Cost of wheel weights

[jnyork]

I just saw a guy on another board selling wheel weights for $1.50 a pound. Have things really gotten that bad?

[TedH]

I've not seen any that high, but it wouldn't surprise me.
I've been fortunate enough to have scrounged all my half ton of wheel weights for nothing over the last several years.

[ollogger]

I see them on Ebay & there a buck or more
it seems they don't make em like they used to
last week I traded a carton of 22s for a 100 lbs of old WW & felt dang good bout it
had $11 in the 22s, Im not at Sixguns stash of lead yet but im trying


ollogger

[Mescalero]

olloger,
I am not dissing you for the deal you made, good on you.
I never thought I would see the day when the owner of the lead would go for that deal.

[Sixgun]

Im not at Sixguns stash of lead yet but im trying
ollogger

Well young man, your doing a fine job at attempting that long uphill climb but you have not even hit base camp yet. Ha!

I really don't have that much, maybe 3K of ww, 600# of lino, 1K of pure lead and roughly 150 pounds of tin and other 50/50 mix.

As far as WW going for a buck and a half, well, why not? They are an endangered commodity as WW now are pure lead and whats out there is being scrapped by tire dealers, never to be seen again. I remember when lino was as common as liberals in the welfare line, but that all went away too. (not the libs in w line)------------------6

[6pt-sika]

I think scrap metal price on wheelweights at the metal brokers is about .50 cents a pound and I think most of the folks I've seen selling wheelweight alloy in ingot form are getting $1 plus . On Ebay it looks as if they're getting $2 a pound .

Now when you figure buying in the scrap yard at .50-.75 cents a pound and then doing the melting and taking out the weight of the clips and any other trash that most likely found it's way in your bucket $1 a pound sounds pretty fair !

I think I still have close to 1000 pounds of WW ingots so I'm comfortable for now especially since I'm not feeding as many as I was !

[Ji in Hawaii]

I used to get wheel weights for 5 bucks per 5 gallon bucket. Haven't need to buy anymore in over 25 years stocking up while the gettin' was good. Now with all the anti-lead feelings going around the new weights are zinc so the lead alloy are getting rarer and more expensive.

[olyinaz]

Buck a pound seems to be the minimum if it's been poured into clean ingots. I'm slowly adding to my pile (haven't started making bullets yet), but as with reloading I got started on it too late. Better late than never though I guess.

[6pt-sika]

I used to get wheel weights for 5 bucks per 5 gallon bucket. Haven't need to buy anymore in over 25 years stocking up while the gettin' was good. Now with all the anti-lead feelings going around the new weights are zinc so the lead alloy are getting rarer and more expensive.

I got wheelweights back about 12 years ago !

Got about 2 tons or so !

They cost me my time to load and unload them plus the gas to get them . The shop I used was 3 miles from my house !

Granted it took me a good two months to render them all into ingots .

A friend who's father owns the local Chevy dealership broght me a five gallon bucket back before Xmas . That bucket was free also but half the stuff in there was zinc .

[KirkD]

I really don't have that much, maybe 3K of ww, 600# of lino, 1K of pure lead and roughly 150 pounds of tin and other 50/50 mix.

'I really don't have that much' ... classic understatement!

[Rusty]

Is there an easy way to tell zinc from lead? I mean while they're still WWs before you melt them and mess up a pot of lead.

[KirkD]

They are harder, so I have a pair of pliers at hand when sorting. When in doubt, I try and put a dent in then with a pair of pliers. You can't dent zinc. Also, some wheel weights will have Zn or Fe on them. That means they are zinc or iron. Finally, I watch my melt. The zinc and iron wheel weights that I missed will float on top and I skim them off along with the clips.

[6pt-sika]

Is there an easy way to tell zinc from lead? I mean while they're still WWs before you melt them and mess up a pot of lead.

I run my Lee pots wide open and I have yet to melt a zinc weight .