Guide to Hand Sorting Wheel Weights

[borg]

I've been around the block a few times, I did take a file to remove the paint.

A lot of the Zinc that I've seen had a coat of paint on them. Your acid may not be getting through it.

[K7sparky]

borg
Muriatic acid / HCl would have expected to form ZnCl. Tried some marked Zn here with some HCl same as you did. Hit the WW with the grinder first and all the acid did was tarnish it a bit. Next up was weak Sulfuric - battery acid - and same thing just tarnished it a bit. Starting to think they might be pot metal? Glad I hadn't cast them up for boat zincs

[K7sparky]

Tried some Zinc SO with HCL and they bubble nicely.

[Blanket]

sorted 15 - 5 gallon buckets this weekend, done with collecting ww. Thank goodness I have enough. The guy that started using zinc needs to have his buttons cut off

[K7sparky]

I read most places that SO WW are almost pure lead and thus OK for BP. That's a yes and no. The dull ones that cut like solder measure close to 0.100 on a LEE tester = OK for BP almost pure.

First batch of SO WW I kept separate from regular WW & smelted I just tossed all the SO together and cast ingots. Being a bit cautious about BP lead I tested an ingot just after casting. LEE tester .088 dia is off the bottom of the LEE tester BHN table - YEP this is good for BP.

For some reason I tested it a day later and got .082??? pure lead does not age harden! Hum 6 days later .074 that's in the LEE BHN table about 9.1 BHN. 18 days after casting .068 =11.0 BHN 32 days after casting .066 BHN 11.8

I have been getting around 10 BHN for air cooled WW ingots, So the SO mix was harder than regular WW I have been getting - What's up??

I started tossing all what I now call hard SOWW in a bucket to do some more testing on.


Hard SOWW

Finally got around to casting hard SOWW and water quench. Cast 10 or so full molds then did 3 batches of 2 ingot about 1/2 full and dumped in cold water as soon as surface hardened.

Hard SO WW water quenched on casting
Bar #	When cast		1 Hr		2 Hr.		18 Hr		28 Hr		3 days
	Dia	BHN	Dia	BHN	Dia	BHN	Dia	BHN	Dia	BHN	Dia	BHN
1	0.066	11.8	0.056	16.6	0.056	1606	0.054	17.9	0.054	17.9	0.048	22.7
2	0.066	11.8	0.056	16.6	0.054	17.9	0.05	20.9	0.048	22.7	0.048	22.7
3	0.067	11.4	0.058	15.4	0.054	17.9	0.048	22.7	0.05	20.9	0.048	22.7
4	0.066	11.8	0.056	16.6	0.055	17.2	0.046	24.8	0.046	24.8	0.048	22.7
5	0.064	12.1	0.058	15.4	0.056	16.6	0.05	20.9	0.047	23.8	0.048	22.7
6	0.064	12.1	0.058	15.4	0.056	16.6	0.05	20.9	0.047	23.8	0.05	20.9

It will get a bit harder, but you get the drift and read below links to see the hardening trend

Don't like to fight the sticky goo off the back floating on the pot, but sure like lead.

BTW if you are not familiar with Heat Treat & Quenching alloys there is a good read on http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm select "Heat Treating Lead Alloys" and you will get to http://www.lasc.us/HeatTreat.htm by Rick Kelter where you can also download the PDF of it.. First link has a bunch of good links in LASC for further study all downloadable as PDF if you care..

If you don't already own one, BUY a LEE Lead Tester - shop around they are not that expensive - You can't tell the ball game without a program. I've been adding a dab of Teflon oil to the sliding parts of the LEE tester as it is meant for Boolits and I'm doing ingots that tend to bind it. If you don't know the BHN of your alloy you're peeing into the wind. My eye gets tired looking through the little microscope. I have gotten to using a high intensity light up close for better viewing. Also found a knife blade scraping backwards makes a nice place to test punch.

[lightman]

There is a good sticky on this thread on XfR testing of stick-on weights. The one you pictured is going to be an alloy more like clip-on weights.

[brettb75]

If anyone knows what TT, MC and AW mean on wheel weights. I'm pretty sure TT and MC are good to use for Boolits but I don't know about AW. If anyone knows pm me. Thanks

[Blackhawk357]

Thank you, I am new to smelting/casting and appreciate the information.

[Yodogsandman]

I've started to use a strong magnet over the pile first now. My last 4 buckets have so many stick on steel weights. Then the painted ones on top, that aren't picked up, are mostly zinc. Then the real sorting begins....

[K7sparky]

If anyone knows what TT, MC and AW mean on wheel weights. I'm pretty sure TT and MC are good to use for Boolits but I don't know about AW. If anyone knows pm me. Thanks

What you are asking about are WW profiles not what they are made of.

Try http://www.perfectequipment.com/us/downloads/ Down load the "OEM Application Guide Wall Poster" it will explain a lot On the left are the profiles you mention. Lots of other interesting stuff on wheel weights. Other manufacturers also have similar / more information on their sites.

[Chris C]

Don't like to fight the sticky goo off the back floating on the pot, but sure like lead.

Is there any way to get the adhesive off the backs of stick-on WW, before smelting, so it doesn't end up being such a gooey mess in the smelting pot?

[lightman]

Yeah, you can soak them in about any kind of solvent to disvolve the sticky stuff. I usually just drop them in the smelting pot and try to light the smokey stuff with a lighter.

[Chris C]

Yeah, you can soak them in about any kind of solvent to disvolve the sticky stuff. I usually just drop them in the smelting pot and try to light the smokey stuff with a lighter.

Do you mean the "smokey stuff" that comes from the adhesive melting off?

[mold maker]

It's just flux that stinks.

[PerpetualStudent]

Sorted my first batch of Wheel Weights, this thread was enormously helpful.

I worked on cardboard on the garage floor. I found that knocking against a shovel we not helpful but if I knocked it against the concrete I could hear the difference. I also found that after 3 or 4 good thunks on the concrete lead WW would take a stipple pattern from the rough concrete floor. Zinc would not.

Main thing I'd warn fellow Noobs is that the sound will change depending on the size of the wheelweight. So a large zinc WW will have a different sound from small zinc WW. It's not a one sound thing but more a range of dull thuds and a range of pings. Iron really easy to ID from sound and all marked with FE in my batch.

[copdills]

thanks this is a big help

[pcmacd]

I thought "pot metal" WAS zinc?

[pcmacd]

borg
Muriatic acid / HCl would have expected to form ZnCl. Tried some marked Zn here with some HCl same as you did. Hit the WW with the grinder first and all the acid did was tarnish it a bit. Next up was weak Sulfuric - battery acid - and same thing just tarnished it a bit. Starting to think they might be pot metal? Glad I hadn't cast them up for boat zincs

If you keep adding zinc to the HCL until it stops bubbling, it makes a WONDERFUL flux for soldering sheet metal - it will take that galvanized coating (zinc!) and itbe gone! My dad was a tinsmith, and used to use pennies to make the flux, which nowadays, are mostly zinc with a copper wash.

[OnceFired]

Picked up a 75-lb bucket of WW today. Half of a 5-gallon bucket of mixed weights from a source new to me - a local junkyard that's been around forever.

18 lbs were steel
30 lbs were MC / MICRO

A bunch of others too - P, T, TW, IAW, AL-MC, AL, AW and others that do all seem to be lead.

I think I got ~55-60 lbs @ just $0.10 per pound.

We'll see when I smelt it how many may turn out to be Zn.

OF

[Cold Trigger Finger]

This is a great thread. And I appreciate it being a sticky.
As I'm brand new to casting. I was nervous about sorting. So I used a pair of 7" handled diagonal wire cutters( dykes) to check every single wheel weight that I saved . I got a bit over a half full 5 gal bucket of wheel weights when we went to town last Sunday. Only found 1 tire shop open. Cost me $25.00 . I ended up with 3 coffee cans full of lead wheel weights And about 1/2 can of (other materials.) Composit, steel, zinc, and plastic. . I cut into every weight I saved . I want to try to do this right from the start. I threw the stick p.s. in with the clip on . Just to increase the volume of bullet alloy I have.
For a test on how hard I needed to squeeze on the cutters . I tried some recovered Boolits I had shot into firewood. Anything harder went into the reject bucket. I had to shake and tap the coffee cans to get over 20 lbs per can. The small clip p.s. don't add weight as fast as the multi oz ones due to the steel clips. ( that's my theory anyway) as one can ended up weighing more than 26 lbs and 1 only made it to 21 lbs . the light can had a lot of small weights in it.
. So, now I need to get some cup cake pans to make ingots. And cut in half a 5 gal propane tank I got out of a dumpster. That will be my smelting pot. Got an outdoor propane burner last Sunday while in town also.
Now all I need are gas checks, lube, and a sizer to install the checks.
Thanks again.
Glen.