Had A Fun Day

[Smitty's Retired]

Recently I scored 1 and about 1/3 buckets of wheel weights at a local small tire shop. He let me have them for $25 since I was having a flat repaired along with having him do a balance job on all my wheels. Best of all, he said he would start holding them all for me and told me to check back with him the end of November.

After I got home, I went through them all and removed the steel and zinc weights. Had a gallon jug about 3/4 full of steel weights and only found a handfull of zinc.

So today I started smelting some of it down. Kept a check on the temp and tried to hold it between 500 and 550 degrees, then after removing the clips and all was melted and fluxed I brought the temp up. Was lucky, besides the clips, I only found one steel weight that I had some how missed or dropped back into the bucket.

I had 7 lbs of stick on weights that I smelted with 8 lbs of coww's and added 2% of 95/5. Using my handy dandy ballistic muffen molds I wound up with 14 lbs 8.2 oz of ingots.

I then started melting down the straight coww's, fluxed and mixed 2% of 95/5. Wound up with 35lbs 7 oz. Going to try to finish up tomorrow and then will start casting for my 45 colt.

I still have 1/2 a bucket left to smelt. Really satisfied with the amount of lead Coww's that was in this find.

Clip ON Wheel Weights with 2% 95/5
http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv227/sscol96Smitty/Reloading/th_Lead1-1.jpg (http://s686.photobucket.com/albums/vv227/sscol96Smitty/Reloading/?action=view&current=Lead1-1.jpg)

Jug with 14 lb 8.2oz of stick on weights mixed with Coww's and 2% 95/5
http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv227/sscol96Smitty/Reloading/th_Lead2.jpg (http://s686.photobucket.com/albums/vv227/sscol96Smitty/Reloading/?action=view&current=Lead2.jpg)

Whats Left
http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv227/sscol96Smitty/Reloading/th_lead3.jpg (http://s686.photobucket.com/albums/vv227/sscol96Smitty/Reloading/?action=view&current=lead3.jpg)

Smitty

[DukeInFlorida]

I adjust alloy, depending on what I am going to use it for.

The best way to juggle the alloy is in the casting pot, not the smelting pot.

That is to say, I leave ww alloy as ww ingots, and mark them as such. I leave range lead ingots as range lead, and mark them as such. I leave pure lead ingots as pure lead, and mark them as such.

If I need something like Lyman #2, I mix that in the casting pot.
If I need pure ww for high speed rifle, I just go with straight ww's.
For pistol boolits, I use 50:50 ww's and range lead, and maybe add in a smidge of linotype.

But, I make all those alloys in the casting pot, not the smelting pot.

I have made up a set of metal "tags" which I hang from the post sticking up on my RCBS pro melt. One for each type of alloy I run. The tag that's on the top (showing) is the indictor of what was left in the pot when I was done. I can usually adjust from there if I have to, and is easy to do on the fly. (well, unless the next batch will be a pure lead batch or something that I can't get to from where I was in the pot. Then I just heat it up, and drain the pot, and mark that ingot as to what it was. )

So, from a stash of unadulterated ingots, I can make the alloy what I need it to be, on the fly.

Your method turns it all into one thing, and isn't as flexible..... unless everything that you shoot uses just and only that blend.

If you write on each individual ingot with a Sharpie, you will always know what it is that you are dealing with, even if the tag on the jug gets lost.


Just something to think about for your next batch.

[MusicMan]

I used the Sharpie to mark all my lead ingots but when I used about 50lbs for weight on the back of a riding snow-blower the sharpie disappeared after a couple of years. Luckily it was all WW so no big deal but now I use a metal stamp or vibrating engraver.