Scored some lead today

[david bachelder]

I don't know why I never thought of it before but .... my son works at a Chevy Dealership. He's what they call a service ticket writer. Basically his job is to be the middle man between the customers and service folks. He is always talking to the parts dept. or the mechanics.

The other day he asked me if I wanted some lead. Since I do a lot of casting I said ... Sure!

He asked me to drop by the dealership the other day and they loaded about 250 lbs of wheel weights on my truck for me. Wow, that's a bunch of lead. A lot of it was steel and there was a little zinc. I fired up my propane fish fryer and went to work. I kept my pot below the melting point of the zinc (787 degrees F) and skimmed it off with the steel. I did hand separate a bit of it, but once I got the temp dialed in I just dumped everything. I did a bit of fluxing and came out with some nice looking ingots.

I did find a few that were completely unknown to me. They seemed to be made out of some sort of plastic? I have no idea what it was but it stunk and made a bit of smoke. Probably a pretty good flux.

In return for the favor I sent the mechanics a couple of Pizzas. They loved it and told me they would save me some more goodies.

My lead stash is pretty impressive. I had about 600 lbs. before I got the wheel weights.

 

[Schwing]

I have seen those plastic looking ones before. Most of them are just plastic coated lead. Good score! I am really jealous as wheel weights in my area are going for .60 to .80 per pound these days....

 

[ridgerunner1965]

wow! your very lucky to find such a source.what i would do is collect a lifetime supply of lead and then maybe share with some other casters at a cheap price for your trouble. lead wheel wheigts are rapidly being replaced by zinc and steel.my best guess is that within a few years the price and availability of lead will shut down hobby casters like us.

 

[flashhole]

Good score. I found it pays big dividends to spread everything out on a sheet of carboard or plywood and pick out the valve stems and caps and any other undesirables before putting them in the melting pot. Those garage buckets seem to be the catch all for anything and everything. A lot less stink too.