Markings on wheel weights???

[Joe C]

I just picked up a bunch of wheel weighs to melt down today ,and have been reading a bit about zinc weights.

I did read through the sticky on zinc weights , but had a couple other questions.

Some of the weights i have look like a different color than the rest , kind of look like they are painted, and it does scratch off like paint.
Most of these "painted" weights are a large weight , the type that are probably used on large truck rims, a few small ones in there also.
Some are marked BTAL , BTLT , and some of the smaller ones (for cars) are marked AL-MC and AAW .
I am thinking (not my strongest skill) that these are plain lead weights, painted so that they do not react with the aluminum wheels on some vehicles...????????

They look and feel, just like lead weights, and are pretty easy to mark with a pair of pliers .
Anybody familiar with these .........????
thanks
Joe.

[7x57]

I just melted down some painted ones marked AL-MC. the bad thing about the paint is they smoke and stink when smelted. You'll know when you hit a zinc weight with the plier test, they're noticably much harder!

[WildmanJack]

Joe,
First off, get yourself a pair of regular old pliers. Open them up to the widest position and start checking your ww's. If you put one in the space used for cutting wire and squeeze the pliers, lead will mark quite easily, Fe ( steel) on the other hand won't mark at all unless your real name is Clark Kent. Zinc will also be very hard to crush or mark with the pliers. My motto has always been " when in doubt, throw it out". saves a lot of headaches later on... Welcome to the board and good luck with your smelting...
Jack

[Joe C]

Thanks for the replies.
One of the things i am doing , following suggestions from the Zinc sticky , is that
i am keeping the melt temp down to about 600-650 degrees , so that if i do put in a zinc weight , (accordign to the sticky ) it will float with the rest of the clips .
again ,
thanks
Joe.

[Ole]

Yeah don't worry Joe.

If you don't let your pot temperature get away from you, you'll probably never melt a zinc weight.

I've thrown many of them in with my lead WW's. They always come out when i'm skimming clips because I don't ever let the temperature go over 650.

[jforwel]

I melted 100 lbs. of WWs yesterday and out of that only five weights turned out to be zinc. I pulled them when they floated and I normally keep my temperature about 650. Since I get so few zinc weights I think checking each one with pliers is a waste of my limited time. I also save them and give them to a friend who casts zinc mini-cannon balls.

[runfiverun]

the zinc ones are USUALLY marked zn. what you was seeing was who made the ww's.
if you wanna be picky you can separate by brand for... i don't know what, but my dad did it for me for a long time.
those boolits were consistent as heck though from batch to batch.

[brennemanj83]

I to do not let my pot get over 650 and just skim the zinc weights of with the clips.I dont throw the zinc weights away though, I melt them down in a seperate pot and us them to mold my fishing sinkers with.

[cabezaverde]

How do you guys control the temp when using a turkey burner to melt with?

Do you just stick a thermometer into that first very little bit of melted ww's?

[Cherokee]

I just start skimming and fluxing and pouring ingots when the metal is hot enough, I don't wait for it to heat up more than needed to be fluid. Its when you let the melt "cook" for a while that heat could build enough to melt zinc.

[HamGunner]

Start with known lead weights until you get enough liquid metal to float zinc and the steel waste. Then keep an eye on the melt and do not melt a whole pot at once. Never leave the pot to just melt. Keep an eye on it and zinc will show itself to you.

[Mark Daiute]

I smelt in a fireplace with a wood fire. I smelted about 36 lbs of pb this morning in about a half hour then I moved on to wheel weights. The first batch of 38 lbs was trouble free. The second batch turned into oatmeal and I figure I must've thrown in some zinc.

My cast iron pot holds in excess of 35 lbs and it was nice just dumping the weights into the pot. Now I'm afraid I have to take the time to pick over the weights. So zinc weights are marked zn?

Next time I'll add the weights slowly- I'd hoped to free-float any zinc weights but obviously got ahead of myself.

Thanks for listening,

Mark

[GP100man]

Mark

ya may just have a too cool problem , 35 lbs. is a nice hunk of lead to keep hot with a open fire !!

For identifying zinc WW I looked for riveted clips & shiney metal , unpainted shiney metal .

But the pliers test , however slow it is will tell the tale!!

[Mark Daiute]

I may have acted a little hastily, might have been a simple temperature issue but in my defense that batch was acting just plain funny. I lost a good 10 lbs or so with the oatmeal that I skimmed off. Once I started going through the wheel weights, picking them over, I found one steel weight and not a single zinc weight.

Out of one 5 gallon pail, I've smelted 90 1 pound ingots with maybe another 12 pounds or more to go but I'm hot and tired and had enough for one day.

Again, thanks for listening, not many people would be that interested in these issues. It's nice to have a place to turn to.

[Ferdinand]

I smelted down what seemed like 150+ of ww and wound up with 125+ lbs of ingots. I melted about 10-15 lbs at a time and monitored it closely. I found 3-4 zinc weights, along with an occasional valve stem that I missed. The zinc weights floated up as soon as the clips were all freed up. I don't have a thermometer,so I can't say what temps I was working at.

[jmsj]

Found one last time I smelted marked Pb Zn. It floated up w/ the clips. When I tried to skim it out part of it broke. I scooped it all out and when I threw it into the steel pail w/ the clips it kind of fell apart. It looked like if it got a little hotter it would have melted, the thermometer said 700 degrees. jmsj