Old wheel weights

[nonferrous]

I happened to get about 100 pounds of old wheel weights from a friend that has owned a car lot for a long time, maybe 40-45 years. These were kind of lost in the back of the shop forever.
They are old enough that while sorting, I did not find a single, zinc, steel or stick-on weight out of 100 pounds, all clip-on and some odd weights that I did not recognize.

I pinched each one with a side cutter while sorting and they were much much harder than any other weight that I have seen.

My question is, do you think that the hardness comes as a result of aging, or is it possible that there is a higher percentage of tin and antimony from a time when they did not cost as much or suppliers thought that more was needed?

Thanks

[cbrick]

Conventional wisdom has it that during the 80's the Mfg did begin reducing the antimony percentge. It was fairly widely accepted during that time (by the casters of the day) that WW alloy was no good for bullet casting because the alloy kept changing. Dennis Marshall talked about this in the NRA Cast Bullet Book by Col E.H. Harrison in the chapter "The Truth About Wheel Weights".

If your weights are that old you could well have weights with 6-8% antimony.

Nice score.

Rick

[white eagle]

not knowing for sure
I would bet that that is indeed the case
I got some older ww from a fellow board member
and they were indeed harder

[shotman]

dont think age had much to do . but alloy could be a little harder

[geargnasher]

They're too hard for boolit making. Just send them to me, I'll be glad to cover your shipping and use them for, uh, duck decoy weights or doorstops or something.......:kidding:

Seriously, though, Rick has your answer, I believe. You could probably cut them 100% with roofing lead and still have the equivalent of modern wheel weights.

Gear

[cbrick]

You could probably cut them 100% with roofing lead and still have the equivalent of modern wheel weights. Gear

Older editions of the Lyman Cast Bullet Book list wheel weight alloy as 9% Sb, obviously out of date today.

nonferrous could probably cut those weights by 400% and still possibly be a tad over todays percentage of Sb. 9% divided by 4 with soft lead would still put the Sb at 2.25%, close to todays weights.

Rick

[WILCO]

Dennis Marshall talked about this in the NRA Cast Bullet Book by Col E.H. Harrison in the chapter "The Truth About Wheel Weights".

If your weights are that old you could well have weights with 6-8% antimony.

Nice score.

Rick

My thoughts too!

[cbrick]

Coming up with 100 pounds of 1970's WW would be a windfall for me.

I've been collecting buckets of WW for many years and while I most always get more clip-on weights than stick-on I use far more clip-on weights. Over time the amount of stick-on ingots surpassed the amount of clip-ons that I have. Last year it was about even, 800 pounds of each. Now this year I'm at 750 pounds of the clip-on weights and a little over 800 pounds of stick-on.

Because of this I did some research on what to do with the soft stick-on weights and the result was this article on Blending soft lead with Roto Metals Super Hard. (http://www.lasc.us/SuperHard.htm) Coming up with a Super Hard recipe that matches todays weigths (Less the Arsenic (As)) or even up to blending Harball and Lyman #2 alloy is easy. This alloy will heat treat because of the antimony just not to the same extent as an As alloy. At least for me this isn't a problem since little of my shooting requires anything harder than air cooled WW. Air cooled WW works well in my rifles up to about 2000 fps. The Stick-on weights and Super Hard is a very viable use of the soft weights.

That 100 pounds of 1970's weights alloyed with 400 pounds of stick-on weights + 1-2% tin would give me an additional 500 pounds of WW alloy very close to the alloy that is 90% + of my shooting.

Yep, quite the windfall that would be.

Rick

[nonferrous]

Thanks guys for sharing that with me. I at first thought that would be the case, but the question of possible age hardening was in my mind. As you say, this will be helpfull as I too am getting quite a pile of pure ingots stacking up.
This is another example of talking up your interest in getting lead with friends at lunch etc. this is the third time lead came from unexpected sources, out of the blue. The first was 100 pounds of monotype that a friend wanted to get out of his garage, then 200 pounds of elevator counterweight and now this. There is a lot of it lying around, you just can't see it everyday.
Thanks again

[DukeInFlorida]

I saw a EXCEL spreadsheet alloy estimator which included separate listings for "old wheel weights" and "new wheel weights".....

There's an obvious difference.

The newer designs for tires and shock absorbers and the somewhat better roads we drive on, reduced the need for the weight manufacturers to add so much antimony, thereby saving them cost.

You should seek out that spreadsheet calculator and use it if you'll be blending these special weights with pure lead.

[Three44s]

Good score on those old WW's!!

Lead (just as long as it's not contaminated) is like coffee ......... it's all good .......... just some is better than others!


Three 44s

[cbrick]

the somewhat better roads we drive on,

Really? Not here, they have never been worse. EVER!

Rick

[x101airborne]

Really? Not here, they have never been worse. EVER!

Rick

You must drive DeWitte County roads in Texas!!!!

[cbrick]

You must drive DeWitte County roads in Texas!!!!

No, just any road in CA, one of the states with some of the highest road use taxes.

Rick

[stubert]

Wow, I've been using an old Lyman recipe for #2 for many years. 9 lbs. w/w to 1 lb. 50/50 solder. What do I have now with the new weights? It must be softer? It still shoots good and gets deer. Most of my loads are checked, so leading hasn't been an issue.

[nonferrous]

I should think that if you used all clip on weights it would still be pretty good. that would give you over 5% tin.

[SciFiJim]

What do I have now with the new weights? It must be softer? It still shoots good and gets deer.

You answered you own question. You have something that still shoots good and gets deer. Don't sweat the small stuff or reinvent the wheel if it works.