Can't figure out if I should use this

[WildmanJack]

Hey folks,
I recently picked up a whole bunch of dive weights for 35cents a Lb. Last week I was smelting some stuff in the back yard and dropped each of the weights to check for the "ring" sound. Well a bunch of them just thudded so I figured they were safe to throw into the melt. Now I have about 10 or 15 2 Lb. weights that have a "ring" to them when I drop them on concrete. I measured them with my cabintree and they all come out to Brinell of 14.
What do u think? Should I use them with my wheel weights or keep'em seperate??

Jack

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Jack,

I would check them with Muriatic acid myself. Will react with zinc, even with lead zinc mix.

Sam :D

[WildmanJack]

Sounds like a good idea, I think my pool owning neighbor should have some of that. I'll have to check..

Thanks,
Jack

[chris in va]

If you can dent them easily with a tool, I wouldn't think they are zinc, especially at 14 hardness.

[lwknight]

Even a small amount of tin will make an ingot ring and still be softish.
I guess that they are wheel weight.

[canyon-ghost]

14 bhn is hard, wheelweight is 7-9 sometimes, you may have some real good rifle bullet alloy there.

[kawalekm]

Zinc will not melt till the pot temperature is ~800F. Next time you make some alloy, adjust the temperature to about 625-650 (wheelweights just melt). Take a knife and cut a sliver off of your unknown diving weight and drop it in. If it melts at 650 it's lead alloy. If it just floats there, it's zinc.

[sqlbullet]

Could also be WW that someone dropped in water after they cast them so they could handle them sooner. We seem to assume that no one would quench the metal unless they intended to harden it, but frequently rapid cooling is just convenient.

When I cast ingots, they usually get a water dunk for a few seconds as soon as they soft set, so I can empty the mold and re-cast.

[leadman]

I bought a bunch of stuff from a guy that had quit casting 10 years ago. He had some wheel weight ingots that he said he had melted down about 15 years ago. They tested out at 13 to 14 BHN.