Sticky-back wheel weights ... what are they?

[mstarling]

Guys,

I just smelted another 5 gallon pail of wheel weights. I had sorted out the junk from this and the last pail. Left me with a bunch of stick-back wheel weights. These are the think ones that are marked for breaking off in increments and have an adhesive tape on the back. I suspect they are for use on aluminum wheel. At any rate, I melted them down and cast them into larger than normal ingots. Was about 25 pounds of this stuff.

Seems to have a higher melting point than regular wheel weight, but is not rediculously high as one would expect of a zinc alloy. Was not cool enough to get a decent comparison of hardness.

What is this stuff?

Thanks!!!!

[ron brooks]

They are close enough as to pure lead as to not matter. Some could be steel, and of course the dreaded zinc so as you were saying watch the temp.

Pure lead has a higher melting temp than "wheel weight" alloy.

[waksupi]

Pure lead has a higher melting point than WW's, but well below zinc.

[randyrat]

Save the pure lead for Black powder. Helps to have on hand for the front stuffer loads. Keep it for yourself or sell it to the purist. I keep mine seperate and identify it in a seperate bucket as soft lead. Organize/identify your batches so you know whats in the bucket in the future.

[WHITETAIL]

I mark each batch with a steel stamp. So later down the road I can tell what batch it is. Because markers seem to come off or fade.

[Jim]

If the "stick-ons" have anything in them other than lead, it's a very small amount. I ran a hardness test on a few batches and got 5 to 6 BHN.
NOTE:There are some zinc weights are stick-on type but are manufactured individually. I've not found any that come in a strip to be broken off like the lead type. The stick-on zinc weights are clearly stamped "Z". There are also some clip-on type zinc weights that are riveted to the clip. Throw both of these types out.

When I pig WWs, I stamp the pigs "W". All the stick-ons are marked "L". I use a 1/2" carpenter's chisel and a light hammer. I do have a muzzle loader, but I'm going to use the lead, alloyed with tin, for low velocity loads. I'm finding that the original clip-on WWs are getting scarce, so I'm saving them for my higher velocity loads.

[hunter64]

I do as Jim and Whitetail said, mark them with a punch of some sort. I was moving about 10 years ago and had some friends help. I was over at the new house and they were at the old loading up the 1/2 ton with some of the stuff in the garage. I had all my WW's and 60/40 (radiator shop) and lead all neatly organized and when it got to the new house it was all mixed up. The 60/40 stuff was easy to seperate but the WW's and lead were a little harder. The next weekend I was in a hardware store and saw some metal punches, about the size of a pen and the complete set from a to z and 1 to 9 were on sale for 8 bucks. Well now I mark my 60/40, WW and Pb with the month/year also and then there is no problem with identification.

[Junior1942]

When I pig WWs, I stamp the pigs "W". All the stick-ons are marked "L". I use a 1/2" carpenter's chisel and a light hammer. I do have a muzzle loader, but I'm going to use the lead, alloyed with tin, for low velocity loads. I'm finding that the original clip-on WWs are getting scarce, so I'm saving them for my higher velocity loads.

That's exactly what I do.

[Shuz]

Here's what works for me....I just use a "Magic Marker" to identify them when the ingots are cold. Real fast and never had any rub off, and real easy to read!

[EMC45]

I get plenty of the stick-ons I just bypass them and melt all the clip-ons. I believe I am going to buy my tire guys some cheeseburgers today for all the WWs.