Lead Sources

B

BlackPowderBen

New member
Well I ran out of soft lead recently for casting round balls. Do any of you have a good source for soft lead at a reasonable price? Will stick on wheel weights work? I have some of those. I did make a batch one time with a mix of clip on's and stick on's, and, well I have a thread on that but it was a nightmare to load. I saw some listings on ebay that were fairly priced, but is there any better deals out there?
Thank You!
 
Stick on weights

Are still almost pure lead.

There are still clip on weights that are high in lead content such as to be appropriate for bullet metal. But the percentage of high lead weights to high "other metal" weights is declining.

To me, wheel weights continues to be a viable source of bullet metal as long as one is very careful to sort the weights and as long as one knows how to recognize those which are high in lead content.

I can still get BHN 9 metal fairly confidently.

Tnx,
 
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Lead roof flashing (vent flashing) has always been a good source of soft lead for me. Pretty rare these days as they are now a metal flange with rubber seal. However, some of the older plumbing companies might have a pile of the sawed off caps laying around. I scrounged up 300 lbs from some local plumbers.
Wheel weights are questionable these days. They used to yield similar hardness of the Lyman #2 alloy which is good for smokeless cartridge but too hard for front loaders. Lyman #2 is 90% lead, 5% tin and 5% antimony or 90% lead and 10% lin-o-type.
 
Stick on weights have a BHN of 6. Pure lead is five. Clip on weights are 12 so the stick on weights are plenty soft enough. I've been using them for years.
 
It's a good possibility that the clip-on weights have to be harder for strength so that they stay in place while the stick-on's are mounted inside the rim.

Another source might be a salvage yard or recycle company. Most buy lead but might not want to bother with selling small quantities to individuals.
 
scrap lead

I go to my gun club on non shooting days and pick lead out of the berm on the pistol range.I can pick a ice cream pail in about an hour.I melt them down on an old Coleman camp stove,in a stainless steel pet dish.I skim all the jackets and slag off the melt,flux heavily and pour melt into a Lyman ingot mold for storage.I have about 300 ingots in storage for bullet casting. hdbiker
 
As far as local sources - as suggested - wheel weights.

See if you have any scrap yards and give them a call . . .

Check with plumbers . . . a lot of remodel/repair work they do . . . such as cast iron soil pipe . . . the joints were "leaded'. Most probably save it up and sell it to a scrap yard . . . offer to buy it from them at scrap price.

Put out "feelers" with folks you know and the them you are looking for "soft lead" to cast with . . . you'd be surprised at what just might show up. When I was a kid many many years ago and just getting in to casting, I said something to a friend of my Dad's that I was looking for lead. The next day, he drove in with a couple hundred pounds of it he had laying around . . .sheet lead, plumbing lead in ingots, duck decoy weights, etc. That lead produced many many rounds of .58 caliber minie balls for me . . .
 
On wheel weights: I keep a pair of wire cutters to quickly sort the zinc weights from the lead weights. A quick pinch will tell if it is lead as you will put a nice notch in them. No notch on the zinc. I'd love to get a bucket of stick-ons as they are nice & soft.
 
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