[mcdonl]

I panicked and needed some lead.

Started with some very bottom of the barrel wheel weight. I use a small turkey fryer with a medium sized pot and put maybe 4" of raw WW in the pot.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/mcdonl/5BFF847B-B89F-4574-8868-4BE010C7DBA0-5550-000005BAD7D145ED.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/mcdonl/8E1D19C4-239B-4DE3-BA01-5442B3586927-5550-000005BAC7B9B05A.jpg


Lee 10# Pot, Lyman ingot mold and lee molds.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/mcdonl/DD83AB79-E671-440D-A67F-F1ED932B767E-5550-000005BAD284DDA1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/mcdonl/23AD54C7-A9EC-4678-9965-CB7E019B8403-5550-000005BACD4A9AA3.jpg

I yielded 20 ingots.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/mcdonl/59640596-6C05-4DDE-AD79-11FB88ABFFEE-5550-000005BAC13AB308.jpg

Sized, lubed and drying. 45 minutes got me 430 230RN from a few handfuls of wheel weights.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/mcdonl/3A1DFFF4-E74E-4167-BB4C-613340A1EFB6-5550-000005BAE8A2410E.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/mcdonl/9E3D12AA-D4B3-40BC-98AF-EB60AA9CF38B-5550-000005BAE2CC6386.jpg




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[Texan Scott]

Gave you something to do, right? Made you feel proactive and in control? That's what a lot of panic BUYERS are after, i think... emotional security need gratification.
Panic casting instead of panic buying? Better, more sensible, and more productive.

Also, your bullets look like the Dalek Horde. Cool.

[rcmodel]

BUT NOW, everyone in your end of the country is going to die of lead poisoning from your turkey cooker fumes!!

Obama and the Biden Commission will not forget or forgive this shooting related Atrocity!

For shame on you! :D

rc

[Steve H]

I can see tomorrows headlines....................."TIRE STORES UNDER ATTACK FOR USED LEAD WEIGHTS" :eek::what::eek::what:

[4v50 Gary]

Not all wheel weights are lead. We melted some at school and found a bunch of more modern stuff that wouldn't melt. That had to be trashed but the lead we got had to be fluxed to separate the junk (and there was no shortage of junk).

Good work mcdonl.

[Jeff H]

Dalek Horde

ROFL. I agree.

EXTERMINATE!

http://davidszondy.com/ephemeral/Dalek_army.jpg

[ridgerunner1965]

zinc is commen now but easily sorted out.if yu just throw stuff in yur pot without checking it yu gonna regret it.

[Certaindeaf]

Nice mallet. I broke my plastic one seating gas checks and sizing .30's with an old Lee tap through die.

[chris in va]

Save that zinc. We'll all be casting with it once the wheelweights run out.

[FROGO207]

Good looking stuff!!! You better shoot them up before they tarnish.:D That always seems to happen around here, then it is off to the cave to assemble some more.:)

[mcdonl]

I have to go though the buckets today... I have three full, and the rest of this one. I had started with 4....

So, the 5 gallon bucket you see has produced 4K 230RN, 5K 9mm, and I dont know how many .312's I have made with it but it has served me well for probably 5 years. I will not change my ways until I get down to one last bucket then I will need to start giving my shooting habits some thouht... or find more lead :)

[RugerBob]

Looks great. I may have to do some of the same. I have one full bucket left to melt down and about 200lbs of lead sheeting removed from x-ray wall at a hospital remodel.
Finally got settled in new house and will have some time after holidays.

[mcdonl]

I like casting on "warm" early winter weekends. Stock up for winter reloading.

I have always meant to document ww to boolets ratio so I will do that here. Step one wheel weights to ingots.

I use a standard 10" spaghetti pot and smelt until I get 2" of lead. I offer one up to the casting gods then get the lead out :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/mcdonl/CF6AAE83-4B20-4990-9CA0-EAE261AED281-5810-000006894CBA23B9.jpg

This got me 27 ingots. They are not that consistent in size but I am planning to put a spigot in that pot. That will help.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/mcdonl/64376C1E-0B37-45D8-8522-CB0034E2F0F7-5810-0000068D6E6A7B9C.jpg

I will cast these next week and post the ingot to boolet count.

[35 Whelen]

Not all wheel weights are lead. We melted some at school and found a bunch of more modern stuff that wouldn't melt. That had to be trashed but the lead we got had to be fluxed to separate the junk (and there was no shortage of junk).

Good work mcdonl.
A buddy who owns a scrap yard gave me a 5 gallon bucket of WW's last summer and I smelted and fluxed about half of it a couple of weeks ago. Gross: 68 lbs., net: 58 lbs. after all the trash, steel clips, zinc and steel weights floated to the top and were fished out.

