Back to sorting WW's

[FISH4BUGS]

About 20 years ago, a friend and fellow shooter sold his tire shop and retired to Florida.
Before he closed on the shop, he called me and said to take all the wheel weights I could handle. Well, I took some 2000-2500 lbs of ww's and put them in my girlfriend's barn.....some 30+ 5 gallon buckets of ww's.
I did a monster smelt session shortly thereafter and had probably 300 lbs of ingots. I have been working off those since then.
We bought the house she was in so fortunately i did not have to move them. Sometimes I joke that we bought the house so I WOULDN'T have to move them. :)
I am now down to my last 30 lbs or so of ingots and need to smelt again.
I have been sorting zinc and steel ww's for a few days and will get about 200-300 + lbs of lead ww's to smelt. Yup...checking them one at a time.
A magnet tells me the steel ones. A scratch tells me the zinc ones. A nice little gouge from a screwdriver end tells me the lead ones. Either way, they are all getting recycled
There is something to be said for a 5 gallon bucket (or two - or three) of nothing but sorted LEAD ww's. Kind of pretty if you ask me.
Nice quiet time in the barn with a heater and radio going. The casting/reloading room is a converted horse stall that is actually fairly tight and can heat up to about 60 or so if it isn't too cold out there.
Winters are long and hard here in NH so I keep myself busy in the man cave. Cheap therapy.

[Slugster]

Memories of buckets full of wheel weights. That's all they are now, memories. I used to pick up all I could carry for free, sometimes cost me a dozen doughnuts. Those days are long gone.

[35 Rem]

Nothing more beautiful than a 5 gallon bucket of WW's. I never found any of those free ones though and I started in the late 1970's. Never lived in a place where they were glad to get rid of them. On the flip side the price hasn't changed much at all during my lifetime. I paid 25 cents a pound back in the late 1970's and early 1980's and just last Summer I got 2 bucketfuls for 35 cents. Getting 30 buckets all at once, now that IS something. Sure saved a lot of work to buy the house where those were stored so you didn't have to move them. I have about 3,500 lbs that I need to move. Both a blessing and a curse!

[Winger Ed.]

That should keep you out of those crooked BINGO parlors for awhile.

[jsizemore]

The scrapyard I used to go to is long closed. They'd keep the WW's off to the side inside their building. I'd show up when passing which was about once or twice a week. Sometimes it was nothing and sometimes the truck would squat a little. I'd sort the WW's by composition before I bought them. The folks were appreciative and no matter what the market price was, they charged me 25 cents/lb. Can't really say how many I sorted but I still have my ingots stored in the 55 gallon drums they gave me. They gave me a bunch of 20lb propane tanks too. Said it cost them more to remove the valve then they made from the tank. Before they closed the manager said they didn't ship any lead WW's from their place for the 6 year period I went there.

[405grain]

20 years ago I was working hard but flat broke. We had a car, but the wife needed that for her job, taking the kids to school, and buying groceries. For years I would have to walk 3 miles to downtown to catch a bus to work, then walk those 3 miles again on the way home. I had a backpack, and I'd keep a ziplok bag in it just for tire weights. Whenever I found a tire weight at an intersection or on the shoulder of the road, in the bag it would go. I never found any zinc or steel weights back then, they were all lead alloy. Just from walking to work and back I was able to collect enough tire weights that I could cast up a batch of bullets every month. Those were simpler days, and though they were hard, they were also fun. I'm not poor anymore, and over a few years I was able to stockpile hundreds of pounds of pure lead, plus hundreds of pounds of casting alloys. If I had kept all the tire weights that I'd picked up off the street it would surely have filled more than one 5 gallon bucket, but they all got turned into bullets and shot before that would ever happen.

[Wooserco]

I've seen THOSE days! We do what we have to do. I recall walking ONLY half a mile to the corner for my ride to work. However, I was in Michigan in January and February, NOT in Modesto, CA!

We do what we need to do. We were a one car family, wife was a stay at home Mom. We definitely do what we need to do.

