Future of lead availability

[F. Guffey]

You are never too old to learn something new.

You can Google Frisco, Tx. You can Google Northeast Oklahoma lead, a dead zone for humans. Then there was Dallas, TX. No industry has been as irresponsible as the lead industry. Then there are lead casters, they remind me of the Sargent that was immune to some dieses because he was a Sargent.

F. Guffey

 

[dahermit]

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.

In the US, wheel weights, drain pipes, solder, cable sheathing, roof flashing, Telephone wire junctions (looked like air tanks complete with a tire valve in them),type metals, bearing alloys, fishing sinkers/weights, 1960's "lead sled" body cars, etc., etc., has historically been made from lead. Nowadays, and for some time now, those items have been changed over to non-lead. The abundance of lead was due to the common use of those lead items. There is much less lead in "circulation" now than in those days due to the change-over to different substances. All the lead that ends up at recyclers are mostly sent to the few commercial industries that still use lead (a "closed loop") like automotive battery makers. There is comparatively very little lead that remains available to the general public and what is, is usually in the form of the remaining lead wheel weights from auto salvage yards. As for the price of lead remaining low due to china and other off-shore lead mines, that is hardly likely due to the low demand (bullet casters overall are not a large economic base), and the high cost of shipping such heavy material such distances. Just because you have scored a large supply of lead from someone who unknowingly sold it cheap, does not mean there is a significant supply of lead still in circulation that is generally available for bullet casting and will not likely ever be so again... unless you are one who is given to wistful thinking.

 

[FrankenMauser]

Just because you have scored a large supply of lead from someone who unknowingly sold it cheap, does not mean there is a significant supply of lead still in circulation that is generally available for bullet casting and will not likely ever be so again... unless you are one who is given to wistful thinking.

I have scored nothing, and said nothing of the sort.
However, if you call around to your local salvage yards, you'll find that the price of lead is down. ...Aside from the spot price having dropped, as well. (China isn't using anywhere near as much as they were a few years ago, so there's excess on the international market, which impacts the overall lead market.)

I know it's not an option for some people, but I even have more than one local yard that will sell to the public. ("Take a look around and come find us if there's something you like.")
There's still plenty of lead flowing through salvage yards, that isn't wheel weights.
For 'smalls' there's everything from lead pipes, to lead flashing, to lead plumbers joints, and more; and for 'large' items, there's everything from 5-ton crane counterweights, to 300 lb babbit bearing blocks, to 4,000 lb pallets of linotype, monotype, and other printing scrap.
It's still out there, it's just harder for some people to find a willing seller.

And, unfortunately, some yards do have "all or nothing" policies. Right now, there's over 20k lbs of linotype and monotype sitting in 48 gallon drums at one of my local yards. The operator, however, won't sell me anything unless I take it ALL. Not only do I not have that kind of cash available in the 'hobby' budget, but I can't store it, either.

 

[stubbicatt]

Cripes, yesterday I went to visit the surviving son and widow of a club member to pick up some lead. There must have been about 2 tons of scrap lead in the form of pipes and wheel weights at the house, in addition to a number of ingots already smelted down. Dude gave me 6 buckets of wheel weights. There were many, many, lengths of lead pipe, which I was told is pure lead for musket balls and the like.

Maybe I need to revise my estimate to something like 3 or more tons of lead.

Now I have to figure out what to do with all this.

Don't have a smelting outfit at the moment, but as time permits I will have to get one. I had thought to try to find someone who can smelt all this down, perhaps in exchange for half of it.

I reckon each of those 5 gallon buckets holds more than 100 pounds, and there are 6 of them. I suspect I am going to be ok for lead for quite a little while.