Still a market (demand) for Zinc?

[remy3424]

With all the zinc one finds in wheel weights now, is there anyone still willing to pay the shipping for it? It is that or in with the scrap steel.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I would surely think so, the cannon ballers like to cast with Zinc.

[lightman]

I sold some sorted steel and zinc weights as scrap recently and got more than wheelweight prices. I don't remember the exact price as I sold a large mix of stuff.

[dimaprok]

I sort wheel weights and save all the zinc for myself. Periodically I will turn them into ingots. I've bern casting with zinc, its harder but doable.

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[dondiego]

I want to cast cannon balls with zinc but everything that I have read says that you shouldn't use aluminum molds to cast with zinc and both of my molds are made of aluminum and I don't want to ruin them. Any ideas? I have a 1.5 inch bore, actually golf ball size.

[turtlezx]

check scrap $$$ was worth more than lead

[Budzilla 19]

I save, melted in to “ coins “ and have used it to harden lead with!! It’s a bit tricky sometimes to cast zinc-enhanced lead, but the boolits are pretty tough, just by using a redneck test. Just keep zinc content to 1% or less, it will work. Boy, am I going to set on fire for this statement! Just sayin. But, if you want to sell it, offer it up on swap and sell it should go fast to someone in the cannonball business. Good luck.

[Castloader]

I also have been saving up zinc and have a bucket of ingots. Elvisammo on YT is casting stuff as small as .223 boolits out of the stuff. No lube needed either. Anybody here doing that?

[heebs]

Last time I sold zinc, I too got more than scrap lead price. Go figure.

[toallmy]

Just a thought , the last time I picked up Zink for some of the local crab trappers it was just shy of a hundred bucks for a 50 lb box , and that was years ago .
If you think that's steep check out the price on larger blocks used at ship yards .

[remy3424]

I also have been saving up zinc and have a bucket of ingots. Elvisammo on YT is casting stuff as small as .223 boolits out of the stuff. No lube needed either. Anybody here doing that?

Interesting, maybe I will just keep it and check out the YT.

[Castloader]

Last time I sold zinc, I too got more than scrap lead price. Go figure.

It’s worth mentioning that 10lb of zinc makes more boolits than 10lb of lead. Zinc is 64ish% the density of lead, meaning you can get 100 zinc boolits for the same weight as 64 lead boolits. I’m interested in some lightweight plinkers for the 300BLK, maybe 45-70. As time moves on, I suspect zinc casting will become more popular for a variety of reasons. (Lead-free ammo anyone?!)

[downzero]

I scrapped probably 200 pounds of it and I think I got like $20. I'll just throw it away now.

[oley55]

Today when I finished processing 130# of coww I decided to process the 20# of zinc clip-ons I had. Wellllllllllllll I got this to say about that, I doubt I'll ever, ever, ever do that again. Some clips floated while many sank to the bottom, so fishing out clips was way different to what I was expecting. Not a big deal just different. The big pain was the zinc stuck to and left gobs of zinc all over my spoon, ladle and pot. I spent the better part of an hour cleaning up tools afterwards and I can't say everything is really zinc free.

Just my first and LAST impression.

[William Yanda]

"set on fire" Budzilla
Not from here. I am glad to have confirmed what I suspected. Knowing the proximity of Zn to Cu on the Elements Chart it is not surprising to hear that both have similar effects on lead alloys.
Regards,

[lign]

I've got a box of zinc clip-on wheel weights from my sorting sessions that anyone is welcome to have for free if they want them...

[LAGS]

I do save my Zinc WWs.
I smelt them down and make other stuff out of them.
Like softer jaw faces for my vise .
Or plates for my drill press to hold parts in place
Once cast a butt plate for a rifle that I wanted to dress up.
Cast grip caps would look nice too.

[toallmy]

How does fluxing the zinc work out ?

[bowfin]

How does fluxing the zinc work out ?

I am guessing you mean removing zinc from lead?

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?62957-A-possible-way-to-remove-zinc-from-molten-lead

[oley55]

How does fluxing the zinc work out ?

Right wrong or indifferent, I just skimmed the trash and poured my zinc ingots. I wasn't planning to do anything with the zinc so I didn't try fluxing, but I did wonder if sawdust would be appropriate with zinc or something different. Perhaps one of our zinc casters will chime in.

[toallmy]

I am guessing you mean removing zinc from lead?

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?62957-A-possible-way-to-remove-zinc-from-molten-lead

I was thinking more along the lines of cleaning up the zinc coww after melting them down .

[toallmy]

Right wrong or indifferent, I just skimmed the trash and poured my zinc ingots. I wasn't planning to do anything with the zinc so I didn't try fluxing, but I did wonder if sawdust would be appropriate with zinc or something different. Perhaps one of our zinc casters will chime in.

We have a member that cast Zink slugs with a bit of something blended in to the mix , I want to say aluminum but I'm not sure .
It's a shame I'm so lazy or I'd give it a try .