So I want some lead scrap to melt.

I call two large tire houses and I am told, "nope, we don't sell, give or trade this away, it is a HAZ-MAT and we get rid of it as-soon-as we can".
I call a scrap yard and this guy talks to me like: 1. I am a retard for not knowing "lead is BAD for you", and 2. He is scared of the metal as if it were some disease.

On the other hand I did talk to another scrap yard that when I said, "I would like to buy some lead", the fellow replied, "yup, how much, we have a big tub out back full of scrap".
Too bad they are closed on Saturdays.

So now my choice is unknown alloys or nothing. And get this; a buddy of mine is working a hospital constrcution project where they just disposed of 15 rooms worth of lead sheet shielding
for the radiology section. AAAaahhhhh! He said there were tons of the stuff. If only I had told him I was looking a few weeks earlier. Crap!

Mailing the stuff up here is near $1.00 per pound. What do I do now?

Well it's part of the long range anti-gun movement. If they can't take our fireamrs directly they take the back door approach and it's working. You know I don't believe in polluting but this enviromental crap is overrated.
How many of us grew up in the "lead" age and are perfectly normal. In my life time I don't personally know one person that had a baby that got lead poisoning from eating lead based paint chips. This country, the world, are too far gone..things will never get better only worse. Any any any heavey metal is hazardous to your body..like nickel for example and they still make 5 cent pieces from it...don't see them banning that. Probably if we had 5 cent piece shooting guns they would then say nickle is too hazardous. they tried the same thing with lead shot and that worked, although the ducks dying from it was a lie that Pitts. Univerity later ammitted that they never done a survey/test on it. Another anti-gun proganda. This gets me so riled up...I'll stop.

Joe

nitroman....Persistance is the word.

Keep your eyes and ears open and you'll find lead falling out of the woodwork everywhere.

I guess it's a Haz mat by federal regs but there's millions of pounds all over the country. Just have to be at the right place at the right time.

Looks as if things tighten up when the EPA man comes by and then two weeks later, they go back to the old normal practice of trashing scrap.

The rennovation guys are always good for some. Shower pans, wiped joints, roof flashing and old cable sheathing and lead pipe. Seems like they're always doing something at hospitals that has lead in it and I shoot with a plumber who is always good for a hundred pounds or so. I also shoot with a telephone man and they get torn out cable that has to be disposed of and the company don't want to mess with it so I occasionally find a batch in the back of my pickup at the range.

Just be persistent and luck will come your way./beagle

The eastern 1/3 of Omaha was declared a lead cleanup site by the Feds about a year ago. It was talked about for several years before that, which scared a lot of businesses. It became almost impossible to get lead anywhere. I made about 30 calls about a year ago before I got any lead at all. When I did find someone that would sell to me, I got about 1,000 pounds. I do expect that they will be tightening the rules throughout the country in the future.

Get out the yellow-pages and make a lot of phone calls, particularly to small owner-run places instead of chain places.

Stockpile.

When you can find scrap lead or WW, it's cheap. Every halfway serious caster oughta have a ton or two tucked away. At a dime a pound, a ton is only about half a gun.

I've been shooting into the same hill for 25 years, If things get really tight, I'll mine it. Bound to be another ton in it.

Meanwhile I'll keep make the rounds of the little independent tire places and cultivate a couple of contractors. $50 every three months ain't gonna break me.

I suspect Nitroman's trouble was that he called. Just dropping by with a handful of $10 bills works wonders for me. One bucket of WW, one $10 bill.

[ 09-07-2003, 01:54: Message edited by: Leftoverdj ]

......Nitroman, ya gotta put the word out about what you want. You get all kinds of stuff :-)! I like old rifles as an example. Plus I hang at the range every Tuesday. People bring stuff there that's gun related ...... or guns that they don't know whatelse to do with'em.

Once a couple guys pulled in, in a flatbed truck all mashed down in back. They had 2 big lead counterwights off some piece of equipment. No one was interested but me and I about peed myself, but I couldn't take them :-( HOW could I take them? I personally don't own a forklift and they'd have crushed my Taurus or Sport-Trac! Let alone trying to cut them up.

My neighbor is in construction and he knows I cast bullets. They did some kind of radiology thing with some specialty subs doing the shielding. They had (according to him) over 3000 lbs of lead left over. I found THIS stacked to the left of my garage door one afternoon:



According to what one brick weighs, those 2 stacks are about 1600 lbs! He said there was about 4 times that much left. All pure soft sticky lead. About a week later he comes in with the back of his truck loaded down with roof valley and trim flashing. All lead!

Another time a carpet tufting company was getting new machines, and the old ones had been set on lead blocks to dampen vibration. One of the workers was a shooter at the range and it took 3 trips in his pickup to bring them all over and dump them off. These things were about 2" thick, 14" long and 10" wide. We cut'em up with Skillsaws.

I've hit the wall with franchise tire shops about wheel weights. Nope, we trade them back in to the supplier. Or, sorry our company doesn't allow that. Well bull! If you make it worth their while, they will! You bring a case of beer or pop for a couple 5 gallon buckets (you supply the buckets) and you'll get WW's.

