Wheel weights...is it worth it?

[Targa]

Hi everyone, I am thinking about grabbing some wheel weights from my local Goodyear store. My question is, is it worth it? I know that the weights have primarily gone to zinc and steel.

[reddog81]

For free? Sure

If you have to pay, it all depends on the % that are lead. Sorting wheel weights isn’t hard but it is time consuming and dirty. For an unknown mix of wheel weights I’d have a hard time paying over $.25 per pound. And I’d only pay that much if I could inspect and verify that some are actually lead. I was in the back of my local Tiresplus shop a couple years ago and glanced in their bin and it looked like almost all were zinc.

[Targa]

Ok, yeh, there free. Might be worth trying I guess. Thank you for the input.

[rtyler8140]

I got 2 5 gallon buckets from a tire shop recently. Paid $10 a bucket. Got over 120lbs of lead after sorting and melting.

[Winger Ed.]

There's a real good chance they're mostly Zinc.
I wouldn't pay much for them, but make your best deal.

Depending on how old ya are, and how much you shoot,
it might not be a bad idea to start gathering Zinc for a suitable alternative as Lead dries up.

There's a few threads here about casting with Zinc, and several youtube videos.
They may be worth checking out.

[downzero]

I got three buckets the other day, well, 2 1/2. So far I've smelted 90 pounds of wheel weights, 30 of clip on and 60 more of stick on. I believe I'll net another 70 or so pounds of clip on out of the deal. Of the three buckets by volume, I ended up with one bucket of zinc weights. Interestingly, the store that used a lot of zinc clip on weights produced a ton of lead stick ons out of the same bucket.

I'll pay $20/bucket all day for that.

[FN in MT]

Saw two buckets the other day at a local shop....Tire Rama , and it seemed that half were zinc.

[megasupermagnum]

It depends on the state. Minnesota has not used lead wheel weights since 2016. I always offer to take wheel weights for free. So far no businesses have accepted. I've got a few from friends, but mostly family. One junkyard even seemed insulted that I turned down their price of $40 for a 5 gallon bucket. It's the way it goes. You can find lead in ingot form, ready to go for $1 per pound sometimes, most of the time closer to $1.50. The last batch I sorted, it took me about an hour to sort two full buckets. Then likely an 1 1/2 to 2 hours to smelt. And then you have to get rid of all the junk weights.

Wheel weights are a fantastic source of lead if you get them free. Myself, I'm finding it easier to mine berms. The bulk of what I use has been purchased right from this site.

[remy3424]

An hour to sort 2 buckets....I wish I could sort 2 buckets in 4 hours! Trash, zinc, steel, composit (trash), stick-on and the good stuff....takes me a good while, but I do hit everyone that I am not SURE about with a side-cutter to be sure. Get the weights while they still have some lead ones left.

[Targa]

Outstanding!!! Thank you all very much. I just grabbed a 5 gallon Lowe’s bucket full of weights. As a disclaimer, I reload but have yet to cast anything, it just looks fun honestly. I will only be casting for .44mag, .454Casull and possibly .500Linebaugh (if I can find a mold for it), so this won’t be a terribly high volume operation but I do go through quite a few Keith bullets.

[Targa]

The bulk of what I use has been purchased right from this site.

Ultimately....I imagine that is what I will do as well.

[megasupermagnum]

An hour to sort 2 buckets....I wish I could sort 2 buckets in 4 hours! Trash, zinc, steel, composit (trash), stick-on and the good stuff....takes me a good while, but I do hit everyone that I am not SURE about with a side-cutter to be sure. Get the weights while they still have some lead ones left.

That's part of the luck of the draw. They were about half steel, which was easy as pie to see. The remainder was about 3/4 lead, and 1/4 zinc or other. I just went along and using a big side cutters. Soft in the pot, hard in the junk. If I hadn't had so many steel, it would have taken a lot longer.

[Winger Ed.]

