How to get lead

I heard you can get lead from a tire repair shop. Would discount tire work for that.Also what do you say and do you need to bring something to put it in. If discount tire doesn't work where did yall go.

have you checked any Army surplus stores ? I remember a post awhile back about 50 lbs bags of lead pellets or buckshoot or whatnot for cheap. Whatever you use make sure the lead is wrapped in a leak proof manner-dont want that toxic c**p leaking over your boat.

Discount Tire recycles their lead. If you know some one there they will hook you up. I use to work there about 5yrs back. I would walk up to one of the guy's in the bay's and offer him a few bucks for a 5gal buckett full.

try a wholesale plumbing shop. plumbers can buy lead in 1-lb blocks in which there are (5)1 lb blocks attached to each other. (like a string of 1lb individual blocks)

All teh tire shops I went to recently recycle their lead and get paid for it. So they weren't givign it up. The dude that knew what I was doign with it was all about giving as much as I wanted but his manager wasn't. I would try local small tire shops. Also look into steel, or tungsten shot at ammo stores. It wont poison the fishies.

Lead can definately be recyclyed, and if there is an active recycler they will pay for it and any place that has scrap lead will deal with them.

Scrap lead isn't worth that much, however, and the recycler has a tendency to flake out. If the recycler hasn't been by to pick up in a long time and the lead is piling up then they will be willing to let some go.

Definately bring your own container though. Either transfer or swap them buckets.

I know the tire stores are a good source but I personally haven't used that. I have been at tire stores and have seen the buckets of lead weights so I am sure it is a viable source.

where I personally have optained lead, and could have taken tons if I had a way of hauling it, was at an indoor shooting range. Same basic story, they had a guy who used to come buy and collect but he hasn't been around in ages. The manager let me in early before they were open and I took all I could carry. Literally, there were mounds of lead knee high, four feet wide and 30 feet long.

I keep thinking that maybe I would organize a lead party. Make the arrangements at the shooting range, get dozens of people, trucks, wheel barrows etc. and just load up.

Anyone game?

Shooting range worked for me. They had 55 gallon drums full of lead and some brass and let me fill up my 5 gallon buckets free of charge.

This may have been a fluke but I happend to be at a sailing club and saw a stack of lead off to the side. I asked about it and apparently it was out of the keel of a boat that got trashed. Needless to say they were happy to get rid of it and I got about 600lbs of led in nice square blocks with strap handles screwed to them. It was a great find.
So if you are around a place with sail boats that is a good place to look and inquire.

Try any mom and pop tire shop. they will normally be more than happy to get rid of it.

Ryan, where are you located? if on the east coast i can hook you up?

That's interesting, I've talked to a few shooting ranges in the Tampa area and they're telling me that there's a federal regulation that prohibits them from just handing out lead to anyone who asks for it. They use specialized people so that there's paper trails just in case lead ends up in an empty lot three blocks over. Damn HAZMAT....

ok has anyone ever coated their lead blocks?

i have 4 2" X 4" X 36" long bricks of lead i was thinking about cutting handle shapes into them and then coating them with either some like plasti dip or rhino linings but i was wondering if anyone has any better ideas for me

Just confirmed by calling two shooting ranges who both said that they'd love to hand it over or sell it, but their insurance liabilities are far too great. Maybe I need to get out of the city and go a little further into the woods.

Interesting... I thought I would encounter the same thing with lead being on hazardous list. The guy even showed me pieces of it while wearing latex gloves. My best guess is they're just not quite up to big town standards and had no qualms with off'ing a few pounds.

Big O Tires hooked me up with 300 pounds for free.

I handled it with gloves and placed it in drybags.

i read the title quickly and thought it said "how to get laid"

I went to a tire place once with a hand shovel and a few 5 gallon buckets but the guys there strongly suggested that i didn't bother with it.
DEFINITELY WEAR GLOVES and not just because it's friggin lead, those guys spit hock up all kinds of stuff in those 55 gallon drums. I decided quickly against it. One things you can try is going to a metal fab place for scrap steel. Believe it or not my friends have filled their boats with scrap steel bars from a local mill.

Metal Recyclers. .30 cents per pound for dirty, .70 cents per pound for fresh.

That's funny, I just got a call from a lead recycler that said he'd sell me dirty lead for .70 a pound.

I paid a local independent tire dealer .15 pound for dirty lead. Ended up costing about .25 pound after I melted it down and cleaned it up.

