Tin wheel weights??

[jcameron996]

I just read in another thread here about some stick on and clip on wheel weights being made of tin. Have I missed something? Is this a relatively rare occurrence? I haven't been at this for very long and have only gone through a few buckets of wheel weights so far, but with the price of solder or other forms of tin this might be worth keeping an eye out for. How do you tell of it is a tin weight. So far all I have found other than lead are the obvious steel or iron weights and the zinc weights that can't be marked with a pair of side cutters.

[runfiverun]

they are marked Sn

[rollmyown]

I've only seen them once in stick on weights on a new MV Agusta motorcycle. I don't know if they are still using tin or not. It seems like a place to save money on their product if they used cheaper metal

[kens]

I just got a box of WW couple weeks ago and hand sorted them. Some felt like lead but, were very much harder than ordinary WW.

[Old Caster]

If you only have a small amount of them and can't test to see what temperature they melt, lay one on a piece of iron and use a propane torch to melt it. If it is quite shiny and has just about no scum on it and has a lot of surface tension, it most likely is tin. I have some that do not say SN on them and they have an emblem that I don't recognize.

[kens]

I got another batch of WW today from the tire shop. I have sorted halfway through it, and finding some WW that is lead in feel and appearance, but, they are painted, and harder than regular WW. As I was smelting all the regular ones, I tossed in just 1 of the hard ones, it melted in like regular WW.
BUT, it is definitely a harder alloy.
Has anyone else experienced these? What are they?

[Defcon-One]

Kens:

They are alloyed stick-ons and yes they are usually painted light grey to beige. They are Antimonial alloy, more like COWW than SOWW. There are some Zinc weights that look EXACTLY the same, but they are marked Zn if you look carefully.

To the OP: I suspect that anyone who sees a weight marked Sn is reading it wrong and it is really Zinc (Zn). With the price of Tin so high, I don't believe that anyone would make wheel weights out of Tin (Sn).

I'll believe it only when I see it, so if you have one, post a picture! Otherwise, I'll just go with the Zinc (Zn) theory.

[castblast]

71204

Got these from a motorcycle shop. It's hard to see, but, the crimp on weights have SN on them also. They may have come off a Ducati. I gave up on the bike shops for lead because it was impossible to get any substantial ammount. The tin weights are rare. Pewter is the way to go for tin. Hope this helps.

[Old Caster]

The ones I have don't have any markings except an emblem of some sort that I don't recognize and they melt at less than 550 degrees. I have about 2 1/2 pounds of them melted into ingots. I don't have any left to take a picture of and it seems that they had a diamond mark with a notch out of the diamond on the front and were rectangular and not square like the tin weights in castblast's post and looked like the ones that were zinc which did not have the mark. Visually you couldn't tell which is which other than looking at the emblem but of course the Zinc ones won't melt until almost 800 degrees. The pure lead ones are easy to bend with fingers and aren't as sophisticated looking. The tin ones may all come from Europe where everyone is scared of lead and don't care how much they cost wrongly thinking it is for their safety.

[Defcon-One]

OK, OK, Sn for Tin, I am a believer!

No wonder why a Ducati costs so much!

I would not mind a 5 gallon bucket full of them! I am surprised and humbled. I should have known to just trust you guys. Great sight, great people. I learn something new everytime I sign-on.