Truck wheel weights

[Frank46]

Greetings all. Got a question. What with all the zinc and iron wheel weights out there does anyone know wether or not truck wheel weights have the same problem. Have about two 5 gal buckets mostly truck weights and have had them for about 3-4 years. Frank

[bangerjim]

Just test 'em and see. Muriatic acid/diagonal cutters/drop/eyeball test. All will tell if you have Zn/Fe or Pb.

The older the better, but no guarantees!

banger

[roysee]

Those zinc/iron wheel weights caught me by surprise last month. I just dumped a whole bunch of wheel weights into my large pot, turned up the heat and waited for everything to melt. They didn't all melt. Since I was outside on a moderately windy day, I figured the pot wasn't getting hot enough, so I turned up the flame and set up a wind break. They still didn't melt, but I sure had everything HOT! That's when I discovered the unmelted weights were iron. Figured I had ruined a good batch of lead with all that extra heat and the zinc/iron weights floating on top. Turns out, there was no problem - well, maybe just a little picking out all the iron floaters with a pair of long handled pliers. I filled my ingot molds and later cast up a batch of bullets, dropping them into a bucket of water. They looked just like any other bullet and tested out at 22 bhn. The bullets shot fine, too. So, other than the hassle of picking the iron ones out of the pot, they don't seem to have any adverse effect.

[wrench man]

YEP, ABSOLUTELY, ALL DAY LONG!, the "Zn" ones look IDENTICAL to the Pb ones!, but they are marked Zn, they MUST be sorted too.

[Vinne]

Wheel Weights are just too dear down here to take a chance with even one Zinc getting in there. I hand sort every batch (maybe half a bucket total so it don't take long). I wish I could get some local truck WWs...more usable lead and fewer clips!!

[CountryBoy19]

I use primarily truck weights (have a family connection to a free source). I have smelted several hundred pounds in the last few years. The below is my experience.

I have not found ANY steel truck weights as of yet.

There are zinc weights though. The percentage of zinc weights is FAR fewer in truck weights. IE. I sorted an entire 100+ lb bucket of truck weights last week and there were 3 zinc weights in it. That being said ALL zinc truck weights I've ever found were marked as such. They are marked with a "Z". Most of my truck weights are marked "TAL" or "17". The respective zinc ones would be marked "TAL Z" and "17Z". I don't recall ever seeing one marked as "ZN", "Zn", "Zinc", etc. It's always a single capital "Z" following the normal brand/type marking on the weight.

FWIW, I LOVE truck weights. I get a lot more lead for each weight I sort. I can go through 2-3 buckets of truck weights in the same time it takes me to do a single bucket of car weights...

[Beesdad]

Greetings all. Got a question. What with all the zinc and iron wheel weights out there does anyone know wether or not truck wheel weights have the same problem. Have about two 5 gal buckets mostly truck weights and have had them for about 3-4 years. Frank

I have been getting commercial trucks weights locally for over a year and I have not seen any Zn or Fe COWWs... Most are 8 oz. weights or greater... I treat them just like other WWs and keep an eye on the temp. when smelting.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I hope one of these days some of you guys try my method of removing both iron weights (Fe) and the steel clip from lead weights from your smelt with a fairly strong magnet of about 6 - 7" long or attached to a piece of wood. Just wave the mag about 1/2" over the top of the smelt and you pick up the clips and any iron weights at the surface. Move this collection over a pail and wipe the mag end off with a gloved hand.Robert

[bangerjim]

Depending on the make-up/type of the magnet, high heat can/will eventually decrease the strength.....potentially to nothing.

A lot of old speaker magnets are AlNiCo (aluminum nickel cobalt) or magnetized ferrite. I have never heated them up to test, but just watch out for any chunks that could flake off and get into your melt (floating on top).

To increase a magnet's strength, put a steel plate on each pole. You effectively concentrate the fields to the edges and get MUCH stronger attraction!

I used to use (when messing with COWW's years ago) a very strong rare earth magnet to pick up WW's from the buckets to put in the melting pot by hand. Much easier than trying to dig thru the filthy pile of things by hand! Also relied on one to presort Fe weights.

banger

[Frank46]

Magnets and muriatic acid I have. Thanks for the info. Frank

[bobthenailer]

I have been getting commercial trucks weights locally for over a year and I have not seen any Zn or Fe COWWs... Most are 8 oz. weights or greater... I treat them just like other WWs and keep an eye on the temp. when smelting.

A 8oz zinc WW would be huge !

[garym1a2]

I found this out the hard way with a 80lb pot. Ones marked TAL Z are zinc. I would save them as some people buy them for cannon balls.

I use primarily truck weights (have a family connection to a free source). I have smelted several hundred pounds in the last few years. The below is my experience.

I have not found ANY steel truck weights as of yet.

There are zinc weights though. The percentage of zinc weights is FAR fewer in truck weights. IE. I sorted an entire 100+ lb bucket of truck weights last week and there were 3 zinc weights in it. That being said ALL zinc truck weights I've ever found were marked as such. They are marked with a "Z". Most of my truck weights are marked "TAL" or "17". The respective zinc ones would be marked "TAL Z" and "17Z". I don't recall ever seeing one marked as "ZN", "Zn", "Zinc", etc. It's always a single capital "Z" following the normal brand/type marking on the weight.

FWIW, I LOVE truck weights. I get a lot more lead for each weight I sort. I can go through 2-3 buckets of truck weights in the same time it takes me to do a single bucket of car weights...

[jsizemore]

I'm in the Raleigh area and have found truck weights are running 50% lead, 50% Fe-Zn.

[RogerDat]

Scrap yard will give you zinc (dirty because of clips) and steel scrap prices.

[wrench man]

I have a full 5 gallon bucket of Zinc and Iron weights at work, the clipons are all zinc, the tape weights are Iron.
The "TAL" weights are for aluminum wheels, the "I7" weights are for the steel wheels, I have both of them NEW in all weights at work, I get to play with this almost every day

[Frank46]

Thanks for all the info, suggestions and comments. Too darn hot down here to smelt all those ww's. Will have to wait until later. By the time I humped the tree buckets and about 300lbs of sheet lead using the front end loader on my tractor I was soaking wet. neighbors must have been wondering what the heck was he putting in the garage with a tractor. I like to keep them guessing. Frank

[Combat Diver]

I have gotten large Zinc truck weights (6-8oz) that were given to me out of Michigian. The Army is using allot of SOWW made out of Fe now days on their trucks (ea square weighing 1 oz) .

CD

[louism]

Largest truck ww I have found is 16oz. It is still on a shelf just for show. Wish I could get a few more buckets of them. Last time I got them I had 2 5 gallon buckets and net weight of the ingots was just shy of 400 pounds.

[Frank46]

Again, thanks for your help. Just got my workbench cleaned off so's you can actually use it. beautiful weather down here today. Had to shovel some dirt into the front end loader on my kubota. Best decision I ever made when I bought it. used it to put all my sheet lead in the garage, neighbors must think I'm nuts. Frank