An addition to my lead salvaging tools

[Alan in Vermont]

Some of you guys have seen this already, on Cast Boolits, but I wanted to gloat a little more.

I do a lot of scrounging for my casting metal, digging it out of the berms & indoor range backstop at the club I belong to. I have had over 1,000 lbs at a time of reclaimed bullets, aka "Bullet Ore". I have been "smelting" with a propane fueled plumbers pot. It can be a slow process as there is usually some dirt in there and a lot of air space which kills heat transfer. Patience is NOT one of my virtues.

I drive, part time, for a company that has a hook lift truck and 15 cy open top containers. Tuesday I took a load of scrap metal to a local salvage yard. I scaled in and one of their employees directed me to where I was to dump the load.

On the open tops the tailgate swings horizontally and hooks back to the side of the truck for dumping. So,, I swung the gate around and noticed a bunch of propane tanks on the ground a few feet away. I started walk over to see if any of them were punched, as I need a couple for smelting pots. Nope, none punched but one sort of stood out in the crowd. Hmmmm, wonder if I can buy that one?

Dumped, closed the gate and saw one of the owners approaching. I asked him if I might be able to buy something from him. Showed it to him, he wasn't aware of what it was, so I told him. He hefted, proclaimed, "That's not very heavy, take it"

At first I didn't think I had a way to carry it on the truck, then I remembered the underbody tool box on the curb side. My new-to-me propane plumbers pot fit in there nicely. Enough propane in the tank to slosh and it let out a nice hiss when I cracked the valve. The tank looks like it should pass inspection so there's over $200 in value just in the tank, I have no idea what the burner might be worth but I would consider this a really nice score.

Now when I smelt range scrap I can have two pots going and should, very nearly, cut my time in half. Slow link now will be cooling ingot molds fast enough to keep up.

[Blaine]

After you separate the lead does the discarded jacked have a scrap value?

[Alan in Vermont]

If you can get them clean enough, in the sense that the lead is all out of them, they do have some salvage value. Right now they aren't worth messing with.

[gcs]

Those rigs work great. The old man had one, but it has disappeared, probably at my brothers, if so, it will never be found, lol

[6pt-sika]

Those rigs work great. The old man had one, but it has disappeared, probably at my brothers, if so, it will never be found, lol

That right there is a prime example why it never bothered me that I have no brothers or sisters lol's !

[gcs]

, Yeah, Families can have issues. Especially when the bottle wins the fight.