No more wheel weights!

[gishooter]

Probably smelted my last wheel weights today. Just got new tires for the truck and got the manager at the tire shop to give me all their old wheel weights. Turned out it was about 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket but it was free. Interstate had just picked up all their old ones a few days earlier or I would have gotten more. Sorted everything out and was shocked to find about 80% was iron with a few zinc. Over the last few years the returns on my time and work have been getting smaller and smaller. From now on I'm only buying nice clean scrap or known alloy. I'm glad I've got a decent stockpile of ingots that should last me a while.[smilie=b:

[Fugowii]

All those vehicles that have been using lead WW's for the last ten years suddenly got taken off
the road? Keep an eye on your supply as while the good to bad ratio will go down, there are still
a substantial amount of lead weights on the road that will hit that bucket when the new tires go on the vehicles.

[part_timer]

Even a small amount for free is better than paying for them.

[chambers]

Judging by the price of processed wheel weights here( $ 1.00/#) , the supply is not yet dried up and the demand is not driven the price up, so at this time you can still buy WW from those that have. When prices start to spike maybe in 1-2 years the WW will be a thing of the past.

[clodhopper]

The wheel weight still lives here in Montana.
Got my mitts on about half a bucket today, had a strong aroma of copenhagen spit with candy wrappers, valve stems and sunflowerseed hulls.
61 lbs lead wheel weights
6 lbs stickey lead weights
7 lbs steel
12 OZ zincer stinkers

[badbob454]

The wheel weight still lives here in Montana.
Got my mitts on about half a bucket today, had a strong aroma of copenhagen spit with candy wrappers, valve stems and sunflowerseed hulls.
61 lbs lead wheel weights
6 lbs stickey lead weights
7 lbs steel
12 OZ zincer stinkers

yummy i bet those were sticky lead weights [smilie=l:
glad you can still get some

[MikeS]

My first & last bucket of wheel weights was basically divided into thirds. One third crud, one third zinc & iron, and one third lead. Of the lead, more than half was stick on weights (which I put aside, and used as pure), leaving a very small amount that was usable to cast modern boolits. After that bucket, and realizing that the amount of lead is only going to go down, I decided to find other sources of lead. While it's not free, it's still MUCH cheaper than buying pre-made bullets (of either cast or jacketed variety). I figure that I'm still saving money, and I still have the flexibility to make my boolits however I want. I found a local source of pure lead bricks, and still have a few of them left, and I've bought linotype & tin from various places. I figure that when/if I need to use WW alloy, I can buy them from folks here, and/or there are a couple of eBay sellers that I trust that occasionally sell wheel weight alloy, so there's no need for me to hunt down raw wheel weights, and deal with all the crud that comes along with them.

[sargenv]

After making a mess melting down and processing a bunch of stick on WW's this weekend, I've resolved to never do that again.. it makes a nasty stink and makes my cast iron pot filthy with crud. Any other stickies I'm going to accumulate and probably sell on here un-ingotted. I have a good supply of COWW's that I've purchased from a few ppl here for a pretty good price and I'll probably continue to get what I can when needed.. I have plenty of other different alloys that were all a good deal when bought.. I have access to berm lead so I have a good standard base to start with.

[mold maker]

For those who are put off by the Fe, zinc, and trash, don't expect to see the same prices here when the supply is gone. You are misreading the writing on the wall. When you can no longer get them for free, those selling wont be able to either. Then those that have will keepthem, or sell like precious metal.
I have more than I'll ever shoot, but I still collect every piece of known alloy lead I can get my mits on. The unknown is kept sepreate and marked as such. It will all be worth while in the near future.
Ya better put forth all the effort you can while their still around. The end is nearer than you think.

[fredj338]

All those vehicles that have been using lead WW's for the last ten years suddenly got taken off
the road? Keep an eye on your supply as while the good to bad ratio will go down, there are still
a substantial amount of lead weights on the road that will hit that bucket when the new tires go on the vehicles.

Tires are good for about 3, maybe 4yrs for most drivers, so expect them to dry up sooner than later, especially w/ a large state like Kalif banning them two years ago. Nope, the lead ww is going extinct, I give it another 2-3yrs & if you can find 10% in a bucket you'll be lucky. Thank you EPA & liberal greenies everywhere.:veryconfu

[Bosshaug]

I still have some sorted WW's waiting to be smelted. I recently found a supply of isotope cores, and there is no waste smelting them into ingots. I guess they will become more valuable in the near future with WW's going extinct.