Remember: zinc melts at around 787° F. As such I smelt at around 725° so the zinc weights float to the top instead of melting. Saves lots of time over fishing the zinc weights out of the bucket.

35W

[TxSoldier]

I think that's really cool. I've never cast any bullets before, but I think it looks interesting. Maybe something I'll have to try soon. Where do you guys like to find your wheel weights? Just make local tire/wheel business contacts?

[mcdonl]

That's how I did it but lead wheel weights are becoming hard to find. They are being outlawed, likely by the EPA.

Roofing contractors are a supply as are scuba shops and X-ray technicians.

[JLDickmon]

I can see tomorrows headlines....................."TIRE STORES UNDER ATTACK FOR USED LEAD WEIGHTS" :eek::what::eek::what:

we haven't used lead in a couple of years..
you guessed it.. EPA.

[35 Whelen]

That's how I did it but lead wheel weights are becoming hard to find. They are being outlawed, likely by the EPA.

Roofing contractors are a supply as are scuba shops and X-ray technicians.
I've heard this for some time, but question it, at least on a nation-wide basis, because where I live in Texas the tire shop I use, a national chain, is still using lead WW's.

35W

[GLOOB]

Panic casting. Thats melting down battery plates, lol. Don't do it unless you want to make a pot full of dross and an itty bit o lead.

For me i dont cast until im totally out of a bullet and I want to reload. Thats the beauty. No need to reorder before u run out. You have bullets on tap whenever u want.

[mcdonl]

Gloob, that's precisely what happened!


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[Hardtarget]

I know a guy that will occasionally hand off some lead. So I call him every so often just to keep in his "list" of people that NEED lead. There had been a longer than normal time gap at my last call....and it just killed me! I missed(by two weeks) on his lead trove. He gave this away to three people but they never came to get it, so, he recycled it. He had 6,000 pounds of pure lead! Thats right...six thousand pounds! And I missed it by two weeks!!

I'm still crying over this. I'd never gotten to the end of all that. Think of how many rounds could be cast from that much.

Truely...story of my life!

Mark

[groundsclown]

Think of how many rounds could be cast from that much.
:D:D:D
119gr = 352,941
158gr = 265,822
240gr = 175,000
:D:D:D

[highlander 5]

I cast during the winter,my pot is in my cellar and I usually cast on Sat and Sun. 1-2 hours I go thru 10 lbs of lead. Bullet count varies as I cast for almost everything I shoot. Last run was a 130 cgr 30 cal bullet for my 7.62x39 and 308 win. i ave a scrap yard near me after the firt of the year I'll call and see if they have any linotype. I have 150 lbs or so of ww and mix them 50/50 with lino,makes a very nice bullet that weighs very close to what the blocks stated weight is.

[Walkalong]

and X-ray technicians.They wanted us to get rid of some lead from the X-Ray dept in the hospital. I told them no problem, I would take care of it.

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=162624&d=1334266239

[dragon813gt]

I have no problems getting wheel weights. But I hate smelting them down. I will gladly pay for isotope cores which are a consistent clean alloy. Makes making 96/2/2 for hunting bullets easy. This was the result of the last batch of cores that I melted down. The pile at the bottom is range lead I think.
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/Firearms/Reloading/ff40b839.jpg

And a somewhat recent pic of what's ready to go into the production pot.
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/Firearms/Reloading/CDC99665-33CB-4535-88B6-893F00817461-1934-000000CC018D5984.jpg

Still have hundreds of pounds of cores, wheel weights and range lead to clean up and pour into ingots.


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[Nasty Ned]

A neat and orderly loading bench or casting area is a sign of a sick mind.

[mcdonl]

It's the holiday season. I get company so I clean :)


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[Fishslayer]

BUT NOW, everyone in your end of the country is going to die of lead poisoning from your turkey cooker fumes!!

Obama and the Biden Commission will not forget or forgive this shooting related Atrocity!

For shame on you! :D

rc

Don't laugh. Lead wheel weights are already verboten in The People's Republik.:fire:

[Reefinmike]

I need to get some new lead contacts, my current ww supply only gets me about a half bucket each month. It allows me to keep up with my shooting, but you know how it is reloading... you always need way more than you need. Only if people didnt panic buy the beejeezus out of primers, I would have placed my twice yearly 10k primer order... I only have 500 left :(

[Hardtarget]

HA!! Groundsclown! (post #22) Exactly! Thats lots of rounds, isn't it!? So, I'm staying in much closer touch with my friend. Maybe he will make a call to ME next time! :D

Mark