Any salvage value to old lead pipe?

[Martin Angove]

Have some ceilings down in the house at the moment and could easily remove, if it's worth it, some 25 to 30ft of old lead cold water pipe. It's in three sections (other bits chopped out), about 6ft rising next to the newer pipe, a run of 12 or 16ft under the upstairs floor, and a drop of 6ft or so next to the sink in the kitchen. Didn't bother checking, but it looks like about an inch external diameter and maybe as little as half an inch internal.

Anyway, is there any point recovering it, and who might like to take it off my hands if I do?

There's no reason I couldn't just leave it there; there's plenty of room for all the other underfloor stuff, but if it is worth anything, it might be worth 30 minutes of my time ripping it out.

Diolch!

Hwyl!

M.

[MrCheerful]

Any scrap like this is worth taking in. Just look in yellow pages for scrap dealers and ring for a price.

MrCheerful

[Tony Bryer]

Don't expect to get rich though: IIRC lead is something like 40p/kg - or perhaps I was done.

[T i m]

[T] I think at the current rate for 27kg (?) of lead is +AKM-5.40 ? (1)

and who might like to take it

chop it into 1 ft lengths and sell them as coshes at +AKM-1 each ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

(1) Assuming

OD = 24mm ID = 14mm Length = 8.2m Mass of lead = 11340 kg / m^3 Value = +AKM-200 / tonne

But I could be miles out ... ;-)

[John Rumm]

stretch it into wire and sell it as "tin free solder"... ;-)

[Rick Dipper]

I always rip out the unused stuff, It just feels more tidy. The local scappie will take it.

Rick

[Owain]

"John Rumm" wrote | T i m wrote: | > Or chop it into 1 ft lengths and sell them as coshes at £1 each ;-) | stretch it into wire and sell it as "tin free solder"... ;-)

sell it to someone who makes their own lead shot

Owain

[StealthUK]

Relative to the time taken to remove it and cost of going down the scrappy it's not worth doing it for the beer money you'll get for it. Regardless of the money value I think it's still worth removing redundant pipes if you have the opportunity.

[Colin Wilson]

You might get a pint or two from any anglers you have down the local pub

- they often make their own weights

[Huge]

Which is largely unused, these days.

[Paul King]

You'll expend more in effort than you'll recover in reward!

You won't get more than about 40p-50p/kilo and I doubt that a 30 foot run would amount to much weight.

I tried this once when I removed an old cast iron bath. It was a really old, heavy (and a pig!) bath. Rang up a scrappy for costing, and they wanted to charge me £15 to take it away! (this was nearly 20 years ago).

However, if you could dabble in a bit of alchemy and turn it into gold.........

[Notty Pine]

Not out of lead they don't, lead is not used anymore.

[John Rouse]

In article , Colin Wilson writes

All the responsible anglers now avoid lead because of the problems it causes.

J.

[tarquinlinbin]

If its easy to take out then do it,if not,leave it as the financial return is minimal at present. It wasnt always so,oh how i remember my central heating installation days,all that old lead,old cylinders and copper offcuts....happy days,, isnt worth bothering with now...

[T i m]

[T] But the 'black powder' boys still love it for casting their shot, or were you talking clay / game loads? I thought steel was only *needed* over wetlands?

Another outlet might be a Sub Aqua shop .. they often melt it down and mould it into belt weights?

Mind you most of them get their stock from the roofing trade ..

All the best ..

T i m

[Stuart]

It is for sea fishing weights where the leads are quite heavy . Coarse anglers it is that dont use lead for split-shot weights . Staurt

[Andy Dingley]

What's the connection between "black powder" and shot ? There are very few people who use both in the same firearm and almost no-one casts their own shot.

For casting _bullets_ (which is what black powder shooters cast), lead pipe is near useless. It's old lead and the inside of the pipe has some bizarre chemistry owing to a century of tapwater. It's just about the last stuff you'd put in the caster. Wheel weights are commonplace and usually free, harder alloys like linotype are still available relatively cheaply.

Given the overall costs of bp shooting, and the need for a good lead alloy if you want any sort of accuracy, then it's just not worth folling around with old pipe.

[T i m]

[T] Not being into pistols / rifles but we watched / talked to a bloke shooting an old black powder rifle at a shooting club open day. He showed us a two part mould he used for casting his own 'shot' which looked very ball like to me?

[T] I'm not sure this guy (or his gun) would care what the lead was doing before he dropped it in his furnace! ;-)

[T] Indeed, but 'accuracy' didn't seem part of this guy's requirement ;-) He was on the 25m range we probably saw him take about 5 shots (in about 50 mins). He had one 'hit' and he split the wooden pole holding the paper target!

All the best ..

T i m

[John Stumbles]

I collect my copper, brass and lead scraps: last time I went down the scrappy with a couple of rubble bags of pipe and short bits, a plastic crate full of brass stuff, couple of HW cylinders, some lead pipe and an old car battery or 2 and got £50 or more for it. You're never going to be a millionaire from it but it's just about worth the time taken collecting stuff and taking to the merchant's, and gives you a nice smug feeling inside because you're recycling it :-)

And if you're replacing a HW cylinder and taking the old one away for the punter you're going to have to get rid of it somewhere anyway.

[Toby]

Must be worth climbing over my garden wall to pinch an old cylinder and 20m of lead pipe, at least that's what (I allege) the ex-window cleaners did.