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Where to get lead

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slaptrigger

32 Cal
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Feb 8, 2020
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I have obtained a few lbs of lead to get started casting but was looking to find some more. Obviously I don’t want to spend $2/ lb for lead. I have a large
rectangular block that I obtained from an old operating table. How do I know if it is the right quality to use for casting round balls? I also have some old wheel weights but was told to avoid them.

thanks,
Slap
 
Wheel weights are typically hard but can still be cast into roundballs for use in smooth bores. Revolver bullets and minie balls must be made from soft lead.
 
Make friends with local plumbers and roofers. They both have scrap lead they usually throw away. It's amazing what a 6 pack will do towards getting scrap lead.

I have cast lead to wheel weights 50/50 for prb to shoot thru my rifles, but minie balls and conicals must be dead soft.
 
I have used WWs before and they work fine and shoot fine. Yes soft lead is easier and better to deal with but if all you have is WWs, use them. Not good for revolvers though or minies like mentioned. I used them for years because thats all I had. Also keep in mind that when cast they come out 1 or 2 thousandths larger.
 
Nothing wrong with wheel weights just don't use any with Fe or Zn stamped on them. They don't make them all out of lead like they did years ago. Now you got iron and zinc ones too.
 
Good wheel weights are getting harder and harder to find. Lead is everywhere if you know it when you see it.
Many junkyards will sell scrap lead for about a $1.00 a pound.
Just looking at scrap yard lead will teach you where to find it in your area.
I have found lead in every place imaginable., and I mean everyplace.
Wheel weights are best left for cartridge cast bullet shooters.

The easiest place to get lead is to start recycling your own bullets. All my target lead gets recycled. Build a good bullet trap, invite your friends over to shoot, throw some food on the grill, when they go home, they leave their lead behind. :)
 
A neighbor gave me several old casting nets and they were really
"weighted down" with lead. At least it appears to be lead. That or my thumbnails got tougher.
 
I’d prefer to get it from the scrap yard locally but what they’ve had appeared to be harder lead that wasn’t soft. And they didn’t have much to pick from. Not much lead pipe around from the couple plumbers I talked too.
 
I’d prefer to get it from the scrap yard locally but what they’ve had appeared to be harder lead that wasn’t soft. And they didn’t have much to pick from. Not much lead pipe around from the couple plumbers I talked too.

A squirrel buries his nuts one at a time.
 
Easy and cheap lead hardness tester- graduated set of artist pencils. Here's a link to a thread on how to do it-
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?75455-Testing-hardness-with-pencils
Lead source- since you're shooting round balls, hardness isn't as much an issue as for minies and conicals. For a decent source of lead, I go to the local salvage yard and buy xray room lead. From the pencil test, it's darn near dead soft and the yard charges spot for it. Last time I bought some was at $.91/lb. In the northern US, many houses had water pipes coming in that were lead. Many municipalities are changing this out so contacting a plumber might be another source.
 
If you know anyone that works for the phone company ask them about lead. Ideally a cable splicer as they use it for cable sheathing. When they tear out old cable the lead sleeve goes into a salvage area.
 
The stick on wheelwrights they use on aluminum rims etc are pretty close to pure lead.
In the end tho by the time you gather lead from a scrap yard and get it all cleaned up and poured into ingots, it may be better just to bite the bullet and spend the money to get good alloy from Buffalo Arms or John Walters.
 
I have obtained a few lbs of lead to get started casting but was looking to find some more. Obviously I don’t want to spend $2/ lb for lead. I have a large
rectangular block that I obtained from an old operating table. How do I know if it is the right quality to use for casting round balls? I also have some old wheel weights but was told to avoid them.

thanks,
Slap

I paid the $2, but; I get where you are coming from. An easy place to start is placing a call to any local scrap metal salvage yards. Most will both buy and sell to the public although access to the yard maybe resricted for insurance reasons. I suggest you ask for roof flashing and if any how much it cost. I got lazy and fearing possible corona shut down wanted to stock up fast. I paid $2 at Leows a couple weeks back. I bet (just as a guess) scrap flashing would be 1/2 that? I would be interested if you share the results.

If you do cast wheel weights, I suggest you use that all up and empty/clean the pot before starting with any better material or another unknown.

I am considering trapping and recasting my fired bullets. That will save me a lot of money going forward.
 
Never paid for lead. Traded old copper pipes and wire scrap for it, traded empty buckets for full ones of WW. Tire shops give it away here, easier than bringing it to the recycler. Live on an island and the recyclers have to pay too much to ship it off, so they pay sweet tweet for it, plus you have to bring it to them.
Probably have 300lb in ingots. I should stack it and take pictures of it

Also recycle my target lead.
 
I’d prefer to get it from the scrap yard locally but what they’ve had appeared to be harder lead that wasn’t soft. And they didn’t have much to pick from. Not much lead pipe around from the couple plumbers I talked too.
Check with plumbers who are removed cast iron pipe. The joints are usually poured lead and okum
 
If you know anyone that works for the phone company ask them about lead. Ideally a cable splicer as they use it for cable sheathing. When they tear out old cable the lead sleeve goes into a salvage area.
In the north Texas area the lead was stripped from telephone lines years ago, i know a guy who retired from there and he has a mountain of it in his shed, but won't part with any. Says he's waiting for it to hit $10/Lb. And has over a ton.
He said when they was stripping it the large square trash bins were full of it. Not anymore.
 
I may be wrong, but suspect the availability of lead and also possible cheap or free sources depend on several things. The first as with many things is one's location. The second, is do you know someone in a business that is likely to acquire scrap lead and how do they have to dispose of it. i.e. do you know a plumber or roofer? I've asked a couple of tire shops locally about wheel weights and they either had someone who had already spoken for the wheel weights or had a policy of having to dispose of it in a specific way. On the other hand after having some plumbing work done and one of the plumbers seeing my muzzleloaders in the basement he asked me if I wanted some lead and offered it to me rather than have to have someone "dispose" of it as hazardous waste.

I am lucky too in there is a scrap yard locally that sells lead for $.80/lb. I am pretty well stocked up at this point. but am always open to free or cheap sources.
 
I went to a scrap yard like 20 years ago. One wouldn't mess with selling, the other wouldn't trade lead for brass. They said I could sell them the brass and then buy the lead. I sold them the brass and when I asked about lead they wanted $1 a pound. This was back when lead was going for $.15 a pound, I just walked away. Put the word out and sometimes it pops up from odd places you wouldn't think of. Where I worked had a glass shop. The lead they use for the stained glass is soft. Not pure but soft.
 
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