!st time smelting, here's a pic what is this?

[Gohon]

I have a lot of WW and can easily get more

No you won't............not lead wheel weights anyways. In case you haven't been keeping up on your states latest all green politics, all lead wheel weights will not be used in California by the end of this year. The below article came out in August 2008.......

Under today's agreement, Plombco will end shipments of leaded wheel weights into California by the end of this year; Hennessey and Perfect Equipment agreed to end shipments by the end of 2009. Chrysler agreed to eliminate its use of leaded wheel weights on 55% of its automobiles by the end of this month and to fully eliminate lead in wheel weights on cars intended for sale in California by July 31, 2009.

If those shops really are offering you weights at this time I would suggest you find some place to stow them and get all you can right now because your supply is about to dry up. Kind of makes one wonder with second thoughts as to what that green stuff really is floating in your pot????

[Tippet]

Thanks for the tip. Keep in mind, the weights I'm getting are the ones they pull off the tires they replace, so once they stop taking deliveries of lead, there'll be an overlap before the lead comiong off old tires dries up. But thanks for the head's up, I had no idea. Hopefully by then I'll be moved out of this screwed up state.

[Dennis Eugene]

Well you may move but it ain't going to matter lead WW's will soon be a thing of the past. I was at the tire shop tonight and saw several boxes of new ww's, all steel, and this on an island in Alaska. It's comnig and I'm getting all I can while I can even if I have to sleep with them I'll find room for them. I'm already seeing all kind of steel and zink coming off tires. A couple years back I had never even seen a zink one. Dennis

[Tippet]

Well you may move but it ain't going to matter

Well it may not help finding WW but moving out of Cali will definitely matter! lol

[Dennis Eugene]

Good point. Dennis

[windrider919]

On this post I am not as positive as I usually am. BUT, I too have had a melt turn blue while reclaiming WW. I was running very hot which I no longer do because of this. I think some zinc weights got in and at the temp I was running they melted. So now I run at a temp hot enough to melt lead but zinc doesn't. Then you can easily remove them from the melt. However, it also could have been the rubber stems I left in this time. I was running a really big pot and did not bother to sort out the crap, just figured it would float and be skimmed off. The color stayed into the loaf pans and even the casting pot but the bullets still turned out fine. I did notice that they were all a little light compared to previous casts though. I always heard that any zinc made it impossible to cast but these cast OK. and I am positive that there was some zinc in the mix because every other bucket from that shop had zinc WW mixed in so that one probably did too.

Also, sawdust is good for fluxing but I found that, at least for me that to really reclaim all the tin and not be drossing some of it out I MUST flux with wax or oil at least once the first flux. Smokey til it lights but it works, them I flux / cover the melt with sawdust to keep oxidation down.

[roarindan]

I'm having the same trouble,but i just started using a large steel stock pot,and thought the "cheap chineese" pot was the problem. was usin a small Lee elect. pot with the same bucket of W/W. Along with the new pot i started using a outdoor "fish fryer" propane set up 'cause the Lee pot was to small,and "I want what i want when i want it",not pickin w/w clips outta a pint o lead.
Sooo, turn down the heat??? buy a cast iron pot and ladle?? help!!!

[DLCTEX]

Are you sure you don't have zinc in the mix? What you are describing sounds like zinc, thick and turning purple. If so, keep removing the thick as it rises and then cast boolits with it. Works better if you have a bottom pour pot, but hard to keep it out of a dipper. Do a search on zinc contamination and find how to discern zinc weights. The ww manufacturers are recycling weights and they don't sort the weights, but just cast at high temps and don't worry about zinc in the mix. I think many of the wheelweights I get now are contaminated with zinc alrady.

[windrider919]

Expanding on what I said before in the previous post: I found that if I suspected or had zinc I stop casting, reduce the pot temp til the lead is just molten. There will be crystals of zinc form in the molten lead. Bump the temp up just slightly for ten min or so then reduce back to help the lead and crystals separate. Strain them out till you have a smooth molten pot again. There will still be a few percent of zinc in solution in the pot but 98% will be cleaned out.

Back when I started in 1973 if we got zinc we were told to just throw it out that there was no way to separate it and it would not cast good bullets. That turned out to be wrong. As above you CAN separate most of the zinc and the remaining alloy will cast excellent bullets if you run the heat back up and cast properly from there.

However, the above is not really worth it in energy cost and lead cost unless you are dealing with 10 lbs or more. If less than ten just throw it out its not worth the trouble. By 'throw it out" I mean use it for something else. Lead sled shooting vise or scuba weights, etc