WW Survey

[TXGunNut]

Nope, you don't get to vote on this one. ;) One of my few benefits at my place of employment is carrying out a Homer bucket about 70% full of weights from time to time...that's about all I want to carry! Today I sorted two buckets, half my stash, and the results were quite interesting.
First and foremost, lead yield is falling. I didn't weigh the WW's but will offer volume stats, I'm on my 2nd bottle of wine so forgive me if the numbers are a bit off.
Good news first, my "free" WW's yielded 55% lead COWW's. The bad news; Fe is up to 35% in this sample. Stick on WW's is down to 5% so will have to rely on foundry PB more in the future. More bad news; before today's session I had only encountered only a few Zn WW's, I now have a few more of them.
Something interesting; I never saw a plastic WW before today, I've heard of them but at first quite honestly I thought it was a joke. Darned things aren't even recyclable! Put more than a few in the trash bucket with the tire labels and valve stems.
Oh yes, "found" a razor blade.
Ya'll be careful out there!

[Clay M]

It is not looking good for WW availability in the future..My local tire shop changed hands and the new guy wants almost twice the price for a bucket like you just described.. He also said no returns on the steel and the zinc. He can keep them..
I am looking into buying a dump truck full of saw dust and recycling what I have..

[TXGunNut]

As little as three years ago the yield was 70% COWW and 20% stick-ons.

[Clay M]

I won't pay anything for the steel and zinc, with a no return policy.. I will just order alloys I need from Roto Metal, or go to a scrap salvage yard.. The local tire dealers are too hard to deal with now.
I probably have about 500 lbs of casting metal not counting Lino,but when my son starts shooting with me again,that won't last very long.

But I agree with what you are saying. The last bucket I glanced at this week looked like mostly steel and zinc.

[JeffinNZ]

Last sort I had would have been 40% COWW, 40% SOWW, balance Zn/Fe.

[dragon813gt]

Place I get mine from deals w/ a lot of heavy trucks so there is no shortage of lead weights. It's usually around 10% waste, 10% stick on and the rest clip on. I honestly hate cleaning it all up so I pull a bucket out maybe twice a year. Nice thing is that most of the weights are large so sorting is quick and easy. Even the stick ons are usually in bunches 6" long.

[Clay M]

Yeah, I hate separating it. Then if you miss some you get zinc in the mix..
I would have been on the second bottle of wine too if I had to separate wheel weights.
My son said he would separate them if I would buy them ..Just got to find another source..

[lightman]

So far my yield is holding up ok. I have not done the math by weight, but the coww are way ahead, with iron, soww and zinc in that order. I wheel weights are a perc from work I would continue getting them until the lead is all gone. Oh, I use beer to help me sort!:-P

[km101]

My daughter has been bringing me weights from the dealership where she works. In the last year it has gone from about 50% COWW, 10% SOWW, 40% Zinc, to about 10% COWW, and 90% Zinc and rubberized SOWW.

It's hardly worth sorting any more. The last bucket I sorted I got less than 5# of lead. I will be buying here or Rotometal in the future.

[FISH4BUGS]

I had a once in a liftime opportunity come my way. A friend that I played racquetball with for many years and did my car maintenance and tire business with owned a tire shop, and I used to get a 5 gallon bucket every once in a while in trade for a case of beer. He sold the shop and called me and said "....the sale closes on Friday at 3. Come and get all the wheel weights you want before then".
I spent two days filling buckets and bring them home. I had bloody fingers and sore arms, but I took well over a ton of wheel weights. I am set for life and even have them in my will (no kidding).
As for all the zinc and steel weights, these were taken from the shop probably 10 or more years ago so there are very few. For those that are concerned, seperate out the stick ons and just keep the temp below 650 degrees and the steel and zinc will float to the top anyway.

[rr2241tx]

Who says there's no kharma? Went downtown with a friend Saturday and of course the place we wanted to go was closed BUT I found a 2 oz lead wheel weight which I forgot to retrieve from his SUV when we got home. As he backed out of my driveway he remembered he'd brought me 50# of Lyman #2 and 50# of lino that he didn't want anymore. The poor little wheel weight is still in his cup holder and he's 250 miles away now.