Wheel weights?

[bobthewelder]

I got a 2.5 gallon bucket full from Wal-Mart, but I keep reading how filthy they are. Are we talking about the alloy being filthy or the outside residue. If the outside residue, why not tumble them in your brass tumbler. I'm new and Stoopid, giv me a brake plees.

[crabo]

The outside residue. It will burn off when you smelt and flux it. They are often nasty to handle and put out some nasty smoke and fumes as they melt.

Tumbling would be a waste of time and media, and would be hard on your equipment.

Crabo

[Buckshot]

................Just make an effort to pull out the rubber valve stems, and other obvious trash large enough to pick out via gloved hand. Cig butt's and such like don't make any differance.

.................Buckshot

[Guido4198]

The dirt,etc won't be a big deal as long as you remove all the "foreign material" that might be in the bucket along with the weights, then smelt them into ingots in a well-ventilated area. If you're going to cast out of a bottom pour pot rather than using a ladle, then to do the smelting. use something besides your casting pot. Skim off the junk, dross, clips, etc..flux several times, stir the molten stuff well...then when it's clean pour into small ingot molds. You want to use those ingots in your casting pot, NOT the wheel weights.
Hope this helps...Cheers.

[Blackhawk Convertable]

Here is a link to Goatlip's excellent primer on smelting and casting:

http://goatlipstips.cas-town.com/smelting.html

[BruceB]

Had to take a trailer wheel to my favorite shop for a flat repair on Tuesday.

As soon as I pulled in and got out of the truck, one of the guys said, "Hey, you wanna get this bucket of weights out of our way??" Uh....yeah. It was level-full, to the point that we were spilling some weights as the two of us grunted it into the truck.

Cost me a dozen doughnuts, or $7.00. I really have to visit those fellers more often.

[Forester]

Had to take a trailer wheel to my favorite shop for a flat repair on Tuesday.

As soon as I pulled in and got out of the truck, one of the guys said, "Hey, you wanna get this bucket of weights out of our way??" Uh....yeah. It was level-full, to the point that we were spilling some weights as the two of us grunted it into the truck.

Cost me a dozen doughnuts, or $7.00. I really have to visit those fellers more often.

I stop by my regular source so often the WW bucket never gets half full,, I am still paranoid someone else will snag my supply and with the cost of bullets these days I would have to scale way back.

But there are 8000 boolits in the basement and 7 buckets of WWs in the shed so I am good for awhile. If I could just get someone else to smelt the things, I hate that part.

[mtgrs737]

Forester,

I hate the smelting part too, but I love the ingots!

[Forester]

Forester,

I hate the smelting part too, but I love the ingots!

Exactly, a necessary evil I guess. The only thing better than a great big pile of clean ingots is a great big pile of boolits.:Fire:

The whole thing wouldnt be so bad if it were not for the stick on WWs. The trash will burn off, the zinc will float, if you keep temps down, but a random number of stick on WWs means inconsistant hardness bucket to bucket.

[Swamprat1052]

I go through mine and seperate the stick ons. Thats how I get rid of most of the trash in the buckets also. I probably have 60 or 70 lbs of stick on ingots in the shed too. I need to make a run to a couple of tire stores too.

Swamprat

[jack19512]

I got a 2.5 gallon bucket full from Wal-Mart





Just curious, how did you manage to get the wheel weights from Walmart? My Walmart won't part with any even after me calling the main headquarters and trying to change their mind. :(

[pumpguy]

Just curious, how did you manage to get the wheel weights from Walmart? My Walmart won't part with any even after me calling the main headquarters and trying to change their mind. :(

Ask the flunkies, not the managers. I had one give me their WWs and the Exide bucket, too.[smilie=1:

[dragonfire]

I have to get to my local walmart before 7:30 am to get the ww's, the manager comes in at 8 am ,i get the bucket and all .

[454PB]

If the outside residue, why not tumble them in your brass tumbler. I'm new and Stoopid, giv me a brake plees.

You got me worried, bob. It's seems your intelligence has diminished since you joined this forum[smilie=1:

[Forester]

Ask the flunkies, not the managers. I had one give me their WWs and the Exide bucket, too.[smilie=1:

Exactly, and I have a hard time feeling bad about making an end run around any policy of Wal-Mart's.

I used to have an in with a nearby Wal-Mart, a friend of a friend worked part time in the tire shop and would snag a bucket of WWs about every couple months. Unfortunately that deal is no more..

[cbrick]

Had to take a trailer wheel to my favorite shop for a flat repair on Tuesday.

As soon as I pulled in and got out of the truck, one of the guys said, "Hey, you wanna get this bucket of weights out of our way??" Uh....yeah. It was level-full, to the point that we were spilling some weights as the two of us grunted it into the truck.

Cost me a dozen doughnuts, or $7.00. I really have to visit those fellers more often.

Geesh, I think I would get an old trailer tire and about once a week I'd use an ice pick to poke a hole in it, grab a dozen doughnuts and have my newest best friends fix the tire.

Rick

[dakotashooter2]

Dumping them in a flat pan or scred and hitting them with the airhose also gets rid of some of the debris.

[Rottweiler]

Cbrick, You think like me....That worries me.