[jsizemore]

Some folks is too good to scrounge. Their time is worth more than mine. If I see WW's laying in a public area, I'm gonna pick them up. You know, saving the environment from poisonous substances. I have a disposal plan. When I would search for pewter, I hit up all the flea markets in my area. On the weekend route was an old K-mart store that had indoor and outdoor vendors. It had a pretty steep hill on the end that used to do tire and car service. When it was changed to a flea market, the weekend crowd would get used tires installed on their cars and trucks. They would go through 600-800 tires changed on a weekend. When they would change tires, the old weights would hit the ground and there they stayed until a good rain and they'd get washed down the steep parking lot. During the week when they were closed, I'd stop by with my dishpan and work my way across and down the hill picking WW's. There was a major bus stop adjoining the shopping center. Bus patrons would see me and figure I was finding money or gold, so they'd start looking too. Not knowing what I was looking for and most likely figuring I wouldn't share any wisdom, they never asked. Eventually they'd give up cuz all they'd find was WW's, old diapers and trash. At once a month, after a good rain, a bad day was half a dishpan and on a good day was a full 5 gal. bucket. Good times.

[Rockindaddy]

Wheel weights! I have gathered up buckets of them and recycled them into boolits. A couple of years ago, being a "Snow Duck" my wife and I would travel about an hour south of Miami to a little house on the water on an island. We fish, swim, and scuba dive in the warm South Florida waters. A couple of years ago a 40 some foot sailboat ran aground on a reef. Our friends and I were snorkeling around the reef when my buddies suggested we explore the sunken sail boat smashed up on the reef. There was alot of tools, dishes, ropes and rigging still on the wreck. Even a small 3hp outboard motor that had been under water awhile. Everything junk. My one friend dove down to the lower quarters of the wreck and said that there were a pile of lead bars. That got my interest. Must have hauled 700~800 lbs of lead bars out of that wreck that must have been added for more ballast. Floated the lead bars in an empty Igloo cooler back to my boat. Still making boolits from that haul! Sailboats have a massive keel for ballast. Most keels are lead. Now found a salvage yard and talked an operator who said I could possibly get some of the lead when they smash up a junk sailboat. You costal boolit casters should explore this source of lead.

[kevin c]

The only lead wheel weights I’ve ever melted down were new, given to me by a friend of a friend who owned an auto shop. He was getting rid of them because California law prohibited their use.

[FISH4BUGS]

I am going to sort another 5 gallon bucket this evening after work.
Since I work from home, I will start the heater going around 3 or so and by the time I quit, it will be nice and toasty in the man cave. I should get a couple of hours in before dinner.
My 37 year old daughter calls my reloading/casting area the "Apocalypse Room". It always made me chuckle.

[MrWolf]

I still have one or two five gallon buckets of ww's to be sorted. I have a few buckets of smelted lead from corn muffin moulds (maybe 2,000 lbs worth). I didn't mind the spring at all, kinda therapeutic. I will still stop and pick up any ww's I find. Was stopped at a red light with my new gf in truck. Jumped out and picked one up. Jumped back in and she just shook her head. She gets me.

[FISH4BUGS]

I will still stop and pick up any ww's I find. Was stopped at a red light with my new gf in truck. Jumped out and picked one up. Jumped back in and she just shook her head. She gets me.
Kind of like picking up brass. I have probably 20,000 223 brass in 5 gallon buckets....more than I will probably use in my lifetime....but I still pick it up at the range. Same with 9mm....and basically any caliber I cast or reload for.
....and yes, I pick up ww's too. :)
....aren't WE a scrounging bunch?
....and I talked with a guy last might at the member's meeting of our Sportsman's Club about recycling the steel and zinc ww's.....it turns out that they are virtually worthless. The scrap yards might give you $50 a TON for them.
He works at the local Harley shop and said they save up the scrap metal and the like and annually deliver them to the scrap yard....and get something like $50 for them.
Happy to give the steel and zinc ww's to him just to be rid of them.

[white eagle]

I have one bucket full that is enough of a good thing for me

[super6]

I hitch hiked out to California from Ohio several times in the 70s and did a lot of walking between rides, There were thousands of ww along the way, Young, dumb and full of dummy dust! Did not pick up nodda one.

[jdgabbard]

Still got about a half bucket of wheelweights to smelt. Though, only the stick ons... If I had a 100 buckets today I never sell a single bucket....

[Budzilla 19]

FISH4BUGS, if you weren’t on the opposite end of the country from me, I’d come help ya!

