Flat Stick on WW vs. Lead Flashing....

[jleneave]

I obtained a couple pieces of lead flashing that were used on vents on a roof. I melted these down into ingots and compared them to ingots made from flat stick on WW. When I dropped the ingots made from the flashing there was a dull thud and a very noticeable dent in the ingot. When I dropped an ingot made from the flat stick on WW it had a ring to it just like ingots made from clip on WW and there was a very small dent. I thought that the stick on WW were for all intents and purposes pure lead? I also tried to make an indent with my thumbnail on the ingots made from the stick on WW and couldn't, but the ingots made from the lead flashing was easy to make an indent in with my thumbnail. I plan to use both the stick on WW and the lead flashing for my cap 'n ball revolver but I was under the impression that I needed to use pure lead in the revolver? I have cast some 454" round balls from flat stick on WW and they shot alright out of the revolver and were not all that hard to load into the cylinder. I was just wondering about the content of the flat stick on WW compared to the lead flashing and are the stick on WW alright to use in my cap 'n ball revolver? Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Jody

[Ricochet]

Wheel weights aren't required to be of a consistent composition, they only need to weigh something close to their designated weight. Clip on wheelweights have always been of rather variable composition. Sounds like the stickons are too, now. Probably recyled lead.

[jleneave]

I see, I was just going by what I have read on here about the flat stick on WW being made of pretty much pure lead. I guess I am going to have to break down and buy a hardness tester. Thanks for the reply.

Jody

[buck1]

Flat stick ons can be pure lead, tin, lead/ antimony mix or zink!! melt with caution!
They are not all the same.. FWIW...Buck



I see, I was just going by what I have read on here about the flat stick on WW being made of pretty much pure lead. I guess I am going to have to break down and buy a hardness tester. Thanks for the reply.

Jody

[KYCaster]

Check out this thread:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=6833&highlight=KYCaster


It's been a while since I did that and Zinc weights are becoming much more common so you can expect to find more wierd stuff now.

In another thread currently running, there's a discussion of lead from batteries. Some of the posters report results that are different from what I've found. Bottom line is...."lead is like a box of chocolates...Ya never know what yer gonna git." :roll:

Jerry

[EDK]

Buy a lead tester. I've got a CABINE TREE and a SAECO and want to get one of the LEAD BULLET TECHNOLOGY units sometime soon while they're still available. The two I have work well, but require a conversion chart; the LBT doesn't.

Any lead you get should be checked out...I check the hardness of each pot of metal that I cast anymore...I got 400 pounds of ingots from my brother so I should have some fairly consistent metal for a change.

If it makes a dull thud and you can scratch it with a thumbnail, it's close to pure lead. If it rings and feels hard, you have some tin or antimony in it. That's why I use the tester on each pot and leave some room to add soft lead or some salvaged babbit to get it where I want.

:cbpour::redneck:

[runfiverun]

the stick-ons were lead with some tin in them originally
but as they get them back nowdays.i think that they are just mixing what they got for what they need.
i have some from ten years ago and they are soft like50-1 or so.

[jleneave]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I have got some flat stick on WW that were zinc, iron ones that were marked "Fe", but I of course separate them out. As soon as funds permit I will break down and buy a hardness tester. The ingots that I made from the stick on WW are not quiet as hard as the ones made from clip on WW, but they are definitely not as soft as the ones I made from the lead flashing. Anyway, thanks everyone for setting me straight on this. I appreciate it.

Jody

[Down South]

I usually pick out all of my stick on WW and keep them in separate buckets for later use, fishin sinkers and stuff. I melt down small quantities from time to time and cast for slugging barrels and chambers. This thread got my curiosity going. I just cast a bunch of .358” boolits a few days ago out of stick on WW to do some slugging with. I just tested one of the slugs with my Saeco and the reading was “0” which is equal to pure lead. I do a bend test when I’m choosing the stick on WW to melt for slugging and I do remember some that didn’t bend easy.
I've ran across some that were steel too.

[OeldeWolf]

I ran some accuracy tests a couple of years ago. Pure lead balls vs balls cast from WW. Using the same Pietta 1860 Colt replica. I got decent accuracy from the WW, but got best accuracy from the pure lead. For the pure, I used some plumber's lead my dad had used as exercise weights after his surgery. Probably 30 yrs old material.

I can well believe the variability in any tre weights, consifdering the recycling efforts currently under way.

[jleneave]

Down South, I also separate the stick on WW out and save them until I have enough to melt them down into ingots. I use these for casting round balls for my Uberti Model 1860. I have also noticed that some of the stick on WW are softer than others, but I just always thought that they were all close to pure lead. I have never melted any pure lead down until I melted the lead flashing down and accidentally dropped on and it just went thud and didn't have any ring to it. That is when I broke out an ingot made from the stick on WW and I dropped and it had a ring to it. I think that OeldeWolf is correct and with the recycling that is going on they are probably just throwing it all together.

I have used some of the stick on WW alloy to cast .454" round balls for my 1860 and they loaded into the cylinder just fine. I have some of the Speer swaged round balls of the same diameter and I think that they are pretty much pure lead and round balls made from the stick on WW were not any harder to seat into the cylinder than the Speer round balls.

Thanks for the replies and if anyone else has any expierence with this please chime in.

Jody

[Southern Son]

jody, I got a 20 litre bucket 3/4 full with wheelweights a few weeks ago and went into smelting them. Found a few stick on weights made of steel (marked Fe). Found a fair few stick ons that were not steel. After reading on this forum about them being near pure lead, I smelted them by themselves and cast them up in my Lyman ingot mold (all the other wheel weights went into a muffin pan so I knew what was lead and what was W/W). After they cooled, I noticed that they were no where near as soft as a pile of ingots I had on hand that are certified 99.9% pure lead. I think that what runfiverun said is right, maybe in the past they were good as pure lead, but now they are just whatever the maker had on hand.

[jleneave]

jody, I got a 20 litre bucket 3/4 full with wheelweights a few weeks ago and went into smelting them. Found a few stick on weights made of steel (marked Fe). Found a fair few stick ons that were not steel. After reading on this forum about them being near pure lead, I smelted them by themselves and cast them up in my Lyman ingot mold (all the other wheel weights went into a muffin pan so I knew what was lead and what was W/W). After they cooled, I noticed that they were no where near as soft as a pile of ingots I had on hand that are certified 99.9% pure lead. I think that what runfiverun said is right, maybe in the past they were good as pure lead, but now they are just whatever the maker had on hand.

I agree and think that runfiverun has hit the nail on the head. I really need a hardness tester that way I could separate the real soft stick on WW from the harder ones. Thanks for the reply.

Jody