670 lbs WW

[nemesisenforcer]

Got 670 pounds of WW in the garage.

How many pounds of castable alloy will that yield in your experience?

In other words, what's the percentage yield from a large sample?

I'm guessing around 600 but would like some true expert input.

[triggerhappy243]

it will depend on what size each wheel weight is. rule of thumb in my experience is 20 to 25 % loss due to clips and trash.

[Scooby]

It depends if the 670# is already sorted or in the raw. If hand sorted it should be about 15% clips. If in the raw depending on where they came from and what vehicles they came off of it could be as high as 40% loss.

When I first started sorting ww I kept very good records of what I brought home, what it weighed after hand sorting then what it weighed after melt. Heaviest bucket I ever had was 186# it was a 5 gal not a 6 gal bucket too. That was someones stash from a long time and was like 99% all good weights.

Let us know how you end up, I know around here I am getting way more zinc, plastic and steel.

[lightman]

My guess is that 600# is a little high. I'd say 500-550# of usable alloy. That is, if they have been sorted and are all lead weights. If not sorted, theres no way to guess accurately. Thats a nice pile, no two ways about it.

[dale2242]

If they are fairly new WWs you will probably lose 1/3 to clips, zinc and steel....dale

[472x1B/A]

If they are fairly new WWs you will probably lose 1/3 to clips, zinc and steel....dale

But, if one lives in Communist led Illinois today, it will more than likely be closer to 50/50. The last bucket I got from my wheel weight guy, a 5 gal. plastic bucket, was right at half good usable weights to half zinc/iron. YMMV

[Hardcast416taylor]

About 5 years back a friend of mine in Pa sent me a FRB of sheet roofing lead. He and a buddy of his cut and folded it over and over again with dead blow hammers till it was a 12"x12" square to fit in a FRB, the block weighed 67 lbs. When I smelted this soft lead down and made ingots of it I found from fluxing with wax and skimming the dross that I had 5 lbs. of dross and 61 1/2 ingots of 1 lb. each of lead. I accused him that Pa had a different series of what lead weighs than Mi does.Robert

[montanamike]

I had 1050lbs unsorted wheel weights. I got them in Montana (probably less steel and zinc than most places). I ended up with around 760lbs all said and done. I did skim a little Lead with the clips and dirt. Back then I was nervous about letting them get too hot and melt the zinc ones, so I might have skimmed off another 20-30lbs of good lead.

[nemesisenforcer]

I'm in Colorado and it's all unsorted bulk stuff from local shops.

I seem to be finding more steel than I used to in the newer buckets compared to when I first started casting but it could also be my imagination.

Thanks for the feedback.

[nemesisenforcer]

it will depend on what size each wheel weight is. rule of thumb in my experience is 20 to 25 % loss due to clips and trash.

I think you're probably right I was estimating 10% based on previous experience but that may be optimistic.

[RogerDat]

I'm guessing at 20% to maybe as much as 25% if in raw form. 10 - 15% as clip and general coating and crud losses from the lead WW percentage. 5-10% loss due to non-lead. Factoring in a non-lead WW discarded not only removes its own weight but at the same time also means fewer clip/coating weight being lost in the final melt.

Another way of saying that would be if the 100# bucket turns out is 50% zinc WW's then it won't have 15# (15% of 100#) of clips lost in the final melt because there is only 50# of WW's getting melted. Probably only 5-7# lost to clips etc. from a 50# melt. This is a somewhat bad and simple scenario but you get the idea.

Sort em, melt em, see what you have. If you get 325# of COWW lead it might be a poor percentage but it would still be a nice haul of lead. As long as you did not pay too much for it.

[funnyjim014]

Here in NY its almost pure junk. I work in a shop and pull whatever lead i canbut not much lead these days

[nemesisenforcer]

I'm guessing at 20% to maybe as much as 25% if in raw form. 10 - 15% as clip and general coating and crud losses from the lead WW percentage. 5-10% loss due to non-lead. Factoring in a non-lead WW discarded not only removes its own weight but at the same time also means fewer clip/coating weight being lost in the final melt.

Another way of saying that would be if the 100# bucket turns out is 50% zinc WW's then it won't have 15# (15% of 100#) of clips lost in the final melt because there is only 50# of WW's getting melted. Probably only 5-7# lost to clips etc. from a 50# melt. This is a somewhat bad and simple scenario but you get the idea.

Sort em, melt em, see what you have. If you get 325# of COWW lead it might be a poor percentage but it would still be a nice haul of lead. As long as you did not pay too much for it.

didn't pay hardly anything for it.

[RogerDat]

Came across these rolls of plain lead recently.
Those two rolls would be right around the 600 lbs. the OP has in WW's so once the get melted down they should take up a whole lot less space.

162968

yes I post lead porn from time to time :-)

[Scooby]

Came across these rolls of plain lead recently.
Those two rolls would be right around the 600 lbs. the OP has in WW's so once the get melted down they should take up a whole lot less space.

162968

yes I post lead porn from time to time :-)

A buddy once gave me a roll of soft lead like those. He asked his 16 yr old son who was a pretty well built kid to put it in my truck. His son thought it was tar paper when he went to pick it up, it was kind of funny to watch. Once he realized it wasn't tar paper I helped him load it. Then when I got home I put a cookie sheet under the end and cut sections off that would fit in my pot with a reciprocating saw. Those are some nice looking rolls. I wish the local yards would let me dig thru and find stuff, they both say they only sell to businesses.

[sw282]

l got 38 lbs last Monday. After sorting l out zn, fe, plastic l had 26 lbs of SOWW & COWW. Started casting and final tally was 24 lbs of 44 cal 250gr Keith swc. App 650 boolits

[Chris24]

My rule of thumb is about 60-70% (or 2/3) yield from unsorted WWs. Out of those, I usually get about 2/3 COWW, 1/3 SOWW. I usually get around 10-15% zinc, 10-15% steel, and 10% clips. Buckets with a lot of trash can throw this way off. I did a 235 pound batch today, and finished with about 155 pounds of ingots (110 COWW, 45 SOWW).

[OS OK]

536 lbs.