Soften Wheelweights

[greybeard]

Has anyone tried to soften wheelweights?Like cast and slowly cool them etc? Dan

[Springfield]

They get pretty soft when I melt them but then they always harden up again when they cool! Seriously, the easiest way to soften wheelweights is to add some pure lead.

[DLCTEX]

I"d be surprised if you could soften them enough to make a difference by cooling them more slowly than just dumping them to air cool

[sqlbullet]

lead alloys with antimony and arsenic that treat well from quenching, can have all heat treatment removed.

heat them in the oven at 400°-450° (depending on the melt point of your alloy) for one hour. Turn off the oven, but don't remove them. Let them cool slowly in place. When they reach room temp, they will have no heat treatment effect.

The bad news is this will only remove, at best, 1.5 BHN. This is for bullets cast in the winter and air cooled in ambient air just a little below freezing. Bullets cast in the summer (75°-90° ambient air temp) only lose about .5 BHN. Hardly worth it.

Real solution....Add pure lead.

[MakeMineA10mm]

I've found a simple formula that MANY, MANY others here use is half WWs and half pure lead with some tin added. (I use 35-40 lbs of WW and same of pure lead, and then add one pound of tin, for my "soft" alloy.)

[WHITETAIL]

greybeard, Why do you want to soften them?:coffee:

[greybeard]

Hi: I want to soften the alloy so that i can use it in muzzloaders. Pure lead is getting hard to find up here. Dan

[jdgabbard]

Sounds as tho those WWs are usless to you... Good news is you can mail them to me :)

[greybeard]

jdgabbard the shipping would be very expensive. i use wheelweights in pistol and rifle but they are too hard for muzzloaders. Dan

[Lutzy48]

What you want to get are discarded stick-on wheel weights. These should prove soft enough for your muzzle loaders.

[fredj338]

What you want to get are discarded stick-on wheel weights. These should prove soft enough for your muzzle loaders.
THis is the way to go or trade your ww for pure lead. How much do you have? We could swap 50# in a flat rate box.

[GabbyM]

You'all need to take note the OP is from BC.
To Canada the flat rate boxes have a lower weight limit. 22 pounds or so. Plus they are approximately over $20. So figure a dollar a pound to ship lead.

Hard for me to imagine soft lead hard to find and WW available. Other way around here but then that's due to our politicians and lawyers. Check your local plumbers and roofers.

[SciFiJim]

One thing your can do to stretch your pure alloy is to add one part WWs to 3 or 4 parts pure and air cool. This will give you less than 1% antimony. It should be soft enough for muzzle loaders. I know of ML shooters that have used straight WWs, air cooled, without a problem.

[Nrut]

graybeard..
Anneal them like sqlbullet sez's in post #4...According to my hardness tester air cooled wheel wt's. (ACWW) are 13-14 bhn...annealed they test at 8 bhn...pure lead is 5 bhn on my tester...If 8 bhn is soft enough for you then you are set...:)

[fredj338]

You'all need to take note the OP is from BC.
To Canada the flat rate boxes have a lower weight limit. 22 pounds or so. Plus they are approximately over $20. So figure a dollar a pound to ship lead.

Hard for me to imagine soft lead hard to find and WW available. Other way around here but then that's due to our politicians and lawyers. Check your local plumbers and roofers.

OOps, you are correct, didn't notice that one. Pure lead is gettng more diff. to find especially in lead free countries, which the US is trying to move to. Best of luck.

[greybeard]

Thank You to all you guys. Talked to a friend [muzzloader nut]and he does the oven treatment and has had no problems. Great. Dan