Strange Things Found in Wheel Weights

[LabGuy]

Well I’ve found a lot of things mixed in with wheel weights but this afternoon I was going through the 120 pounds I picked up two weeks ago and what did I find? A live 38 Special. It looks to be a 158 gr. lead round nose, in PMC brass. Sure glad I sort before smelting.

What’s the strangest thing you have found?

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Some of those tire shops where buckets of wheelweights are found are pretty foul. BvT

[zomby woof]

cherry cigar pieces

[cabezaverde]

Large fishing sinkers. Cig butts. Tools.

[coloraydo]

Razor blades are the worst to me.

[SWANEEDB]

cherry cigar pieces

How'd you know it was cherry, by the smoke fumes?

[mold maker]

How about 6 disk brake pads, and 6 spark plugs in a bucket I had to buy?
Guess who won't be eating free pizza.

[chris in va]

Mud. As in, someone literally dug up wheelweights out of the ground, like they were stored there.

[perimedik]

New to the wheel weight game,
I found, lug nuts, rachet heads, a spark plug, valve stems. a few other tid bits.

[bumpo628]

I found a u-joint, sockets, and razor blades.
I probably would have also found tetanus, but I've recently had a booster shot. [smilie=1:

btw, this should be a good thread.

[alamogunr]

Most of the things mentioned so far plus one bucket several years ago had a couple of gallons of heavy gear oil in the bottom. What a mess!

John
W.TN

[Longwood]

A Matchbox car.
A Zippo.

[HollowPoint]

Back when I was working at one of our local Cadillac dealerships I happened to work in the work-bay right next to the tire department's work-bays.

Every once in a while one of the tire-guys would call me over to show me what they'd just found inside one of the tires they were fixing.

I'm not kidding; they'd find bullet slugs, screw divers, arrow heads, razor blades, ball bearings, knife blades and several other odd-ball items you just don't expect to find inside a tire.

Most of that stuff was just disgarded by throwing into the bucket with all the take-off wheel weights.

I believe that's how most of the stuff you guys have listed found it's way into your stash of wheel weights.

HollowPoint

[a.squibload]

A valve-seat tool, for kitchen and bathroom sinks.

[Johnch]

2 weeks back , I found what I believe to be a crack pipe in a bucket of WW

But I also found a 1/4" impact gun years back

John

[zomby woof]

How'd you know it was cherry, by the smoke fumes?

Yes,
when I was smelting them I'd open the cover and smell cherry, at least that's what it smelled like to me.

[leadhead]

I found 6-7 live .22cal rounds in a bucket once. WOW
Denny

[Trey45]

Used chewing tobacco has to be the worst. Razor blades are pretty bad too. I've asked the mechanics at one of the shops I get WW from if they could possibly stop using the WW buckets as spitoons, it worked! I supply the buckets there anyhow, they fill them and let me know when they're full. Now if I could only get them to sort the WW into the buckets, stick ons in one, clip ons in another, steel and zinc in another that they keep!... oh well, wishfull thinking. I'm just thankfull that I have a steady source of WW here.

[cbrick]

What’s the strangest thing you have found?

The strangest thing I've found so far is lead wheel weights.

Yep, not a typo or joke.

The owner of a truck tire place where I got my last two buckets full had intended to re-use the weights and had his guys during slow times sort out all the weights into clean clip-on weights. About 60% truck and 40% auto weights, no garbage, no tire valves, nothing but lead weights. About 175 pounds each, so heavy we pulled the handle off one of the buckets.

Happy days!

Rick

[bslim]

One 5 gal pail had 3/4 full of bolts and the top 1/4 was WW's. I took it back and showed him and he offered to replace it, no hassles/no problem. Another had a dozen sockets in it but couldn't remember where it came from, so they're in my tool box.

[leadman]

I found syringes, condoms, knives, lots of lug nuts, and assorted screws and such that had caused the flat tire.
I always poured out the bucket into the mud pans I bought at Home Depot after finding the first items in the buckets!

[Stick_man]

I have found razor blades, allen wrenches, sockets (both good and broken), even a set of ww-removal pliers. Wasn't sure which shop I had gotten that bucket from, so it migh come in handy next time I am at a junk yard.

[David LaPell]

Razor blades, spark plugs, lugnuts, screws.

