Smelting Range Scrap question

[Brad]

I have been putting them with the metal recycling that goes with the trash each week.

Now brass, they were good with that. I got something like 2.40 a pound. A partial 5 gallon bucket of scrap brass and 40 bucks got me around 260 pounds of monotype. They sold the monotype to me for 45 cents a pound! That was cheaper than they wanted for pure lead. Weird.

 

[quicksylver]

Wish I had easier access to the world.

It takes $40. plus in gas round trip to get where I can make a deal like that.

I've got at least 5, 5 gal buckets of brass.

 

[Brad]

Figure 50 pounds plus per bucket. At 100 bucks a bucket with 5 buckets that drive gets more worthwhile. That 40 bucks in gas isn't bad now but a few years back it was closer to 100. Yikes
I can drive 15 min and hit the closest scrapyard.

 

[quicksylver]

WOW Brad!....That has to be almost heaven.

You are right a couple of years ago the guys would get together and make about 4 trips a year.

 

[Brad]

I have a tech at work who does some scrapping on the side. I may offer him 50% to take them to the yard. He goes there more often and might be able to get better pricing for the jackets.

 

[quicksylver]

That may well be as most of the yards around here are more like private clubs.

 

[quicksylver]

The up side of being so far from the yards is that the scroungers around here drop off any pewter they come across.

I have gotten about 20 lbs in the last 6 weeks. FREE!

A couple of mason drop off lead, about 160 lbs the last couple of months.

That leaves me having to buy lino.

My alloy being about 50/50 ,lino /lead plus pewter cost me about $1.00 per lb. I can live with that.

 

[quicksylver]

And my last range trip got me about 84 lbs of hard cast.
That was almost a years worth of shooting for me.

Boy after reading this I now realize how scrimey we casters are

 

[RBHarter]

A few yr ago I had a 5 gallon bucket I hauled to the local scrap yard who acted like I stole it off the base . So I took it to the next town over with a bunch cans ,scrap aluminum and copper ground wire scrap. They wouldn't take the whole jackets but paid 2.60 for the copper and said if the jackets were mill chips it'd be good to go . So I beat them flat and after 3 more scrap places wouldn't take them I put them in 2 flat rate boxes and mailed them to a guy in Ohio that gave me a buck a lb . That was the hardest I ever worked for $80 .

The yard down near my folks is only too happy to pay $1.30 for jackets and I got 154 lb of corn muffin ingots ,38 WC ,Speer 41 Mag JHP ,45,50,54 and 58 cal RB , 32 maxi ball , and 10# of assorted 400-600 gr 45s and rolled flashing for $.35/lb. They almost always have cable ends, pipe ,flashling and WW by the 5 gal buckets.

 

[Brad]

I did 2 five gallon buckets full today. Took about 3.5 hours, much of it waiting for the stuff to melt.


This was 1/2 way thru the second bucket. I figure I will have 300-325 pounds of nice clean ingots.

Now to find time to do the other four. And the 2 plus I will gather this year.

 

[Brad]

324 pounds is the final tally. All put away and everything cleaned up.

 

[JWFilips]

Nice set up Brad! Concrete pad: I guess you don't have to carry a level in your smelting bucket
I have dirt or grassland (lawn) so my pads are cinder blocks & the use of a level on the pot is necessary ( ask me how I know )
Molten lead is akin to the Roman's "salting the land" when it hits the lawn!

324 lbs sounds like a great haul.
I'm sure glad all my buckets are empty from my basement!

 

[KHornet]

Will probably wait till fall to smelt. Will have about 400+ lbs of scrap by then. As a large percentage of what I cast is for smaller cals, that goes a long way. Casting blts that weigh over 200 gr. eat up a 20 lb pot pretty quick. On the other hand, casting blts under 100 grains goes a long way or so it seems.