Wolf Among The Sheep

[Djones]

Stick on wheel weights are my favorite. Lots of soft lead goodness.
213149

Just when you think you are going to have a nice relaxing morning going through some stick on wheel weights, you find these boogers.
213150

Look at the nasty Zn on the left group.

Well they are easier to sort out than Zn COWW but I lost the satisfying feeling of a quick productive SOWW sort.

Have a good day friends and beware of the Zinc

David

[lightman]

Like you said, they are easy to spot. I just recently finished sorting through 30 something buckets, mostly clip on's. After a while the zinc just seem to jump out at you.

[dg31872]

"The zinc just seems to jump out at you", now if we can just get it to jump out of the bucket, that would be nice.
I still have to use side cutters on all of the weights, so my sorting is a slow go.

[Djones]

Some of those dirty ones, like in the bottom left of the first picture, tried sneaking past me. Good thing I had some coffee before I started sorting.

As far as testing with side cuts on COWW. I have been only visually checking any COWW that is 1 ounce or smaller. Those go in a separate bucket. Then anything larger than 1 ounce that isn’t obviously Zinc gets tested with the side cuts. This method seems to speed up my process. Seems like before I was taking forever to test the small COWW with side cuts.

I plan to take my time heating up the COWW that I haven’t pinch tested. Do my best to keep the heat low and if I missed any zincers they hopefully will float.

[mold maker]

When you first start to melt, any zinker against the bottom of the pot will be held down by the lead above it. They won't have a chance to float and will be melted. If your not willing to do the time checking for them, expect sooner or later to have a pot full of contaminated alloy. It's much easier to remove them whole than try to reclaim what you mess up.

[OS OK]

I think we oughta form a posse, grab a rope and go find that varmint that invented Zn wheel weights! ;)

[sundog]

I think we oughta form a posse, grab a rope and go find that varmint that invented Zn wheel weights! ;)

That would more than likely be an offspring of one of the spotted owl tree huggers.

[lightman]

When you first start to melt, any zinker against the bottom of the pot will be held down by the lead above it. They won't have a chance to float and will be melted. If your not willing to do the time checking for them, expect sooner or later to have a pot full of contaminated alloy. It's much easier to remove them whole than try to reclaim what you mess up.

This is so true and the reason that I hand sort. I still mis one occasionally but the very small % that I mis will not ruin a batch go good alloy. And a small % of the ones that I mis will be steel and won't melt anyway.

I agree that the guy that first started using zinc in wheel weights didn't do anyone any favors!

[FISH4BUGS]

Heat your ww's slowly and keep a thermometer in it at all times. Keep it below 600 degrees.
Stir and flux constantly. The zinc ones will float to the top. They melt at something like 850 degrees.
The stick ons are easy to sort out.

[mold maker]

The zinc WWs can only float after there is a good portion melted. The pot surface has to be well above the lead alloy melt temp or it would never work. That excess temp will melt zinc if in contact. If you depend on the zinc all floating, sooner or later it will bite you in the rear.
I'm not parroting what someone else heard from their brother in laws cousin, I had it happen to me, and I thought I had carefully checked all of them.
You've been warned.

[FISH4BUGS]

The zinc WWs can only float after there is a good portion melted. The pot surface has to be well above the lead alloy melt temp or it would never work. That excess temp will melt zinc if in contact. If you depend on the zinc all floating, sooner or later it will bite you in the rear.
I'm not parroting what someone else heard from their brother in laws cousin, I had it happen to me, and I thought I had carefully checked all of them.
You've been warned.
Thus the necessity to stir almost constantly.

[Djones]

Heat your ww's slowly and keep a thermometer in it at all times. Keep it below 600 degrees.
Stir and flux constantly. The zinc ones will float to the top. They melt at something like 850 degrees.
The stick ons are easy to sort out.

Yep, This is what I have been doing with the smaller </= 1 ounce COWW. The larger COWW all get pinch tested with a pair of large cutters. I value my time too much right now to pinch test all those tiny wheel weight. Snagging the small floating zincers is what I am going to stick to for now. There have been a few sneaky ones that don't have sharp corners, or the more obvious "Zn" that have snuck past my eyes.