[iwottopq]

Hello to all.
I have found a lizard...live!!!
Ciao
Nino

[MN91311]

I have found razor blades, the worst possible thing ..............and sharp-edged clips..................good gloves protect from both.


Some messy or nuisance items have been lug nuts, brake parts, misc. small metal parts, cigarette butts, sandwich pieces, dirt, oil, valve-removal tools, ww pliers, Skoal cans, stickers from tires, valve caps, coffee cups, soda cans. Harmless but yucky.

Once, I found a small box of new lead WW. In good conscience, I returned those to the tire shop.

I used to wash the bucketfuls first, to get out the dirt, tobacco juice, oil, grease, etc., but now just use good gloves during sorting. Any splits or holes, the gloves get replaced.

No complaints about all the junk because I get it all free.

[dieguy59]

As a total rookie to the whole smelting operation, these threads are invaluable! I'm generally a big fan of gloves, but even more so now.

[Doby45]

I think I found Hoffa in one of my buckets. ;)

[man.electric]

I think I found Hoffa in one of my buckets. ;)


I found the missing Watergate tapes and a room temperature super conductor. Unfortunately the super-conductor had a high tin content, so it had to be smelted down.

[evan price]

When I first got started I bought two full buckets from the most hillbillyish shop in town. Had to pay $40 for the two buckets.

When I dumped them they were full of water about 3/4 of the way up. With old chewing tobacco and cig butts etc. The worst thing was there was an old fan clutch, a Ford ignition module (the big aluminum box style) and a broken hacksaw along with a handful of old brake pads.

Another bucket from a big tire shop I found a nice little ARO pneumatic disc sander. The mechanic denied it was theirs. So I kept it.

Found a handful of big lead balls- no kidding, they were like 2" diameter or larger...guy said they were inside some big truck tires.

Found a set of wheel weight pliers, a blowgun, the hose from a compression tester gauge set (like new), various sockets and screwdrivers, plus odd bits of metal junk from inside flat repairs (Broken springs, screws, nails, syringe needles, chunks of road reflector, a big broken kitchen knife, etc).

Plus handfulls of brand new tire valves. Saved those. Plus lots of used and broken valves, stems, caps and cores. Tire stickers, cig butts, odd lug nuts, broken wheel studs, brake pads, pop can tabs, tire crayons, tire patches, wheel center caps, and a single door key to a GM.

Oh, and the razor blades. Lots of razor blades. WEAR YOUR GLOVES!

[geargnasher]

The usual. I call it free flux. The tire stickers, valve stems, 'baccy spit, used Copenhagen, dog pee, cores, etc.

No needles yet, but I'll look out for that. Gloves always.

Strangest thing I've found (to me, anyway), was the rubber tape weights, about an inch wide and quarter inch thick, sometimes a foot or more long. Seems to be iron filings moulded in rubber, useless to me.

Gear

[markinalpine]

WHAT? Nobody found Obama's Birth Certificate?

sorry, couldn't resist :bigsmyl2:

Mark :coffee:

[smokemjoe]

Percussion caps

[nanuk]

Yes,
when I was smelting them I'd open the cover and smell cherry, at least that's what it smelled like to me.

OMG, you Wasted a good stub?

[Tom W.]

I've found a lot of the above mentioned junk, plus some paint crayons. One bucket had a baby moon hubcap full of already melted down weights... That just did fit into my smelting pot... I've been blessed a bit in that I have to pay $20 for a 5 gallon bucket full, but most are truck weights, and if there's a few more laying around the guys will sometimes throw a decent sized box in the back of my truck just to "tidy up."

[Suo Gan]

How bout a bucket full of brand new 1, 1.25, 1.5, and 2 pound lead wheel weights!!!! Kept one around for a keepsake, its been shot now though :(.

[starbits]

It wasn't in a bucket of ww, but once while picking up some isotope cores I found an intact glass vial with its load of liquid radioactive isotope. It wasn't in one of the cores and could have easily been broken by them or me while it was rattling around between the cores. Gave me the creeps. I now look for glass, intact or broken, when I pick up cores.

Starbits

[bumpo628]

It wasn't in a bucket of ww, but once while picking up some isotope cores I found an intact glass vial with its load of liquid radioactive isotope. It wasn't in one of the cores and could have easily been broken by them or me while it was rattling around between the cores. Gave me the creeps. I now look for glass, intact or broken, when I pick up cores.

Starbits

Wow, I think we have a winner.