casting lead and lube

[jimco]

Where do most people get lead for casting bullets? Checked with a local tire shop and they send it to a recycle company. They also said the new wheel weights are steel instead of lead. Also, what lube (Alox???) is good for 38sp cowboy loads? I'm thinking about casting if I can find a cheap source of lead. Any hints / tips will be appreciated.

[fordwannabe]

Try metal recyclers(new name for scrap yards), I have gone to u-pull-it auto part yards and look around the tire section or some have a tire machine where you can dismount a tire if you just want the rim(good spot). If you have a race track local try there the guys that change the tires don't want the weights. A walmart auto service center in the area gave me a couple buckets. I got some from a local garage guy. Medium duty (box) truck repair facilities have nice big ones. I offer to pay some for them, but many places think if it weights as much as gold it must cost as much. I have gotten hooked up with a guy who gets nascar weights after some of the races and they don't have to be sorted, except an occasional lugnut or valve cap and are really clean. Remember a 100 pound bucket of wheel weights MAY give you around 65-75 pounds of lead alloy and if you are using a 158 grain bullet(7000grains in a pound) about 44 bullets apound. doesn't take as much lead as you might think(coming from a guy with just shy of a ton of the stuff)
CAUTION BE CAREFUL ABOUT HARD ZINC WHEEL WEIGHTS THEY WILL MESS UP YOUR ALLOY.
If you have more question PM me or go to castboolits website and settle in for a few nights of reading.
Good luck! I love this aspect of my addiction.. errr hobby.Tom

[O.S.O.K.]

http://www.rotometals.com/default.asp

I've bought from them before - good outfit.

I also use wheel weights - when I can find em.

I use Lee's liquid alox lube- to size the boolits and then another coat left on to dry. Works very well for me.

[HEAD0001]

I would still go back to the tire store with a couple of pizzas and a broom. Offer to sweep up the weights off the floor, and show up just before lunch time. Tom.

[TedH]

Yeah, keep trying the small independently owned tire shops, most of the chains have to recycle them. Sometimes it takes a lot of scrounging, but you'll find score once in a while.

[adirondakjack]

For small amounts, you can and I have gone around to the busier neighborhood garages, tire shops, etc. Look for the kinda frumpy independant place that is obviously not run by a neat freak. Ya sometimes luck into a 5 gal. bucket of em. Sometimes ya get em for free, but if ya bring a bathroom scale and a 5 gal. bucket or two with ya and offer 35 cents a pound, even those who normally take em to the scrap place (where they pay 25 cents for em) will be happy to sell em to ya IF it;s an independant shop where the decision maker is on site.

If ya need more than a small amount on a consistently available basis, buy it from scrap metal dealera. Be prepared to pay $.50/lb these days for WW, and $.65/lb for soft (pipe or roof flashing) lead. I just bought 330lbs (2/3 full 25 gallon oil barrel) yesterday, and am going back for 400lbs (est) more tomorrow. Last month I bought 200lbs of soft lead pipe......

[stanforth]

For cartridge weapons I get my lead from the back our local indoor range. It has a steel backstop and I jusr sweep it into a bucket.

Soft lead for muzzle loading I get from a guy who owns a company specialising in the restoration of historic builings. That is beautiful soft lead used for roofs and guttering.

[2571]

You guys seem to have better luck than I do. I've been getting ww from my tire guy for 20 years. Smack dab in the middle of the Detroit ghetto where you'd think he'd get a lot of old, lead weights. These days all he seems to get is zinc.

I do use zinc for round ball in a smooth barrel bp gun. Good for plinking. Zinc does not freeze to the same diameter as lead.

Always wondered if Lone Ranger had a special mould for his Ag bullets.