Glue on Wheel Weights

[Indy]

When I picked up a bucket of wheelweights at a different tire shop, there was many of them that came in a strip with what looked like glue to apply them. I am not sure what the substance is that is sticking to the weights but can it be removed by melting and skimming? I don't want to contaminate the clip-on weights. I appreciate any information.
Thanks,
Indy

[grumpy one]

First, the good news. If you just melt the stick-on weights, the remains of the glue strip on the back (after deducting considerable smoke and stink) will float to the top and can be skimmed off. There is no effect on the melt, so far as I have noticed at least. There may be an effect on your lungs and health of course.

The bad news is that the stick-on weights adhere over their full surface area and therefore do not need to have structural strength. As a result, every one that I've found so far has been something close to pure lead. They bend easily and I can gash them with my thumbnail. Hence the quantity of them that you mix in with conventional wheelweights (which have three or four per cent antimony) will affect the precise alloy that you end up with.
If you only have a few per cent of stick-ons in your mix, the result isn't worth worrying about. However if you have a high proportion of them, you may think about keeping them separate for when you want a very soft alloy.

Disclaimer: All the stick-ons I've had have been dead soft, but that doesn't mean there aren't any alloyed ones out there. Don't use them as pure lead without further investigation.

Geoff

[Howdy Doody]

I am with Grumpy One. I seperate the stick on ones for the mag wheels and use them for casting balls for my front stuffers. They are close to pure lead. Lot's of smoke and some flames though, but like mentioned the residue skims right off the top. I actually wish I could find more of them and less of the zinc ones that I have to discard.:Fire:

[Bigjohn]

My experience has been much the same as the two previous replies. I do separate them from the clip on ww's as I have found them to be softer than the clipon weights and use the ingots to adjust the hardness of a batch.

Use a large mouth pot, do the work outside and down wind of anywhere you don't want to stink up. Now, if you don't like your neighbours.....................

It would be a quick trip to the nut house if you were seen dancing around a pot of fowl smelling, smoking material muttering incantations under your gasmask. :-D [smilie=1:

The gunk that does not burn up is easy to scoup off.

John.

[TedH]

I always pick them out and melt them separately for use in casting shotgun slugs. If fact, just yesterday [while the wife was away]I decided I had accumulated enough and melted them into ingots. Ended up with 33 pounds of nice soft lead ingots.:-D

[NVcurmudgeon]

I separate out the tape-on weights and cast a few of them in various size boolit moulds for bore slugs. The rest I usually give to muzzle loader fanciers. Before melting I soak them in gasoline for a while, after a good soak the glue strip slides right off.

[454PB]

The few that I've come across are seperated from the clip type. I use a pocket knife to remove most of the two sided tape, then melt them in a well ventilated area.

[Indy]

Thanks everyone. I have gained some new information from your expertise. I will separate them for use later.
Indy

[Doc - J]

I put them in a jug and mix some Goof Off or Goo-Be Gone with a little dish soap and just let them sit for a few days before I remove the tape.

Watch out for Zink ones.... I've found a few zink with tape on them also.

[44woody]

I have found 3 good uses for them 1 cast then into black pouder bullets or 2 make fish sinkers out of them I have been shooting them out of my bp guns about 20 years now or 3 you can save them up and use them for trade stock to some one that shoots black pouder :castmine:44Woody

[chunkum]

Just finished smelting a batch of WWs and did the glue on's separately getting two+ standard Lyman ingots. A check of BHN on these gave a value of 5.7. Pretty darn close to pure Pb. There were some steel ones in this last group too.
When they got all melted, I put some wood shavings and candle wax in with them and incinerated the glue. Since I use a big fan when smelting down in the car port, the thick black smoke got blown out but there was certainly a lot of it when the flames caught up.
c.