This has been a great thread! I thought I was the only scrounge when it came to lead procurement. The usual sources have been well covered already in prior posts. Here are some others. Always keep your eyes and ears open. I was in a Costco parking lot just getting out of my pick-up when another pick-up turned into the parking lot. The springs looked like upside down horse shoes, I'm thinking, this guys hauling 3/4 minus gravel or lead..... Nothing showed above the bed of his pick-up so my interest grew. He parked just a few places from me, I timed the exit from my seat to his and commented about his pick-up looking like he had some weight in it. Yeah, we're working at the hospital rebuilding the X-Ray rooms, we have salvage rights and it's full of lead! Instant parking lot purchase.
Another time a friend invited us to a BBQ in his backyard. His neighbor had a wood pile up against the property line. It was covered with a faded blue tarp. It turned out to be linotype pigs stacked like cord wood. The prior owner of that house owned a custom print shop, the new owner had not yet got rid of it. I offered to buy it, he gave it to me. That was in the early 1980's. It's just about all used up now (mixed 50/50 with wheel weights) It took about 2 months to locate a replacement supply. It's a 55 gallon drum that tips the scales at 1128#, almost full to the top of linotype still in print form. Cost? the price of diesel to haul it less than 100 miles!