Don’t know about your neck of the woods, but cartridge brass down here inSW Louisiana goes for $2+ a pound at the scrap yard. Having multiple buckets of unsorted wheel weights is not a bad thing to have.
‘Zilla.

[FISH4BUGS]

Still got about a half bucket of wheelweights to smelt. Though, only the stick ons... If I had a 100 buckets today I never sell a single bucket....
Funny you should mention that.
I am heading towards slowing down a bit (at 75 I guess it is time - been self-employed for 40 years)
I debated when I took inventory and started this sorting project as to what to do with all these buckets of ww's, and I certainly could use the space in the barn.
After thinking about it, I think I will keep them and just have a long range project of smelting all those buckets over the next few years.
Then I will just have ww ingots of known composition....LOTS of ingots.
If I ever do sell them, they would be better sold and shipped in ingots as opposed to raw ww's.
Like they say "....invest in precious metals - gold, silver and lead."

[jdgabbard]

Funny you should mention that.
I am heading towards slowing down a bit (at 75 I guess it is time - been self-employed for 40 years)
I debated when I took inventory and started this sorting project as to what to do with all these buckets of ww's, and I certainly could use the space in the barn.
After thinking about it, I think I will keep them and just have a long range project of smelting all those buckets over the next few years.
Then I will just have ww ingots of known composition....LOTS of ingots.
If I ever do sell them, they would be better sold and shipped in ingots as opposed to raw ww's.
Like they say "....invest in precious metals - gold, silver and lead."

Their value definitely won't go down any time soon. All I see is lead prices rising. Actually buying lead at or near spot is nearly impossible today. I don't see that changing any time soon. Yeah, you might not shoot that many pounds of it. But it might end up being a pretty nice 401k plan for when you are ready to give up the hobby.

And if you ever get to the point you need an heir for them, just let me know.... ;)

[FISH4BUGS]

Having multiple buckets of unsorted wheel weights is not a bad thing to have.‘Zilla.

Exactly my conclusion.
I'll be smelting off and on for the next few years.
Kind of comforting to know they are there.

[RayinNH]

Donald, I'm sure I've recycled some of your bullets that you made from those wheelweights :-P.

[lightman]

I still get lead weights from a local tire shop. I just sorted a partial bucket this morning. I get them for free as I buy tires at this shop. I also take the shop guys donuts from time to time. Oh yeah, me and my old running buddy still stop at intersections and off ramps if we see a weight laying there. We also find the occasional tool and have picked up several receiver hitch pins.

[Rickf1985]

You ever find the rest of the trailer not far from the found hitch pin? Personally I find smelting large amounts of scrap lead relaxing. It is not a fast process so there is plenty of time to relax. When I am doing wheel weights I set the burner low so it melt very slowly so I do not exceed 700 degrees and all zincs I may have missed are floating with the clips and get scooped out. Once that is done it is back to just relaxing and melting. I do need to get a smaller ladle though. I use the Rowell ladles and I have a #4 and a #5. With severe arthritis in my hands that #5 9 pounder is getting hard to handle for too many pours.

[lightman]

You ever find the rest of the trailer not far from the found hitch pin? Personally I find smelting large amounts of scrap lead relaxing. It is not a fast process so there is plenty of time to relax. When I am doing wheel weights I set the burner low so it melt very slowly so I do not exceed 700 degrees and all zincs I may have missed are floating with the clips and get scooped out. Once that is done it is back to just relaxing and melting. I do need to get a smaller ladle though. I use the Rowell ladles and I have a #4 and a #5. With severe arthritis in my hands that #5 9 pounder is getting hard to handle for too many pours.

Ha Ha! No, I've never found the trailer! I'm guessing that the hitch was removed and the pin was left laying on the bumper.

But yeah, I rather enjoy sorting weights and I also enjoy the smelting process. I usually get together with a buddy once a year in late Winter or early Spring and melt our years accumulation of scrap.

[Bigslug]

I've really only had two wheelweight scores. Archaeological digs, both of them:

My department used to reload our practice ammo long before I ever got there. During a clean out of an outbuilding, one of the guys who knows my kinks found and brought me over a hundred pounds of WW in processed and unprocessed state. . .along with a pair of ten cavity HG molds. That was a day of [smilie=w:

Another one of the lads brought me a bucket from his recently passed father's place in NV. . . who I think had unrealized plans for muzzleloading - dunno. We're probably at least 30 years removed from the original collection of them.

