Wheel Weights Melting Question

[chaos]

I am a total newbie to casting. Been reloading for 20 some odd years.

Today I drove into town, a 60 mile trip and stopped at 3 tire shops. 2 of which promised to save me any future weights and another told me first come first sever basis. I rounded out the day with approximately 5 gals of weights for $20.

I am going to melt these on a fish fryer to clean the stuff up and was wondering what kind of skillet to use? Is cast Iron OK? My wife will skin me if I try and use her good stuff............. Any cheap skillets that I found in town had the teflon finish, which I dont think would be a good idea.

Thanks.
Chaos


I am currently looking at getting a lyman 4500 sizer or something in that price range. I know absolute zilch and am going to get the Lyman casting book as was suggested to me. I first wanted to see how difficult it would be to get lead...turned out to be a snap...... I still have yet to ask my friend who owns a tire store as it's located 60 miles in the other direction. :-D[smilie=1::)

[hotwheelz]

I dont see any problem with cast iron there are alot of guys who use dutch oven and cast iron pans..

[grumpy one]

I am going to melt these on a fish fryer to clean the stuff up and was wondering what kind of skillet to use? Is cast Iron OK? My wife will skin me if I try and use her good stuff............. Any cheap skillets that I found in town had the teflon finish, which I dont think would be a good idea.

I strongly recommend that you don't use anything with lead, that you will subsequently use for food preparation. Lead is a heavy metal poison; its effects are both somewhat cumulative, and disastrous to your health and well-being.

Don't use any kind of aluminium vessel for lead melting, for safety reasons - aluminium is very weak at molten-lead temperatures. Cast iron is commonly used but I regard steel as considerably safer, especially in impact situations. However don't use anything less than 1/8" thick, even if it is steel. A short piece of suitable-diameter pipe, with a piece of plate welded on to close off one end, is very effective. Think about how you will lift and pour from it safely - that is the main design issue.

[targetshootr]

Get all the lead you can while you can. I bought a big cast iron pot and it works great on top of a propane burner from Lowes. You're good with a frying pan to melt a small batch first just to see how it works. You'll see dirt floating on top which needs to be skimmed off but don't throw it away. Someone said you can reuse it.

[chaos]

Thanks fellas.

I would never use the skillet again for anything other than melting lead.

I dont know how to properly flux anything yet. I.m just going to melt this stuff down, skim what I can and, make smaller ingots out of it so it can be handled easier. I'll do all the fluxing? and such once I get the reading material in and kinda have an idea what I am doing.

Chaos

[dam555]

just do a search on fluxing on this forum and you will find everything you need to know about it, I smelted my first batch of wheel weights about 2 weeks ago, just used a bottle of 30w motor oil that was handy and stirred with a 3/4" dowel rod, a little smoky until it ignited but brought all the dirt to the top where it was easily skimmed off, then poured into a corn shaped cast iron pan that I had picked up at an auction somewhere along the line, worked great, 1 lb ingots just right for my Lee pot. makes great boolets. Don

[bpost1958]

You can use boolit lube or candle wax for a rudimentary flux. As the metal melts add a dime sized hunk of candle and light the fumes with a torch. You can stir the melted metal bringing the dross to the top. This will include the clips and dirt. You can skim the trash off an put it into a coffee can for disposal. Don't over hea the melted metal. Put the god clean bullet material into cast iron or old steel muffin pans to cool.

[targetshootr]

Dry sawdust seems to work and smells good. Dry leaves too or dry sticks. The yard is made for smelting.

[mtgrs737]

Cast iron dutch ovens are available at farm stores and big box outdoor sports stores. Harbor freight Tools has the best prices on them when they run a sale, of course they are made in China! Get the largest that will fit on your turkey fryer. Sportsman's Warehouse has a big fryer dipper that is excellent at removing the steel clips from the melt, they sell for $6.99. You can also get a cast iron corn bread mould/cooker cheap at Sportsman's for casting ingots.

Be on the lookout for the weights with the riveted on clips or other funny looking things (see picture) as they might be zinc. If you get a thermometer and keep the melt below 800 degrees the zinc weights should float and you will be able to skim them off with the steel clips.

Welcome to the forum and good luck! :castmine:

[mooman76]

Go to some garage sales or a thrift store. You can usually pick up a old cast iron pot for a couple bucks. I've been using the same cast iron pot for over 30 years. I use a 2 qt. for smelting and a 1qt for dropping bullets!

[AllanD]

The best "smelting" pot is one you get at a second hand/thrift store/garage or yard-sale.

ANY material is "ok" but cast iron is best.

Just make sure it isn't cracked.

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[fishhawk]

i disagre with you on that AllanD. do not use aluminum pots! the melting temp of the lead and aluminum is to close togetther and the aluminum will fail when it's got a bunch of melted WW in it and it's not safe haveing molten lead all over your personal body

[Cloudpeak]

I'd go for a cast iron or steel pot as opposed to a skillet. These would be more stable when pouring ingots. A handle on a skillet would make me nervous when it comes time to pour. I also think fluxing/skimming would be easier with a pot because you have much greater depth of melt.

Cloudpeak

[imashooter2]

Thanks fellas.

I would never use the skillet again for anything other than melting lead.

I dont know how to properly flux anything yet. I.m just going to melt this stuff down, skim what I can and, make smaller ingots out of it so it can be handled easier. I'll do all the fluxing? and such once I get the reading material in and kinda have an idea what I am doing.

