Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Get it while you can

Don't recall perzactly when I started scavenging wheel weights from the local tire shop, maybe 8-10 years ago. First batch was all lead, as was the second. About 3 years ago I grabbed another load and found some that were zinc and did not melt (thank you Lord!). It wasn't a lot of them, maybe 2-3 pounds. Picked up another batch yesterday and began the melt down.

The initial load was a 5 gallon bucket heaping full. Broke that down into a couple of 3 gallon buckets, lit the fire and jumped into the deep end. Knowing there were some ferringees in the mix I sorted a fair bit. Started noticing that a large number had symbols not seen in the past. Fe, Zn etc. Easy to sort that. Much to my surprise many of the stick on weights were so labeled. I pulled out the horseshoe magnet and got serious. End of day 1 I wound up with about half of the first load converted to ingots and about 2 gallons of trash....and 80# of ingots. I was astounded at the volume portion changes. I reckon that living in Small Town, USA does not make one immune to progress.

Get 'em while you can lads, they are fading away.

That's a Rog... ! just bought out my local supplier of good OLD WW's and his pile of xray room lead a month ago since he's leaving our area soon..

Hopefully I won't morph into the Hulk whilst ingoting up that lead should it be gamma laced

I’ve found the same thing Dan. Some of them can be hard to tell too, especially the painted ones. I’ve taken to giving any questionable weights a quick scrape across the concrete on the driveway where I cast. Lead will smear but zinc will make a scratching sound and barely be marked.

Well, just finished the last half. My guess is the original load weighed about 200# +/- Net gain was about 120# clip on wheel weight and 20# of lead stick on weights. Not a bad haul but the sorting was a PITA.

Many folks use side cutter pliers to test for the “new” wheel weights. The new stuff is not soft like the older weights, and will not cut. Between the use of a magnet, and side cutters, you can pretty much eliminate the undesirables! memtb

I just scrape them on a 2x4, if it marks, it's good. The zinc ones won't mark. Side cutters are good too.

Just sorted 500/600 pounds of them. These are old ones I've had stored from 10 years or so. Not a lot of scrap in them but like you Dan I hate the sorting things. I have 4 buckets left & that's all for me.

I have two five gallon buckets full of WW's from 8 or 9 years ago. I'm waiting until I've worked through my metric sh*t ton of alloys before I sit down to sort and melt that stuff- my least favorite endeavor in this hobby. I've been known to buy WW ingots via USPS medium flat rate boxes rather than endure that thankless task.

You ought to try casting some .17s. 😁

I could call the local foundry and see what their current price for 'bullet' lead is.


have to buy it by the ton, and could ship via usps flat rate box....

done it a few times, local mail carrier was forewarned...

yes that is 2,000 lbs...

I ordered 66 pounds of range scrap a month ago. Our mailman asked what was in the box later that week when we ran into him. Ordering 2000 pounds at a crack. That'll set the delivery vehicle down on the shocks a bit 🙂.

What is that, 30 boxes?

I gave up casting when my children came along, the wife didn't want the posibility of them being exposed to lead fumes. I made a deal with a caster in my state to buy bullets at the lowest price he'd sell for, this required a 100K order which he shipped to me in medium Priority Mail boxes. Some of my shooting buddies and I pooled our finances to make that order, everyone got whatever cast bullets they wanted. Some of us are still shooting bullets from that order several years later. I 've also made arrangements with local hand casters to obtain obsolete bullets, I furnish them the mold which is theirs to keep if they agree to keep me supplied with the bullets at an agreed to price.

I heard that tale too about lead fumes.

Look up the properties of lead.

620 degrees or so to melt

3,000 degrees or so to vaporize and get in the air to inhale.

yea, not happening on your puny little furnace.

what you smell is the 'trash' that is burning off of the lead, and most think that is the lead fumes. It's not.

my wife had the same argument when we started a family. Fortunately I could get her to think logically about what she was concerned about. I promised to keep the mess to a minimum and outside and wash my hands when done. Washing hands and keeping clean is the biggest help of anything.

yep, 30 boxes at 65#'s each.

i think the price at the time was 1.25 per pound plus the flat rate box cost....

Exactly. "Lead fumes" is yet another Old Wive's Tale. (I don't have an old wife, but I have a young-er girlfriend, and she has some bizarre tales to tell too!)

Exactly.

pure lead has no smell when melted.

Wow! You're stocked up. Nice looking ingots too. I don't have that much. I need to do another ingot manufacturing run..and do a whole bunch of casting. I may try purifying some range lead

I melted down several buckets of ww's a few years ago just before I moved. I put a Dutch oven on a turkey fryer burner and went for it. I didn't have the time or energy to sort them so I put my thermometers in and watched them trying to keep the temp down to just over lead melt. Anything that didn't melt right away got scooped off.

I still worry I may have got some zinc in them and ruined my lead. I just cleared off my casting table in the garage and I'm getting ready to find out this spring. I haven't casted for several years but this powder coat thing has me interested again.

Bb