I guess it all depends on where you go

not sure if the company still exists but I got my lead from Lead Foots. It was a company that made lead for wakeboarding boats. He covered the lead plates in epoxy resin and comes with a built in handle. Each plate had the dimensions of 8.5 x 11 x 1 inch. each plate is 50 lbs. They are awesome and the best lead built for wakeboarding yet that I have seen. Stackable, small, 1 inch thick.

(Message edited by zride on April 25, 2006)

I have 5- 5 gallon buckets of lead that I need to get rid of. This lead is from a shooting range, so it is mostly lead fragments, easily poured into enclosed plastic containers for ballast. No need to melt.If anyone is around the Tri-cities in Washington State, shoot me an email at: birdhunter007@verizon.net

How to get laid? There's lots of info on that on the internet- or just ask your cool older brother.

Pop-Products bags

http://www.pop-products.com/

Hey Guys,

Stopped by an Indoor Shooting Range today, just to see if I could pick up a little lead.

Owner took me into the back room and told me I( could have all I could carry, already had it in 5 Gal. buckets I took about a 1000 lbs, I am going to fill 3" PVC 2' - 4' long pipes.

I figure 2 foot should be about 25lbs. and the 4 Foot should be about 100lbs. Also picked up some stainless handles at the depot.

Should work out nice.

What do ya think?

Danny

Shooting range is where I got mine.

Only drawback was that there was a LOT of junk in with the lead;l all sorts of plastic, brass, wadding, etc.

For most of my ballast I just loaded it up into sand bags. I did spend an afternoon and condensed a sandbag full of lead + trash into a 50 pound bar by melting it on a coleman stove in cast iron skillet.

I have been thinking of hitting the shooting range up again. Any body in the San Jose, California area want to get in on free lead?

Figuring a 2.8" ID piece of pipe, filled solid with lead will weight 2.5226 pounds per linear inch. So 2' will weight 60.5 pounds.

For estimating purposes, lets say you can only fill 80% of the volume with lead. Being that you're using exhausted lead bullet slugs. So that 2 feet is actually about 48.5 pounds.

*Assuming the website I got the volume weight of lead off of is correct. --well, and my math too.



(Message edited by yosquire on April 28, 2006)

Thanks,
I will weight them when im finished.
Danny

hey rod, how big are the sandbags you used to hold your lead and do they work ok? I also got 150lbs or so of shooting range "dirty" lead and would like to put it in 15-20lb bags for easy and "soft" distribution. I'd like it to conform to whereever I decide to put it. Initial thought was to use some sort of canvas to make custom sacks, but my local seamstress thought maybe a heavy-duty bag like banks use for coins might work better, then make an outer bag that looks good enough for my boat. I haven't been able to round up any coin bags, yet. Maybe sand ones would work? Thoughts?

I am finding that the the dirty shooting range lead is only giving me about 11 lbs, per foot in 3" Pvc.

Joe try this...
http://www.pop-products.com/

lead should weight .41 pounds per cubic inch.
I'm recalculating based on a 2.5" ID of the PVC you're using.

r=1.25
Pi=3.1415
Pi*r^2 = 3.1415*1.25^2 = 4.9085

4.9085 cubic inches per linear inch of 2.5" ID pvc.

Figure out how much weight in lead (.41 lbs/in^3)
4.9085 * .41 = 2.0124 lbs/inch

Pounds per linear inch of 2.5" pvc = 2.0124
2.0124 * 12 = 24.14

24 pounds per foot for a solid cylinder of lead 2.5" in diameter.

you're coming up with 11 pounds. Which tells me that either "dirty lead" only consumes 46% of the volume that solid lead would have. Or you don't have pure lead.

Anyone see an error in my math or logic?

I'm not faulting you, just doing this for my own entertainment of calculating the weight. Either way, it's heavy, and heavy is what you're looking for! Plus it gives me some ideas of how much "dirty" lead will weight as I plan to use it in the near future.


http://www.tesarta.com/www/resources/library/weights.html

I assume it has to do with the large amount of copper and airspace.

Still very heavy for a small section of pipe.

Train A leaves New York traveling west at 55mph.
Train B leaves San Francisco....

When I took the "dirty" lead from the shooting range it was very dirty! Lots of brass, plastic, paper, etc. In addition, the lead "splattered" and made shapes that creates lots of air pockets.

About 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket melted down into a brick that occupied far less space. So I would say that ~1/2 the densitiy is not an unreasonable number.

I will never do the shooting range stuff again.

Too much Work.

If I had a larger kettle for melting, it would have been a much easier job.