Wheel weight scoop?

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Anyone come up with a good method of scooping wheel weights? I was thinking about trying a small hand cultivator.

[Conditor22]

That worked well for me when I got a partial barrel of Monotype. With help, I tipped the barrel on its side, made things much easier.

Just brainstorming --

You could cut/grind a 6"x12" slot at the bottom of the barrel and rake the WW onto a tray or? Your COWW should be easier to rake with the hand cultivator.
I broke mine so use a claw hammer.

[upnorthwis]

I use leather gloves to grab handfuls at a time.

[Hossfly]

Good cheap gloves work best, you ain’t going to tip that Bbl over any time soon but if you could it looses them up with each tilt. I used a shovel with mine along side to loosen to where I could just grab a handful at a time and place on a table to cherrypick the obvious lead out and sort the zinc into the bad bucket. Save the zinc for hard times, you can make boolits with them if times get bad.

[OS OK]

When your working it a layer at a time...

*grab all the little square SOWW's and start chunking them to another bucket. That'll get your soft stuff in one place.

*then as you go you will learn to identify the Zinkers by their paint job or the Zn printed in the corner...start grabbing the ready identifiable and chunking them into a scrap yard return bucket.

*before long you'll have a layer of mostly COWW's in your face...grab them off and toss them into the process bucket.

*don't get in a hurry to sort them and get them in the pot so quick. Otherwise your gonna flub up like you just did.

Take your time and have a more harmonious outcome.

Like I said before..."This is a labor of love! Don't get all lusty for some ingots and screw the pooch!"

[Winger Ed.]

Cut a piece of the side of the barrel off at the top of the load in it.
then rake them off with a hand held 3 prong flower bed/garden tool

[Tenbender]

I pile my WW out with some 4X4's down for a border. Then I use a square point shovel. About 2 scoops fill my vat.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

*don't get in a hurry to sort them and get them in the pot so quick. Otherwise your gonna flub up like you just did.

Take your time and have a more harmonious outcome.

Like I said before..."This is a labor of love! Don't get all lusty for some ingots and screw the pooch!"

Haha! So true! 1400 lbs of wheel weights does have a way of making one a little slap happy!

[nun2kute]

So will 1100 lbs of cable sheathing, and 600 lbs of Lino, and 400 lbs of X-ray lead. Thhey all laugh at me when I chase Wheel Weights. Tey say "Don't you have enough lead yet ?" and I say "Am I dead yet ?"

[Winger Ed.]

"Don't you have enough lead yet ?"

I equate that to having too much money or too much whiskey.

[RogerDat]

I find sorting in a tray on my lap with the sorting containers around my chair to be easy and relaxing. The hand travel to get from lap tray to a pair of dikes in other hand to nip and confirm lead is shorter. I'm doing the visual check to toss the zinc or obvious steel. As well as sort out the SOWW's but 100% nip testing is my method. So far have had 1 zinc floater in 1000 lbs. of COWW's. Works for me.

Can sit and watch a movie, or listen to music and just pick, nip toss. Refill tray from bucket wearing leather gloves and repeat. I do think one of those three tine short handled cultivators would be an asset in loosening them up.

Worst part about doing a whole barrel is eventually it is a lot of bending to get down to the contents. Dumping out on floor will save you a lot of hassle after the top part of the barrel has been emptied to lighten it. Actually that bending and stooping is the ONLY bad thing about a barrel of lead!

[Cloverdale]

I pull out the stick-ons...easy to see in a handful and everything else goes in the pot. The zinkers will float...I don't spend any time or effort sorting them.

[wrench]

I do use one of those three prong cultivators you mentioned, and I think it works great for raking out a pile of wheel weights or range scrap.

[Conditor22]

I pull out the stick-ons...easy to see in a handful and everything else goes in the pot. The zinkers will float...I don't spend any time or effort sorting them.

IF you do this, you'll need to leave a couple inches of COWW in the bottom of the smelting pot so you don't get the heat to high before your thermometer registers the heat.

[bobthenailer]

a fireplace shovel

[samari46]

Maybe use an old e-tool which is nothing more than a collapesable shovel with a short handle. I have an old one from WWII I gave to the wife for her garden. You can loosen the lock nut and have either a shovel or can rotate to use as a tool to rake the wheel weights into a pile in the drum then change over to a shovel and scoop the little suckers up. Have fun. Frank

[slim1836]

Frankford Arsenal magnet works for me for COWW.

Slim

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I think what I will do is tip the half full drum on its side, with a come along if need be. Then use a regular shovel to place a scoop at a time in a shallow pan for sorting.

[jsizemore]

I found laying the drum on it's side and a round point shovel was the best. When you get near the bottom a couple concrete blocks under the bottom and rake them onto a piece of plywood. Flat shovel is king at this point. I shovel them onto my work table for sorting.