zinc ww's

[quiknot]

i read here that we should look out for ww's that are made of zinc...

my question is: how does one know they are made of zinc?...are they marked or can be identified?

thanks

[TedH]

The ones I've seen have the clips riveted on, not molded into the alloy like a regular wheelweight. I pick them out if I see them while melting a batch to pour into ingots, but if some slip through it's no beg deal as they melt at a higher temp than lead and will be floating on top with the other trash.

[imashooter2]

A good thread on the subject from a few months back...

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=2268

[Rottweiler]

try cutting the questionable ones with a pair of side cutters. aka dikes. If they cut pertty easy, they're lead, if not, they're not lead

[NVcurmudgeon]

Try a magnet on the weights with riveted clips. ALL that I have found so far are steel/iron. When smelting, keep your temperature fown to 600-650 F. The melting point of zinc is 787 F or so. So far I have found four zinc weights out of 1000 lbs. smelted, and they were all marked "ZN." The tape-on weights are made in connected flat segments. So far, most have been lead, with each segment marked "1/4 oz." There is also a tape-on weight that is unmarked and has smaller segments than the lead tape-ons. All of these that I have found are steel/iron, according to my magnet. In summary, if it doesn't melt at 650, try a magnet. If it floats and isn't magnetic, it may be zinc, throw it away radioactivity handling gloves are not needed.

[mike in co]

for the most part......

lead goes 'THUD' when dropped on a cement floor.....

zinc goes 'RING"........

zinc can ruin an entire batch of ww......

ww are still sorta cheap

so

when in doubt....

throw it out......

[dmftoy1]

I've only worked through 100 lbs of wheel weights, but I found about 8-10 in that batch. They were easy to find because the floated . .you could keep dunking them with your spoon and they'd come up looking like new. (was keeping my temp about 650-675. )

[Rick N Bama]

Keep your smelting temps low & the Zinc weights will float to the surface where you can skim them off with the rest of the trash.

Rick

[handyrandyrc]

They definitely do have a "bright ring" when dropped on the concrete. Also scratch one on the concrete for a quick check. The "feel" is much like a rock scraping. Lead has a "dull" scraping feel when scraped on the concrete.