Well the title tells it all. I'm needing to buy some lead bricks/stock for a little help with traction.
A standard brick of lead weighs 26lbs. I can use 2 on each side. For a total of 4.
I just need a distributor. I can melt it and conform it if I have to.
It's going out of 'style' so if I were to find a good supplier at a fair price I may order several hundred lbs more than I need currently. If anyone knows of an equally dense product that is shape-able let me know (also the vendor)
Wheel weights from a tire shop?
Steel shot for ammo? If the tire stores come up empty for old weights.
Call your local scrap yard.
Just be sure to wear a respirator when melting. The dust it creates isn't very good for you. Lead poisoning sucks and is expensive to treat.
What about steel plates from someones failed workout experiments off craigslist?
www.castbulletmetal.com and other suppliers to handloaders will ship to you. I think shotgun shot comes in 25# bags. I'm not sure what the price premium would be over a bar but the bags are sturdy and that might be a handy form.
My brother bought a bunch of lead for a project from a local scrapyard once.
If you're in a rural area look for tractor weights. They're steel (or iron) but they are heavy and have provisions for bolting them down.
I found a company called Nuclead but I'm not sure I can even place an order not being a vendor.
Also found a company that sells go kart weights for cart racers. At 35 dollars a plate that would be pretty spendy to melt down a purpose molded seat weight.
I may call the local scrap yard... I wonder if they have lead other than batteries.
I'm very rural. Lots of tractor weights around... Don't really think folks would like seeing 16x16 in weights bolted to my frame at inspection time. I'm not cheating I just think that would be a huge hazard to fly off if I can't mount them permanently enough to get through tech.
Cast bullet company is over 2 bucks a lb. they said they would sell it to me but in no way shape or form was that grade necessary for ballast. He actually said try ebay.
Nice folks.
Frank where do you live, I just purchased 500# lead for sinkers from a scrap yard. Cost was 98cents per lb. None near you check for a local builder/remodeler or plumber. They have access to shower and bathroom lead.
Western Ky
We'd ballast out airplanes when I worked flight test at Learjet in Wichita using lead bricks bolted to the floor, but unfortunately I don't know the source.
You might ask around some aviation surplussing outfits if possible.
FranktheTank wrote: Western Ky
And now I have John Prine stuck in my head
I do love John Prine.
OK so I feel pretty dumb now... I thought the local scrap yard would be tough to deal with. I called and said how much lead do you have? She said slow down let's talk a price... I was like oh crap. She slowly asked if I could handle .55 a lb for clean lead. I was like.... How much ya got?
Then they were excited to talk to me. Haha so they are going to seperate it out and call me with a total. Ill probably get some used wheel weights too for my mounter and balancer. Ill probably just spend 3-400 and see what I can get for next time.
I poured my own fishing weights years ago. Try several tire stores. I have bought a 5 gallon bucket full of old weights for it seems like .25? cents a pound.
FranktheTank wrote: Cast bullet company is over 2 bucks a lb.
Whoa! Last I bought was 75 cents. Sorry.
Mcmaster carr has ingots. Price wise to the scrap yard, though.
Lead sheet from most industrial / commercial roofing supply places. Melt it down and away you go. I don't know current pricing.
Used lead wheel weights are going to be hard to find soon. 1-2 years ago they outlawed the sale of lead weights. Everything has been converted to a different material. Of course I'm in CA, so it could just be my hippy state thing... I'm still pulling old lead weights off, but only for so much longer until everything is up to new standards.
Is shot even lead anymore? My buddy used to use multiple 25# bags in the bed of his truck for traction, but that was 20 years ago.
My grandfather had a rubber stamp business and we used cast the type out of lead on a Ludlow machine. We could recycle anything that we didn't need to keep, but he literally had tons of lead in his garage. They were cast into "pigs", which were 40 pound bars that were about two feet long. They were also bolted down to the bed of the pickup in the winter for traction. After he died, I took hundreds of them to the scrap yard.
So, in summary, check with an old printer or ask the scrap yard about lead pigs.
On a related note, now that all the pigs are gone, I use sand for ballast and traction when I'm plowing. I use those low Rubbermaid totes that they sell at Home Depot. I fill them at the public works garage. Each one holds a hundred pounds. In the spring, I return the sand to the town. Keep it covered to stay dry (use cable ties so the lids don't blow off) and the sand stays soft. In an impact, the containers will break like a Fitch barrier and dissipate the energy.
Believe it or not, plumbers still use lead. You can but 5 pound bricks at the supply house, but you are better off trying to either buy it from a scraper or see if any of your local plumbers have a pile laying around. I still run across lead pipe once in a while. It goes to the scrap place the same time I scrap old copper and brass.
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