Soww question of composition

Morning folks,
I recently acquired about a half a bucket of wheel weights from a local tire shop. Sorting through them so far I'm about half and half lead/steel with very few zinc weights. There are not many stick ons, but I'm running into some that are questionable.
Most of the usable ones are the typical dead soft type as well as several steel stick ons. However, I am finding some that are harder like the clip on weights. They are not pure zinc like the clip ons for sure, as the beat up cutters I am using barely nic the zinc.
Anyone run into these, and can you tell me what they are? I dont have any muriatic acid to test them and want to make sure that they are not zamac(? Think that's what it's called).

Thanks,
Ken

I have found that one particular brand of stick on weights are about the same composition as lead clip on weights. They are painted and have a symbol on them that looks like a circle and swoosh. There should be a sticky thread here with pictures.

That would be them, great. They seem to be the heavier weights also, much taller than the typical stick-ons.

This sticky shows some xrf testing. Some of the unpainted SOWW's show very small amounts of Sb/Sn. This helps in the manufacturing process. In the pot it's just like pure Pb. You'll notice the one painted one at the bottom of the chart that has an alloy content about like COWW's. That's true for about all of them. I only use the unpainted ones as a source of pure Pb. The others get melted with the COWW's.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...On-WW-XrF-Data

Read through the sticky this morning. Another great piece of info from this site!

We need to raise a statue to BNE for the time and effort he put forward to educate us.

If you sort through them with a dikes looking for zinc, you will probably notice which ones are near pure and which ones are near COWW alloy.

Got through the bucket this morning. Ended up with 30lbs coww (unrended), 3 lb soww, 10lb steel, and only 4lb zinc. All in all a good pick.

Now I just need to find out what kind of beer the guys drink so I can keep the buckets coming!

It sounds like you are off to a good start! Good going!

Sorting wheelweights get easier after you have done a few buckets. I've gotten so that I set a bucket on a 6X6 block and sit with it between my knees. I'll start picking out the junk, the valve stems, tire stickers, ect. Then move on to something else, say stick-on weights, then the steel weights, ect. When I have it down to mostly clip-on weights I'll pick up each one for a look and make a test cut on the suspicious ones.

BNE really did us a service with those stickies! There are a few others worth reading, one about sorting and another about Zinc weights.

Some beer for the tire guys is a good idea. Just make sure its ok with the boss/owner. I usually take my tire guys donuts. But anything to keep the flow coming is good.

Owner is a beer man and the one that gave them to me, so should be ok. If not, I'll have the local pizza place bring them lunch.

If I had spare time between jobs or nothing scheduled, I'd swing by the recycle center and sort before I bought. The zinc and steel I separated for the them. The thank you was the same price for years ($.25/lb) and a corner where they were stored so I could sort. They never sent any form of lead to the smelter for years. I taught the folks that worked there the difference between the various wheelweights and pewter. A benefit for them and me. When the bottom fell out of the market, all the small scrapyards went under and the tire shops had contracts for their used weights. Pretty sure my stash will last but I still see strays here and there and bend over to pick them up and throw them in the bed of my truck. Some habits are hard to change.

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Originally Posted by high standard 40

I have found that one particular brand of stick on weights are about the same composition as lead clip on weights. They are painted and have a symbol on them that looks like a circle and swoosh. There should be a sticky thread here with pictures.

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I to have wondered about those harder SOWWs and have been throwing them into the COWW bucket figuring a few thrown in with the harder COWWs wouldn't really change anything, while keeping them with the fewer by volume SOWWs would mess up my softer lead supply.

great post, and thanks

I've found that if you bring the heat up slowly, the lead/Tin stuff will melt sooner.
When the useable alloy has melted, its easy to skim off the harder stuff with Zinc in it.

I picked up what I think is a Zinc cast rifle boolit at the range--- some people are already switching over to cast with it.
I'd tossed it into my old RCBS pot with all the other ones I'd scrounged. My pot didn't get hot enough to melt it.