Mold your own bullets

[roverboy]

I checked 2 tire stores today. They get 25. per bucket, still with all the trash too.

How many pounds do the buckets usually have? What size bucket? Even a 2 gallon bucket would have a lot of weight.

[Guest mbushell]

I pay 15-20 dollars a bucket. It will be 100lbs of finished lead ingots once you pick out the cigarette butts and boil out the dip spit. Deffinately worth it.

[Caster]

I pay 15-20 dollars a bucket. It will be 100lbs of finished lead ingots once you pick out the cigarette butts and boil out the dip spit. Deffinately worth it.

I know just what you're talking about.

I SERIOUSLY recommend a respirator when smelting. Get them into clean ingots and then you won't need it, but when you're melting all that grease, spit and funk, not to mention any of the coated WW's, you REALLY don't need to breathe that man! Really.

[dlm37015]

i got most of mine when the printing shops in nashville quit using linotype.i use an iron pot with a propane burner to alloy it with lead and cast with a magma mastercaster

[Guest canebreaker]

I was checking another forum. Price on a bucket of wheel weights was 125., so 25. is that bad of a price.

[Guest mbushell]

Just got new tires, and two free buckets of weghts, spit, and cigarette butts. Go to the mom and pop store, buy something, be nice, and they'll appreciate it. The tires are nice too

[ted]

please make sure you melt your lead in an open outside place with plenty of ventilation if not it is very bad for you .can cause lead poisoning .been ther done that takes a long time to get it out of your sys . the lead fumes are very harmful hope this helps

[Caster]

The one thing I really hate bout summer; It's too hot to sit over a pot of molten lead. *Sigh* At the least I can still smelt ingots for use in the winter.

I just finished up this pile of lead pipe my plumber friend gave me. Usually I have no use for pure lead [in this case, very clean and pure stuff!] but I have started casting a 525g Lyman slug for 12g and pure lead works very well. I've tried a few out on various targets, what a devastating wound these things will make. They cut a perfect hole in paper too with the large flat face, like a wad cutter.

On the subject of ingots, I don't know how much trouble you guys go to, but I do a double melt before I get to a final ingot. I smelt it in one pot and get all the crud out stirring and scooping, then pour it in another pot to make large plate like ingots. When all done, I remelt those and flux heavily with paraffin to get any leftover undesireables out, then pour them into a muffin tin. The final muffins are then stacked away for another day. When melted down for casting, I know I only have to do a light flux to remove any dust and whatnot. Maybe it ain't worth effort, I dunno? It sure makes pretty ingots though. That trash can full of pipes yielded about 220lbs of pure lead. I took the picture halfway through cutting it up. I wish there was a better way to cut that stuff up. I use an old pair of pruning shears or a chisel edged hammer and an anvil.

Edited May 12, 2011 by Caster

[Guest mbushell]

I do my smelting exactly the same, but different. I have a large pot that I do the initial "dirty melt" in. I usually just throw it in a fire out back and leave it till the next day. Once cool. I turn out the big lead block, and chop the crap off the top with an axe. I chop the block into pieces with the axe, and remelt over propane,flux, and pour into muffin pans. Use as needed...