Scrap Yard find

Cherokee

Medina, Ohio
Went to the scrap dealer Tuesday, picked up 150# of lead, including one 30# ingot that looked like it had some tin in it (yellowish color). This evening I got out the Oxy torch to cut some off for testing. Dropped the drippings into my old Lee pot used for mixing, then cast a few of the Lee 452230TC. They weigh 153 gr vs the normal 231-232 gr from my 2/3/95 alloy. I think I bought a big chunk of tin for the price of lead. Anyway here are some pic's, tell me what you think I have.

The big ingot:
Mystry 03.jpg

The 3 slugs:
Mystry 02.jpg
 

pokute

Active Member
The ratio of the densities of Lead/Tin is 1.55. The ratio of the densities of your bullets is 1.51. You got Tin! Congratulations!
 

Ben

Moderator
Staff member
Went to the scrap dealer Tuesday, picked up 150# of lead, including one 30# ingot that looked like it had some tin in it (yellowish color). This evening I got out the Oxy torch to cut some off for testing. Dropped the drippings into my old Lee pot used for mixing, then cast a few of the Lee 452230TC. They weigh 153 gr vs the normal 231-232 gr from my 2/3/95 alloy. I think I bought a big chunk of tin for the price of lead. Anyway here are some pic's, tell me what you think I have.

The big ingot:
View attachment 5905

The 3 slugs:
View attachment 5906

Wow !

That is like winning the Lotto !!!!!!!!!!
 

Ian

Notorious member
Looks like you got just a little more tin than you needed to alloy the lead you bought up to 2%! You could call that a "bullet-caster's package deal".
 

Cherokee

Medina, Ohio
Thanks for the confirmation. Now I have a nice problem: I've already got 194 lb of tin, plus lots of lino, 2/6 and 5/5 alloys, what I needed was lead. Guess I'll have to go back again.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
isn't that how it goes.
I finally got the scrap yard to sell me lead, and I really wanted ww's.
when I got there he offered me a pallet of lino pigs still in the foundry box for 65 cents a lb.
that pretty much cut into the amount of ww's I bought.
it's been good trade material though, I got a 1,000 count of Berger jackets for 100 lbs of it and the guy thought he was getting the better of me.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I only took 450 lbs.
I really needed the drum of ww's they had.
someone had made off with the last 20 buckets of old 80's ww's I had, and I was down to maybe 1,000 lbs. of alloy.
 

Ian

Notorious member
I got down to about 300 lbs of alloy a few years ago and was a nervous wreck. 25 years ago I would have thought that little would last me forever. Finally the word that I had a standing cash offer for lead got around the scrap community (scrapping was big business among the cedar-hackers here 8-10 years ago when prices were up) and a few seedy characters started showing up at work with buckets of stuff. I kept a scale handy and managed to get back to about as much as I wanted right when the bottom fell out of the market. My neighbor has given me a bunch for helping him smelt a little and loaning my wood-fired smelting rig, so I'm set for a while and trap most of what I shoot now.
 

USSR

Finger Lakes Region of NY
I got down to about 300 lbs of alloy a few years ago and was a nervous wreck. 25 years ago I would have thought that little would last me forever.

Hard to say how much you "need" to last you "forever". I keep updating my estimate, and then along comes an opportunity just too good to pass up. In any case, the weather tomorrow will be nice and I'll be on the porch smelting down 190# of wheel weights and 80# of lead pipe.

Don
 

Kevin Stenberg

Well-Known Member
Our Governor signed a bill making it illegal for scrap yards to resell any scrap back to the public. Any non-resident (DL verification) can buy anything they want though.
 

USSR

Finger Lakes Region of NY
Our Governor signed a bill making it illegal for scrap yards to resell any scrap back to the public.

Yeah, I see this coming. At this time there are places in New York State that do this (read that as metropolitan areas) on an individual basis, but in the rural parts of NY (and most of NY is rural) they have no problem selling scrap metal to the public. Still, give Andy time and I'm sure he'll think of it. In the meantime, buy early and buy often.

Don
 

pokute

Active Member
What the heck?! First of all, that's just insane. Second, the biggest scam involving scrap that I know of relied on the fact that the scrap traveled over state lines: https://www.oag.ca.gov/news/press-r...cused-7-million-conspiracy-involving-millions

Now, if you bothered to read that, it appears as if justice prevailed, but NO. An unregistered UZI was discovered in the perps possession, and he was able to plea-bargain down to a $100,000 fine for the weapon, and walked away with the remaining $6.9 million that he scammed out of the state.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Our Governor signed a bill making it illegal for scrap yards to resell any scrap back to the public. Any non-resident (DL verification) can buy anything they want though.

That's why you put out a standing offer among the scrap scroungers that sell to the yards to pay them more than the yard, particularly during lean times (low prices), so you get it before the yard does. If buying scrap metal from an individual becomes illegal you'll have to figure out what you'll do. I know what I'll do.