Got My First Bucket O' Wheel Weights

[308Jeff]

Acquired it from a local tire shop. Anxious to get it home tonight and start sorting/melting!

It's obviously not all lead. I'm 5'8"/155lbs and I picked it up and set it on the tail gate of my truck. (Though barely....)

Anyone wanna take a stab at what they think the total weight and lead, zinc, and steel weights are going to be?

[308Jeff]

186969

[oteroman]

85


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[308Jeff]

85



Good Lord, I hope it's more than that. If not, I've just admitted how weak I am. :lol:

[lup]

138.3 pounds

[Andy]

130 lbs

[Plate plinker]

150 and 5/4 pounds

[Silvercreek Farmer]

That last 1-2 inches of bucket is worth 20 lbs or even more if they are heaped up. Looks like a lot of stick ons. Was it previously sorted? My yield on stick ons is pretty high. If mostly stick ons I predict an ingot yield of at least 110 lbs in these parts, unless a bunch of those Commiefornia steel weights have spilled over into AZ....

[308Jeff]

Gross weight with the bucket is 141.6.

Man, I thought sorting brass sucked! :lol:

[OS OK]

You'll forget those 'it really sucks thoughts' when you are sitting there grinning and looking at a stack of fresh ingots...

[308Jeff]

You'll forget those 'it really sucks thoughts' when you are sitting there grinning and looking at a stack of fresh ingots...

Indeed.

[bullseye67]

Good evening. I say 58lbs COWW and 49lbs SOWW. That was alight bucket. Most of the ones I get are pushing 175+lbs. After sorting a full bucket is close to 200lbs. I sort into a bucket on a dolly....so I never have to pick it up, just wheel it to the hand door of the garage. Sometimes older is smarter :D

[308Jeff]

Older IS smarter.

[rancher1913]

watch for the zinc, been finding the best looking ww's are all fast becoming zinc.

[308Jeff]

watch for the zinc, been finding the best looking ww's are all fast becoming zinc.

Plenty of that in there. I'd say about 30%.

I'm using snips and a magnet to help me cull out the steel and zinc, but I'm scared stupid that a zinc is gonna get by me.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

total all together? 123.5lbs! bet

[Oklahoma Rebel]

well I didn't see he weighed it already! I woulda faked it!

[rondog]

I just processed several buckets of ww's, and found far fewer zinc's than I was expecting. Found more steel, actually. But I'm a fanatic about keeping the melt temp well under 700 degrees, so whatever zinc weights went in just float to the top with the rest of the garbage. I think you'd have to really try to melt zinc weights, JMHO.

But now I have this pile, plus 10 .30 cal ammo cans full (64 bars per can), and a bunch of stragglers in my melting pot, so I think I'm set for awhile! Quick count in my head is around 900+ bars, that'll make a lot of boolits for me.

[BUCKEYE BANDIT]

I must be old as DIRT!! ,I remember going with Dad, and a Pizza would get you two or three 5 gal. buckets.And all you had to sort out was valve stems and old chew globbs.
Have a large part of his stash still.Did buy a couple buckets a while back from a Mom&Pop shop,150# almost 95# of alloy.
I sort :groner: but also melt at minimum temp.

[jsizemore]

Plenty of that in there. I'd say about 30%.

I'm using snips and a magnet to help me cull out the steel and zinc, but I'm scared stupid that a zinc is gonna get by me.

Just mind your temp.

[lightman]

Thats a Good Score! Sorting is not so bad. After you do it for a while you get a feel for spotting the zinc ones. I don't use a magnet. The steel weights are very distinctive looking and if you miss a few it won't hurt anything. A few zinc won't ruin you alloy either. I agree, the fewer the better, but a missed weight won't hurt. I use a pair of dykes (diagonal cutters) and my eyes when sorting. Check out the stickys above about sorting weights and another one about the alloy of stick-on weights.

I built a 24 x 48 inch wooden box to sort weights in. I dump the bucket in so I can spread them out. Then I'll "cherry pick" through the mix. I usually start with the trash, like the tire stickers and valve stems. Then I'll pick out the stick-ons, then the iron, leaving the lead and zinc weights to sort. Its boring, but I'll turn the radio on, grab a beer and a stool and get after it.

RogerDat sorts weights in his house, sitting in his easy chair! But his Wife is a Saint! :-) That won't fly at my house!

[308Jeff]

Just mind your temp.



Thats a Good Score! Sorting is not so bad. After you do it for a while you get a feel for spotting the zinc ones. I don't use a magnet. The steel weights are very distinctive looking and if you miss a few it won't hurt anything. A few zinc won't ruin you alloy either. I agree, the fewer the better, but a missed weight won't hurt. I use a pair of dykes (diagonal cutters) and my eyes when sorting. Check out the stickys above about sorting weights and another one about the alloy of stick-on weights.

