I have been trying to find lead wheel weights around this town and all my traditional sources have a. dried up because of long-term commitments to others who contracted to buy them all and b. the prices for what's available have doubled or tripled. Oh, well.
11 comments:
I order from time to time lead fishing weights from Memphis Net and Twine in bulk. Pretty reasonable prices
In northern Illinois wheel wt. bring $1.50-$2.50 per lb. linotype $4.00. Car batteries contain a lot of lead. Tire shops are good source for wheel wts.
Try a scrap yard.
With the caveat that I've never tried this, in theory you should be able to use an Outers Foul Out to electro-refine pure lead from old battery plates.
The story is the same wherever I go as well. Either Store Policy dictates that they use one particular EPA approved recycler or they were "just picked up this morning".
Try Wally World and K-Fart.
Sometimes I get lucky there especially just before closing time.
Edwin III
When I was young, my father had several black powder guns. We use to walk the railroad tracks picking up lead straps from torpedoes, that the railroad used to alert trains to stop. The lead straps held the torpedo on the top of the rail, and the engine ran over them, setting them off. They had a report about equivalent to a 410 gauge. The best place to look was on the approach to a town. Old, unused, or un-repaired tracks may still have a hoard of these. The lead straps are too soft by themselves, but you can add something.
Intersting....
The round in the picture looks an awful lot like the shell from a 20MM M61 Vulcan.
http://wheelgun.blogspot.com/2007/10/20mm-vulcan-rifle.html
Call the radiopharmacy at your nearest large hospital, as the radioactive drugs are shipped in lead pigs.
All along every street are parked cars ... with wheel weights!
Didn't any of you guys used to collect hubcaps in your younger days?
III
Don't forget battery cores. Though you have to be extremely careful extracting them.
DO NOT USE LEAD FROM BATTERIES!
Calcium, Strontium, Arsenic and other bad things in those.
http://www.lasc.us/castbulletalloy.htm
Salvaged battery lead should be avoided at all costs. Since the advent of the maintenance free battery the lead content has been reduced and elements such as strontium, calcium and others have been added. Most of these elements cast very poorly, ruin a pot of good alloy they are blended with and are extremely toxic. The quantity and quality of lead from batteries is not worth the risk or the effort.
From "Linstrum" on the Castboolits forum - Maintenance free/low maintenance batteries use calcium metal-doped lead to catalyze the hydrogen gas. The lead alloy used in batteries also contains a bit of antimony and arsenic to help harden and strengthen the lead. When hydrogen comes in contact with arsenic and antimony, the hydrogen reacts to form ammonia analogues called arsine and stibine, AsH3 and SbH3. In World War One the Germans experimented with these as war gases. As such they were highly effective since they are deadly in amounts too small to easily detect.
Do yourself and everyone else in the vicinity a favor and DO NOT use batteries. Severe lung damage and even death could result. Sell the batteries to a recycler and let the professionals deal with the risks.
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