Newbie here with ?

[countryscooter]

This has probably been covered to death but I can't seem to find it. Does anyone here prepare wheel weights before melting them? I had about 100 pounds given to me. Problem is they are filthy. How do you go about preparing them before putting them in the pot? Thanks Looking forward to learning much on this site!

[opentop]

Seperate the clip ons from the stick ons, (the stick ons are softer). Throw them in the pot, all the dirt will float to the top. Use a sepetae pot to render your raw WW's in.

[454PB]

A big welcome to the forum!

Years ago, I decided to try "pre-cleaning" a bucket of especially greasy wheelweights. It's a lot of work, and leaves a mess on the ground, but it did make the smelting process much less smokey and messy. You also have the problem of water trapped everywhere on the weights, and that HAS to be gone before smelting. Would I do it again?......no.

Instead, I pick a breezy day and do the smelting outside.

[runfiverun]

i wash mine on the tail gate of my pickup,as i go through them.
i put the ww's on the gate and hose them off then spread them on the driveway.
i then put these in a bucket with a lid for storage.
if i wanna smelt that same day i use two pots, and i just fill one full [plus] and melt it down, the heat will dry them out.
when one is pouring the other is melting.

[copdills]

welcome to the forum , opentop and 454pb said are right on the money

[jonk]

A large iron pot and a propane fired weed burner is what i use. Harbor freight has them pretty cheap.

[The Dove]

So do you melt down the stick ons or not? If so do you melt them separately??? I should know this stuff!!!

The Dove

[mooman76]

The stick ons are close to pure lead and some save them for softer bullets. You can mix them if you like. If you deside to wash your lead make sure it is absolutely dry, not even damp before you melt them or they will cause a explosion. That's one reason most don't mess with cleaning them. Either way it is a mess so is it really worth it?

[BoolitSmith]

I use an air compressor to blow off any dirt or dust that will.Then I melt them down in a steel pot I made and skim all the junk and clips off with an old kitchen strainer spoon.If you wash them, be sure they are dry before melting any.

[Down South]

Welcome to the forum.

You can smelt wet WW. Just make sure you start off with a cold pot. By the time the WW's have gotten hot enough to melt all the moisture will be long gone. Just don’t add wet WW's to a pot with melted WW in it. As for the trash and dirt, it will either burn off or float to the top of the melt and can be skimmed off. The stick on WW’s are easily recognized from the clip on. I do separate mine and smelt separately for other projects. One thing no one has mentioned yet is the possible contamination of zinc WW’s. Try to keep your smelting temp down to just enough heat to melt the pot of WW and then start skimming the clips and trash as soon as you can. If you find a WW or two in the clips you skimmed off that hasn’t melted it’s possible that it may be zinc. Zinc melts at a higher temp (I don’t remember the exact temp but it’s higher).

[Railbuggy]

I picked up a 100lb bucket last week.Just finished making them into muffins.Had a lot more zink WW in this batch with a few steel ones.

[countryscooter]

Thanks for all the good answers. There's 2 feet of snow here so any smelting I do will be indoors. From the info here I don't think it would be a good idea to have a stray snowflake fall into a pot of hot wheel weights. I have a heated garage that can be ventilated easily. Just to show you how new I am to this. There is a lot of the sticky ww's in the ww's I just got. How do you take the the sticky backing off? It looks like a real chore if I have to scape each one off seperately. Will they melt at a lower temp because there is more lead? I really am a newbie at this and would like to keep all my limbs present and accounted for. Thanks cscooter

[454PB]

The double sided tape on the stick-on wheelweights is another good reason to do the rendering outdoors. It produces a nasty black and acrid smoke. I tried brake cleaner to soften it, and it works, but again you have the fumes from the brake cleaner to ventilate. Depending on the amount, it's easier to set them aside for outdoor smelting.

All the stick-on weights I've seen are pure lead.

[Matt_G]

Re the stick-ons:
I read in a thread somewhere on this forum that someone saw some stick-on weights that were zinc, so watch out for that. Pure lead is dead soft, so you can tell real easy by seeing if you can mark them with an old pair of diagonal cutters. If you can't mark 'em they ain't lead.

To answer your other question, no they won't melt at a lower temp. They'll melt at a higher temp. A lead-tin-antimony alloy will melt at a lower temp than pure lead.
(Usually in the high 400's depending on the alloy)
Pure lead melts at 621 F.
Pure zinc melts at 787 F.
So keep those temps down and get the floaters out of the pot ASAP.
Do you have a casting thermometer? If you don't, it's a worthwhile investment.

What are you going to cast with this metal and what is it's intended purpose?
Plinking handgun bullets, rifle bullets for target shooting, hunting?
The reason I ask is because it sounds like you have a lot of stick-ons. You may not want to mix them in with the wheel weight metal, depends on what your using the bullets for.

You may want to smelt them separately, and have some pure lead ingots that can used to cut wheel weight metal for certain applications, or use them for the smokepole you may buy one day. :D

[NSP64]

Welcome, As everyone has said. Ihave tried cleaning, seems like more work.If your aren't using any pure lead you may want to hang onto them, and trade them unmelted to someone here for WW.

[sniper7369]

Re the stick-ons:
I read in a thread somewhere on this forum that someone saw some stick-on weights that were zinc, so watch out for that. Pure lead is dead soft, so you can tell real easy by seeing if you can mark them with an old pair of diagonal cutters. If you can't mark 'em they ain't lead.


+1 Last time I scrounged WW there were actually quite a few of those stick on zinc ones. They are a little larger and thinner than the pure lead ones though, so they're pretty easy to tell apart.

As far as cleaning WW, I just throw everything, weights, grease, used chaw, etc..in the smelting pot and skim off the crud. :mrgreen:

[Gunslinger]

I never really bothered to seperate the stick-ons. I know i won't be shooting BP in the future! "How do you know this?", one might be tempted to ask me. Well... every aspect of shooting I ever touched upon I ended up loving. First it was the 9mm auto, then the .357, along with hunting came rifles and skeet, then reloading accompanied by casting. If I start shooting BP I'll end up loving that too... I know it. Which is also why I steer clear of swaging, paper patching etc... If I start doing these things too, I fear I will have no life besides work and the weapon/shooting stuff :veryconfu

I spend a lotta time seperating the zinc weights, I find them easy recognizable. I'm not that good at controlling the temperature so seperating the zinc weights comforts me :)

But what about the steel weights? Can they contaminate the alloy as well??

[Down South]

But what about the steel weights? Can they contaminate the alloy as well??
No, they will float to the top with the clips.

[blackthorn]

The only sorting I do is to seperate stick-on's, remove valve stems, steel weights and zinc ones. Easily seen trash is also removed. Grease, oil and other carbon producing waste is just more flux!! Suspect zinc weights are set aside for closer inspection later. I use a cut off 20lb propane bottle as a smelting pot, heated by a propane, 3 ring burner on about 4 inch high cast frame. Initial smelt in done outside and I stand with any breeze behind me. Spend some time and use the "search" function on this site! There are many threads that contain a great deal of useful information. Welcome to the fold, have a great day.

[sniper7369]

.. If I start doing these things too, I fear I will have no life besides work and the weapon/shooting stuff :veryconfu


You mean there is life outside shooting, casting, and reloading??? :shock:
:kidding:

[Gunslinger]

You mean there is life outside shooting, casting, and reloading??? :shock:
:kidding:

Ha ha I catch your drift brother :drinks: