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Thread: Wheel Weight Metal?

  1. #1
    Boolit Master
    DonMountain's Avatar
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    Wheel Weight Metal?

    Are clip-on wheel weights made out of different metals than they used to be? The last time I bought wheel weights they came from a tire shop back before mag wheels became popular in the early 1990's. And the gas checked boolits I have been casting with them all these years worked pretty well for me. Unfortunately I ran out of them (wheel weight metal) recently as I have taken back up shooting cast lead boolits again after several years of non shooting. And my wife's brother gave me about 100 pounds of wheel weights that he had taken off police car wheels when he was a mechanic for a police agency in a big, mid-west city. And these wheel weights look different and seem to be lighter than the lead ones I used in the past. Now I am trying to melt some of them down. What can I expect to see and how do I seperate the junk from the lead?

  2. #2
    Boolit Master ku4hx's Avatar
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    See here:
    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=148821

    There is no standard for WW composition. It's whatever works for the maker for his intended application.
    Last edited by ku4hx; 03-29-2012 at 01:52 PM.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by DonMountain View Post
    What can I expect to see and how do I seperate the junk from the lead?
    Keep the temps low to seperate the zinc weights, and then skim them off of the top. In general they have less Antimony then they used to.

    HF
    I give loading advice based on my actual results in factory rifles with standard chambers, twist rates and basic accurizing.
    My goals for using cast boolits are lots of good, cheap, and reasonably accurate shooting, while avoiding overly tedious loading processes.
    The BHN Deformation Formula, and why I don't use it.
    How to find and fix sizing die eccentricity problems.
    Do you trust your casting thermometer?
    A few musings.

  4. #4
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    Kalifornica says we eat too many lead weights and animals hunt for them on roadsides so who knows what is in some today.
    It is frustrating and the best is to keep the melt around 600* and get rid of all that don't melt. Never keep poking them under the surface and turning up the heat. It just takes one bad egg to spoil things.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by 44man View Post
    Kalifornica says we eat too many lead weights and animals hunt for them on roadsides so who knows what is in some today.
    It is frustrating and the best is to keep the melt around 600* and get rid of all that don't melt. Never keep poking them under the surface and turning up the heat. It just takes one bad egg to spoil things.
    Funny how this only happens in California. Around here, the birds eat bird seed. Funny...........
    "The right of the people to keep and bear...arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country..." (James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434 [June 8, 1789])


    Once the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.
    Benjamin Franklin

  6. #6
    Boolit Master
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    Not boolit metal

    A bunch of them showed up looking like pieces of copper as they floated on top of the melted lead. And steel, and I guess zink? They looked like cast aluminum but were heavier. And the muffins I cast were soft as I could mark them with my fingernail. My old ones I couldn't do that with. But most of my molds are gas checked so maybe it won't be a problem as long as I can cast the boolits reasonably well with it? And around here the birds eat the cat food in the bowl on the side porch. And the cat drinks its water out of the bird bath in the side yard. And the wild turkeys are in the yard every morning looking for cat food.

  7. #7
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    Animals in the rest of the country are not liberals! Liberals want to ban everything because they figure we are not as smart.
    Liberals are direct desendants of lead paint eaters.

  8. #8
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by 44man View Post
    Liberals are direct descendants of lead paint eaters.
    That line made me laugh. I think I may use it in my sig for my email.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master
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    Soft boolit metal?

    So, with this soft boolit metal now should I upgrade to a 600 grain mold for my 45-70 and shoot at a slower speed than the 500 grain mold and give up trying to shoot the 6.5x55 Swed? And I don't like all this negative talk about the Liberals. My wife's children think I am a liberal because they keep coming and asking for more money all the time. And only 3 of them want to buy boolit molds with the money.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check