Wheel Weight Rogue's Gallery (the Good & the Bad but no ugly)

[Goatlips]

Orygun, Love them molds! Especially the little ladyfinger size, I nearly bought two of those cast iron playthings at an estate sale but they wouldn't come down to my price. Looking at your picture, they seem to work very well.

Goatlips

[quack1]

I melted a couple buckets of wheel weights last week and found a few plastic ones marked 5 and 10 (grams). I broke the 5 gram one in pieces and it was all plastic, but the one marked 10 had a piece of metal molded in the center. I was going to check to see what the metal was, but absent-mindedly threw them in the can that I scoop the hot clips into, then filled it with hot clips. It might be a good idea to check what this piece of metal is before letting the plastic ones melt into the batch, in case the metal is zinc. They looked like the smaller ones in oryguns picture.

[Orygun]

I melted a couple buckets of wheel weights last week and found a few plastic ones marked 5 and 10 (grams). I broke the 5 gram one in pieces and it was all plastic, but the one marked 10 had a piece of metal molded in the center. I was going to check to see what the metal was, but absent-mindedly threw them in the can that I scoop the hot clips into, then filled it with hot clips. It might be a good idea to check what this piece of metal is before letting the plastic ones melt into the batch, in case the metal is zinc. They looked like the smaller ones in oryguns picture.

I haven't found any plastic ones yet, but I wonder if it may just be a steel attachment?

Goatlips...I read your "speed casting" tips before I got my Lee mold and it really helped me crank 'em out! BTW, I have about $14.00 tied up in those 3 larger ingot molds. 2nd hand stores and thrift shops are great places to look.

[quack1]

Orygun- The metal insert was completely covered by plastic, I didn't know it was in there until I broke the weight in half. I should have been more specific with my description,they looked like the ones in your second picture, the ones with 2 holes and a recessed center section. I'm curious as to how these weights are held on-there weren't any clips or any sticky stuff on the backs. If I find any more I'll be sure to find out what the metal part is.

[Orygun]

Steel Weights....
Smendered about 175 lbs. today and though they may not be rare, for (my) first time I found steel wheel weights in the lot. The large one didn't get into the pot as I discovered it before hand and put a magnet to it.

The small ones were thrown into the last pot of tape on's only and floated to the top. At least no Zn!

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/atta...1&d=1177105011

[Orygun]

More rogue's for the gallery........
I (think) this is my first plastic weights out of K's of lbs of smendered WW's over the years.
The top two are plastic and the bottom 4 are steel. Two of the steel weights floated, the other two I culled before hand. Where's this world going to?

[grumpy one]

Steel weights that have clips are riveted/staked where the clip attaches to the body of the weight. They are the only kind of weight that is riveted, and you can always see the riveting. I see most of them and toss them in the garbage to save pot space and fuel.

Those dumbell-shaped weights are a bit trickier. Some are painted grey and some aren't. Nearly all are lead alloy, but I've had a couple of zinc ones, which were also painted. I separate them, check for "Zn" on them, and if I don't find it I swish them around in a potful at 600-650 degrees. If they melt, fine. If they don't, they go in the skip. It is an extra operation, and barely worthwhile - so far only about 1% have been zinc.

[Dye]

More rogue's for the gallery........
I (think) this is my first plastic weights out of K's of lbs of smendered WW's over the years.
The top two are plastic and the bottom 4 are steel. Two of the steel weights floated, the other two I culled before hand. Where's this world going to?

Orygun
The plastic weights look like plastic covered lead,I have not found any zinc weights that are not marked zn. some place.

Be carefull Dye

[MarkK]

I suscribe to shooting on a shoestring approach. This approach seems to work quite well for me. Prior to that I sort to remove junk, separate clip ons from stick ons as well as culling the suspected zinc clips. I'd also add that zinc clips are much harder than lead based weights. I'll use a cut test on suspect weights - lead is relatively easy to whittle compared to zinc. Zinc also sounds more metallic if you drop it whereas lead thuds - you know what I mean.

More info on Zn WW: http://www.leadfreewheels.org/zinc.shtml

[grumpy one]

I find quite a variation in the hardness of stick-on weights. They just about always come to me in strips of weights, and I do a twist-test. The ones that twist easily go into the "lead" pile and the others go into the "WW" pile but I hold some back if necessary to maintain a fairly constant proportion of them. After smelting, the soft stick-ons average 5.3 BHN, so they are fairly close to pure lead. My WWs, with the usual proportion of relatively hard stick-ons included, average 14.9 BHN after aging for about a year.

[Orygun]

Dye,
You made me curious and I just took some side cutters to the plastic WW and it is plastic through in through.
Also I have had some Zn weights that were NOT marked Zn. (See my earlier posts in this thread).

MarkK,
Interesting site. Looks like the handwriting is on the wall.

grumpy one,
"Steel weights that have clips are riveted/staked where the clip attaches to the body of the weight. They are the only kind of weight that is riveted, and you can always see the riveting. I see most of them and toss them in the garbage to save pot space and fuel."

I find MANY that appear to be riveted weights and are regular WW alloy. Throw some on top of the pot and see if they don't melt at once.

I cull all of the soft stick-on's and use them for fishing weights.

[grumpy one]

Orygun, I suspect we have different definitions of "riveted".

[Dye]

Orygun
Just for kicks take a old spoon and a little propane torch and heat one of the weights, see if you don't have lead after all the plastis is burned off . Do this outside and make sure you are up wind, it stinks .

Be carefull Dye

[Orygun]

Orygun, I suspect we have different definitions of "riveted".

I suspect you may be correct.

[Orygun]

Orygun
Just for kicks take a old spoon and a little propane torch and heat one of the weights, see if you don't have lead after all the plastis is burned off . Do this outside and make sure you are up wind, it stinks .

Be carefull Dye

Here's a pic of the plastic one that I cut in two. I don't see any evidence of lead. It appears to be nothing but a white colored plastic of some sort inside.