wheel weights score, YES they are still out there

[oley55]

my one man tire shop (no lifts, just floor jacks out front in the elements) source continues to come through for me. Wednesday I stopped by with my dolly, flat shovel and four five gallon buckets. He had one of those small PVC barrels (maybe eight gallons) over flowing. I wrestled it onto my dolly and struggled to get it tipped back and moving. Rolled it outside onto a concrete patch and set about trying to tip it over and dump it. After some effort I finally got it dumped and set about shoveling the weights more or less evenly into the four buckets. Ended up with each slightly less than half full and weighing 82#, 70#, 70#, 60#, for a rough total of 282# minus the plastic buckets (and barely reliable mechanical bathroom scale).

After sorting I generally net 45% COWW, 8% SOWW, 39% FE, 8% ZN. For reasons yet to be determined this haul is at least 50# heavier than usual, even after considering the heaping full barrel. He did mention someone had dropped off a bunch of unwanted lead wheel weights so my lead % may go higher with this haul. Cost to me was $25 plus gas for a 12 mile round trip. And life is still good.

The moral of my story is don't waste time at the bigger well known tire stores. Shoot for those small independent shops who are not answering to some woke corporate office.

Once I get it sorted I'll report my %s, but not until it cools down a bit. I'm still sitting on 5/8 of a bucket of sorted weights. Just too dang hot for smelting right now.

[Wag]

100% win!

Subscribed.

--Wag--

[Tripplebeards]

Nice! I still have shops that give them to me locally.

[lightman]

Nice score! Yes, they are still out there. And yes to the small local shops.

[GlocksareGood]

I picked up 810lbs in 6-5 gallon buckets over the weekend. The shop owner took down my info and told me he would call when he got another 6 buckets. He was happy to not have to deal with listing them for sale and dealing with FB marketplace. At $20/bucket I will buy them and fill a couple of barrels with coww/soww ingots.

[JoeJames]

I got seriously back into casting about 3 years ago. So I called up an old friend that has a farmer's type tire store. First time he gave me a 5 gallon bucket full of wheel weights, and then I got another bucket from him last spring. Did not cost me a thing, but last time I could tell it was pretty heavy because two of his employees had to carry it out one on each side of the bail. Kind of made my T-100 sag a bit. Anyhow the best tire store as my cousin would say are "Half a mile out of town and down a gravel rod". Very high percentage of lead cowws. I figure the fancier in town tire shops use more of those little plastic covered steel wheel weights.

[Soundguy]

Nice score.. no small shops here.. and all the big shops use a hazmat shipper that gives them a hazmat receipt for their osha inspections and insurance.. etc.. Unfortunately our local scrap yard.. who will buy lead.. won't sell it.. ugh....

[openbook]

Nice score. I found the same thing: my small local tire shop has a much higher percentage of lead weights. I've been given buckets from Mr. Tire that had about 25 lbs of lead in a 100+ lb bucket. I can hoist those up into the bed of my truck...But I stopped in at the local shop and he offered me a 5gal bucket that I couldn't even budge off the ground. Not half an inch. With the two of us we were able to hoist it and dump it into a second bucket which could then be loaded into the car. Totally free, and friendlier than in-town stores, too.

[oley55]

Sorted my 282# haul today. 102# COWW (37%), 25# SOWW (9%), 24# Zn (9%), 125# Fe (40%), for a total of 276#, plus 6# of trash and/or bathroom scale inaccuracies.

It seems my ratio of lead is decreasing a bit, but still a worthwhile effort for an old retired guy. $0.197 a pound raw/unsmelted. I expect to loose another 18% to steel clips n dross, but that effort will until cooler weather.

[Soundguy]

Still a good haul.

[openbook]

Still a good haul.

I agree. Nothing like watching all that scrap turn into clean, bright, useful lead.

[lightman]

Sorted my 282# haul today. 102# COWW (37%), 25# SOWW (9%), 24# Zn (9%), 125# Fe (40%), for a total of 276#, plus 6# of trash and/or bathroom scale inaccuracies.

It seems my ratio of lead is decreasing a bit, but still a worthwhile effort for an old retired guy. $0.197 a pound raw/unsmelted. I expect to loose another 18% to steel clips n dross, but that effort will until cooler weather.

I'm not actively looking anymore but I have one small town shop that save them for me. They use tire lube buckets, 2 gallon not 5 gallon, and I get a bucket every 6 weeks or so. My yields have dropped too, down to about 55% coww and maybe 5% soww. The rest is steel, zinc and trash. Like you, I'm retired and I rather enjoy sorting them.

[El Bibliotecario]

Is there any practical use for the culled non-lead wheel weights? Will scrap dealers buy them?

[lightman]

Yes, they will buy all but the rubber like stick-on weights. They don't pay much for them but most will buy them.

