Smelting lead

[kingstrider]

I used to use a Coleman camp stove I found in a pawn shop for cheap. It worked well but I got tired of replacing the generator and swapped to a turkey fryer with a dutch oven I found at Harbor Freight. I gave up on finding wheel weights and am now using isotope cores instead.

 

[Justler]

I purchased one of these local on sale for 35 bucks.
http://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic-SP10-High-Pressure-Outdoor/dp/B000291GBQ/ref=sr_1_23?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1390322971&sr=1-23&keywords=King+Kooker
I picked up a cast pan and some tools yesterday. I have an old cast mold that my dad found years ago while hunting for scrap steel. So it looks like I just need what I'm going to use as flux and I can get started. Except the weather looks like it going to keep me inside for the next few days so the next day I can get outside.....

That turkey fryer should do great! Just remember to keep everything dry and never put wet weights into the pot and you'll do fine!

Check out this guy's youtube page too, he's got a lot of good smelting and casting videos. The earlier ones involved more rendering. He has a funny voice too.

https://www.youtube.com/user/FortuneCookie45LC

 

[inkd]

I went to probably 12 different shops before finding some that would give up their wheel weights... Wherever I drove around if I saw a place that looks like they did tires I would stop and ask them. I'd ask if I could have them at first, then I offered cash if/when they seemed resistant to the idea.

Being that casting is getting more popular, finding lead will be more difficult and you'll run into competition. If offered cash to a large chain and the employees sold to me. They employees were keeping the weights, not giving them to the exide guy and instead selling them to their friends. After I bought, one guy came in and told the guy I gave $10 for a whole bucket to that he sells a bucket to his friend for $25. Keep trying and hit every shop you can. I put a few home depot buckets in my car for when I want to collect weights and just swap them buckets and bring my scale with me if I think i'm going to end up offering a by the pound price.

I'll keep hounding them. Shooting isn't real huge in this area where my family lives so I'm thinking if I can get just one shop to sell me some, that will work for me.

I'm getting ready to head back to work in a couple weeks so right now the lead is low on the priority list. I was hitting shops up hard when I first got back. I'll just have to keep it up.

Not sure what kind of grocery stores you have around you but I go to McKay's and Wegmans. I hit up the bakery area and they usually have plenty of empty frosting buckets laying around. Probably a little smaller than an actual 5 gallon bucket but they are handy as hell. I have ones full of empty brass, corncob media and rock salt now.

Can't beat the price either and they usually have the lids to go with them

 

[Winterborn]

I'll keep hounding them. Shooting isn't real huge in this area where my family lives so I'm thinking if I can get just one shop to sell me some, that will work for me.

I'm getting ready to head back to work in a couple weeks so right now the lead is low on the priority list. I was hitting shops up hard when I first got back. I'll just have to keep it up.

Not sure what kind of grocery stores you have around you but I go to McKay's and Wegmans. I hit up the bakery area and they usually have plenty of empty frosting buckets laying around. Probably a little smaller than an actual 5 gallon bucket but they are handy as hell. I have ones full of empty brass, corncob media and rock salt now.

Can't beat the price either and they usually have the lids to go with them

If you are willing to buy them check scrap yards, sometimes they will have scrap lead (lead pipe, flashing, linotype, etc..) that works fine.

Also there is Ebay, I've had fine luck buying WW lead at around $1.50/lb shipped.

 

[Mulchman]

Current scrap price is .45 cents a pound. That is for lead, take into consideration when buying wheel weights that a lot is not lead...zinc, steel weights and the clips make up a large portion of the total weight. I think a fair price would be .35 to .40 cents a pound from the tire shop. Unless they have someone coming to pick up, their time and fuel getting it there is in the equation. I recently melted 4 five gallon buckets of WW and had a bucket of clips, zinc weights, steel weights and dross left over when I was done.

As for the fluxing part, there is enough crap in the WW that when you strain it off with the slotted spoon, mostly all of the impurities go with it. Any carbon based substance can be used for flux. I've used cracked corn and saw dust before. I pour my WW lead into ingots first and then when I use the little ten pound Lee electric furnace for making cores I do flux with paraffin wax. Hobby Lobby sells those little tea candles at a bargain rate, that's what I use. And I'm not sure that fluxing the lead with wax removes impurities (floats it to he surface so you can spoon off) or it causes the lead, tin and antimony to bind with each other. Don't plumbers flux the copper joints so the solder binds to the copper?

 

[WheelHead]

I was able to melt some of the lead I collected this past weekend. I used one bucket that was about 3/4 full and weighted about 95 lbs. My full buckets average about 150lbs. Afterwards I had about 78 lbs of lead ingots (18lbs of crap). Not bad! I used an old mold that I found in some of my pops stuff that was given to me last year. I had to re pour the first one I did as either the mold was dirty or was not to temperature. The second pour looked much better but not clean I would have liked. After that I just spent some more time making sure I was getting all the dross(?) or crap off the top of the lead before pouring. The ingots are a little big at an average of 10 lbs. I weighted the seven of them and stamped the weight into them just for reference. I'll have to get some pictures to post.....
My lead supplier called me and said he found more used weights in a storage room in his shop....said there is about 300lbs more so I'm going to get it tomorrow. Figured I should have about 500lbs in the end......don't know when I should stop collecting. I can only see it getting more expensive. Now if only I could find more powder.....sigh*

 

[Deep Creek Rock]

I was able to melt some of the lead I collected this past weekend. I used one bucket that was about 3/4 full and weighted about 95 lbs. My full buckets average about 150lbs. Afterwards I had about 78 lbs of lead ingots (18lbs of crap). Not bad! I used an old mold that I found in some of my pops stuff that was given to me last year. I had to re pour the first one I did as either the mold was dirty or was not to temperature. The second pour looked much better but not clean I would have liked. After that I just spent some more time making sure I was getting all the dross(?) or crap off the top of the lead before pouring. The ingots are a little big at an average of 10 lbs. I weighted the seven of them and stamped the weight into them just for reference. I'll have to get some pictures to post.....
My lead supplier called me and said he found more used weights in a storage room in his shop....said there is about 300lbs more so I'm going to get it tomorrow. Figured I should have about 500lbs in the end......don't know when I should stop collecting. I can only see it getting more expensive. Now if only I could find more powder.....sigh*

Dont stop collecting it. Stack it high... Stack it deep! Its a matter of time before lead wheel weights will go away, especially in a liberal state like Marylandastan.

 

[Mulchman]

Yep...I agree. It's only a matter of time though before its illegal to have more than ten pounds of lead on your property at any one time.!!!! Maryland. Gotta love those liberals.