Chaos

There is absolutely no sense in smelting without fluxing. Fluxing at its simplest is stirring any carbon bearing substance into the melt to help reduce metal oxides back into the melt. People have had great success using sawdust, used motor oil or various waxes. Most everyone with a wife is going to have a few used candle stubs laying around. When you get your melt up to temperature, use a slotted spoon or coarse wire strainer to pull off the clips then throw in a half inch of candle stub (it'll burst into flame, be ready for that) and stir it through the melt. When the flame burns out, you should have nothing but powder left on the surface. Skim that off and cast your ingots.

[HollandNut]

I use a cast iron pot on a stand with propane bottle .. The big pot holds about 75 # of lead ..

Use a smaller cast iron or mini mag for actual casting ..

Cast iron pots are fairly easy to find , and most definetly dont use for anything else ..

[JSnover]

Yard/garage sales are a potential gold mine but take a close look if the cast iron cookware has a wooden handle held on by a threaded rod with a nut. I picked up a set for $.50 per piece a few years back. The wood was solid enough and it kept a lot of heat from getting through my glove. But when the pot had more than an inch in the bottom it would unscrew if I tried tipping the pot counterclockwise.
I gave up on trying to lift the pots for pouring. It's a lot easier to leave them on the burner and just dip with a 4-6 pound ladle.

[Bigscot]

The only thing I can say about cast iron is be careful and don't be rough with it an bang on it especially when hot.

Texas Fly Boy relayed a story to me that he was using a cast iron pot and went knock the slag off a ladel and the pot cracked spilling 50 lbs of molten lead causing him to do the oh Sh**t dance.

Bigscot

[chaos]

well, I melted all of those down last night. I did pick out 5 or6 of the WW's that had rivets on them. Inspected every one before puttingit in the skillet. I can say that a skillet is not the way to go. I will get a dutch oven for the next go round.

I fluxed it a couple of times with candle wax. The lead came out looking very clean with no visible inclusions. I dipped the stuff out with a small gravy ladle (stainless steel) Just making some very archaic looking bars to stack the stuff in the corner of my shop.

I can see next time, that some proper equipment will make things easier.

I did find a black powdery substance had adhered to the bottom of my skillet when I was done. The last two ingots also had a few chunks of the black stuff in them.

I am thinking next weekend I'll have some proper ingot molds, ladle and pot. I'll probably melt it back down agian just to be sure I fluxed everythign In/out. I travel all over west Texas with my job and should be able to rack up quite a bit of WW's in little time.


Any ideas as to what this black powdery residue might be?

[imashooter2]

"Trash"

[carpetman]

Chaos---What town in West Texas you from--San Angelo here. That black powdery residue that is left when smelting is the main ingredient in male enhancement products. It is worth a fortune,however, for it to be profitable for the pharmaceutical companies to ship and handle it , it has to be in 10,000 pound lots. Store it in plastic coffee cans with the lid on tight until you get the required amount.

[chaos]

Chaos---What town in West Texas you from--San Angelo here. That black powdery residue that is left when smelting is the main ingredient in male enhancement products. It is worth a fortune,however, for it to be profitable for the pharmaceutical companies to ship and handle it , it has to be in 10,000 pound lots. Store it in plastic coffee cans with the lid on tight until you get the required amount.

I'm south of Abilene a bit, but work in San Angelo

[Dutch Mosin]

Cast iron dutch ovens are available at farm stores and big box outdoor sports stores. Harbor freight Tools has the best prices on them when they run a sale, of course they are made in China! Get the largest that will fit on your turkey fryer. Sportsman's Warehouse has a big fryer dipper that is excellent at removing the steel clips from the melt, they sell for $6.99. You can also get a cast iron corn bread mould/cooker cheap at Sportsman's for casting ingots.

Be on the lookout for the weights with the riveted on clips or other funny looking things (see picture) as they might be zinc. If you get a thermometer and keep the melt below 800 degrees the zinc weights should float and you will be able to skim them off with the steel clips.

Welcome to the forum and good luck! :castmine:


Started using wheel weights just recently.
Didn't know that lead weights were forbidden since January 2005 over here.
Most of them are marked "Zn" so they can easily be recognized.

Here's a picture of the zinc ones I found between the "good ones".

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/dutchmosin/Ammo/IMG_1897.jpg

I'll keep looking for the lead weights but it won't be long until the zinc weights will have taken over completely.

Thanks for the info.


Met vriendelijke groet,

Martin

[AllanD]

i disagre with you on that AllanD. do not use aluminum pots! the melting temp of the lead and aluminum is to close togetther and the aluminum will fail when it's got a bunch of melted WW in it and it's not safe haveing molten lead all over your personal body

Aluminum melts at 1220F (660C)
Lead melts at 621F (327C)
Tin melts at 449F (231C)

Most lead alloys (with tin or antomony) melt at lower temps.

I've used an aluminum pot and frankly I'd rather use it than a thin steel one.
though aluminum MUST be fairly thick to maintain a sufficient reserve strength
if you inadvertantly overheat the pot... THIN aluminum doesn't work, THICK aluminum does.

But I like starting a smelting session with a CLEAN pot and the only cleaning method that WORKS and does so without filling my lungs with Lead carbonate dust (my definition of "Bad") is to clean the pot by filling it to the rim with hardware store Muriatic (Hydrochloric) Acid.
This cleans a cast iron pot down to bare metal in less than a minute
with a fizzing/foaming chemical reaction

HCl used to "clean" an aluminum pot will eat the entire pot


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