WW balances for race car

[odinohi]

I aquired some balances for a race car from my brotherinlaw. They are around 22lbs a piece and 14" long. He says they were made from melted WW's. How can I tell if they are contaminated with zinc? Also, whats the easiest way to break them down to fit into my 12" cast skillet? I'd like to melt them down and pour into managable sized ingots. Thanks for any and all info, Tom

[Cowboy5780]

There prolly gonna have Zinc in them best way i can think is to melt it at lower temp and try to skim it out... My friend races he just takes all the weight and puts it in a pan or whatever he has and takes the (rosebud) on the torch to it till its liquid and pours it in around 20 lb molds.

[357maximum]

A good hydraulic wood splitter makes fast work when it comes to making big pieces lead into smaller ones. With ww or harder alloy the wedge gets part way into it, and then POP...you have 2 pieces.

Using a wood splitter tells you alot about how alloys will act when the boolit hits the bone. Shooting into your ingots with a medium/standard velocity rifle will show the expansion/flow/shearing traits of an alloy also.

[randyrat]

As for testing for Zinc, melt some in a small pot and ladel cast. This is the best test there is. Use a seperate pot than your regular casting pot to save yourself if it is contaminated with a few Zinc turds. If you don't you'll be skimming and skimming to clean it all up.
Side note: you can see a difference on top of your melt if there is any measurable amount of zinc in there most of the time (oat meal, takes a lot of heat to "smooth out"the top of the melt)

If you ladal cast some good bullets your good to go. On the other hand, if your having a dikins of a time casting good bullets(privding all else is up to speed) you got Zinc.

[armyrat1970]

I aquired some balances for a race car from my brotherinlaw. They are around 22lbs a piece and 14" long. He says they were made from melted WW's. How can I tell if they are contaminated with zinc? Also, whats the easiest way to break them down to fit into my 12" cast skillet? I'd like to melt them down and pour into managable sized ingots. Thanks for any and all info, Tom

If contaminated with zinc it will be hard to tell. If pure zinc that's another story. Take a pair of pliers with a cutter and try to cut them. I'm sure the blocks you have are large and it may take a very large pair of pliers. Anyway. If they dent or bend easily it's good lead alloy. If not so easily it's zinc and steel is harder. With weight blocks that size it may be hard to check.
An electric skill saw or chainsaw will cut them up into smaller pieces to put into your skillet and I would keep the temps around 700. Zinc doesn't melt until around 785 so if you keep your temps low you should be able to skim off the zinc,

[runfiverun]

22 lbs is about the size of a brick from your house.
melt some ww's in your pot and add it in turn the heat down on the pot and see what it does.
when i am smelting i always cut my heat down as soon as hings get melted do my skimming and fluxing then look at my thermometer if i am below 650 and it looks good ,it's ingot time.