I suppose I should poke my dad's traditional tire shop out of curiosity, but I can't imagine more than one pound in a hundred being lead here in the Land of the Lost.

I've had a few hits of ingots and cast bullets from cases where my local gun shops got the whole estate and didn't know what to do with the reloading supplies, but I'm no longer on "speed dial" with the newer businesses. Guess I gotta make new contacts. . .

[fivegunner]

I have about 10 , 5 gallon buckets of WW to sort out. it takes alot of time to sort. I am getting lazy.

[FISH4BUGS]

Spent some time each night last week sorting out ww's from my stash. I now have 2 5 gallon buckets of lead ww's ready to smelt into ingots.
I estimate there are about 150 lbs of lead ww's in there. I'll probably net 120+ lbs of ingots.
Next decently warm stretch (it was 7 degrees overnight here - high today of 35) I'll get them into ingots.
Needless to say the smelting is an outdoor activity.
I may be mentally disturbed, but I actually enjoyed that process of sorting the ww's (radio going, heater in the man cave - nice relaxing quiet time), and I am looking forward to smelting. There is comfort in having ingots - both ww's and linotype.
I bought 100 lbs of linotype pigs many years ago and still have about 75 lbs left. My alloy is always 5lbs ww to 1 lb linotype. Hard cast all the way!
The joys of casting.........and cheap therapy :)
p.s. I MUST be losing my mind. I had a short dream about picking up ww's off the road last night. :)

[1903.colt]

I stopped with WW three years back when I started seeing prices unrealistic to many people competing for the same 5 gallon pail . Now I'm getting free water pipe from water sewer contractors , now I alloy although the lions share lately is cast as is for black powder metallic Cartridge.

[Bill M]

Back in the 80's I worked for a company that once a month I travelled about 300 MI away to work for a week. There was an airbase, and car dealers on every corner, and every type of tire shop to put new tires and wheels on the young airmen's new ride! I gave $5 a bucket then, and shared with my friends, and every trip would check for new sources. Often, the owner/manager would tell me they were saving WW for customers that muzzle load. I carried about 20# of lead ingots in my toolbox, so I would bring them in, and tell the guy to give them to his "smokepole" friends, and save me the WW. Often the fellow would give me several buckets after that!
I did melt a couple of buckets at Christmas, so I have casting material, I still have about 10 buckets left, but most are old stock, a few cast iron, but no zinc weights!

[FISH4BUGS]

I did melt a couple of buckets at Christmas, so I have casting material, I still have about 10 buckets left, but most are old stock, a few cast iron, but no zinc weights!
Same here - these ww's are 15+ years old and I have found not too many zinc and even fewer steel.
I will not lack for anything to do in the future - just sorting them all into lead only will take a few years.

[beltfed]

Fish4bugs
I have found over the last 60plus years of casting that my 9+1 of COWW/Lino is plenty "hard cast" for most bullets, other
than really high vel work.
You are wasting your Lino using it in 5+1 unless you have a really rich supply of Lino
beltfed/arnie

[FISH4BUGS]

Fish4bugs
I have found over the last 60plus years of casting that my 9+1 of COWW/Lino is plenty "hard cast" for most bullets, other
than really high vel work.
You are wasting your Lino using it in 5+1 unless you have a really rich supply of Lino
beltfed/arnie

You are not the first to tell me that. An old timer told me 5:1 was Lyman hard cast equivalent. Maybe or maybe not, but it works for me.
I DO have a rich supply of lino.
I have some 75 lbs (3 pigs) of lino left.
If you do the math, that should be good for more than 450 lbs of alloy @ 5:1.
I do shoot a LOT, including full auto subguns with cast bullets.
But your point is well taken - why waste it? I'm willing to give it a try.
I think my next batch of casting will be 9:1. I can control that at the casting pot level.
I have never leaded a handgun or subgun barrel in my life.
If this new mix leads the barrel, I know where to find you. :)

[popper]

Dive weights and boat ballast are about any metal that will melt and pour.