Future of lead availability

those ingots are to large for many melting pots.
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I have used an axe, I have used saws, I have never used a hot wire, I have a carbon torch, that can be scary if there is moisture and or air pockets.

When using a saw always keep two teeth engages at all times and it does not hurt to have a wide set on the teeth. Lead is sold with large clevis/bent bars for lifting for those that are serious lead smelters.

F. Guffey
 
I believe that the smelter actually shut down a few years ago. It will pose some problems. Lead, being mostly used for batteries and recycled, is always going to be run through the recycling system over and again. It's not just used and put out of the market like steel or aluminum. I suspect that the greatest use of lead that "wastes" it is soldering, maybe shooting. Commercial ranges recycle, but a lot of it is just lost forever into the ground.

At this point, any new lead products that we require for use in american manufacturing we are importing, and I read that we are probably going to import mainly from china.

If a person even has the slightest inclination to cast bullets, then lead should be harvested at ranges whenever possible. It's the one best source for it right now, unless one has a personal relationship with his independent mechanic for tire weights.
 
I have a lot of WWs but have to make sure what is what. The last WWs were gratis and had many fe and zn WWs. As far as the aging casters, I'm a geezer and in my 20s I knew a boat load of fellow casters, now I know one. Retail firerm stores back in the day use to carry molds and furnaces, no longer.
 
maybe you've already heard, but in the past I've read that zinc wheel weights in a batch will ruin the lead. I also read that at lower temps, the zink will still melt, but it will not alloy, and will float so it can be skimmed. dunno.
 
787 degrees

maybe you've already heard, but in the past I've read that zinc wheel weights in a batch will ruin the lead. I also read that at lower temps, the zink will still melt, but it will not alloy, and will float so it can be skimmed. dunno.
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Brian, zinc melts at 787 degrees. The trick is to keep the rest of the wheel weights BELOW that temp. Then, the zinc weights will simply float on the surface of the molten lead. Smelting with a thermometer will be the only way to know when to turn down the heat.

Zinc WW can be culled/sorted before smelting, cast zinc WW are hard, much harder than the lead ones. The steel ones are obvious, they are of course magnetic. Lead clip on WW have the steel clip, but a magnet sticking on the end of the WW means it's steel. Zinc is NOT magnetic.
 
I have been concerned about this for a while, that's why I have a LARGE stash of lead and lead alloys on hand. I'm a bit of a Prepper so even if I don't use it right away, it still worth keeping around.

I can still buy pure lead in ingot or scrap form, lately I have been buying pure scrap lead in 25lb. lots for $1.50/lb.

I bought a large lot of Linotype lead at auction many years ago, I mix it 50/50 with pure lead plus a little extra tin and get an alloy that makes very good bullets, almost exactly Lyman#2
 
bought a large lot of Linotype lead at auction many years ago...
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How do you know it was linotype and not one of the foundry types, electro type, monotype or one of the babbits? (Devil's advocate).
 
How do you know it was linotype
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I know my linotype is linotype because I have two printing presses, 5 trays, spacers etc.. Then there are tons stored away, all of it will become lead bullets. I could fill the large print trays with lead print.

F. Guffey
 
Then there is Flint, Michigan (I think). Seems they decided to save money, they switched from using water from Detroit to water from a near-by river. Something went very wrong, seems their process for treating river water caused leaching of lead from old water pipes.

Reminds me of the Sargent that declared he was immune from some diseases because he was a Sargent.

F. Guffey
 
I know my linotype is linotype because I have two printing presses, 5 trays, spacers etc.. Then there are tons stored away, all of it will become lead bullets. I could fill the large print trays with lead print.
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Linotype is not the only type metal used in the various printing processes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_metal "Linotype" was used by printing machines that produced an entire line of type at one time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linotype_machine
You are never too old to learn something new.
 
Consider scrounging old car batteries. Even at a buck apiece, they're still a bargain. The so-called hazardous material inside is sulfuric acid. Treat it with caution like any other highly corrosive acid. Once a battery is drained, break the case open; Plenty of lead inside and most certainly a dollar's worth if you had to buy them from your neighbors.
 
Consider scrounging old car batteries. Even at a buck apiece, they're still a bargain. The so-called hazardous material inside is sulfuric acid. Treat it with caution like any other highly corrosive acid. Once a battery is drained, break the case open; Plenty of lead inside and most certainly a dollar's worth if you had to buy them from your neighbors.
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Sulfuric acid is not what you should be worried about.

