Help in ID'ing zinc wws

[atom73]

I'm getting a bucket of wws from my guy today, what is the quickest and/or best way to ID the zinc wws so I dont get them in my smelting pot. I dont have a thermometer (I need one, I know...) so I cant use the temperature method.
Thanks,
Mike

[docone31]

A lot of zinc WWs will have riveted clips. Where as conventional WWs are cast in place clips.
Best indicator I have found so far.

[atom73]

Cool, I have been tossing the riveted clips

[lwknight]

Most are marked Zn but not all are marked. They will float on your melted lead.
Yes you can use the temperature method. Once the lead gets melted good , there might be some floaties that don't melt. It takes several minutes to increase temp from lead melt to zinc melting , so you have time to toss them out.

[jsizemore]

Lead alloy WW's cut easily with sidecutters. Zinc and steel do not.

[a.squibload]

Zinc WWs have a different sound.
Once you find one marked Zn, tap it with your sidecutters, screwdriver, etc.,
or tap the end of it on concrete, "clank". Almost a ring.

Tap a lead WW, it's easy to hear the difference, "dunk" or "thud".

After you do a bunch you'll spot the shapes by eye.
ALMOST every zinc WW I've found is marked Zn, but sometimes they're too dirty to read.

[evan price]

For stick ons, try to bend them. Zinc-ers won't bend easily. Temp's not too hard without a thermometer, just keep increasing the temp until the lead weights melt, then cut back the temp so they stay liquid. Better a little cold than too hot.

[DeadHandRed]

yep, after a bucket youll tell by looking.

the sure fire way for me was just to seperate one at a time and use a pair of pliers (side-cutters?) and nip a corner or side of the weight.

theres a definite step up in hardness to zinc.

[GP100man]

By no means a complete list. but this is what i find in my WWs

http://i746.photobucket.com/albums/xx110/GP100man/102_0287.jpg

[eagle4g63]

Glad to see this post as I am new to all this and just got a batch of ww my self. Thanks for the info, you'll probably see me asking all kinds of ?'s. One I have right now is what good is the zinc ww and what do you do with them? I need to cast some duck decoy weights(basically just a round disk kind of like the bottom of a cupcake mold with a bent wire sticking out for string) would these be good for this?

[shotman]

hey eagle you will get extra ducks that way "you know NO LEAD" they also work for PECAN TREES keeps the black off
many are not marked but look boxy and about all are painted I sort the ones that "may be" and do like the guys said add later to a KNOWEN melt
they do make good hard cast boolits but need to be hot and they dont work in an aluminum mold well

[eagle4g63]

Well just for the shear convenience we switched to using small solo cups with concrete in them for weights, also a lot cheaper. The reason I asked about using the zinc is the bucket I got I managed to get for free, I told the tire guy (after he asked why I wanted them) that I was using them to cast fishing weights and duck decoy weights!! Too many dirty or weird looks around here when I was saying I was going to cast bullets!!! So I switched my story, well.... this guy hunts ducks also and just bought some decoys and said cool just remember me for some decoy weights out of this and it is yours free. Now I need to cast some for him and if I can't use the zinc for anything I thought no big loss if I cast him them out of it!?!?

[DeadHandRed]

eagle4g63, id definantly give the decoy weights a go using zinc. i cast zinc sinkers into spoons, and its good to work with when pouring simple molds. i use a cast iron pot on a gas burner. it gets plenty hot enough.

[home in oz]

Why not use the zinc tire weights for decoy anchors?