Radiator shops are a source of very tin rich lead. When they clean out their soldering tanks a lot of that cruddy stuff is lead drippings. It's a messy PITA but valuable and worth a day's effort to gather and render.

A friend was the plant supervisor at UCR. They were having the old science building demo'd. Turns out, the distilled water plumbing was all pure tin, yee haw! They were just going to haul it off to the dump with everything else. He got it and turned it all into ingots. He was always asking me when I'd go over if I needed any? Why of course, I ALWAYS need some!

Another time we had a guy come to the range that had a BUNCH of linotype. He wanted $10 per 22-25lb ingot. You might find it cheaper, but you'd be lucking into it. This was a sure deal. I bought a bunch. I hauled a bunch to some of the Shooters guys in Tucson, and hualed some to the Winnemucca, NV guys.

It's out there, you just have to let people know you want it. Otherwise most people think of it as junk.

.........Buckshot

Lead is the EPA/OSHA new favorite toy. They have proposed cleanup standards of one part per billion [ppb] at manufacturing site restorations. In most areas of the country lead occurs naturally in the ground at 2-5 ppb. The proposed cleanup would never end as they testing of neighboring soil would always be higher than standard, obviously effected by the plant. This is great if you are a Haz-Mat tech, or a Govt. regulator but scary for all the rest of us. Gianni.

I'm a carpenter and lead is not as common as it once was except maybe in commercial work. Much of it is already gone. I still get some now and again but not enough for my needs.

Also depends on where you are. In New England I understand (brother in law) lead flashing is still pretty common among "good" roofers. Here in Ohio roll or sheet lead is hard to find and most roofers wouldn't know what to do with it anyway (alumimunum & sillycone generation). Probably why I get a lot of work fixing water damage. I haven't seen a lead shower pan in Ohio but replaced quite a few in RI with copper.

I get all my auto repairs and tires done at the same place- always!!! Whats a bucket of wheel weights when I have my van towed in and say "Truck broke- you fix." A scrap yard near me will NOT sell lead over the phone or, I imagine, if you go in wearing a suit. If you go in looking like you belong in those stained and worn jeans- all they want to know is how much lead you want. I also helps if your driving something that looks like its had a few tow truck rides!

BH

Ranch supply, Cenex, and Farmers Co-ops are always good bets for me around here. As was said, take your ownh bucket. You would think some of those buckets were something thier grandmother had knit them!
I agree on the old pickup thing, too. In this state, I know you get permission to hunt on a lot nore places driving an old truck, than you do with your brand new shiny diesel.

Ok, copy that!

From now on if I go into a tire shop I'll let a $10.00 bill peek from under my fingertips while asking the shop boss if he "knows where I can locate some wheel weights".

I am going to bring two (2) of my own 5 gallon buckets to this place that said they "had a big tub" of scrap lead. I will see what they have. Since I am at the university, I can go into one of the labs after hours and set up a Bunsen burner in the hood to render the scrap. I will cast ingots and mail them home. Much cheaper than mailing them up.

NItroman, if you didn't know already, the cheapest way of mailing stuff is the "flat rate priority mail envelope". It's under $4. A slab of alloy 7"x10"x3/4" should fit neatly.

I love sticking it to the gubmint.

Waksupi,

I've been known to pull off on the shoulder of an interstate to retrieve a mud bucket or two from the OPPOSITE shoulder. You only have to cross 4-6 lanes of traffic.

Since they started packing joint compound in boxes (cheaper), buckets aren't as available.

BH

get it while you can as the local walmart has told me that they can no longer give it out they have to give it to the salvage yard for disposal. The funny thing is the salvage yard will dispose of it by selling it to me for 5cents a pound!

Bunny Hunter,
Pickle buckets! Same as mud buckets - all restaurants use 'em, I'd guess and less dangerous than highway finds. They sell 'em to me for a buck and I use 'em for WW and ingots. They get heavier every year though...

Goatlips

Nitroman, Where are you located. I have the same problem except there aren't any wheel weights here at all. I may have a source in Kenai if that is any help. If you are reasonably close maybe we can work on this problem together.
350mag

nitroman--Unknown alloy or nothing?? If it melts amd makes bullets your good to go especially if it was free. To get known alloy--you're probably talking buying. I still say Lyman #2 uses exacting amounts of known stuff mixed with wheelweights as if they are exact. I bought some solder ONCE for the tin--kept hearing it helped .22 cals fill out---couldnt tell any difference and thats all the casting material I've ever bought in over 35 years of casting.

I have finally found a scrap yard that wants money!

Wouldn't you know it though, a fellow came in and cleaned them out a week before I got there. The two guys running the scale house told me they would set lead aside for me when it came in though. I appreciated that I tell you!

I bought the 12 pounds they had so it is a start...35 cents per pound. I want to try and get a few hundred pounds stockpiled.

I have also thought of a few more possible contacts. Here at the university I know someone in the residence life department who can put me in touch with the plumbers. I have spoken to one of them quite a few times when he's fixing things in the dorm. I will ask him about any shower pans or other lead fixtures.

ALWAYS ask for lead to make sinkers for fishing, you will get much more lead.