber's lead from the cast iron drain piping in a building that is to be torn down. It fills a 5 gal. bucket but their is a lot empty space being rings. Took less than an hour with a big hammer. Other wise it would have been lost to a land fill!

Be very careful with lead water pipe when melting it down. The stuff can hide water, especially if it's all bent up and beaten from removal.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Be very careful with lead water pipe when melting it down. The stuff can hide water, especially if it's all bent up and beaten from removal.

+1
What we do when we have some lead that may be a bit wet and we need to smelt it is fill the pot, then turn on the heat. The water will evaporate off the lead before reaching temp to melt. Then when you pour your ingots up and need to add more lead, turn the heat off until the little bit of lead in the bottom of the pot solidifies, then add more lead and re-apply the heat.
It takes more time, but no spraying lead everywhere and you don't have to wait until it dries.

 

[dagger dog]

The stick on weights will test 6-8 BHN clip on 12-14 BHN.

If you shoot a patched round ball and use the correct size ball and a very tight weave patch like pillow ticking you can get by with clip on. I've shot 45 caliber round balls with Crisco lubed pillow ticking patch, with great results, many 1-2" groups @ 100 yds iron sights.

A soft lead boolit is needed with BPCR, along with a good lube or paper patch, it needs to be slightly under or right at bore diameter and it's soft to obturate and seal to prevent leading caused by hot gas blow by.

 

[44 Dave]

Whatever size this piping was it had been cut into slabs to be handled. the guy had quite a bit stacked on a pallet. Wasn't just old water service pipe, but I understand there is still a lot of lead water service in Chicago! Doesn't explain a lot! Lead pipes lead paint and lead bullets, you can have Chicago!

 

[Patocazador]

Wasn't just old water service pipe, but I understand there is still a lot of lead water service in Chicago! Doesn't explain a lot! Lead pipes lead paint and lead bullets, you can have Chicago!

I left Chicago in 1960. The rest of my family moved to Spooner, Wisc. shortly after. The place was bad then; it's unbelievably bad now.

 

[Foto Joe]

I worked for an excavation company this last summer and was surprised to find that there are a LOT of water pipes that are still lead. Apparently lead doesn't leach well into liquid unless that liquid is acidic.

 

[whughett]

My oldest son is a union plumber on large commercial jobs. On ocassion he gives my lead ingots that are cast into rounds connected together with a lead carring handle. I assume it is pure lead and set it aside for C&B bullets and balls. My center fires are all range recycle and or telco lead.

Anyone know if the plumbers lead is indeed pure.

 

[Foto Joe]

I think like with a lot of things it depends.

Just out of curiosity, I was told or heard that FMJ rounds are actually soft lead inside the jacket. Is there any truth to this?

 

[72coupe]

Joe I think that is true. Most or all other types of lead core bullets have a soft core.