My mail man hates me...

I'll find out in a few minutes whether he's going to drop off a 24 lb slab of lead I ordered on ebay or if I have to go get it from the post office. It cost me $32 with free shipping.

The UPS man used to wonder what I bought when I bought ammo by the case, and he completely gave up when I ordered a set of tires for my Dodge.

I'm going to go get a cold chisel and break it up into more manageable chunks to melt it into ingots.

Another guy is selling about 40 lbs of scrapped dive weights for $32, but it's an auction, hopefully my bid won't go higher, but it will still be $1 a pound, with free shipping.

It's still funny when the UPS man rolled the tires one by one across the yard. All they did was tape a UPS address sticker to each of them. Good thing one didn't get lost.

I went outside and there was one of the small 1 cubic foot USPS boxes sitting on the porch. I didn't hear him drop it off. Inside was another USPS box and the chunk of lead was wrapped and wrapped with big bubble wrap to keep it from shifting in the boxes. It's half of some sort of bracket. It scratched with my fingernail, so it's lead, all right.

I've got two carriers, an older guy and a young black woman. Last summer my mower was messed up, I had to go to the post office to pick up a package. "Yard needs mowing" was written on my package. I asked the Postmaster what that meant and he said he would talk to the mail carrier. I got another yellow slip a week later. Complained again at the post office about it and it turned out the black girl was working the counter and she said that tall grass was and endangerment. The UPS man and the FedEx guy didn't complain to me about it. The other mail carrier just drove up my drive and left packages on the hood of my car. Not her. I had Dad bush-hog my yard. I had to pick up another package, they wrote "Yard needs to be mowed with a mower." I went on usps.com and wrote a blistering complaint about not sleet or snow and dark of night, but ankle high grass will keep me from my rounds. I haven't had any problems, but it's been cold.

I was going through that 150 lb 5 gallon bucket full of wheelweights. I got my calculations wrong..150lbs for $50 is 33 cents a pound, not $3 a lb. I sorted out more than 20 lbs of ribbon weights and put them in my old skillet to melt and burn off the adhesive and threw the harder clip-on weights into my other bucket and collected about 10 lbs of zinc and iron weights. Pure lead wheelweights, my butt. It was supposed to be nothing but lead weights, but it's the same mix as the bucket he gave me free last year. I reckon this lead will end up being about 50 cents a lb when I'm done.

I wore myself out using a cold chisel on that 24 lb solid lead bracket with only a large chunk loose. I put a metal blade on my bandsaw, but it's too weak for it. I cut off a couple of good sized chunks, but that's all it had in it. It's a cheap one. I tried using a metal blade with my reciprocating saw, that didn't work. I just went ahead and put the chunks and the 20+ scuffed up piece in the skillet and put my camp stove on medium. The steel grate turned cherry red, but a half hour later, it was falling apart like a hunk of cheese when I poked it with my spatula. I use an Oriental spatula to dip out the dross and metal clips of the wheelweights. I just got a little dross from this bracket, it was nearly pure. Now I have a stack of 40 something ingots that I've melted down and cleaned up on my little folding table. I figure they're about a lb and a half each. I've got plenty of bullets now, but I'm going to be showing a friend everything about blackpowder guns when he gets home from Iraq in the next few days, so I'll need to lead to show him how to cast his own.

My other order of lead from ebay came in today. 38 lbs for $40, free shipping. It's already in "ingots". They're old dive weights and most of them are clean. One of them has some dirt on it, but I can scrub it clean before I melt it.

Years ago, Walmart gave me a half bucket of tire weights and a year ago, one of the large independent tire stores gave me a lot of wheel weights.

At the time, smaller tire places either told me they sold them for scrap or hung up on me. Walmart and Firestone told me they had an agreement with battery companies to sell their scrap wheelweights, it was against company policy to give or sell them to anyone else. I called the only scrapyard in this part of the state; they didn't handle lead, they referred me to another scrapyard. I called them and they said they didn't deal with individuals. That one large tire store that sells full 5 gallon buckets for $50 is my only source for lead, other than online. There aren't a lot of tire stores around here and I checked with all of them. There are enough people casting fishing lures and bullets that all the lead is being sucked up.

Wittzo posted on March 10-2010: "I called the only scrapyard in this part of the state; they didn't handle lead, they referred me to another scrapyard. I called them and they said they didn't deal with individuals."

I don't know what the deal is around here, but I can't get cheap lead.