Have you ever heard this before

[louism]

Just stopped at a local small town tire shop. When I asked if I could purchase some of their used wheel weights I was told sorry, we recycle them. My response was that I would purchase them for the same price. No, we recycle them as in we reuse them.

Do any of the shops you guys go to reuse weights?

[zidave]

Apparently the one I went to the other day does. I said I had heard about other garages giving them away or selling for cheap and he cut me off and said "you're wrong there" and walked off.

[David2011]

Yes, it's apparently become pretty common for tire shops to re-use wheelweights. I get that answer often.

David

[tudor8055]

I own a truck shop and we mount and balance tires. I won't re use weights because it would cut into my boolit supply.

[louism]

Well maybe that is an incentive for each of to open our own tire shop.

[383]

They may reuse them, but it also makes me wonder if the WW they have are already spoken for. That, or maybe some owners/managers don't won't to play any part in someone making boolits.

[louism]

In this case I told her that we were making weights. Here is S. Louisiana we have few problems with gun control in the masses.

[Beesdad]

Same here in North Carolina .... I would not want to pay for a new set of tires and have them place used WW's on the rims. I don't know how they can recycle stick-ons.

[Trey45]

I had the exact same conversation with a tire shop owner in Ahoskie NC.
She told me they can't sell their used WW because they recycle them, I offered to pay the same price the recycler offers, she then informed me that she meant reuse, not recycle.

[farmbif]

I have found that many tire places are real weird about letting people have used ww. Sams club where i have bought tires for 4 vehicles for at least the past 15 years told me no way I could get any from their shop they told me (it is hazardous material and it is sent to a recycler) the same thing at tire kingdom, I spoke to a regional manager . At BJ's they told me to ask manager of the store. I did and they gave me about 20 pounds to make fishing weights with. I wish I could find one of the places others have told about where they get 10 gallons for a couple 6 packs of bud, cause I don't drink

[Larry Gibson]

WWs have been reused (recylced as mentioned by the OP) for a long, long time. The used WWs are returned to the WW manufacturer, smelted down and made into new WWs. This is why the content of WW alloy varies greatly; when you smelt WWs down for bullet alloy unless you bought the WWs new you don't know how much of the WWs are recycled ones. If recylced you won't know how many times some have been recycled.

Larry Gibson

[Shedhunter]

I have heard similar stories, the guy that comes around to recycle old batteries is also "required" to pick up the wheel weights for hazardous material disposal. Get em while you can!

[doctorggg]

I've been told the same thing by 3 tire shops.

[hickfu]

The last tire shop I was able to get any Lead WW's from was a very small shop and I went in and asked the owner if he had any of the old lead WW's and he said yes but he reuses them because of the economy. I asked if he would part with the lead ones for zinc ones. He said yes he would, so I went out to the car and brought him about 40lbs of zinc's and got somewhere around 30 to 35lbs in lead ones after I sorted them from the zinc he already had. He is a nice guy and just couldnt afford to give away something he would have to pay to replace so I was happy to help him out.

I went back by there a few months later and he had maybe 10 to 12 lead ones that I took and gave him all of the rest of zinc's I had, around 60lbs and told him that any time I get zinc's I will drop by and give them to him for free.

Doc

[nwellons]

The smallest tire shop of about 6 that I visit reuses his clip-on WW and sells me his stick-on ones. I'm planning to see if I can swap clip-ons from other tire ships for stick-ons from him.

[hickfu]

nwellons, You want to swap clip on "Lead" ones for stick ons? or you have zinc ones to trade?

Doc

[nightal]

I stopped in a Firestone shop last week, asked about buying WW, they told me that they reuse them?

[thompsonm1a1]

up here in Canada a lot of shops reuse the ww due to the cost of new ones. not so much in the city but in the rural areas they reuse them.

[Defcon-One]

They do mean reuse them, not recycle! I hear it way too often.

You know why you see so many wheel weights lying on the roads and in parking lots? Because these guys reuse them and they fall off!

The clips are designed for one time use. Most will stay on a second round if they were carefully removed, but some will be loose and move around or eventually fall off.

If I went to a tire shop that reused OLD wheel weights, I'd go somewhere else for my new tires. Wheel weights are meant to be used once and then discarded!

And, they should discard them right into our buckets! That is just one more lesson in tire shop etiquette.

[nwellons]

nwellons, You want to swap clip on "Lead" ones for stick ons? or you have zinc ones to trade?

Doc

I'm saving my zinc ones for trading but at the rate I'm going, it will take a year or 2 to fill a medium flat rate box. I've only got about 23 pounds right now.

[wvmanchu]

I'm one of the parts managers at large car dealership with 4 service departments which all sell tires. Every other month I get a 5 gal bucket of coww and soww from each service manager. I'm the only bullet caster in the company so I get it all free of charge, although sometimes I give boolits to some of the other reloaders in the company.

[383]

After having about $400 work done on my car recently at local muffler/tire shop, I asked if they had any WW to sell while I was settling up. The counter guy said in a very friendly manner, "Sure, we do it all the time". I asked how much and he had me wait while he talked to the owner. I thought I'd maybe found a source after being turned down by every other place I'd checked.

I could hear them talking for a minute, though I couldn't understand what was being said. He came back out, and in a much more serious manner said, "We don't do that anymore".

So much for that.

[RacerX]

I have tire equipment and I do reuse wheel weights. I have a common tool which is a wheel weight hammer which also can be used to cut weights and to recrimp the steel clip to place a weight on a rim. Now I have started my search for wheel weights at tire shops in my area. I ruled out the large chain shops because they send their used weights out to be sold for scrap and reclaim the profits. I get that being I have my own business and routinely sell my scrap. I went to the local box store and purchased a few 5 gallon buckets. One shop I went to told me that they reuse their weights when they can. But there is a certain number of weights that are thrown out such as sticky weights or clip ons that are simply too mangled to reuse. I provided them a bucket to throw out the non-usable weights in. I collected about 6 pounds after 3 weeks. Another shop already had someone collecting weights but he allowed me to leave a bucket for the stick on weights only while the other guy can have all of the clip on weights. I would target the small independent shops as they are more willing to provide you with wheel weights. A box of doughnuts or a small cash offering for the weights also goes a long way as I will buy some doughnuts for both of the shops helping me the next time I make a lead run.

[louism]

I'm going to try a few more shops locally but I don't expect good results. I guess I will have to be a little more creative in my search. I could kick my self. 15 years ago I could get as much as I wanted. I put away 4 or 5 hundred pounds and called it enough for now. I just did not see this coming. I should have picked up all I could at the time.

Lessons learned.