zinc wheel weights

[ralphtaff]

I have been reading a lot on this forum about zinc contamination and some one at the end of some of the trheads states (i will take you zinc). that got me to thinking what about using zinc lead weights for bullets? what is the hardness and the porability of such an animal?:?:

[Hickory]

It is of my understanding that zinc is not the material of choice for making boolits.
As a matter of definition they are not boolits if they are made with zinc.[smilie=f:

The biggest problem, as I understand it is that when zinc solidifies, it forms a void in the center of the casting.
Causing weight variance between castings, along with wrinkles and poor fill out.

If you do decide to use zinc for bullets, let us know the outcome with pictures.[smilie=s:

[olafhardt]

I propose that cast zink projectiles be dubbed boolitz.

[I'll Make Mine]

From what I've read, the biggest issue with zinc is you need to run both pot and mold significantly hotter than for lead alloy, and because zinc and lead don't play well together, it's best to keep all the items that contact the melt (pot, stirrers, ladle, molds, etc.) separate from those used for lead alloys -- and don't cast zinc, either ingots or bullets, in aluminum; the melting point of zinc is above the slump point of most aluminum alloys.

Voids in the center of the casting can be corrected by leaving a bigger puddle on the sprue and ensuring the sprue is hardened before cutting; it's also a good idea to cast only one cavity of a two (or more) cavity mold because the zinc sprue is harder than most lead alloys.

You'll get bullets that are roughly two thirds the weight of the same mold in common lead alloys, harder than linotype and potentially a little brittle, and you'll need to reduce loads and work back up because the harder bullet metal will result in higher pressures than would be the case with most cast lead boolits.

Personally, I'd recommend that if you have a lot of zinc and have a hard time getting lead, I'd strongly consider trading with the member here who frequently pops up on zinc threads -- weight for weight zinc wheel weights for lead is a good deal for most casters, and you don't even have to smelt the zinc.

[ralphtaff]

Thank you for the time. Yea i have an aluminum mold so that said it it best not to try working with zinc. the reason for my question i aquired 5 gal buckets of wheel weights. after reading about the shortage of lead weaght it might get to the point i 2 gal buckets of lead and 3 gal of zinc.at this time i had to pay $15 for 5 gal bucket if it get to where you get half lead then that makes it expensive lead i think. have not priced what it cost to buy sorted lead.

[I'll Make Mine]

A full five gallon bucket will contain well over a hundred pounds of good lead, if it's 90% lead (I've got one here that's going that way). Even if it's only 50% lead weights, and you lose 20% of that to clips and dross, at $15 a bucket you'll only be paying about fifty cents a pound for your ingots (not counting energy to smelt the weights, of course) -- that's about half the spot price for lead, and you're getting the antimony hardening additive at no extra cost (though you might find you need to add a little tin).

[captaint]

Anybody who wants to cast boolits (boolitz) out of zinc may have mine and enjoy yourself. Zinc is WAY too hard, brittle and generally NOT what we want for boolit castin. Talk about mold fillout problems....... enjoy Mike

[shadygrady]

send that zinc to me

[ShooterOnTheLine]

So what can this left over zinc be used for?

[HATCH]

Fishing weights.. Cannon balls...

sent from my mobile.

[wmitty]

anyone familiar with copper/zinc alloys having high zinc content? It would seem an alloy with some other reasonably dense and inexpensive metal might have a lower melting point and more favorable physical properties.

[I'll Make Mine]

How do you get copper and inexpensive into the same concept? Zinc alloys pretty well with aluminum and copper, but the alloys are generally harder than pure zinc. Commercial alloy ZA-12, which as I recall is 12% aluminum and about 1% or so copper, is similar density and strength to cast iron -- but that's too hard for good bullets (pure zinc is already on the hard side). Zinc alloys well with silver as well, but that's even more costly than copper. If you're going to cast bullets from zinc, you're probably ahead to stick as closely as possible to pure zinc.

[Del-Ray]

If you do cast them into boolitz please shoot them at your own range. Those of us that fish lead out of berms would rather not find out the hard way that we just screwed up 20 pounds or more of lead.

[Shooternz]

I played around with casting zinic bullets about 20 yrs ago, I was given some prue zinc balls the size of golf balls, had a hard time melting them once done the stuff poured into the mould ok,
used the Lyman 120 grain conical 9mm mould the bullets dropped at 68 grains and .357"
only used one cavity and cut the sprue while still soft, never would have cut if it had cooled,
shot them in a 586 don't remember the load weight just used a case full of Herco quite fun to shoot one hell of a bang very accurate inside 2" groups at 25 metres not much recoil, still not worth the hassle always a chance to destroy a mould, don't know what the velocity was, probably as fast as a .357 mag will go. Robert.