1st attempt - WW and a hot pot 2

[BigDanS]

I have a Hot Pot @ and some wheel weights I purchased from a tire shop. I have been sorting through them and I am unsure of these:

http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a561/Daniel_Scipione/lead%20source%20ww_zps1vnjxq6a.jpg

The Hot Pot shows a temperature up to 880 F with my laser infrared, but the reflection from liquid lead makes the temperature reading wonkie,

The top was not quite liquid and read about 650 to 700 F at its hottest.

[BigDanS]

It poured like this:

http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a561/Daniel_Scipione/lead%20pour%201_zpsijfwdms0.jpg



Was this Zinc?

D

[BigDanS]

I am trying to figure out if they are just coated, lead, or what they are made of.

TYIA

D

[jcren]

Yep. Keep your pot under 800 and the zinc weights will float on the puddle and not melt. Try floating a ladle on the lead and using your IR gun on it.

P.S. if a 2 inch or longer weight won't bend by hand, it probably isn't lead.

[scottfire1957]

There is simply too much information on this site.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?139839-Guide-to-Hand-Sorting-Wheel-Weights

[44man]

Not hotter then 600° to smelt. Zinc will float. 800° is way too hot.

[s mac]

The FN is steel, not sure about the other one. Try the sidecutter trick, lead will mark easily. also try tapping on a piece of steel, if it rings it's not lead.

[BigDanS]

The FN is steel, not sure about the other one. Try the sidecutter trick, lead will mark easily. also try tapping on a piece of steel, if it rings it's not lead.

I think Fe is iron / steel. There is no way I could melt iron or steel at 800 F. It was liquid when poured, except the top was not completely melted.

D

[Beagle333]

Yeah, what s mac said. Get out your wire cutters or pliers with sidecutter and try to nip one. You can easily score it deeply if lead, and even nip a half inch off the end of the longer ones if you grip really hard. Then you'll know they are lead. You can barely mark up a zinker with pliers.

[BigDanS]

I have a Hot Pot @ and some wheel weights I purchased from a tire shop. I have been sorting through them and I am unsure of these:

http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a561/Daniel_Scipione/lead%20source%20ww_zps1vnjxq6a.jpg

The Hot Pot shows a temperature up to 880 F with my laser infrared, but the reflection from liquid lead makes the temperature reading wonkie,

The top was not quite liquid and read about 650 to 700 F at its hottest.

See the top weight? That's a mark from a side cutter. It's harder than pure lead, softer than zinc.

D

[BigDanS]

One more thing, the poured and melted product was flexible.

D

[bangerjim]

Want to really know if it is Zn???????? Get some muriatic acid at Lowe's or Home Depot. You should find it easily down there with all the home pools like here in AZ.

A drop of pool acid (HCl) will foam up big time. Lead will do nothing.

Of course Fe is magnetic and easy to pick out.

bangerjim

[GrayTech]

The one marked FN is lead, the top one is not. Use the sidecutter trick, it works.

[scottfire1957]

Of course wheel weights are harder than pure lead. They're NOT pure lead. They have Pb, As, Sb and whatever else mixed in.


Edit: Every zinc weight I have seen has been marked as such, with either Zn, or a capital Z. (I processed half a ton in the last year)Your two weights shown are lead based. Like you, I don't worry about steel weights too much.

[Yodogsandman]

To answer your question in post#2, it's probably not zinc but just an alloy that was overheated to the point that the antimony and tin began to separate. Reheating to a high temperature, fluxing and mixing like a madman might bring it back together.

I try to cut into and heavily mark the squared corner on those type WW's shown in your photos. Breaking through just the paint and maybe sliding off of it would indicate FE or Zn.

[lightman]

Occasionally I'll find a lead weight that is harder than most of the others. You can still score it with pliers. You can't hardly score Zinc unless you are heck for stout and have a really heavy duty set of pliers. If I can cut it I will melt it.

[Mytmousemalibu]

I use some pretty stout cutters to test with. Zinc's are very hard and don't gouge much at all and make a sharp sound when you bounce'em off concrete, lead is a dull thud and cuts easily. If a steel or iron gets in the melt, no foul, scoop it out.

[khmer6]

I've encountered many of those dang weights. They are trickybbuggers. Some look almost identical and marked the same way but one is lead the other is zinc! I separate those ones into a different pile than the easily identified micro or shiny lead ones. This bucket gets special treatment and carefully sorted with snippers, hammer, scrath up the paint and get to the alloy

[Geezer in NH]

Zinc contaminated IMHO to hot of melt. I have been testing ALL WW by trying to cut with a good diagonal plier cutter. When it is at the hard to cut level before cutting throw it to the zinc/iron box. You will solve the problem

I learned this on this sight.

[BigDanS]

Update, they are lead. Although coated and a hard exterior, If I take a set of"loppers" I use to cut branches, they cut pretty easy. The exterior is just hard coated. This makes a lot of dross when they melt and I assume it is the coating mixing with the lead. I re-melted this in my Hot Pot 2 and skimmed it off and the lead was fine. I made four more batches of plain uncoated COWW for a total of about 5.5 lbs, and I melted about 6 lbs of linotype. The Hot Pot 2 is a great entry item to get started in melting lead and after doing 10 or so melts and pours I am getting the hang of it. I might be ready to melt a larger batch in the future.

D

[leadman]

You are fluxing the melted alloy before pouring, right??
I leave the linotype alone if it is in the printed form. You probably won't need to add much to your alloy and if you ever want to sell it most casters want it this way as then they are sure of what it is.
If you move to smelting in larger batches get a cast iron pot to put on a turkey fryer. The pot from Harbor Freight holds approx. 100 pounds. The larger batches will make a more consistent boolit weight and alloy for you.

[44man]

Just too easy to smelt at 600° and remove what does not melt. The worst thing to do is raise the heat to melt the stubborn one.
Yeah, I know, it is a few weights you don't want to waste but you will ruin the whole batch.
You can then remelt at 600° and skim what floats.

[mold maker]

If you start with a pot full of weights, it is possible to melt zinc weights in contact with the pot, long before you see a pool of liquid. Remember the temp of the flame against the pot is far above the melting temp of zinc.
Use the pliers to check before you melt, and you will never worry about zinc contaminated wheel weight alloy. The excersize will give you a really firm hand shake.