Okay so I have access to a gun range and can recover thousands of pounds of lead and copper, what do
TexasNationals
Posts: 3,837 ✭
I have a rig set up and with a test, I was able to reclaim 96 pounds of lead and 33 pounds of copper in 2 hours of free time when I do nothing else anyways. Would I need to melt the lead into 1 pound bars ( I have the RCBS 10 bar molds) that can hold copper also. The Lead is easy to melt, heck a hot camp fire can do that, how would I go about an economical way to melt the copper? Could I build a rig and use firebrick, charcoal and compressed air? I know there is a lead cleaner you pour i when it is liquid to remove impurities and creates slag on top to scrape off, what about the copper? Is there a cheap, electric one (110-120) volt I could take out and run off a generator that runs off homemade bio-diesel I make from fast food rest. oil I get for free (will remain nameless). My only cost would be a cheaper generator if I needed one, a larger crucible for the copper (lead I have a 1 gallon cast bucket), purifying materials and a way to heat the copper up. I figure on any given weekend I could pull 500-700 pounds of lead and 100-200 pounds of copper ( I also have a ton of older copper wire my gramps left me) I would melt too.
Thoughts- Gecko no need to comment. I have seen your 8 grain, graphite mold, sold at melt rants.
Thanks!
Thoughts- Gecko no need to comment. I have seen your 8 grain, graphite mold, sold at melt rants.
Thanks!
0
Comments
If it is brass shell casings, I know a bunch of muntions shops and hobby shooters will buy them intact to use for reloads. The aluminum ones generally can't be used for reloads due to the damage they incur when fired, but they are atill worth something to the scrap dealers.
I knew it would happen.
<< <i>Lead is $1 per pound, with gloves and a mask what is the danger? >>
Would the EPA be happy with someone smelting lead in their backyard? Give them a call if they say it's ok I'm sure there's no problem. I'd say just take it all to a refinery if you can find one.
If this is an ongoing project, remember to have your blood tested.
<< <i>
<< <i>Lead is $1 per pound, with gloves and a mask what is the danger? >>
Would the EPA be happy with someone smelting lead in their backyard? Give them a call if they say it's ok I'm sure there's no problem. I'd say just take it all to a refinery if you can find one. >>
yeah, it's always a good idea to call the government, since they are there to help
Don't smelt. Sell to scrap dealer.
"Interest rates, the price of money, are the most important market. And, perversely, they’re the market that’s most manipulated by the Fed." - Doug Casey
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
One final point though. There is a big difference between casting bullets at home for one's own use... and refining lead for resale, which is what I though you were referring to.
So ignore the advice? you asked for and proceed and prosper.
also, that cost to melt doesn't sound like $0 overhead.
Thanks for the advice... but no chill pills needed here whatsoever. I'm good with whatever you decide to do with your project.
so you don't melt the lead? do you just beat it into bars?
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
<< <i>Save it. In the right situation, it could be much more valuable than a so called precious metal. And you're in to it cheap enough, so why not. >>
Probably not, every car, and there are a few, has 30+ lbs in the battery. Copper smelting can be toxic, the smelting process will give off Arsenic. You can sell copper scrap at many salvage yards. As kids we use to dive off a rock shelf in the river will lived by to retrieve props, outdrives, heck even entire out boards. The brass props fetched good money. The scap dealer we sold them to, took just about anything metal.
Here, scroll down to melting
In refining the last step is always electrorefining to get the product pure but presumably that would not be necessary with recycled copper. Can't imagine refining copper would be viable or cheap enough to do at home but I guess with the right furnace it could be done on a medium scale.
Regarding the lead thing, sorry, I was just giving my opinion which includes red flags when dealing with products such as lead.
not gonna claim I know, cause I don't, I have casted lead and am happy with my
results, but its cool you have a place still, there extinct here in So Cal, HECK were
lucky if you can find primers out here.
Good Luck TN, let us know your results.
Steve
it is what it is.
there is the cost of your time, but this is a "past time" activity just like roll searching isn't really profitable if you consider the time involved, but that's what somebody enjoys(me).
it'd seem if we had a bronze age that melting copper wouldn't require a lot.
the effort. Anything under 4 9's is just not worth doing.
I have a friend that has a talc mine (yes, that fluffy stuff) and it's 99% pure. Worthless as
long as there is talc that can be mined that is 99.5% or better. He's been sitting on the mine
for over 30 years and there's no shot at it being worth a red cent until the better stuff runs
out.
When copper is refined it's done to .9999. You can never compete with that so just send it
out in big amounts!
bob
<< <i>Melting lead is quite safe if done in a well ventilated area or outside---thousands of shooters cast their own bullets without any ill effects. >>
Thats who you'd want to sell those ingots to.
"Interest rates, the price of money, are the most important market. And, perversely, they’re the market that’s most manipulated by the Fed." - Doug Casey
I knew it would happen.
<< <i>Isn't the difficulty a matter of separating the copper clading from the lead? >>
The solid copper should float to the top once the lead is melted and can be skimmed off.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
For years....we came down on tuesday, and mined the range. You want to talk lead? think about every bullet weighing about 1/10 of a pound. One haul...we estimate 500 lbs of lead, me and my 2 daughters....
Yup, the campfire, iron pot, rough little pits in the ground...but geez I had lead for years.
Trouble is, the muskets use very soft pure lead, so the skirts fire form to the rifling. The carbines....the usually used harder lead since they were breechloaders. All in all though the mix worked quite well and the price was free.
On the firing line, an unknown amount of weight in spent musket caps, brass, a few copper ones...but they are down there, being deposited since 1963. millions of them.
<< <i>I shot for a decade or so with the NSSA (north south skirmish association) which dressed in Civil War uniforms and fired period weapons at paper and breakable targets. Our national range is at Ft.Shenandoah in Winchester Virginia. It is a private range, and 1/4 mile long. The backstop is 125 yards or so out, and against a shale/gravel/ rock/ dirt huge hillside.
For years....we came down on tuesday, and mined the range. You want to talk lead? think about every bullet weighing about 1/10 of a pound. One haul...we estimate 500 lbs of lead, me and my 2 daughters....
Yup, the campfire, iron pot, rough little pits in the ground...but geez I had lead for years.
Trouble is, the muskets use very soft pure lead, so the skirts fire form to the rifling. The carbines....the usually used harder lead since they were breechloaders. All in all though the mix worked quite well and the price was free.
On the firing line, an unknown amount of weight in spent musket caps, brass, a few copper ones...but they are down there, being deposited since 1963. millions of them. >>
that sounds like lots of good times!
<< <i>Send the copper to a refinery. Unless you can get .9999 (that's four nines) it is not worth
the effort. Anything under 4 9's is just not worth doing.
I have a friend that has a talc mine (yes, that fluffy stuff) and it's 99% pure. Worthless as
long as there is talc that can be mined that is 99.5% or better. He's been sitting on the mine
for over 30 years and there's no shot at it being worth a red cent until the better stuff runs
out.
When copper is refined it's done to .9999. You can never compete with that so just send it
out in big amounts!
bob