How do I clean out the box target?
- Thread starter PEP3
- Start date
I have a 50gal trash lid that I dump the mulch + pellets into. And then I use a hand garden trowel to move it around. I use cheap plastic gloves to scoop out the mulch by hand into a 5 gal bucket. Don't do it all at once. Once most of the lead is all that's left I put it into a tape (cheap) sealed box. When the lead box is full I take it to someplace ( recycle station) and sneak it in with the car batteries.
Yep there is quite a bit of rubber dust/bits in with the lead.... I think trying to recover the lead is not worth my effort.
Yep there is quite a bit of rubber dust/bits in with the lead.... I think trying to recover the lead is not worth my effort.
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I wonder can you melt the lead and the little rubber bits down and the rubber will burn off. Then you can make lead bricks for casting bullets or slugs or pellets.
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I didn't mean to melt down all the mulch, but to try to separate as much lead out from the mulch as you reasonably can and the little bits of rubber left with the majority of lead would that burn off and leave pure lead good for casting when you're done. Burning rubber is pretty nasty stuff. I remember when I was a kid burning rubber bands just one rubber band was bad enough.
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Dump the pellet trap on your back porch or garage floor or other smooth concrete surface. Then go get your leaf blower. The blower will move the mulch MUCH more readily than the pellets so blow the mulch away from the pellets and you can reuse it. I melt down the pellets into 1 lb lead bars I plan to use to cast my own pellets later. You could probably also just bag it and sell it to a metals recycler. Or the recycling center near me has a metal bin you could throw the pellets into. Key thing is the leaf blower will separate things very rapidly and easily for you.
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Send the children to the lead mines.
Funny thing, today in the news here are,,,,, rubber mulch, which are used on astroturf football / soccer fields, it seem like EU are ready to ban this practice as rubber mulch are tagged as micro plastics, and a large amount of it every year leave the fields for something else.
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What do you mean when you were old.....? I sometimes still do that! Well not over a storm drain anymore, but will take the oil and dump them in the rocks around the property where I don't want weeds to grow.I’m so old I remember when we used to park the car over the storm sewer and drain the oil.
Heck I remember when you would spray used oil on the dirt roads to keep the dust down! And I am only going to be 40 this year!
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When I get motivated I’m going to order a 12”x12” piece of 70 or 80 durometer neoprene rubber from McMaster Carr and make a plywood box that holds the rubber on a 45° angle and it will sit on top of a 5 gallon pail with maybe a towel in the bottom so you (actually my wife) won’t hear the pellets smacking the pail bottom.
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I think Peashooter has the best idea. I use rags stuffed into a box to simplify lead recovery. Shake 'em out into another box, then can the pellets up for transportation.
Having done environmental audits on many properties in the past, I recover and recycle all of my pellets. They go to a friend that casts them into projectiles.
It would suck if a concerned parent had the back yard soil-sampled and decided not to buy the property because of lead contamination. Not to mention the cost of remediation. I've watched as multi-million dollar property transfers went south due to environmental concerns with lead, mercury and various other contaminants.
J~
Having done environmental audits on many properties in the past, I recover and recycle all of my pellets. They go to a friend that casts them into projectiles.
It would suck if a concerned parent had the back yard soil-sampled and decided not to buy the property because of lead contamination. Not to mention the cost of remediation. I've watched as multi-million dollar property transfers went south due to environmental concerns with lead, mercury and various other contaminants.
J~
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It needs to be stirred to float the rubber mulch or use a garden hose in the bottom at full pressure.. So the thumbs down are the people that haven't tried it..
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fill a 5 gal bucket 1/4 full with mulch - then lay it on it's side about 1/2" to 1" off the ground - then with a hose shoot water in to the bucket - the mulch will be forced out and lead stays at the bottom very friggun simple 
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I have a big plastic storage box I use for a tagert. Holds 3 bags of rubber mulch. Conveniently the box actually is the same size as the bag so I can just put three bags stacked and the cover it. I hadn't cleaned it for about 2 years and finally realized it was near 150 lbs in weight. I tried to separate it, but the task became overwhelming due to how much lead was in there - and all the carboard and paper bits and pieces. I tried the water thing in a bucket and ended up with a sludge mix. Ended up just throwing it all in the garbage and getting two more bags of mulch - the back third one didn't have any entries even with shooting some pretty high fpe stuff into from time to time.
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LOLUse your leaf blower guys. It works. Dump the trap on a hard and smooth surface and blow away the mulch and paper/cardboard debris. The pellets will not move nearly as easily.
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