Lead Wheel Weights

[never2late]

A buddy of mine and I almost got into scrapping out used wheel weights from discount tire and other places like that. I was just wondering if anyone here does that and if it is even worth the time? I mean lead is only at around $1 a lb. And to make any sort of useful product you'd have to be picking that up at around 50 cents and no more than 60 cents.

Jacob

 

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[beep-beep]

I get some to make fishing sinkers around here they will give them to you. There is a metal clip on them but if you can sell them like they are and make $ I would do it.

 

[markmopar]

most new weights are made of zinc so you'll have to sort them.

 

[NHBandit]

They are not pure lead usually and the metal clips will also hurt the value. When I managed an auto repair shop I used to sell them to guys who did reloading and cast their own bullets. The alloy at least with the old ones, was harder than pure lead and that was one of the things they liked about it.

 

[DemonWolfe]

A guy I know buys them and melts them down into small ingots and sells them on ebay, mostly to reloaders I would imagine. Put an add in the paper for selling it, my brother lives in colorado and him and his friends are always looking for reloading lead to use. He use to buy it from a local tire shop, but the last couple years people have cought on that there is money to be made and first come first serve.

 

[hyderconsulting]

I think the story is that the lead wheel weights are a type of harder lead than regular lead or soft lead. I think its got a little Antimony or Zinc mixed in. Actually I believe the muzzle loader people have to have the hard lead for their guns instead of the soft lead for some reason. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. I'm seeing a guy next week who has a reloading shop to pick up some scrap casings and I'll ask him. Scrap lead is going around a dollar a pound on ebay. Not sure about the lead wheel weights what they are going for. Take a look at ebay and see what lead wheel weight is bidding at so you can figure what your profit margin would need to be. It is true that lead wheel states are disappearing in a lot of states, Texas for instance. They are going to zinc or steel wheel weights instead which work just as well. Regards, Chris Hyder.

 

[paratrooper]

As a reloader and a melter of wheel weights perhaps I can shed a bit of light on this at least as far as my experience goes . The lead wheel weights are relatively soft but harden after about 3 weeks of being molded into bullets . The new ones are indeed made of zinc . The way we tell is when we are putting them into the melting pot we drop them one at a time (verrrry time consuming) on a concrete floor . A "thump" is lead , a bit of a "ring" is zinc . There is a bit of a reprieve though . If you melt as a bunch the zinc will stay solid and in shape as the lead ones soften and melt . You can save the batch by quickly removing those weights that seem to ignore the heat . Many shops charge about .25 cents a pound . The clip is part of the weight and seems to not vary in size with the larger sizes . The scrap yards will give about .09 cents a pound for them so all is not lost . If a fella shoots a 240 grain round the cost is about 3 cents each for a bullet .Hope this helps .