Interesting smelt tonight

[HammerMTB]

I've been wanting to prove something I had heard, namely that stick-on WW are pure Pb
So I happened upon some sheet lead that is certainly pure. It is butter soft.
I smelted it alone, and made ingots. These came out below 5 on my Lee lead hardness tester. They were also different in other aspects. The smelt was funny colored, had a kind of rainbow on top, and tho when fully melted it was bright, once cooled it was very dull. The same color as store bought BP boolits, which should be no surprise.
Then I smelted a lot of stick-on WW. The smelt was much brighter. Once ingotted (izzat a word?) they were still bright, and the grain structure of the metal was apparent on the bottom of the ingot, unlike the pure Pb, which had no apparent grain to the naked eye. These measured ~5.5 on the Lee hardness tester. It's not much different, but it is measurably different, and there is obvoiusly some other metal in there that makes the Pb bright. A very small bit of tin? A tiny dab of Antimony? I don't know, but there was a clear difference.
Have any of you had a chance to do something similar? I'm saving the pure for my muzzlestuffer, and will mix the stick-ons into the WW blend, as many of you do.

[Dale53]

HammerMTB;
Thanks for sharing with us.

Dale53

[randyrat]

I clearly noticed some stick-on WWs are slightly harder than others.

It's much easier to make a stick-on slightly longer than to change a mold for a clip on WW to change weight.
In other words if your making stick on WWs and you got a really good deal on some alloyed soft lead(slight amount of tin and/or Antimony) all you have to do to make a stick on WW is to make it slightly longer. You can't do that with a Clip on WW, you would have to change the mold. (Alloyed lead is lighter than pure lead) Lets say the manufacture just ran a little short on pure lead.


Next expirement check the different size of stick on WWs that say 1 oz....I have not done this yet.

All in theory.

[GP100man]

the first time i smelted pure i thought i had some contaminated stuff with all the colors & all, but later learned it was pure Pb.
the last stick on batch i smelted came out at 6 bhn , & brite , so theres gotta be some kind of alloys in it.

[high standard 40]

I posted about my findings on this previously but will mention it again here.
I feel confident that by now we will all agree that clip on wheel weights are not all the same. Some are zinc, some are steel, and some are the lead alloy we seek. There is even some difference in the lead weights from one supplier to another.
Stick on weights are not all the same. Again zinc, steel, polymer, and lead. What must be noted here is that not all stick on weights are pure lead. From what I have found concerning composition, I now sort my stick on weights visually as follows after I cull the steel, zinc, and other trash.

Some stick on weights appear to be cut from sheet lead. Their information is stenciled into their surface. These are usually pure or near pure.

Some stick on weights appear to be cast in a mold. These usually have their information cast into them like clip on weights and are usually painted. When tested with cutting pliers they are noticeably harder than the "cut from sheet" stick ons. I don't claim to know the composition of these weights, I just know they are harder. I usually include these with my clip on weights when I smelt. They do appear to have some tin but as I say I can't be sure. Maybe if I can accumulate enough of them, I could water drop some and see if they harden like clip on.

Sorry I can't provide pictures. Don't own a digital camera. All my extra money goes towards gun stuff.

[Freightman]

I had a lot 15# or so of jacketed bullets I melted down and found them to be as pure lead, use them for my BP shooting. The lead was the bluish rainbow color also.

[cheese1566]

I found the same thing over the last few weeks. I smelted all of my stick ons into lone ingots. When I cast some into 38 molds, they were nice and shiny and almost had a mirror finish whereas my WW drops are a dull grey.

[bohokii]

yea my lead muffins from range scrap are sparkly like glitter on the bottoms but not on the top