I built a 24 x 48 inch wooden box to sort weights in. I dump the bucket in so I can spread them out. Then I'll "cherry pick" through the mix. I usually start with the trash, like the tire stickers and valve stems. Then I'll pick out the stick-ons, then the iron, leaving the lead and zinc weights to sort. Its boring, but I'll turn the radio on, grab a beer and a stool and get after it.

RogerDat sorts weights in his house, sitting in his easy chair! But his Wife is a Saint! :-) That won't fly at my house!

Great advice. Thank you much.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Those zinc weights ring like a bell if you hit them on something hard. Much different sounding than lead.

[308Jeff]

Those zinc weights ring like a bell if you hit them on something hard. Much different sounding than lead.

Right you are. I'm getting faster at sorting them as I'm going along.

Someone dropped off a 30-pound box of large truck wheel weights for me today. Was very easy to identify the zinc ones and the steel ones.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to get back at the bucket. Going to use the gentleman's advice and get them all spread out so it's easier to pluck.

[308Jeff]

The sorting got quicker as I went along. Would have went faster, except I wanted to check every piece that went into the pot with side cutters first.

Net haul ended up like this:

31.6 lbs of Zinc
36.0 lbs of Steel
21.1 lbs of SOWW
42.0 lbs of COWW in ingots

So, roughly a 50/50 mix of usable lead to garbage. About 11 lbs of bucket and wheel weight clips.

It's been 30 years since I had a job mounting and balancing tires. I had forgotten who dirty that stuff gets. Finished product was very gratifying though, and I'd call it a very relaxing weekend day. Had a great time.

[Krieger82]

I wouldnt sweat the garbage. Last bucket I smelted I just kept at 650 degrees. I didny have time to sort, so just tossed it all in. Came out clean as a whistle. Stank to high heaven though.

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[kmrra]

rondog (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/member.php?8867-rondog) Seen that Picture of the Lead with Bowling pins , I just scored 55# of fishing weights and plumbers lead that a buddie of mine found while metal detecting and on my way home I stopped in my LGS and he had a few boxes of Bowling pins for sale ,3 bux a piece so 10 of them came home with me , its been almost 40 years since I shot ant pins , let the fun began

[308Jeff]

Picked up my second bucket yesterday. But it felt light and knew when it weighed in at 114 pounds, there wasn't going to be a lot of lead in there.

Sorting went a lot faster this time. Probably half the time that I spent on the previous one. I could do it a lot faster if I would trust myself more on what is lead, and not rely on the side Cutters to verify.

Yield was 30.5 Zinc, 27.8 Steel & Trash, 20.2 SOW, and 35 COW. COWS are melting right now so I'll see what the net yield is.

ETA: Now that I've entered the sort into a spreadsheet, the percentages are almost identical. The reason for the lower gross must be that I emptied several small buckets into my 5 gallon. Even though it was fuller, it must not have been very compacted.

[6bg6ga]

I can remember doing 3 full size garbage cans full of weights back in the 80's. I think I ended up with about 50%

[308Jeff]

My net yield for the 35lbs of COW was 28.2lbs of ingots. Or 81%. Does that sound about right?

[lightman]

Yeah, 28# for 35# of weights sounds about like what I would expect. You wouldn't think that those clips would weigh that much would ya?

[308Jeff]

Yeah, 28# for 35# of weights sounds about like what I would expect. You wouldn't think that those clips would weigh that much would ya?

I sure wouldn't.

[Lloyd Smale]

wish I could turn back time to the year I got my first bucket. Heck I could even toss them up in the pickup back then. Id probably be seeing the back surgeon again if I tried it today.

[lightman]

Ain't that the truth! I just finished sorting a bunch of weights and I only half filled the buckets with sorted weights.

[adam_mac84]

Still waiting on the first full 5gal bucket score. Talked to a construction buddy today who had a 5g of hospital lead in a garage for 3 years and finally got rid of it. He is now on the lookout for me

[308Jeff]

Definitely exciting when you get one

[308Jeff]

Swung into a tire store near my house today on a whim. Manager said they normally run their scrap through corporate, but he had a full bucket I could have. And this bucket was full. Took two of us to load it in my truck, and I had to pour it into two buckets when I got home. 186.6 lbs (including the 2 buckets). I'm super stoked about this one.

[lightman]

Another Good Score! Your on a roll! You are going to be at that "lifetime supply" status pretty soon. Don't really matter though, most of us keep on scrounging!

[308Jeff]

Another Good Score! Your on a roll! You are going to be at that "lifetime supply" status pretty soon. Don't really matter though, most of us keep on scrounging!

I'm skeered I might be "cursing my luck" with these posts... It's just too exciting to keep it to myself. :-D