Pic of my very first EVIL Zinc wheel weight

[PatMarlin]

Here it is. It's a silver metal flake color stamped with 1.5 in the center and "Zn" there on the right.

Much lighter than Lead for the size so it's easy to spot by weight and color.

[madcaster]

Don't worry Pat,you will probably see many more....:(

[StanDahl]

That's a pretty ugly piece of zinc, but that's a cute little old Mac you've got there!

Here are some of my questionable ww's, including some that were pulled out of the melt because they wouldn't:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/StanDahl/Suspectwws.jpg

Sorry, no photo of my Mac available

[Stevejet]

I have been casting since 1972 but only became aware of the Zinc Problem since joining this astute posse late last year. Many thanks for the photo's and past discourses concerning the Zinc gremlin!

[454PB]

Looks like Stan had a couple of those in the melting pot for a while...

[softpoint]

Iwas told by one tire shop owner that he wouldn't use the zinc weights and only used the stick on lead weights when the type of rim dictated it. Regular wheel weights worked better because you added more weight in a smaller area, making it easier to get a precise balance. So maybe that 's good news?:)

[The Double D]

Pat do you need my address to send it to me? :)

[PatMarlin]

THat postage would be to high cause you're to hard to follow.. :mrgreen:

[The Double D]

Yeah kinda hard to follow right now..but after I retire March 28...in fact I have a couple 3 or 4 hundred pounds of WW ingots that I have moved from place to place over the years that I might consider trading pound for pound zinc once I get settled. We'll see.

I'm going to need about 75 pounds of zinc for round ball run, I am going to make for golf ball mortars. Retired guys need supplemental income you know,

[HABCAN]

Like Stevejet above, I only became aware of zinc weights after joining here, and that explained the one or two little f^&%^$s I had encountered that would not melt in the past. HOWEVER, in my last smelt of a bucketfull of scrap that yielded 104 (Lyman-size) ingots I encountered eight of them, so they ARE increasingly intruding into our otherwise blissful experiences crouching over stinkpots! I wonder how many are in the eight buckets remaining?

[hydraulic]

I'm running into them, too, and I noticed that they attract a magnet. Do I have zinc or steel? I have several (5) muffins that got contaminated last year, lying alongside several of pure lead, and a whole bunch of WW's. They all have aged to a medium grey color except the contaminated ones which are still shiney silver. I have a picture which will be posted the next time my 13 yr old niece stops by.

[S.R.Custom]

...they ARE increasingly intruding into our otherwise blissful experiences crouching over stinkpots! I wonder how many are in the eight buckets remaining?

I think the closer to California you get, the more you find. In the last bucket I melted down, 1 in 20 was zinc. :-?

[454PB]

Zinc is non-magnetic, but the clips are magnetic. Touch your magnet to the very end of the weight, if it sticks, it's steel.

[Springfield]

I melted down 11 buckets 3 months ago, last years accumulation, and I only had maybe 25 zinc weights. Not too bad here yet. It gets so you can spot them pretty easily, they just don't look "right".

[hornetguy]

I melted down 11 buckets 3 months ago, last years accumulation, and I only had maybe 25 zinc weights. Not too bad here yet. It gets so you can spot them pretty easily, they just don't look "right".

like Ron White would say.... "that's profilin.... and profilin is WRONG"

[PatMarlin]

Never saw one until thisun. Hopefully it was a fluke.. :roll:

They're so light I don't see how they would work.

I don't even have my tires balanced anymore, and quite frankly have seen not one bit of difference in my trucks.

[charger 1]

Iwas told by one tire shop owner that he wouldn't use the zinc weights and only used the stick on lead weights when the type of rim dictated it. Regular wheel weights worked better because you added more weight in a smaller area, making it easier to get a precise balance. So maybe that 's good news?:)


I would imagine all shops would prefer to do that, but what they going to do when the supplier omly brings him Zn ? My advice is do as I preach. Find an old little guy type shop, if he's got any old buckets make his beer belly smile

[hydraulic]

I have learned to post a picture without the help of my 13 yr. old niece. The muffins on the left are contaminated with zinc. Notice how shiny they are. The middle group are pure lead and the large amount on the right are WW's. The contaminated ones and the pure lead were smelted on the same day, late last year. I wonder why the contaminated ones are shinier. (shinyer).

[TexasJeff]

I'm going to need about 75 pounds of zinc for round ball run, I am going to make for golf ball mortars. Retired guys need supplemental income you know,

Well, unfortunately I am encountering a LOT of zinc wheel weights today in my smelting adventures--you can have all of them you want. Let me know when and where you want them.

Jeff

[crabo]

Jeff, I see you're smelting now. Have you cast any yet?

Crabo

[NoDakJak]

I have been casting off and on since the early seventies and had never heard of the zinc problem before encountering this forum. Sure explains some of the problems that I had encountered over the years. It is getting hard to find wheel weights in this area. I have a couple small mom and pop operations that I manage to collect from. I have to sort every batch now as I am encountering up to 25% zinc weights. Ah well! Neil

[threett1]

Maybe this is common to some of ya, but was smelting the other day and found an iron weight. Fe marked on it and everything. Was very small and a stick on style.