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Thread: Zinc Wheelweights

  1. #41
    Boolit Master

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    Eagle,
    The stick-on weights used to be pure lead. Now, they can be just about anything, including iron or zinc -- enough zinc to ruin all your lead. You need to sort them; pull the iron and steel weights out with a magnet, throw out any that are stamped "ZN", and melt the rest slowly and carefully to keep it below 770 degrees.

  2. #42
    Boolit Buddy Jaybird62's Avatar
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    ZN wheel weights are starting to show up in the Middle Tennessee area. I've got a half galon of ZN weights after going through about four 5 gal. buckets of WW. I'm saving them to make fishing sinkers.

  3. #43
    Boolit Master
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    Had a problem with zinc contamination in my pot before I got more info about casting with wws. It clogged it so bad it would not even pour. Got some good info from another site on how to clean. Empty your pot as much as you can. Get some hardwood charcoal, not briquets, and crush it down to bean or pea size. Fill your pot and crank up the heat to max. Let it burn down to ash. Dump it and all of the contamination should come out with the ash. Also, once it is really burnt down use something to clean your spout before you dump it, if you have a bottom pour spout as I do. I also took my valve rod and stuck it into the pot and twisted it back and forth from end to end to clean it. After dumping the ash I put a couple of more inches of the charcoal into the pot and once it really heated up I took the valve rod and kept twisting it around in the bottom cavity that feeds the spout and again cleaned the spout. I used a dental pick. My pot was clean and it was amazing how much junk was removed. I was smelting right in my pot and will never do that again.

  4. #44
    Boolit Mold Tom Schafer's Avatar
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    Exclamation WW steel and Zinc

    I just smelted over 600 pounds of Wheel Weights.
    I got one group of lead that was not lead but steel and some zinc.
    I agree with you completely.
    The underlying problem showing it's head, is the Government wanting to get rid of the lead.

    Thought the government is supposed to work for its constituents, not the other way.
    Tom

  5. #45
    Boolit Master
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    the new WW alloys are just another case of bureaucratic idleness. They have to figure out some campaign to justify a pay raise and a bigger office. They came to the conclusion that there are hordes of wild animals and birds just lining the roads out here in the west, just hoping a truck/car will flip a WW off so they can eat it. Sooooooooo, July of 2011 no more lead.
    Anybody asks, that's why I am amassing a couple tons of ingots. Mike Venturino buys his alloy from a smelter in one ton lots each year, for his shooting. Since I cannot take that cost off of my taxes, I buy all the WW I can.

    Rich
    Buff Killer

  6. #46
    Boolit Bub lead slead's Avatar
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    I got a bunch of lead from a mechanic I know and got a ton of ZN weights. This was a BMW dealer so maybe they are using more of that stuff than us made? I will have to start stocking up more I hate to buy the stuff when I can get it free but geez...if no more of these in 2011 the price will probably shoot up a lot.

  7. #47
    Boolit Mold crashawk's Avatar
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    the comment about using silver to remove zinc, that's kinda funny. there is a lot of silver in lead as it come out of the ground and one of the methods they use to seperate the silver from the lead is to use zinc. same process, just reverse.

    I've found a few zinc ww while processing, my old burner really doesn't get hot enough to melt the zinc unless I walk away and forget about it so they end up spooning off the top with the clips so that works for me. I may have gotten a zinc weight or two at some point melted though as I did have one batch of ingots act funny in my production pot. I had fluffy looking stuff floating and sticking to the sides of the pot, at first I thought my tin was coming out so I fluxed it. got lots of black crap out and some of the fluffy stuff was still there so I scraped it out. bullets poured good and they were not too hard so I guess it didn't hurt anything. at the end of that pour I turned my pot upside down and knocked it on the floor and got all the extra stuff that was sticking to the sides out and througholly cleaned it out. haven't had any more show up since so it must have been just a one time thing. but am I correct in assuming that under 5 percent won't really hurt anything if the bullet is not too hard for my application?

    thanks.
    Jason

  8. #48
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    Those zinks work well in for an anode in your radiator. I ground the finish off and set it on the top of the core just inside the raditor cap mouth. Works great.

  9. #49
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Does this work in all combinations of material in the radiator and engine? I'd sure hate to have to cuss the zinc for yet another reason.

  10. #50
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    Yes it saves the other materials in your engine as a scrificial annode, like your aluminum for instance. It's the best job for the life of a less noble metal, and redeems itself as the scurge of cast boolit lead.

    Best thing for your boat as well.

  11. #51
    Boolit Buddy
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    The second time I ever cast anything, I had a propane camping stove and a junk-store iron pot. I dumped a bunch of WW into the pot and let it go. I wondered why a couple of them wouldn't go; it may have occurred to me that they weren't Pb, or maybe I just figured it was the paint, but either way I don't think I managed to get the few I had to melt. Though I do remember a bit of a purple-ish tint.