I will only be casting for .44mag, .454Casull and possibly .500Linebaugh

You say that now...…….
But welcome to the addiction.
Try to keep a low profile with it so your family doesn't try to get you on the intervention TV show.:bigsmyl2:

[Wisest.fool]

You might check a local scrapyard. I get free brass from a local range. when I get more than I can use(usually 223 and 9MM) I take it to the scrapyard and swap it for lead. free lead for me and I can pick whatever I want from their lead bin roof flashing dental film lead wheel weights etc. Also I recently mined a berm got 3 buckets straight full of bullets that melted down to 400lbs of lead. It was a hot 2 days but I don't see me needing lead for a while.

[slim1836]

I’m always on the lookout for free lead wheel weights. Save until there are enough and melt them down. 99% of my lead was free and that’s the key. Cost just a little to melt them down but so what. Save the zinc for swapping material or scrap it for more lead.

Slim

[poppy42]

Just me but I’ll take all the wheel weights I can get for free or a nominal amount. It take me about a 1/2 hour to sort a full 5 gal bucket. Even if I only get a 1/4 bucket of usable lead wheel weights. That’s still around 30lb of lead( a full 5 gal bucket of wheel weights weights about 120 pounds). I scrap all the zink and steel weights for anywhere from $.10 and $.20 a pound were I live. So like I said I’ll take all the wheel weights I can get. But that’s just me. Different strokes for different folks.

[Targa]

The shop I am getting the weights from has about 10 buckets full of weights and told me that anytime I want them to just come in and get them. So it would appear that I might have been looking the gift hose in the mouth.

[megasupermagnum]

Just me but I’ll take all the wheel weights I can get for free or a nominal amount. It take me about a 1/2 hour to sort a full 5 gal bucket. Even if I only get a 1/4 bucket of usable lead wheel weights. That’s still around 30lb of lead( a full 5 gal bucket of wheel weights weights about 120 pounds). I scrap all the zink and steel weights for anywhere from $.10 and $.20 a pound were I live. So like I said I’ll take all the wheel weights I can get. But that’s just me. Different strokes for different folks.

Not any more. Last week scrap steel was $15 a TON. That's if they will even take it. I was a scrapper, so the leftover weights were not a big deal. The common guy would probably just dump them in the trash. If only lead would take such a nose dive in price. If anything lead shot once again is raising in price.

[poppy42]

Not any more. Last week scrap steel was $15 a TON. That's if they will even take it. I was a scrapper, so the leftover weights were not a big deal. The common guy would probably just dump them in the trash. If only lead would take such a nose dive in price. If anything lead shot once again is raising in price.
Not scrap steel un-clean wheel weights! Can’t say by you but scrap steel is worth next to nothing here. Price I quoted was from 3 weeks ago, so yes it’s possible the price has dropped since then but still not the same as scrap steel. Different parts of the country, different prices. I know aluminum and copper has dropped way down but as of 3 weeks ago un-clean wheel weights hadn’t changed

[44magLeo]

$15 divided by 2000 lbs. = .75 cents a lb.
Just trash them.
Leo

[Misery-Whip]

Last 5 gal bucket I got had 15lbs of lead. Didnt even fill my ingot mold twice. Im done with them.

[Dapaki]

It depends on the state. Minnesota has not used lead wheel weights since 2016. I always offer to take wheel weights for free. So far no businesses have accepted. I've got a few from friends, but mostly family. One junkyard even seemed insulted that I turned down their price of $40 for a 5 gallon bucket. It's the way it goes. You can find lead in ingot form, ready to go for $1 per pound sometimes, most of the time closer to $1.50. The last batch I sorted, it took me about an hour to sort two full buckets. Then likely an 1 1/2 to 2 hours to smelt. And then you have to get rid of all the junk weights.

Wheel weights are a fantastic source of lead if you get them free. Myself, I'm finding it easier to mine berms. The bulk of what I use has been purchased right from this site.

Yupper, Minnesota is pretty tight about lead, I have the last of the wheel weights from a now defunct garage and now that we moved, the garages around here seem to be the same that they would rather sit on the WW and make all sorts of claims that selling them to me is illegal and I have to be licensed etc.

I have just been buying what I need from the people here when it comes up for sale.

[ioon44]

The last free 5 gal bucket of ww had 109 lb and after sorting I had about 30 lb of usable lead.

