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July 3, 2007, 04:02 PM | #1 |
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Join Date: May 6, 2007
Posts: 60
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Anybody have trouble getting wheel weights
Have a question about lead sources. Anybody have much trouble getting wheels weights? I went out today for the first time to round up some. I hit 18 tire shops and only three gave up some weights. One was a Chevrolet Dealership- 1/4 bucket for free, small Private owned tire shop-Half bucket for free, and a small shop built in a guy's backyard-1/2 bucket for $10. I have another one that told me to comes back by tommorow and they'll have me a full bucket for $20. All the others said they didn't have them, threw them away, but most (especially large ones like Discount Tire and Merchants Tire) said they didn't give them or sell them to the public and had to return them to the place they got them, or something like it was illegal for them to give them to the public which I knew was probably BS. Most all of them asked what I wanted them for and I told them for Bullet Casting. A couple of them said they already gave them to somebody else and a couple told me they would start a bucket for me and told me to come back in 2-3 weeks to get them. Just wondering where you guys have the best luck? I'm thinking of just hitting country mom and pop shops. All of these were in a fairly large town within 10 miles of each other. I have a guy the other day tell me he would sell me 350 pounds of lead pipe for $50 but the stuff wasn't lead when I went to check it out.
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July 3, 2007, 04:42 PM | #2 |
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Join Date: March 4, 2005
Location: Ohio
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As China has started scarfing up metals, they've all increased in value. The scrap yards are giving something close to $0.25 a lb. for wheelweights now, making the shops more reluctant to give them away. It's not enough money to make it worth the shops taking it in to the scrap yard themselves, but when they get enough to cover the scrapyard pickup fee, plus make a little on it, most will set that up. In some places they can get on a regular pickup route pretty easily.
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July 3, 2007, 06:04 PM | #3 |
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Join Date: April 30, 2007
Location: So Cal Desert
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Yes, they have become much more difficult to acquire. A lot of the local tire shops "recycle" them through the company that supplies the ones they use. Here in California it doesn't help at all that lead (in most any form) is on the official state "cancer causing" list. Some of the local scrap yards will sell it but a lot of the won't. I'm down to probably 400 pounds now so guess it is time to go start looking around for a resupply.
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July 3, 2007, 08:44 PM | #4 |
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Join Date: June 4, 2007
Location: Upstate SC
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I bought a couple hundred pounds about 10 years ago and I lucked out and found some Taracorp 311 bullet alloy in the recycling center. They charged me .25/lb. for all I wanted so I bought the entire 400 lbs. of it. I have enough to play with until I get tired for now, but the day will come when I have to get more. I hate to say this because I will probably catch grief, but try the tire shop at Wally world. They might save you some. If you have a scrap yard nearby, see what they are paying and charging for WW metal. Maybe you can luck out.
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July 3, 2007, 09:43 PM | #5 |
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Join Date: May 6, 2007
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Approx how many 440 Grain bullets should I be able to get out of this? I would estimate out of the entire bucket of weights I should have at least 100 lbs of usable lead. It's a 6 gallon bucket heaped full and weights around 170 lbs. Does that sound about right on the amount that should be usable? Anyway, I done a little math but it just doesn't add up because I wouldn't think I could get this many bullet out of that. But anyway, I figured 100 lbs X 7000 Grains, and got 700,000, so then I divide 700,000 by 440 grains (my 500 S&W bullets) and come up with 1,590. That just doesn't sound right to me that I'll get that many .50 cal bullets out of that one bucket. Maybe I screwed the math and there is a different method to figure bullets from lead weight
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July 3, 2007, 09:54 PM | #6 |
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Join Date: June 4, 2007
Location: Upstate SC
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Weeelll, 440 grs. is just a charge of Bullseye over an ounce, so you may have done the math correctly. 16 to a pound and 100 lbs. is 1600. Keep pouring you have a lot of bullets to cast! CB
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July 4, 2007, 07:30 AM | #7 |
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Join Date: May 6, 2007
Posts: 60
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Maybe there really are 1600 bullet in that bucket, I'm a newbie at casting and it came to a great supprise to me. I had just figured one bucket might get me 500-600 bullets. I like the 1600 better If I can actually get that many, I'll have 1 and a half cent in each bullet.
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July 4, 2007, 12:35 PM | #8 |
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Join Date: June 4, 2007
Location: Upstate SC
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Considering what the place in Missouri wants for cast bullets for big boomers, I think you may shoot your handloads with a great big grin. Keep casting, you've got a lot of bullets to make!
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