    I then proceeded to use the round balls I'd cast in a BP revolver, with a bit of effort. . .


    Quote Originally Posted by shotman View Post
    it depends on what you want to do with the lead. zinc is ok for boolit making not for shotmakers.
    Do you cast your shot or use a tower? I think at some point I'd like to make my own shot (with the way the price of it's gone, it's not worthwhile to buy it). Is it ok for larger shot, say 00 buck, but not for, say, #8 bird?

    Quote Originally Posted by shotman View Post
    the lead that should keep a blue scum on it I guess that is why the symbol PB pure blue.
    No, the Pb is from the Latin word for lead, Plumbum (from which we get Plumber, they associated lead with pipes). Besides, if it were initials, PB would by definition have to mean Peanut Butter, not Plywood Bobsled, or Phoney Biceps, or Pure Blue.

    So I guess one of my first lessons from all you casting pros is that I need to use a big pot to smelt out ingots (which I can get to a consistent hardness and composition if I really try), and then use the ingots to cast the actual bullets. I'm glad I don't have to figure all this stuff out myself! I always thought ingots were superfluous.

  12. #52
    Boolit Master
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    HI,
    In the early 1900's, pre 1969 when I started, some shooters would cast Zn bullets, they were much lighter, and could be pushed faster , acted like solids on game as did not expand.
    Some of the more sienor members of the board would know more.

  13. #53
    Boolit Mold
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    Zinc or Lead? Smack it

    I'm new here and just learning the site, what a curve for me navigating,lol.
    I'm casting again due to not wanting to pay the "Temporary" ,I hope, inflation in boolits
    For fast sorting an anvil and a ball peen, smack,see a dent pull it toward you,no dent push it away. You can fly through all the ones your not sure of.

    still questionable, I found long ago that having a vise handy when you have a questionable WW helps.
    A quick twist of the vise handle and a sharp blow with a hammer and a PB will bend right over, A zinc will bend, but not much,try a little harder and it will snap, and if it don't bend at all, don't hit it harder or you will Bust your vise because it's a steel unit.
    I shake my head sadly thinking of stick-ons made of anything but pure PB.
    Love this site!

  14. #54
    Boolit Mold
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    Oooop's as to the last post, the cheap pot metal (not steel) ww's snapped too, were somewhat magnetic and showed a crystaline formation at the break.
    (casting again)

  15. #55
    Boolit Mold
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    Hello. Anyone know by looking if these are zinc? They look like they're painted...


  16. #56
    Boolit Master
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    gwal, I don't think those are zink, as far as I know the zinkers are all have stamped lettering and numbers and have a zn on them but I am sure I haven't seen them all..
    Wes
    The problem in America today is, there are to many fools making to many rules that don't apply to themselves. Now just wait until the new pres. takes office and see what happens!!!!!

  17. #57
    Boolit Master


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    Also it looks like those were cast onto the clip. I think that all of the zinc ones are riveted onto the clip. Test these with a pair of wire cutters and see if they are easily cut. If so, they are lead.


    Custom Cast Boolits Google Search


    The Learning Never Stops!

  18. #58
    Boolit Master Russel Nash's Avatar
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    These:



    I am thinking are aluminum.

    I have also tried to cut wheelweights with a razor bladed utility knife. If the razor drops into the metal and can peel off a shaving, its lead.

    If it takes a lot of effort to cut into, it's NOT lead, but some other metal, steel, aluminum or maybe zinc??

  19. #59
    Boolit Master

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    I'm almost sure the "1.75 MC" weight is lead. Not sure about the others but they look like lead too. If you have weights that are marked "AL-MC" and look kind of plasticky, they are lead with a thick coat of (epoxy?) paint.

  20. #60
    Boolit Buddy
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    THanks for this tutorial guide...

    I just went through another batch of wheel weights with wire cutter pliers. I've seen mostly the following 'Code' letters:

    MC (Pretty sure it's lead)
    MICRO (Almost always lead)
    T (Pretty sure it's lead)
    P (VERY soft, may be pure lead)
    AL (Not sure but this seems like lead, a bit harder) with thick epoxy/paint type coat that flakes off under pressure.
    AL-MC (Not sure but this seems like lead) with thick 'paint' coat that flakes off under pressure.
    Zn DEFINITELY zinc.
    Fe DEFINITELY steel.

    I was curious about the AL ones in this batch... Does that mean they might have some Aluminum in them? Or are they lead? The seem to be a fairly soft metal, but then again, Aluminum IS a fairly soft metal.

    Anybody have any idea what these 'Type' Code letters are or mean?

    I know there's always the 'Float Test', but I'd like to weed out as many potential problems ahead of time as I possibly can before my next wheel weight smelting in a few days.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check