[mdi]

The amount of zinc and steel weights you will find vs. lead will vary depending on where you live. CA outlawed lead WWs many years ago and most of the lead ones have gone to casters for bullets and sinkers so the tire shop scrap buckets will be mostly zinc (and I wouldn't pay for any "mixed" WW buckets).

For a few years I have used the Vendor Sponsors here for lead and get some good deals. The only problem is the skinny mailman grumbles when delivering a 25 lb. box of ingots...

[bangerjim]

Ok, yeh, there free. Might be worth trying I guess. Thank you for the input.

Free is not always "FREE"! What is your time and effort worth and the gas to haul them home? Sorting takes a ton of time! Back in the old days, I could melt the whole bucket and not have a single zinker in there. Mabe a few FE ones, but they floated to the top with the clips.

My time is worth faaaaaaaar more that to mess with dirty stinky old wheel weights. If you cannot find good clean Pb like I do at local scrap yards, buy it in ingots from sellers on this site! That is the only way to do it in these days of Zn weights. Clean, refined ingots that somebody else has spent their time making.

banger

[dragon813gt]

For me, not worth it. Time is something I can’t get back and is worth more than anything else. I’d rather pay for clean lead then deal w/ wheel weights.

[dverna]

Free is not always "FREE"! What is your time and effort worth and the gas to haul them home? Sorting takes a ton of time! Back in the old days, I could melt the whole bucket and not have a single zinker in there. Mabe a few FE ones, but they floated to the top with the clips.

My time is worth faaaaaaaar more that to mess with dirty stinky old wheel weights. If you cannot find good clean Pb like I do at local scrap yards, buy it in ingots from sellers on this site! That is the only way to do it in these days of Zn weights. Clean, refined ingots that somebody else has spent their time making.

banger

Listen to him. Back in the "good old days" it made sense.

I built a bullet trap last year so my material is relatively "clean" and easy to process.

[cabezaverde]

$15 divided by 2000 lbs. = .75 cents a lb.
Just trash them.
Leo

Might want to check your math on that.

[slim1836]

The shop I am getting the weights from has about 10 buckets full of weights and told me that anytime I want them to just come in and get them. So it would appear that I might have been looking the gift hose in the mouth.

You best show up with pizza and beer along with buckets and a strong back.

Slim

[poppy42]

$15 divided by 2000 lbs. = .75 cents a lb.
Just trash them.
Leo

You might want to check your math. It’s $ .075 not $.75 that’s 7.5 cents not 75 cents!

[super6]

I asked my tire guy about buying WW and he said they are all plastic, What in the heck are you going to do with that? LOL

[DDJ]

You might want to check your math. It’s $ .075 not $.75 that’s 7.5 cents not 75 cents!

Actually it's .0075 cents a pound. If I could buy 2000 lbs of lead for 15 bucks I'd do it any day. One pound of lead will give you 70 100 grain bullets

[Targa]

I grabbed a bucket of the wheel weights, still need to sort them to see what is usable. I had a little bit of time today so I hit the back stop at the range and made a very lazy attempt at getting some range scrap.... I ended up with 25lbs of it but I am definitely just leaning towards buying the ingots as suggested by others.

[lar45]

Wheel weights used to be an excellent source of bullet casting alloy. Back in Idaho I used to get 5gal buckets for $15 and get over 100lbs of ingots.
This last run cost me $40 a bucket, we sorted and processed 1 and a 1/2 buckets and got around 25# of ingots. I'm just going to buy my alloy now and have it delivered.

[lightman]

Hi everyone, I am thinking about grabbing some wheel weights from my local Goodyear store. My question is, is it worth it? I know that the weights have primarily gone to zinc and steel.

Wheel weights are one of my favorite sources of lead. Thankfully they are still fairly available here. I also rather enjoy sorting and smelting them.

As the others have said, it depends on where you are located, how much time you have and how you are situated financially. If that store is going to give them to you I would get all 10 buckets and learn to sort them. And go back a few days later with a few dozen donuts for the guys in the shop.

This past Wednesday morning the boy at our local tire shop called and told me he had another full bucket of weights for me. So late evening found me sitting in the shop door surrounded with empty buckets, sorting weights and drinking beer!

I don't weight them or keep up with the exact numbers but by looking at the buckets I estimate that I had over 70% lead. I'm also seeing less Zinc and more Steel, which I see as a good thing. This particular bucket was pretty clean but the last couple had oil spilled in them. So they can be pretty dirty to mess with at times.

[richhodg66]

If they have buckets of them for free, take them all if you have space. You can sort them as you get time, it isn't perishable, and lead isn't getting any easier to come by.

I've personally stopped worrying about, 95% or better of my shooting is into my own berm and I have a lot of lead alloy. Eventually (if I live long enough) I'll mine my own berm. I've used a lot of range scrap and still will, it'll be a lot easier to use my own because 99% or better is cast to begin with so no jackets to contend with.

Take free lead wherever you can get it, it's onlt gonna get harder to find in the future.

[ioon44]

I have rubber mulch bullet traps on my range and I have been shooting the same lead over and over for years, the only lead I lose is at matches.

[poppy42]

Actually it's .0075 cents a pound. If I could buy 2000 lbs of lead for 15 bucks I'd do it any day. One pound of lead will give you 70 100 grain bullets

Yep I must have been typing with feet! Didn’t even realize I forgot the extra zero

[Mitch]

If they are free and have a good amount of lead wieghts Maybe.Still alot of time and work in them.I find more pure lead here than anything so i make my own alloys.if i rember right from the stikys here where BNE did the testing COWW is about 3%sb and .5%sn.So some pipe and sheet mixed the way you want is is the way i go anymore.Now days it is ez to have you lead tested.to get the same alloy any time you like.So to me the ww thing is no big deal

[downzero]

I netted 138 pounds of ingots for $40 total expended. It took me a ton of time to work through it but that will keep me going for quite a while. In 1-2 months I'll go back to the tire shops and come up with more to sort and smelt. The 100+ pounds of leftover zinc I'm hoping to recycle as well.

[gwpercle]

Here in Louisiana the last bucket I got from the tire shop was mostly Lead ..maybe 1/4 at most were steel/zinc .
I should smelt them down and make lead mini-muffin ingots ...but being a procrastinator ... I'll think about doing it tomorrow !
I guess how many lead WW's you get depends on your states lead laws .
Gary

[FISH4BUGS]

I think I may have won the lottery 15 years or so ago.
At that time there were rumblings about doing away with lead wheel weights.....nothing serious, but the tree huggers were pushing for the ban.
A friend and fellow racquetball player/shooter owned a tire shop and sold it. He called me on a Monday and said he sold the shop and said it was closing on Friday. Come and get as many wheel weights as I can take away he said.
2500 lbs later, bloody fingers and all, I gave up.
I had to drive each load 50 mile round trip to my then girlfriend's (and still girlfriend now housemate) barn to store them all. Many trips later in my car I had enough, literally and figuratively.
Eventually I sold my condo and we bought the house. I always said the only reason we bought the house was to avoid moving all the lead.....well, sort of. :)
My lifetime supply of WW's along with a couple of hundred pounds of linotype IS hopefully my lifetime supply.

[Garyshome]

I wouldn't fool with them. Not worth the trouble.

[hickfu]

I found a guy with 6000lbs of wheel weights but he wants .50lb
If I paid that and money for propane, has getting the WW cost of shipping and the cost of ebay/PayPal along with gas cost going to and from the post office.... I calculated I could maybe get 150.00 per 1000lbs to pay for my time melting it and casting into ingots. I can melt about 120lbs in an hour so 50 hours for maybe 900.00 for my time and effort .. That is if I could sell at 1.25lb

Don't know if that would be worth it

[dragon813gt]

How old are those wheel weights? If they’re all from recent times there’s going to be a lot of non lead wheel weights. If they’re old then you’re going to have a high yield. Of those 6k#s you’re going to lose quite a bit to clips and dust/dirt buildup.

At that price I would buy them w/ the intention of shooting, not selling. The price is low enough to make the time spent cleaning up worth it.

[hickfu]

They are about 99% lead ones.. I have 1600lbs of alloy already so I don't need more. I was liking at making a few dollars for my time and investment but I don't know if 900.00 is worth all that time to do it.

[hickfu]

If I didn't lose the 13 to 15% that ebay/PayPal charged them it may be worth it