Hi guys,
I'm new at this. What's the going price for lead? I have two 60# ingots and was wondering what they're worth. Is there an easy way to tell how pure they are?

thanks
Bill

Pure lead is about US$.75 a pound or CDN$1.10 for larger orders. Formula alloys (guaranteed) are more, while wheelweight metal (potluck) is cheap.
http://www.theantimonyman.com/price.htm
http://www.alchemycastings.com/lead-products/bullet.htm

Hard to say what you've got without a hardness tester. Pure lead oxidizes to a black surface in time, while most alloys stay grey. Pure lead is soft enough to gouge with a fingernail, while wheelweight metal is scratchable and you're lucky to mark linotype.

I should note that clip-on wheelweights are medium hard and the stick-on ones are almost pure lead. If you can find some of them, compare their hardness to your lead by cutting them with a knife.

There's lots of different alloys, like babbits, out there. You might have some oddball stuff.

Bye
Jack

Jack, these ingots are pretty old, grey in appearance can be marked (just barely) with a thumbnail. They have the name "Masterbuilt" on the top and have an odd shape, say like a long flattened oval,with each end flattened down like the toe on a boot. To me it seems that they were designed to be mounted to something.
Bill

Here in the midwest, pure lead is going for $.15-$.30 per pound in the scrap yards. The catalog houses are getting about $.75-$1.00/ pound. Selling it to a scrap yard brings about $.10/lb.

I've seen ingots like you describe, but I don't have any idea of what alloys they are. As they're grey and hard, my first guess would be linotype. Babbitt ingots I've seen usually have numbers or a type name moulded on them, as there's dozens of babbitt types out there.

There is a test for linotype. Most alloys solidify over a range of temperature, but linotype solidifies at 462°F. Melt a pot full, turn off the heat and record the temperature every 30 seconds. You'll hit a point where the temperature doesn't change for several minutes while the alloy solidifies, just like water freezing at 32°F. Wheelweight metal hangs at about 550 and 450°F for a minute or two.

Bye
Jack