zinc test?

[taxidermyguy]

Ok. Im new to casting bullets, and have a couple questions. i have been collecting wheel weights for a long time. i have about 500 lbs of cleaned ww alloy poured into ingots. i have never worried about zinc contamination before, because i was unaware of it. how can i test my ingots to see if they contain zinc? i have cast some bullets from them and they came out great. Do i even have to worry about it if the bullets are coming out fine? i have read about guys making bullets from zinc, so why worry? i used some toilet bowl cleaner ( works, white bottle blue cap) thinking the acid would react to the zinc if any was present. no reaction took place. it has got me all worried that my alloy is comtaminated!! will it hurt my gun? to shoot zinc contaminated bullets? please give me your advice!!

[oneokie]

Muratic acid. Available in the pool section of most stores, or the masonry section of the home improvement stores. Be aware that the fumes are toxic.

If your alloy is making good boolits, don't sweat it.

[taxidermyguy]

thanks for the info. the alloy makes very nice bullets im not gonna worry to much then!

[hydraulic]

If you have zinc in your alloy, you'll know it. The alloy turns mushy and lumpy and will not pour easily. Sort your WW's by hand, one at a time, and watch for any with rivits, or odd looking shapes, and look for the zn mark on the weight. When you smelt, keep the temp down and as the lead starts melting, stir it with a slotted spoon. The zinc will float as the lead melts and can be scooped up. I found one in my last smelting session that was not marked zn. If I hadn't been watching it would have ruined 30 lbs. of ww's.

[40Super]

I just tested 200lbs of ww lead I just got from a guy that had them melted and casted into weights for an atv that he used to pull, I was afraid he might have mixed in zinc with them because he just heated them up till everything melted and poured.The muratic acid would just fizz away on a zinc coated washer but did nothing on the slabs of lead I got.

[letsmeltlead2693]

You can use toilet bowl cleaner, works fine and the acid is strong enough to react with zinc.

[ssnow]

If the lead was heavily zinc contaminated, the bullets would not have been "perfectly fine". It could be, that you have a small amount of zinc, but if it's not causing you a problem in your casting, then you have no problem. :)


Not all zinc WW are marked as such, and many are now painted. A painted zinc weight will look much like a painted lead WW. A good test is to use a pair of linesman pliers (dykes, side cutters, whatever you call them) and make a small cut/or mark on them. Lead will mark very easily, and for that matter, can easily be cut in half. Zinc will be much harder, and require much more effort to mark, and would be difficult to cut in half.

Once you actually find a zinc WW and see the difference in how they cut, you will never be unsure about them again, it really is that obvious, when using this "cut' method.

[letsmeltlead2693]

I have some lead and it is like the oatmeal or cottage cheese texture, could it be zinc cont.?

[jethunter]

Cutting with pliers is a good method to find zinc, also I can rub a ww on a rough concrete cinder block and the lead will scratch easily but zinc will not. It sounds kind of unscientific but it's fast and really obvious.

You really don't want zinc in your lead and it's easy to identify. Zinc melts at a higher temp and you have time to catch them in the pot before they melt. Pretty simple and easy to recognise, sounds harder than it really is.

[runfiverun]

it could be zinc but the color silver and oatmeally is the give away.
zinc is soluble in lead alloys.
but only up to about 1.6% before it affects the pour.