Wheel weight SCORE today

[scotner]

I had what I thought to be a fair stash of wheel weights on hand to get back into casting. After a couple of short casting sessions with the 30 cal 245 grain mold I decided that it would not take long to go through 100 pounds of wheel weights. I wanted to start casting for the 45 ACP as well so I revisited the two shops where I had found weights before. Both came up dry. I was a bit concerned since I just bought a new RCBS Pro Melt, built a PID, and bought some new molds and handles including one custom mold.

There was one other tire shop that I had intended to try and since I had to go to town today I thought I would pay them a visit. I walked into the service bay and asked if they had any old tire weights. The guy said yes, there were some next to the wall at the balance machine and asked how many I wanted. I stepped around where I could see and there were three 5 gallon buckets. I said I would take all of them. I have only sorted one of the buckets so far but it was about 75% lead with a little more than half of that being clip on weights and the rest stick on. I hope the other two buckets are that good.

I am starting to get the hang of sorting these things. With a quick glance or sometimes just by touch I can quickly sort the valve stems and cigarette butts from the lead.

[Jal5]

Nice going

[ioon44]

I just sorted though 2 buckets of coww and found a bunch of new box cutter blades mixed in, so be care full when hand sorting you never know what all is in the buckets.

[lightman]

Thats a good score! Do something nice for those guys so that they remember you. A box of doughnuts and a carton of coffee could make you the wheelweight guy. And yeah, sorting is a PITA. Like you have learned, you get a feel for the Zinc ones after a while. The iron ones are pretty distinctive looking and if you miss one it won't hurt anything.

[scotner]

You can certainly find anything in those buckets although the blades would be a new experience. There was a lot of what I thought to be floor sweepings in the first bucket. I used a large magnet to pick up weights at first, as opposed to reaching in for a hand full. I was surprised to see this "dirt" picked up by the magnet. I finally decided that it must be debris from the brake turning lathe or something similar. Definitely not something you would want to inhale.

[45-70 Chevroner]

You didn't mention price, if you got them free you better pay those guys a visit often and take some donuts for them as lightman said.

[scotner]

You didn't mention price, if you got them free you better pay those guys a visit often and take some donuts for them as lightman said.

Not free but reasonable, depending on the yield from the other two buckets. They started at $30 per bucket, I started at $20 and we met in the middle. $75 for all.

[Scharfschuetze]

I am starting to get the hang of sorting these things. With a quick glance or sometimes just by touch I can quickly sort the valve stems and cigarette butts from the lead.

I've got to have you over to help me sort through a couple of 5 gallon buckets of ancient COWW. Virtually all lead, but your technique can probably fine the odd one out. :)

[scotner]

I've got to have you over to help me sort through a couple of 5 gallon buckets of ancient COWW. Virtually all lead, but your technique can probably fine the odd one out. :)

I think I will retire if I ever get through this lot. I went part of the way through the second bucket this evening and my luck has been holding fairly well. Still a relatively high percentage of lead. The problem is there could be only one zinc weight somewhere in each, or one, of those buckets and make a real mess if I let the temp creep up on me. I will be glad to be finished.

On the other hand, it looks like you are in a really beautiful part of the country...

[copdills]

great score, good luck

[SdRemmy]

I sort through just enough to get a lead base in my smelting pot. Then I just watch the temp and dump it in accordingly. Keep it at a reasonable temp and you will not have any trouble with zinc. Gets it done way faster to

[Vinne]

I tried that at first but didn't like the smell and smoke from the valve stems and other junk. It also makes for less skimming.

[lightman]

I sort all of mine, mostly because I smelt in a big pot (400#) and don'y want a bunch of zinc weights to get trapped on the bottom. Once you sort a bunch of weights you sort of get the hang for it and it goes pretty fast. I also draft a shooting buddy to help and the visit and a few beers make it go faster.

I also just want to remind everyone that a zinc weight won't ruin a whole batch of lead. I agree, the fewer the better, but you can cast good bullets with a small % of zinc.

[rondog]

I scored all this last fall for free. Feller had fallen ill and just wanted it all out of his garage. I still need to finish sorting and then smelt into 1lb bars but hey, it's been cold in the garage! Colorado ya know.....

Lots of w/w's, lots of stick-ons, a sizable amount of pipe and other pure lead, and plenty of steel, zinc and trash too.

[scotner]

I scored all this last fall for free. Feller had fallen ill and just wanted it all out of his garage. I still need to finish sorting and then smelt into 1lb bars but hey, it's been cold in the garage! Colorado ya know.....

Lots of w/w's, lots of stick-ons, a sizable amount of pipe and other pure lead, and plenty of steel, zinc and trash too.

Yes that is a nice haul. I really expect this to be my last harvest and my wife will probably end up paying someone to come get part of that at some point. I found some linotype yesterday, so I should be able to blend something useful from the stick on weights. I had been trying to decide what to do with them. The guy at the print shop showed me the pot he used to melt the linotype and the molds. The pot had a 1/2" gas line going to it. I bet that thing puts out some heat. In addition to the long 25# molds he had a couple of 9 cavity ingot molds that looked like maybe 2 pounds per cavity. I tried to talk him out of one of those but no go. I guess I guess I will have to buy another Lyman mold and keep haunting the thrift shops looking for old muffin pans.