Yard Sales for Casting Stuff

[yodogsandman]

I got bitten by the yard sale bug last year, looking for items to make Ben's Red with. My wife wouldn't allow me to use her kitchen stuff. I got a crock pot, pots and pans, utensils and other stuff for just a few bucks and my time to drive around looking.

This year, I've taken up looking for pewter. This is great fun and I'm saving some $$... I hope!

Todays scores were small but, I got a creamer ($1) and a small pitcher ($2) for a total of 1.39 lbs. I also found a 14" long, rusted lead ladle for $2. As an added plus, I have a contact now whose father was a pewtersmith so, more is coming.

Anyone else tapping into yard sales for casting stuff?

 

[35 shooter]

It's that time of year for sure as yard sale signs are everywhere around here each weekend.
My girlfriend loves to go to them and it sounds like i may need to tag along at least some of the time.

 

[KHornet]

Garage sales produce and so do thrift stores on occaision! you just never know what you are going to find in the way of casting and reloading equipment.

 

[carpetman]

I fully expected when I saw the title of this thread that there would be umpteen posts for muffin pans that folks use for ingots. On several other forums I've seen lots of bandwidth on this subject. Rusty vs shiney, teflon or not, on and on. My take--buy an ingot mold and be done with it. Why? They are fairly cheap and seem to last forever. Ingots to me are more handy than the muffin tin variety. Easier to stack, easier to handle and I had some muffin ingots that wouldn't go into my furnace. My ingot mold is a Lyman and it imprints LYMAN on the ingot, except the N is backwards. Couple other guys had the backwards N. I bought mine used about 1967.

 

[KHornet]

lAgree with Carpetman except for the corn muffin tins. They stack nice and are long and narrow. That said, hard to beat Lyman or Saeco, and the lee's aren't all that bad either.

 

[carpetman]

For over 7 years I had a part time job on Saturday afternoons. My Saturday morning activity was going to garage sales, they have em year around here. I was avid about it, looked at the ads in the newspaper and mapped out my route. I can tell many stories, some you will probably find hard to believe--but they are true. Too many for one post. Went to one small sale didn't see anything and was leaving, when I spotted some green boxes on a table with some clothes. Went and looked and sure enough it was RCBS stuff. Don't recall exactly what all but 3 sets of dies, powder trickler, funnel, auto primer arms that attach to press, reloading blocks. $7 I didn't even haggle with them, but when I was paying the man I saw instructions for a press and mentioned he must have sold it already. He said, oh I forgot to bring that, this is my buddies house, I'll call my wife and have her bring it over. I asked how much? He said I'll just throw it in. Like brand new RCBS Rockchucker press was delivered by his wife a few minutes later. Would you believe I was all smiles?

 

[carpetman]

Khornet, I agree with you too. The corn muffin variety come in cast iron and hold up well. The long and narrow do go into the furnace easily. Time was when I stacked my ingots, anymore I put them in a plastic bucket, so the stackable part no longer an issue. Hmmm, stackable doesn't seem to be a word--but it ought to be--anyone not understand it?

 

[carpetman]

Another garage sale story: Guy had some new aluminum arrows--forgot the brand. He wanted $4 apiece. I told him I could order them for $3 each--didn't matter, the $4 was firm. He also had some Martin broadheads that were new in the box, never been assembled. I asked the price expecting a ridiculous answer. He said make an offer. I figured he was ridiculous, so I would be too. I offered $3 knowing they sold for about $15. I bought them.

 

[Ian]

Last good score I had was late in the day, there were three sheets of plywood each on a pair of sawhorses stacked high with bin boxes and miscellaneous containers of screws, nails, nuts, bolts, lock sets, hinges, all kinds of hardware, looked like ten years' worth of a contractor's leftovers, almost all of it new. Dude in charge saw me picking through it (I was building my house at the time) and said "20 bucks and make it all go away and it's yours". I said cool, gave him a Jackson and wife and I loaded it all in the pickup. As we were about to leave, Dude comes up and says "Hey, you forgot the plywood and sawhorses". So I got three brand new sheets of 3/4 CDX plywood, six decent, used wood horses, and a level pickup load of hardware for $20. As a bonus there were three large coffee cans full of lead concrete anchor halves, about 75 lbs worth.

I don't go to "garbage sales" very often any more, I have too much stuff as it is and need to have one myself and say "Hey man, take all that stuff over there for fifty bucks and get it the hell out of my way". I can now see why that dude practically gave all that stuff away. We can truly become slaves to our treasures.

 

[yodogsandman]

Hey, I've scored two smelting burners this year! One is a turkey fryer, 60,000 BTU's (for $15), the other was home-made with 1/2" welded round stock and sounds like a jet engine when running (for $5)

I got two cast iron corn bread molds, apprx 3"x6" half rounds by 12 loaves in each from an antique shop this winter. They don't stack good but, they line up in a bucket, OK. 4 stacks high in a 5 gallon bucket.

