ww marked AL

[dancast]

hi folks,
came across some ww marked AL, did not see them on the chart, think they are lead, just want to check before melting. so are they lead? thanks.....dancast

[Oklahoma Rebel]

throw them onto concrete, if they thud and barely bounce at all, its lead, but isn't al aluminum? if it is aluminum it wont thud anyways. when I first started sorting ww's it was daunting, and I thought I would never memorize them all, but after a few 4-5 batches, it becomes automatic

[jsizemore]

AL is the good stuff.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

could you be more specific, I don't know what you mean, so the op probably don't either

[Pine Baron]

AL means they're for use on "alloy" wheels.

[billyb]

I believe that AL is the maker of the wheel weight. One poster stated in his research that raised letters were lead, and inset letters were zn for zink, fe for steel. Google wheel identification and you will get more info.

[Chris24]

I see those all the time. They're probably lead, if they don't have Zn or Fe stamped on them. I've sorted buckets and buckets and never have seen an aluminum weight. Aluminum is just too light to make a good weight.

[JWFilips]

Just clip them with cutters if you want to be sure

[runfiverun]

AL means they are coated for aluminum rims.
if they aren't coated they will leave a corrosion mark on the rim.

[dancast]

hi folks,
did not want to get to crazy with this. on the chart,(sticky) i did not see anything for ww marked AL. no i know that they are not aluminum, just did not want to have a bad batch of melt. thanks......dancast

[MrWolf]

Just clip them with cutters if you want to be sure

This is what I do.

[jsizemore]

dancast, Sorry about the confusion of my earlier post. Since the 80's, I have never had a COWW with AL as part of the original casting be anything but a lead alloy. I sort my WW's before I smelt and have used the sidecutters to check which are and aren't lead alloy. After doing it for so long, I rarely check with the sidecutters, just use the letter code on the WW. I have missed the occasional non-Pb WW but have never seen one with AL on it when fished from the melt with the clips since I keep the smelt temp below 700degF.

I hope this clears up any and all confusion.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

come to think of it, I have seen a lot of those, the grayish painted ones, right?

[runfiverun]

the AL is raised letters on the ww.
the ww's are not made out of aluminum.
they are for alloy rims.

[mold maker]

I have recently come across some odd WW that aren't marked Fe or Zn. but are very light weight for their size. They appear to be cast on the clip like lead but half the weight.
I haven't tried to melt any of them yet
Have any of you found these, and what might they be?

[Chris C]

Keep some diagonal cutters or nippers handy and just see if you can heavily dent anything you're not sure is lead. If it dents, it's lead.........if not you might hurt your wrist trying to cut it. And, as others have said, if you drop the questionable ones on a concrete floor they either ring or go thud. Thud is lead, ring is anything you don't want in your pot. Really pretty simple and after sorting about 10 or 15 buckets of mixed wheel weights you'll get pretty good and pickin'em out by eye. I hardly ever use either of the above methods to verify any more and the last time I rendered, I had less than 10 wheels weights that floated to the top with the clips. (and I'm a beginner!)