[Budzilla 19]

I still got two small hometown tire shops I get weights from, about every other month or so. I just added another 100+ pounds to the stash just the other day. Like has been said before, network!
oley55, that was a great score! Congratulations

[Hammerlane]

Was offered a 55 gal of old WW at the scrap yard $ .15 per pound. yesterday.. Had to pass but the top layer looked good. I don't have that kind of time now. Looking after our 2 year old grand-daughter

[oley55]

Was offered a 55 gal of old WW at the scrap yard $ .15 per pound. yesterday.. Had to pass but the top layer looked good. I don't have that kind of time now. Looking after our 2 year old grand-daughter

I can relate to the grand-daughter considerations. I made some major life style changes for a grand child. Absolutely no regrets on my part, none, zip, and notta .

[El Bibliotecario]

Time is certainly a factor. If one factors in a labor cost, it would be more economical to buy bullets from a commercial source.

Inspired by this post, last week I asked my garage man (after dropping three figures on auto repairs) what he did with his old wheel weights. I subsequently exchanged a dozen fresh doughnuts for an estimated 180 pounds of wheel weights. After 'only' 14 hours of sorting and smelting, I have 60 pounds of usable lead. I estimate 30% of the total was useable; as I expected, the majority were zinc (or something else?). Of the usable lead wheel weights, I have six ingots from clip-on weights, and nine ingots from stick-on weights. I expect this figures are typical, and offer them to others considering such an operation.

[openbook]

My first bucket took an awfully long time, but after I got to have a better idea of what was what, I was able to separate out the iron and zinc a lot faster. I still use a pair of dikes to test each lead weight before throwing it in my lead bucket. I think a bucket probably takes 2.5-3 hours now. I do it a little at a time, 20 minutes here and there. It gets done.

[lightman]

It gets easier and you get faster after you do a few. Buckets that is!

[El Bibliotecario]

I use a sophisticated tool to determine wheel weight material--I scratch them with a nail. This may miss a few, but I had only one zinc weight float to the top while smelting lead. In a subsequent re-culling of the zinc weights, I found two or three lead weights I had missed.

Having weighed two sample ingots, I found they were 5+ pounds rather than 4 pounds as I'd estimated, so my net production was actually 75 pounds.

[oley55]

My first bucket took an awfully long time, but after I got to have a better idea of what was what, I was able to separate out the iron and zinc a lot faster. I still use a pair of dikes to test each lead weight before throwing it in my lead bucket. I think a bucket probably takes 2.5-3 hours now. I do it a little at a time, 20 minutes here and there. It gets done.

I have found the anvil type hand pruners to be more efficient than everything else. The spring-back handle and grips are less likely to induce blisters. I too check nearly every weight. An exception will be those COWWs that show obvious gouging and distortion from the wheel weight removal tool. https://www.lowes.ca/product/hand-pruners/fiskars-anvil-hand-pruner-77178

[Walstr]

Is there any practical use for the culled non-lead wheel weights? Will scrap dealers buy them?

Howdy Pard; I used to trash the Zinc weights that 'floated' on the slowly melting COWW's, but curious 'bout zinc, I see that they are worth several times what lead is! I asked my local recycle yard & they have a 'nuclear alloy scanner', so no problem identifying my zinc for sale! It's expensive hand held device, but important for scrap yards, eh. Good luck.

[BK7saum]

I scored a 5 gallong bucket of wheelweights today. Once sorted, I weighed the different groups to get the following breakdown. Surprisingly, it was predominantly clip-on wheelweights. 70% coww.

323897

[oley55]

I scored a 5 gallong bucket of wheelweights today. Once sorted, I weighed the different groups to get the following breakdown. Surprisingly, it was predominantly clip-on wheelweights. 70% coww.

323897

WOW 70% coww. that's great. I usually get about 45% but recently have seen only 35-37%.

[Soundguy]

Great score..ive seen nearly 50% steel and zinc whenever I found any. By the time you factor in clips.. It's mostly 70% scrap. Also I've always seen stick on wheel weights as pretty much pure lead but lately I have seen steel and or zinc stick on wheel weights and I was very surprised.

[armoredman]

I just gave a big bucket of wheel weights to my buddy, and we split the smelted ingots, with him keeping all the zinc. He uses them for casting various non stressed parts. That bucket was a gift from another buddy who just wanted the stuff out of his garage. Since I am a very low volume caster, (150-200 boolits at a time), this will last me quite a while.

[Beast of Burden]

That is impressive. Congrats! I've about given up on wheel weights with all the plastic, steel and zinc. Of course, I am a bottom feeder, so if I come across them free or cheap, I will still smelt em.

[lightman]

That is impressive. Congrats! I've about given up on wheel weights with all the plastic, steel and zinc. Of course, I am a bottom feeder, so if I come across them free or cheap, I will still smelt em.

"Bottom Feeder", I like that!!!