Wheel weight questions

[starmac]

I am new to the smelting world. I have been reading and learning for a while,but haven't actually started yet.

I have a couple of full five gallon buckets of the dirtiest wheel weights I can imagine . I picked these up from a tire store that had closed down, and they must have been sitting around for a long time. One of the buckets had a large amount of dirt/mud in with them.
I tried soaking these a few pounds at a time and hand cleaning them. This didn't work very well.
I have now poured out and scattered them on the shop floor and let them totally dry, scraping them dried dirt and the worst of the rust scale off of them individually, which is very time consuming. I'm thinking I should have built some kind of tumbler, but didn't really want to for this small amount.

The metal clips are still very rusty and the lead itself is rust colored.
My question is how dirty is too dirty to be able to smelt and flux these enough to be acceptable, or should I have never even started this labor intensive project.

I have for sure learned lesson #1 with this first batch of wheel weights. lol
Would it be better to smelt these in small batches or large. I do not have a problem building a large pot to smelt them in.

[TenTea]

They might smell like the devil when you smelt them down, but the *impurities* can be skimmed off the top along with the clips.
Mix well while fluxing the melt with sawdust or wax a time or two and I predict you'll be ok.
Sounds like maybe a pressure wash of the weights could have helped for preparation?

[starmac]

I thought about the pressure wash thing, but Mine would blow them out of any container I could come up with. lol

[w5pv]

I have used just water hose pressure to take a lot of the loose dirt and grime off be sure to throughly let them dry before smelting.I do this on my drive when it good and dry.

[starmac]

LOL If I did that right now, I would have to pry them off by the time I was through washing them. And right now they would be covered up with snow before I could get them pried off. lol

[williamwaco]

Melt'em.

The dirt, grease, break shoe dust, rust, tobacco juice, gum wrappers, valve stems will all float to the top and mostly burn up. ( and stink )

After you scrape off all the trash, stir the pot ( Not your casting pot - I hope ) vigorously for sixty seconds then flux it with a layer of sawdust at least one fourth inch deep all over the top. Be sure you do this outside. The smoke is very thick and very bad. If the smoke doesn't ignite in 5 seconds or less, ignite it and let it burn. (Note: Sawdust is not negotiable. This is not the time and place for candle scraps.)

Let it burn does not mean stand back and watch it. You need to continue stirring until there is nothing left on top of the pot but a layer of ash and carbon. It should look like the scrapings off a piece of burnt toast. Scrape it off and toss it. Stirring vigorously means almost but not quite forceful enough to splash it out of the pot.

Repeat.

Twice.


If you are lucky, 100 pounds of dirty wheel weights will get you 85 pounds of bright shiny ingots. If yours are dirtier than mine, probably a little less.
I do mine in 20 pound batches but I would LOVE to have a larger pot.

It takes me most of a Saturday to do one 5 gallon bucket.

[Driver man]

Just melt them.All the crud will burn off and float to the surface. Throw in some wax or grease etc to flux.burn off the fumes and stir well,top to bottom ,mix in as best you can and then skim the rubbish off the top. Do this several times .

[Skirmisher]

Just make sure you cull out all the valve stems first. Talk about stink.

[bangerjim]

I am new to the smelting world. I have been reading and learning for a while,but haven't actually started yet.

I have a couple of full five gallon buckets of the dirtiest wheel weights I can imagine . I picked these up from a tire store that had closed down, and they must have been sitting around for a long time. One of the buckets had a large amount of dirt/mud in with them.
I tried soaking these a few pounds at a time and hand cleaning them. This didn't work very well.
I have now poured out and scattered them on the shop floor and let them totally dry, scraping them dried dirt and the worst of the rust scale off of them individually, which is very time consuming. I'm thinking I should have built some kind of tumbler, but didn't really want to for this small amount.

The metal clips are still very rusty and the lead itself is rust colored.
My question is how dirty is too dirty to be able to smelt and flux these enough to be acceptable, or should I have never even started this labor intensive project.

I have for sure learned lesson #1 with this first batch of wheel weights. lol
Would it be better to smelt these in small batches or large. I do not have a problem building a large pot to smelt them in.

Don't worry!!!!!! Be happy!!!!!!

I found a 5 gal bucket full of very old....old WW's (no zincers) where the clips were rusted off and the lead was coated with heavy FeO2 pretty bad. I just melted them down. Fluxed/reduced and skimmed off the clips and crapola. Added more (preheated to drive out any H2O) and did the same, fluxing each time with wood dust and wax.

After all the clips and crud were gone, I fluxed again 2 times to insure the nice shiny lead was 110% clean.

Do not worry about the crud on the weights. They DO NOT have to be clean & shiny! DO NOT wash them! If they are dry...leave them that way. Washing them will allow water into the nooks & crannies of the clips and send in invitation to Ms. Tensil. Even drying them for a long time can stull induce moisture.

Remember........DIRT FLOATS!

Just melt them!


bangerjim

[Mk42gunner]

Be prepared to be surprised at how much volume is taken up by the clips after you skim them off.

Fill your smelting pot by putting a layer on the bottom with as much surface contact as you can get, then fill the pot to overflowing with cold WW. Trust me it will all fit once it melts.

I usually get about a three inch layer of clips to skim from my homemade smelting pot, (eight inch pipe, eight inches long with a ¼" plate for a bottom).

Robert

[Bzcraig]

I just put the fire to the pot, stay up wind and melt em!

[starmac]

Well I poured them out and spread them on the shop floor, after they dried I scraped the dirt and heavier scales of rust off of each one, with a screw driver. lol. I just finished, what a pita. They are still rust tarnished, but I got rid of most of the dirt and all the valve stems, cigarette butts and other junk. lol The other bucket doesn't look very bad, at least from the top.

[dikman]

You sound like me with my first couple of batches of dirty range scrap! I don't think I'll bother trying to clean the next batch I get, I'll just let the fire do the work! Yes, it will be messy and smoky and smelly, but a lot less work on my part. I've also realised the value of lots of fluxing in the early stages, as it breaks down the surface tension and helps the crud separate.

You've got a lot of fun ahead of you :grin:.

[DEC505]

Starmac, What is snow ????????? :D

[starmac]

Starmac, What is snow ????????? :D

It is the same as unemployment dust in a lot of areas. lol