A little bit pregnant?

[leeshall]

I am in the process of hand sorting many pallets of used wheel weights. Literally tons of material. So far it's about 60% (by volume - not weight) steel and the rest clip on lead and stick on lead with a very small percentage of zinc. Now, being human and far from infallible, I'm sure a little bit of steel has ended up in the lead buckets and a little bit of lead has ended up in the steel buckets. But it's the zinc that bothers me. What if a little bit if zinc ends up in the lead buckets? Is a litttle bit going to make any difference? Or is it like being a little bit pregnant -- that batch is ruined?

[ThomR]

I am in the process of hand sorting many pallets of used wheel weights. Literally tons of material. So far it's about 60% (by volume - not weight) steel and the rest clip on lead and stick on lead with a very small percentage of zinc. Now, being human and far from infallible, I'm sure a little bit of steel has ended up in the lead buckets and a little bit of lead has ended up in the steel buckets. But it's the zinc that bothers me. What if a little bit if zinc ends up in the lead buckets? Is a litttle bit going to make any difference? Or is it like being a little bit pregnant -- that batch is ruined?

Just try to keep the temperature under 700 degrees and you should be fine. I had a bunch of wheel weights that I sorted a few months back and had a zinc wheel weight get in the melting pot. My melting pot was hot enough to make the zinc soft, but not melt it.
If you do end up melting a zinc weight in the lead I don't think one or two percent will hurt anything.

[merlin101]

Don't worry about it, a small percentage won't make much difference besides if you melt at a low temp the zinc will float to the top along with the steel clips.
BTW, Pallets of WW??? man you got a good haul!

[Grmps]

Make sure the bottom 1/3 of your smelting pot IS lead. even if you use a thermometer the bottom 1/3 will get hotter until you had liquid alloy.
You can "flux" zinc out with sulfur (nasty stuff) or copper sulfate but this also removes Tin from the alloy.
A little zinc won't hurt anything, maybe make you bring the casting temperature up a few degrees hotter to get good fill out.

[Hardcast416taylor]

That has to be the most depressing thing I`ve heard of in a long time, having to sort through many pallets of used weights. I still have almost 3 full 5 gal. pails yet to be sorted through and doubt I`ll be able to do that.Robert

[lightman]

To answer your question, No, a small % of Zinc won't ruin an alloy. Zero is better, and preferred, but a few zinc weights won't kill you. And if you see a weight floating on top of molten material, its probably steel of zinc.

Earlier this year I sorted an amount about like yours. I picked up each weight and looked at it. Iron and Zinc went into their respective buckets, stick-ons into their bucket, lead into their bucket and suspects into a pile to be snipped with my dykes. After a few buckets, it seems like you can almost sense the zinc ones. They look, feel and weigh different. The iron are much more distinctive and easier to see.

Before this, I would dump a bucket into a large wooden box and pick through them. I started with the tire stickers, cigarette butts and valve stems. Then the stick-on weights, then the iron weights, finally leaving the lead and zinc to sort.

Both methods worked well for me. Yeah, I missed a few that floated and probably a few more that got melted.

Oh yeah, Nice Score!

[leeshall]

I figure this project will take all summer hauling and sorting (less the time I will be at Camp Perry). The "motherload" is about an hour away and I haul one pick up truck load at a time. I sort it at home and will wait till the cooler months before getting into making ingots.

[jonp]

Agree with all of the above. If the temp is right just pull the missed zinc out. I'm actually kinda jealous about the "pallets of wheel weights".

[leeshall]

"I'm actually kinda jealous about the "pallets of wheel weights"."

Be careful what you wish for. This is gonna take a LOT of long hot work.

[popper]

Won't a good strong magnet pick out the steel?

[Dusty Bannister]

Yes a magnet will pick up steel weights and the metal clips with the lead weights attached.

When I have to sort WW, I sort on an incline. Dump the weights at the top, push and slide and pick the junk, steel, stick on, and hopefully the zinc as the lead weights slide down the board and off the end into a bucket.

[Rcmaveric]

People have given enough good enough. Keep temps around 700 if your that worried. If it does happen a 1% or 2 wont kill the alloy, just make it a bit finnicky to cast with.


Sent from my SM-G925T using Tapatalk

[jsizemore]

"I'm actually kinda jealous about the "pallets of wheel weights"."

Be careful what you wish for. This is gonna take a LOT of long hot work.

Do one smelting pot full. Then another and then another. It's not a race. You'll learn soon enough what works and what doesn't. One pot at a time. Have you got adequate storage. Metal 55 gallon drums with lids and clamps are the ticket. Each will hold a little more than a ton. Plastic ain't gonna cut it. Good Luck with your venture.

[MaryB]

If you tap a zinc weight against your large side cutters it will ring, lead thuds...

[lightman]

Do one smelting pot full. Then another and then another. It's not a race. Good Luck with your venture.

Gotta agree with this. Me and another member, Biggin, bought 5600# last year. Mostly weights, but some range scrap, odd chuncks and some ingots. I sorted it during the winter, after hunting season was over. One bucket at a time, maybe a little more occasionally, and it was done. A couple of friends got a bucket each and we all worked together to get it smelted. They liked my smelting set-up well enough that some of them brought other lead to melt. All in all we melted about 7000# over 8 days, or partial days. Sometimes we would work a couple of days and skip a week or even two, then another day or two. One bite at a time.

Big scores equal big job! But if its a good price its worth it.

[Hossfly]

I’ve got 600# of WW to smelt, have old propane tank 20# type. Will cut in half and make deeper pot out of. Have learned to start with tested WW in bottom for lead start and monitor temp closely, and keep at 700 ‘+-, then add small amount and watch as melt. Scoop off all floaters. Maybe this will go better than the back breaking work of separating large quantities of the stuff.

[dbosman]

A little zinc is a hardening agent.
I'd rather use antimony.

[gpidaho]

A little zinc is a hardening agent.
I'd rather use antimony.

dbosman beat me to it. A VERY SMALL amount of zinc is a benefit. Gp

[Plate plinker]

If I had that much to do investing in a PID is worth it, if you have a electric smelter like me.

[lightman]

If I had that much to do investing in a PID is worth it, if you have a electric smelter like me.

Can you post some pictures of your smelter? I've thought about this some. Running a circuit for a pottery kiln a few years ago got me to thinking about using one to smelt.