Wheelweight score...HELP!

[sniper]

I got a bunch of wheel weights from my brother in law, and bought some from da'bay. Following the advice I gleaned from the forum, I tested the 'bay shipment by using cutting pliers, and keeping all that the cutter would dent a lot. A large percentage was junk. 30%+- Unsatisfactory, to say the least!

I put my bro. in law's contribution on the driveway, in hopes that the rain would wash away the rust covering the shipment. It did on some, but the rest rusted more. "Self", sez I ," That ain't lead!":???:

Problem is, some of the "lead" wheelweights I had separated "rang" a bit when I dropped them on the driveway, and a lot of them would not make a mark on the concrete. And...some of the rusty ones are soft. :confused:

Did I miss a lot of lead...I have about 20 lbs in the trash?
I tell you what...It makes me appreciate e15cap's Lyman #2 a LOT! :)

[OLPDon]

Don't worry about all the junk mixed in with the WW and as for zink ones the melting temp on zink is higher then regular WW bring up the heat slowly the regular WW will melt, the zink and junk will not melt at low temps. Skim off and you got it.

I don't recall the temp that zink melts at but I'm sure someone will chim in on melting temps.
Have fun smelting and turning WW into nice shinny ingots.

If you do a search on zink WW you will get great detail on the HOW TOO's

Don

[runfiverun]

zinc ww's are usually marked with Zn on them.
just take a hose to the rusty ww's the clips rust and it gets on everything.
i try to pick them out as i go, like to pour the buckets out on my tail gate on the drivers side
hose them down and move to the right side picking through them as i go
and let the wind dry them then push into a bucket to move to smelting area
you can put damp ones in pot and turn on the heat [it will dry them long before they melt]
you can add more as they go down just don't let water in the melted lead.
i usee a shovel to add more to the pot. this also lets you look at them again.
if you let them dry fully you can add to melted pot.
when you get pot full and clips out i turn down the heat and flux, if you have zinc
at this point and temp is about 650 in your pot the zinc will float to the top
and look like oatmeal you can scrape this out, and ladle into ingots.

[IcerUSA]

Another trick is a magnet , zink is magnetic , lead WW's will just hang by the clip , zink will stick to the magnet with the body of the weight .

Keith

[imashooter2]

Zinc isn't magnetic.

I'm in the "melt them while watching and skim off the zinc and steel as soon as the lead melts" fraternity.

[compass will]

I recommend not getting them wet. I am sure you have read about getting water into the lead pot

[cohutt]

fergetabout the rust!toss them all in and smelt away. you'll be skimming a bunch of crap off anyway.......

I had a pretty good haul once where one bucket ahd gotten wet along the way. Those were the brown looking ones in the pile below- melted them all at together

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m284/cohutt/misc016.jpg

[runfiverun]

the less junk in the first pot the less you gotta get out of the next two pots.
i am trying to figure out how to modify an old dishwasher to pre-clean my lead,
before melting it.
yes this may be a bit anal, but it depends on what you want as a final result.

[targetshootr]

When I cast my first ingots I didn't get them entirely clean but the dirt never seemed to show up in boolits. I think it was because the dirt floats to the top of the pot and I never let the pot get empty. fwiw.

:castmine:

[JohnClark7886]

I have a local tire store and he said he sells his WW for $20 for a 5 gal bucket. Claims a full bucket weighs over 100#. Is this a good deal or should I pass? Another tire store I called wanted $80.00 for a 5 gallon bucket...:holysheep

[rockrat]

Grab all you can of the $20 a bucket weights. Full to the brim, I think they weigh about 120 lbs

[sniper]

Another trick is a magnet , zink is magnetic , lead WW's will just hang by the clip , zink will stick to the magnet with the body of the weight .

Keith
Keith;
My magnet didn't stick to anything except the clips, and I threw away the weights marked Zn. Maybe I'll smelt the questionable ones last of all. I'll be using a Coleman camp stove, so not a lot of temp contol, there.

Cohutt;
A lot of my weights look brown, exactly like yours. That's lead? now, I will try to smelt the whole mess. maybe I have better stuff than I originally thought. What's that saying...a blind nut will sometimes find a squirrel? Or squirrelly guys sometimes find a wheel weight? :mrgreen:

Compass will: I had a visit fromt he tinsel fairy years ago. Wet is not good!

Thanks for the input.

[Down South]

I'm in the "melt them while watching and skim off the zinc and steel as soon as the lead melts" fraternity.

Me too. I never have any problems with zinc contamination in the melt but I find zinc WW in every batch.

Cohutt, I have more than you have pictured to smelt now plus I'm due for my monthly run. Like I said I find zinc in every batch floating with the clips.

[pearson1662]

I think someone on this board collects Zn. Maybe a trade could be made?