My first gloat...........; )

[Nate1778]

I am a roofing contractor by trade. That said I was looking at a leak we created at an auto shop here in town. After finding the leak and letting the owner know, I inquired to what he did with his old wheel weights. The guy said he threw them away when the bin got full, but he would look to see what he had. Long story short I walked away from that shop with a two and half gallon bucket full of wheel weights. Left there and went down the street to visit my local mom and pop gun store to see if he had any lead ingots left over. No ingots left, man, but he said he had about 200lbs of wheel weights he would let go for .60 a pound. I said would you take .40 he said sure. We went and got them, weighed them, and he said $75 bucks. At that point I did not want to spend that much so I asked if he would sell half of them, he said sure, as he looked at those heavy boxes he said $50 for the lot, SOLD!


250 lbs of wheel weights for $50, not bad.

[putteral]

Well Done!
:drinks:

[sheepdog]

More can be found here http://tinyurl.com/bqqrvx

[Nate1778]

Love the Rickster................:mrgreen:

[sheepdog]

Everyone needs a good Rickrollin now and then.

[Nate1778]

OK, looking at them and too lazy to use the "Search" function, whats the diff from lead and zinc. The guy at the gun store that sold me the weights said they were old and there should be no zinc at all, I believe him as some of them look like they came off the first Model T's. But the bucket I got from the mechanics shop I have no clue how to tell the difference. Any help?

[sheepdog]

ughh I was there once, trying to figure out which were zinc and which werent. I still sort those I know are zinc or steel but to tell you got to either ping off concrete and know the sound or use dikes and cut into them. Either way its still not 100%. In the end you have to keep the weights at 600 or below. At the mid 700s zinc melts... slowly. Even a little zinc in a big batch doesn't really hurt anything.

[Matt_G]

OK, looking at them and too lazy to use the "Search" function, whats the diff from lead and zinc. The guy at the gun store that sold me the weights said they were old and there should be no zinc at all, I believe him as some of them look like they came off the first Model T's. But the bucket I got from the mechanics shop I have no clue how to tell the difference. Any help?

Zinc is lighter than lead AND much harder.
If you are melting wheel weights in large quantities, the easiest way to ensure you don't get any zinc melting into the mix is watch the temp carefully.
In other words you need a thermometer.
Usually, when I am melting wheel weights, they will be molten at 560F. 570F for sure.
Zinc melts at 780 roughly.
If you're using a large cast iron dutch oven on a turkey or fish fryer, make sure you keep the unmelted weights pushed down into the molten metal.
Otherwise you can get hot spots and zinc MAY melt into your mix.

I usually take a good look at the WW's before putting them into the dutch oven.
Some (not all) zinc weights are stamped Zn. Toss 'em. Same goes for any riveted weights. (usually steel or iron)
You can also test them with a pair of side or diagonal cutters. Lead will mark easily, zinc will not.
Lead weights will also thud when dropped on concrete. Zinc will sound very different when dropped.

Just watch the temp and you'll be okay. At 570 F everything should be molten. I will usually let it get up to 600 F and start skimming the clips.
Any weights floating with the clips go in the trash with the clips.
Hope this helps a little.

[runfiverun]

take your side cutters [wire cutters] to any with rivets ,Xn on them or you just think are funny looking to you.
i scrape mine on the cement and can feel the difference between them usually but any i doubt, cut cut. if they don't cut easily toss em into a bucket.

[peter nap]

I have been working on a large buy the last two days.
Yesterday, I used my turkey fryer and an old dutch oven and started the temperature slowly (Took forever for the first melt) using weights I knew were lead.

I watched the temperature carefully using a laser thermometer and double checking once in a while with an old fashioned lead thermometer. I didn't trust the laser but it turned out to be darn close. I never let it get over 600 F.

When I had about 10 pounds of molten lead, I started adding untested weights while still checking the temps.

I had to flux fairly often and pull the clips.. but every time I would get 30 pounds or so, I'd make 20 into ingots before adding more.

Surprisingly, I didn't get many zinc or iron. Maybe a dozen of each from the entire batch I did yesterday...but I did get a few.

This is what I did yesterday and maybe a little more than that today.

Just watch the temps and you should be fine with the zinc.

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa57/peternap/lead.jpg

[leadman]

If you have a vise you can clamp a suspect weight in it and bend it. Zinc should break off pretty cleanly, lead will bend. This is too slow to use on all the weights, so remember what the weight looks like, will make sorting faster.
I use several ways to find the zinc, look for Zn, rivets, use side cutters, keep melt no hotter than 600'.

There are some lead weights coated with a polymer that take longer to melt sometimes. So test the weights you pull off the melt with side cutters.

[Matt_G]

Surprisingly, I didn't get many zinc or iron. Maybe a dozen of each from the entire batch I did yesterday...but I did get a few.

That's about all I have been getting as well. I guess it depends on your location.
The folks in Mexifornia seem to be getting a lot more zinc these days...

[Wayne Smith]

I am a roofing contractor by trade. That said I was looking at a leak we created at an auto shop here in town.

Not a bad haul, but I don't think I want you as my roofing contractor if you go around creating leaks!!

[Nate1778]

Actually, you probably would. counter flashing on a 3 year old roof pulled away a bit. I have no problem admitting fault and fixing the problem free of charge. Aren't too many contractors that would be that honest. People or businesses are not perfect, its how we deal with our imperfections that define us............