What you should be worried about are the trace elements present in and on the plates of the battery. Just a short list of some of the dozens of toxic and/or highly poisonous things that you expose yourself (and your neighbors and family) to when melting lead-acid batteries:
Cadmium
Strontium
Arsenic
Zinc (the gaseous form of zinc is incredibly toxic)

And, heating residual sulfuric acid will release hydrogen, which forms ammonia, which then reacts with other trace elements to form such wonderful things as arsine and stibine gases -- gases so poisonous that the Nazis experimented with them in their execution chambers. (They only stopped because the 'rotten egg' smell was too strong and might have offended nearby villagers.)


I think Brian Williams summed it up best when the topic of smelting car batteries came up on The High Road:
Brian Williams:
Really, Really, Really, REALLY, stupid idea.
Dumb,
Idiotic,
Moronic,
Unsafe,
Bad,
Not Good,
Unsafe,
Poisonous,

Generally not a good idea.
In other words DON"T.
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Plus....
Modern "Maintenance Free" and low maintenance batteries have very different plate designs than traditional lead-acid batteries. You essentially have to vaporize the lead in order to release it from the iron alloy plates, but there is no "hobby level" method for recapturing the (highly toxic) lead fumes, in order to put the element to use. It's just a waste of heat energy, a waste of your time, and a great way to poison yourself or your family.

Oh, and if you get caught doing it outside of an approved reclamation facility, it's a $20,000 minimum fine...
 
You can still find lots of lead on E-Bay. Normally in 65 lb loads. I had about 500 lbs of lead until last week. I sold my casting equipment and all my lead because I gave up on casting do to health reasons.:(
 
Consider scrounging old car batteries.
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It depends upon how old they are...modern car batteries have been of the "no maintenance" type for years. These contain Calcium which will render your lead alloy unusable just as zinc will (ask me how I know). The old type of battery that required periodic additions of water were usable as a lead source. However, the plates of the battery were not all lead, but were Manganese Dioxide ( I believe), pressed into a grid of lead. The lead recoverable was significantly less than the weight of the battery.
 
when i first started casting, i guess maybe 3 years ago, not sure.....however long ive been a member here. anyway, i just spent a couple weeks going to little tire shops and asking for their used lead, in that little time i have amassed enough lead to literally last the rest of my life. i offered up 20$ for a 5 gallon bucket, some said okay, some said give me 30$ and some wouldn't accept the money at all. i did get a nice score at a metal recycling place, the had a 50 gallon drum full of sheets of pure lead, he wasn't sure what to charge since he never dealt with lead, had been sitting for many years. i bought 150# for 30c a pound. i still return to two of the tire shops that sold me lead in the beginning, and trade boolits for his buckets of lead.

i personally thought i would need way more lead, in the beggining, than i actually do. i have sold off about 3-400 #s and still have over a thousand pounds that i have very little $ invested in. i would think anyone could do the same thing if you have the willingness to do the footwork.
 
i would think anyone could do the same thing if you have the willingness to do the footwork.
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Here in Michigan the supply of lead is drying-up. Wheel weights are becoming zinc. While it is still possible to buy wheel weights (the most common source of lead here), many of them are now zinc in the buckets...the scrap yards are not interested in sorting them out. I used to be able to buy other forms of scrap lead alloys from the junk yards, but the ones I used to haunt will no longer sell lead alloys to the public.
I have read that there are no longer any lead mines/smelters operating in the US, if that be true then the price of the lead that is available will also rise.
I have been casting since about 1963 and I can attest that lead has gotten a lot harder to find over the years.
 
I haven't done batteries in probably 20 years. At the time, I got a pretty good amount of lead out of them. Times have changed, I guess.
 
I haven't done batteries in probably 20 years. At the time, I got a pretty good amount of lead out of them. Times have changed, I guess.
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Indeed, they have.
The plates in "lead-acid" batteries are primarily iron, now, with coatings of various trace elements to prolong plate life.
There's still lead, but nowhere near as much as there used to be ... and it's much harder and much more hazardous to attempt to extract.


dahermit said:
I have read that there are no longer any lead mines/smelters operating in the US, if that be true then the price of the lead that is available will also rise.
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It is true that there is no longer an active lead smelter in the U.S.
However, lead has always been one of the most-recycled materials (right behind steel and aluminum). There is enough lead in circulation in the United States, that not having a constant supply of "new" lead is not a problem.
Add to that the fact that we're still importing plenty of lead from countries that do have active smelters (such as Canada, China, and Australia), and there's no reason for the market to suffer.

Lead is actually cheaper now than it was before Doe Run closed (the last active U.S. smelter).
 
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