Zinc Question

[mrbillbus]

what do you do with the zinc WW you sort out?

I saw some threads about using them for boolits. Seemed like a good way to contaminate a shooting berm.

I also saw some mention of selling them for scrap. I called a local yard and the guy had never heard of zinc WW. Should I just sell them as "lead" and let him figure it out? Or melt them down to remove the clips and sell the ingots as zinc? Not fond of the taking advantage of the guys ignorance approach.

I look forward to hearing all your creative disposal methods.

Bill

[zxcvbob]

I'm saving them up to grind into dust and make rocket engines (mixed with sulfur)

[mrbillbus]

I'm saving them up to grind into dust and make rocket engines (mixed with sulfur)

Straight to the moon!

[williamwaco]

I just toss mine. Don't get more than a pound or so a year. I am sure that will increase in the future.

[MikeS]

Actually shooting zinc boolits is by no means a new idea. A few H&G moulds were designed specifically for casting zinc boolits. Along with casting zinc boolits, there were boolits designed to have zinc washers attached to their base to act as a lubricating gas check as well, both of these ideas going back to the 1950's, and I don't recall any berms being declared poisoned because of these zinc boolits. If the same care is used when melting down range scrap as is used when melting down wheel weights, then the zinc boolits and/or washers should float to the top, and not be a problem. Where I live no range will let anyone collect lead, as supposedly EPA licensed cleanup crews are the only ones allowed, so I certainly wouldn't have any problem shooting zinc boolits at any local range.

As far as taking advantage of his ignorance, maybe it's the other way around, maybe he's trying to take advantage of your perceived ignorance? I don't know the scrap price of zinc, but I would imagine it's higher than that of lead, and maybe he's hoping he can give you the lead price for something that's worth more!

[Thompsoncustom]

I don't know about turning them into bullets as I have been playing with cast zinc bullets for a little while now and zinc works fine but I haven't had any luck with zinc wheel weights as they seem to be whatever scrap metal they have all pressed together or atleast that's my thoughts.

[letsmeltlead2693]

If you check the S&S section, I am selling zinc.

[plmitch]

I turn my zinc ww into fishing weights and tent/canopy weights. I plan on making a couple of drift anchors with some.

[richhodg66]

What is the melting point of Zinc? I melt wheel weights and skim out the ones that don't melt as fast as the rest, I presume these are zinc? A magnet didn't stick to a few I tried.

[Defcon-One]

A few answers:

1.) Zinc is running about $0.9342 per lb. or about exactly the same as Lead. (Maybe you could go back and trade your Zinc WW for his Lead WW, do a 2:1 trade by weight so he gets a good bump out of it.)

2.) Zinc has a melting point of 787.1 °F. So, as we all know if you keep the temp below 700 °F it will not ever be a problem. Since most lead alloys melt in the 600 °F range it is prettty easy to avoid Zinc contamination.

3.) I would also make a note that just because some wheel weights melt at a higher temp, that doesn't mean that they are Zinc. Check them with wire snips and see, they just may be a slightly different alloy of Lead, Tin and Antimony or pure Lead. The higher they float in the molten lead, the more likely they are to be Zinc.

As for my Zinc. I use an old Lee 10 lb. electric pot and melt them down outside and then pour them into Lyman 1 lb. ingots. (They weight about .75 lbs. from the 1 lb. mold!) That melting pot is used for Zinc only!

I will sell them at some point when I accumulate enough to make it worth the trouble. The biggest problem is that the steel clips sink in the Zinc instead of floating to the top, which makes them hard to remove from the molten metal. Zinc is a pretty metal and very hard as compared to lead!

[a.squibload]

Need to replace the mailbox pole, I was gonna spot weld a zinc WW
(by the clip) to the bottom of the steel pipe, sacrificial anode.

Rocket engines? Interesting.

Wife makes jewelry, figure she could teach me to sand cast belt buckles
or other stuff out of zinc.

Otherwise I would just trade 'em in for lead.