 

[carpetman]

Several years ago, Coleman stoves and lanterns were commonly found at garage sales. The type that use Coleman fuel (white gasoline). I guess everyone was switching to propane. Sorta like most switched from Zippo lighters to the throwaway butane ones (How long since you saw someone carrying a Zippo?--use to be the rule). Those stoves are handy for melting lead to make ingots. Wheel weights especially make a lot of smoke and should be melted down outdoors.
BruceB, who passed away recently, worked many years in mines. He once posted that us casters talk about smelting, but we are not smelting at all, just remelting. I figured they took ore and heated it and the lead ran out, so it was about the same thing. Wrong. Google smelting and it's a whole nother deal.

 

[carpetman]

Several years ago, it was later in the morning when I arrived at a sale. People coming and going and I found a Snake Charmer shotgun in the box for $10. I thought the wife might let it go but hubby would veto it. Just as I was going up to pay, here came hubby. He took my money and told me the gun had never been shot as it had never been put together (had one screw that held barrel on). I couldn't believe he let it go for $10. I couldn't believe it was still there at that price.

 

[Ian]

When I was a kid, our local emporium/drugstore/hardware store/sporting goods store had (among other things) a .22 Chipmunk and a Snake Charmer (first "tactical" think I ever saw, stainless steel and black plastic) hanging on hooks at the front of the long rifle rack behind the sporting goods counter. Dad used to take me in there frequently to buy BBs, pellets, an occasional box of shells, and fishing stuff, I remember having big eyes for that Chipmunk and telling Dad that was what I wanted when I was ready to graduate from the Benjamin. Those two guns (or identical replacements) hung there for years, never got them, though, had to "settle" for a match-prepped, walnut 10-22 and a Winchester Model 37 in .410. Oh well. Been a long time since I thought about the Snake Charmer, we sort of outgrow some things I guess.

 

[carpetman]

I've posted about some good deals, here's one where I got ripped off. Old dbl barrel damascus shotgun stamped W. Richards. I looked in Blue Book and Westley Richards were out of sight. They wanted $400. I was on my lunch break from work when I saw it. After looking in the book and having to go back to work, I asked my wife to see if that was bottom dollar and buy it. She bought it for $250. I wrote the importer as to value and got no answer. I took pictures of it and sent to Westley Richards in England. They responded that in the 1880's there was a hardware store in Missouri that took cheap Austrian shotguns and would stamp whatever name you wanted on it. From the number of inquiries they received, W. Richards was very popular. They went on that they never sold a gun with W. Richards--it was always Westley Richards and from the pictures the proof mark confirmed it was Austrian. In their opinion not worth $50. A few years later I ran across the slickest gun trader I had ever seen. I mentioned that gun and he slicked me out of it for a 30-06. Sold the 06 for $250 and kept the scope that had been on it.

 

[carpetman]

One garage sale had a Win mod 41 shotgun. This was a cheap .410 bolt action single shot. They didn't have serial number. Was priced at $125. I figured that was top dollar. Got home and looked in Blue Book (That was Blue Book #12) and it said they were made 1920-1934 and only 22,145 made. Valued $250-$1200. This one was in very good condition. So I zipped back across town as I had to go to my part time job and the gun was still there. I bought it and the 14th year the Blue Book top dollar had dropped to $525 with low of $200? What goes? Had opportunity to talk on the phone with Steve Fjestad (Blue Book Publisher) and asked about it. He said when they published the $1200 figure they thought no more than they made and how long it had been since made there wouldn't be many around. He said they came out of the woodworks when the $1200 was published. I quit buying Blue Books and haven't seen one in years. If someone has a recent one, I'm curious as to what value they put on the Model 41.

 

[yodogsandman]

Man! I never see any guns at yard sales that aren't rusted up junk! Last weekend saw a double barrel shotgun with the double hammers but, non damascus barrels and the guy wanted $100 for it! One hammer would fall off because there was no nut and the pitting had to be 1/8" deep in places. He said he found it while ripping down a wall doing a construction job.

Today's score was miniscule...a pewter shot cup for $.25 that weighed 2.4 ounces. It had a rider on top of an elephant design and was hallmarked as cosmetic pewter. When I got into the truck, I crushed in the side with my thumb pressure and it made a crinkling or cracking sound.

 

[JonB]

I don't recall seeing "any" casting stuff at a yard sale...unless I can include Beeswax ? I bought a shoebox full of vintage beewax candles for $2.
BUT...
The best deal I ever got at a garage sale, was a Troybilt "Horse" rear tine roto-tiller (1966 vintage) with a 6 HP brigs with cast iron head for $40.
It had a flat tire, and it leaked about every fluid it was suppose to contain, But it was complete and after a carb cleaning, it ran like a champ...that'd be a smoky champ

 

[yodogsandman]

Very few yard sales this weekend around here. I did stop at a parking lot flea market, though. I found a presentation bowl, marked "Paul Revere" reproduction colonia pewter that weighed 15.1 oz that I got for $1. Not sure, I checked it with a torch and it melted immediately.

At one yard sale there was a whole stack of squared plates/platters that were marked "Wilton" with smudged proof marks that I walked away from. Later "imashooter2" from the CB site identified those as non-pewter, whew! He also confirmed the "Paul Revere"bowl as pewter.

 

[freebullet]

Yard sales, thrift shops, auctions, estate sales I love them all. Just never know what you'll find.

 

[carpetman]

Yodogsanman--I'm not familiar with pewter. Do you buy it to melt and sell? If so, what price does it bring?