Old WW

[DDJ]

About 5 years ago I acquired about 125 lbs of wheel weights from a 95 year old gentleman who said he's had these weights since the 50"s. I hand sorted these weights and there wasn't a single zinc one and very few steel weights. I haven't done anything with these weights yet. Now I understand that older weights contain quite a bit more antimony. My mix is typically 50/50 ww/lead then 2%of that weight tin added. How should I deal with these old weights? Thanks
Dave

[skeettx]

Hello DDJ
Welcome on your FIRST posting
You can do just as you have been doing, mix these with pure lead at 50/50 for most pistol bullets

http://www.tackleunderground.com/com...y-composition/



Again, Welcome

Mike

[ShooterAZ]

Welcome to Cast Boolits. I'll usually add some tin (1-2%) to straight WW for pistol alloy. For rifles, I will sometimes mix 75% WW to 25% lino for a harder alloy.

[jsizemore]

I've got a NRA Reloading Handbook with articles from the 40's- early 60's. WW's are listed as 4% Sb.

[Tripplebeards]

I have a bunch from the late 70’s that were new, never installed, in the original boxes. I melted them and they ended up having a BH of 14.3. It just depends on how hard or soft you want your alloy. That’s too hard Of a BH all of my hunting needs so I cut them with 50 percent (or more)pure lead and add a little pewter to hopefully get some expansion. I also PC and GC them. I don’t believe steel weights were introduced yet way back then so your weights are probably newer than you think they are. Back in the early 90’s when I started managing one of the local commercial tire shops seeing a steel wheel weight was like seeing a 4 leaf clover. Not very common or cost effective back in the day. Lead was king and still was till about the late 00’s till all the “go green” campaigns came about. I can remember all the steel and zinc wheels weights fly off as the car drove away...and they still do a good amount of the time. The softer lead bends and conforms hugging into the wheel lips holding it in place better.

[Winger Ed.]

They might be so old Al Gore hadn't invented Zinc it yet.

I'd just melt & use 'em.

[DDJ]

Thanks guys! Some where on this site someone had a link to assorted alloys-****ed if I can find it now. But at one time wheel weights were not considered to be good bullet casting material because of inconsistent mixes and high-9%-antimony content. These were old weights. The ones that I got from this old guy were actually from the 40's and 50's. I was going to treat them as regular wheel eights until I read that article. Maybe I should stop reading. That would simplify things. If anything I was thinking to pour them into ingots and then mix them in 50/50 with the ww ingots that I already have. Dunno. I thought I hit a small jackpot-no zinc and almost no steel-until I started reading

[Dusty Bannister]

If you have any question about the contents of those WW then perhaps you could consider melting a batch and when pouring into ingots just dribble a drop or two onto clean material and then protect that sample and mail it and a pound of lead to our list member BNE for an xrf scan. If you do have something from the really old weights you will want to consider a different mix ratio for your use. If you need more information, PM me. Dusty

[lightman]

Welcome Aboard!

Theres no reason that your 50-50 + 2% tin blend should not work. You might even try a sample batch without adding any tin. I have an older Lyman book that claims that older weights had a little more tin, not antimony.

I've used wheel weights since I started casting and always considered them to be consistent and a great alloy for casting. I'm a little surprised that you found steel weights in a batch that old.

[Tripplebeards]

If I miss a steel or zink WW it always floats to the top when smelting. I just fish it out and toss it. Do yourself a favor and buy a Lee BH tester, the best $60 you’ll ever spend. I’ve found in the short time that I’ve been casting that my rifle groups change considerably when jumping up and down in BH so I try and get my alloy mix consistent and make a huge batch of the same alloy to fall back on. I developed a sub MOA load last year and mixed a new batch of alloy I was a hair off on the mix and my groups went from sub MOA to averaging 1 3/4”.

[DDJ]

If I miss a steel or zink WW it always floats to the top when smelting. I just fish it out and toss it. Do yourself a favor and buy a Lee BH tester, the best $60 you’ll ever spend. I’ve found in the short time that I’ve been casting that my rifle groups change considerably when jumping up and down in BH so I try and get my alloy mix consistent and make a huge batch of the same alloy to fall back on. I developed a sub MOA load last year and mixed a new batch of alloy I was a hair off on the mix and my groups went from sub MOA to averaging 1 3/4”.

After thinking about it I bought these weights in 2011 because I had Bud-my old Black Lab partner- with me and that was the last year of his life. I sorted them then and I know that there wasn't any zinc and I don't really know if there was steel ones in there or not. I'm 70 yrs old so I don't recall every last detail. I know I was very happy with the stuff. Right now I plan on melting this stuff down into ingots and then test the hardness using the artist pencil method also mentioned on tis site somewhere and compare it with my other wheel weight ingots. Anyhow I'll get it figured out

[jsizemore]

My local private owned gas station uses new and used COWW's when balancing tires. If the WW is too hard to conform to the wheel it is subject to working loose. Too soft and they get knocked off. Steel and zinc are hard and have to fit exactly or they'll come off. High antimony Pb WW's suffer the same problem. 3-4% antimony with .25-1% tin works about the best. There may be some old large truck WW's that run the higher antimony and that's where the higher 9% number probably comes from.

Of course, in this hobby your subject to seeing anything.

[lightman]

I was amazed at how consistent the XFR results were in the sticky that BNE started. I expect consistency is pretty important when using a modern digital balancer. Possibly not quite as important with an old fashion bubble balancer.

Both of our local tire shops use lead weights unless the wheel type dictates a type of weight that they can't get in lead. Yesterday I took the Wife's Expedition in for service and scored a partial bucket of weights. I think a local fisherman beat me by a few days! But after sorting them I had about 66% lead.

[Mr_Sheesh]

DDJ - That is probably Conditor22, who posts an LASC image & link fairly often. Let me find an example... Aah

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...=1#post4675607

Is that what you were looking for?

[DDJ]

[QUOTE=Mr_Sheesh;4675921]DDJ - That is probably Conditor22, who posts an LASC image & link fairly often. Let me find an example... Aah

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...=1#post4675607

Is that what you were looking for?[/QUOTE
Thanks for the link but for some reason I apparently don't have the permission to access that page

[Mr_Sheesh]

https://i.imgur.com/RsSbRAI.png

https://i.imgur.com/yuqqBbe.png

And he knows what pencils to get, to test lead for hardness properly; Handy knowledge. He's just a PM away

[Bigslug]

Hardness test an ingot a couple weeks after casting or, as mentioned, send some flakes of it to BNE for testing.

If you've got a pile of metal with a higher than usual antimony content, add some tin and call it rifle alloy.

[centershot]

I believe you guys are referring to BNE's post, found in the stickies in this section:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...eight-XrF-Data

[DDJ]

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate it. I've been casting for at least 7-8 years now and happy with the results. Just picked up 60 lbs of oakum(sp) this morning from a local plumber. I'll be melting the ww's we've been discussing into ingots during the long 4th weekend. Thanks again. Dave

[skeettx]

OK, need help here, oakum is a fiber material for packing joints.
What will you be using your oakum for?
Thanks
Mike

fun reading
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakum