Casting with Zinc...Pennies

[Jniedbalski]

It’s super easy to get zinc wheel weights. I have buckets of them pulled out of my lead weights. And no body wants them

[Rp-]

There's a guy on this forum currently selling zinc ingots

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[barnabus]

interpret however you want... Even putting pennies on the railroad track became an issue... And...it is not your money... Sorry... You are using it...only.
While not a safety nazi, i do not make a habit of inviting trouble... Once a federal "incident" is on yer record...it don't go away...no conviction nor even trial necessary....
Rant over....carry on....

smh

[41jfischer]

I tried casting some of those zinc alloy wheel weights a couple of years ago. I never fired any but my 220 gr molds produced a 115 gr 45.

[Driz]

False. This is not true. Easy enough to look up. I’ve been making $65 Morgan silver dollar coin rings for years and the Seceret Service hasn’t shown up yet!!!

Gee back in the mid 90s someone discovered the cannon color copier could do almost anything. There was so much funny money flying around as a US Customs Inspector I used to catch some about weekly . As you’d expect it was mostly Canadian who like the typical drug dealers “ born elsewhere”. I never had Secret Service arrest a single one. It was so bad in Canada that businesses wouldn’t even take real US 100 bills for fear of fakes.
One guy had one hidden deep in his wallet and I men buried. When pressed as to why he told me that he knew it was funny money and wanted to keep it separate. Duhhh, but down the road he went just the same.
Most of mine were $20 which seemed the favorite denomination. Strangely most of the stores in the region had those yellow markers to check them. All we had was one stupid $5 loupe sitting in the supervisors desk and a good pair of eyes. My best way of detection was a quick glance at Andre Jackson. Studied I couldn’t see it but in fast glances it looked like OL Hickory had a HANGOVER.
I guess they never cared much since they already knew via a snitch to a Customs Agent that the Iranians were printing REAL US $100s on real plates somehow over there from the Shah’s era. They knew in 1988 according to the write up . They didn’t care enough to bother hanging the currency to what we have now until oh around 2000 +-. You really can’t make this crap up , it’s unbelievable enough living it. So if anyone wonders why no one gives a hoot maybe this explains some of it.

[Winger Ed.]

the Iranians were printing REAL US $100s on real plates somehow over there from the Shah’s era. They knew in 1988 according to the write up .

Back before it all went crazy over there, the US govt. sold them the equipment to print money when we modernized some of our
printing places. Then, being a govt.-- they could buy the right kind of paper too so their money 'felt real'.
In a sense, they weren't exactly counterfeiting our money, just producing/making it without our permission.

[wayne0]

I'm not even going to jump in on the zinc coin controversy. But I was thinking, aren't consumable anodes like they put on boats made of zinc? Besides those lousy newfangled tire weights, zinc anodes might also be a source for zinc.

You are correct! Having a 34' boat, I know about "zincs". I got the yard manager at my marina to put out a recycle barrel for zincs which most people threw in the dumpster.

[Winger Ed.]

Any boat repair place changes them fairly often.
You can make your best deal* for getting them to save some.

I have found beer to be a good currency for making such deals.

[Kestrel4k]

Not a caster (I know, I'm sorry lol); but being a metallurgical engineer, have followed this conversation with interest.
I concur with the poster who mentioned that zinc boolits were (an unfortunate part) of the future.

I would of course expect that workable casting & loading techniques will be developed and eventually optimized on CastBoolits, with the obvious collection of talent here.

We do have the opportunity to coin a few terms though; I nominate zoolits and zingots.

[Sasquatch-1]

Sorry, you lost out on "Zingots". A YouTuber has already posted a video on making them. Also, a quick internet search revealed there is a cryptocurrency called $Zingots, with the "$" sign in front.

[Rickf1985]

So, if a 220 gr. mold give a 115 gr boolit then a 55 gr. .223 mold would give a roughly 25 gr. boolit? You are basically shooting air gun pellet weights out of a Ar. I do not see that cycling the action let alone going downrange very well. Same with the 30 cal boolits. Using a big 200 gr. size boolit weighing about 100 gr., I don't see the aerodynamics working out too well on that for long distance.

[Winger Ed.]

So, if a 220 gr. mold give a 115 gr boolit then a 55 gr. .223 mold would give a roughly 25 gr. boolit? .

Zinc boolits will weigh right at 60% what a Lead one does from the same mold.
That's a down side for them.
However; you can push them up to jacketed speeds with just sizing them.
No lube, gas checks, or powder coat needed.

Zinc boolits aren't a 'do-all' replacement for anything.
But I can see applications where they'd do fine after we establish a learning and adjustment curve.
We can't think of Zinc being a direct replacement for Lead, but there's good applications for it.

Say-- for hunting, instead of a full house factory load with a 90-100 grain in .243Win,
a .30 cal with a 120 grain Zinc boolit from a 200 gr. mold sailing along at around 3,000 fps would be a good substitute.

For .224 and 6mm sizes- we may have to wait for molds designed just them for using Zinc,

[Charlie Horse]

Legality aside, has anyone tried to melt modern pennies (97.5% zinc) and cast with them?

Looks like the answer is "No".

[RogerDat]

It's your money.
You can do with it whatever you want........ put it out in the street and set it on fire if you feel like it.
But if you deface or alter it with the intent to defraud someone then it can be very problematic.

Destroying your own money is one of those crimes that never gets enforced.

I believe there is also and exclusion for when one "adds value" in defacing the currency. Thus jewelry made by cutting out old silver coins or art work made using money isn't considered defacement. I would postulate that making it into a bullet adds value but then I am a bit biased towards valuing the bullet.

We would use pennies as make your own shims for tooling because you could pound the copper to the exact thickness you needed. Doesn't work as well with zinc. I also would use pennies as spacers on hot plate to keep pot from getting too hot, helped keep the coffee that sat for a while from cooking down to tar. Did it one time with zinc pennies, they all melted and spread out. If it melts on a hot plate I'm pretty sure one can cast it. Do wonder about how well it will fill or release from a mold. Not sure contraction will be as great on cooling for zinc as it is for lead. Copper flow will be different. Would also wonder how well some less expensive aluminum molds will handle being hot enough to let zinc flow. More than happy to see someone try it and hopefully report back with their results.

[Winger Ed.]

Do wonder about how well it will fill or release from a mold. s.

Get on youtube and search zinc casting or something like that.
There's a bunch of videos of guys already casting with Zinc.
Awhile back I had one float up when melting down range pick up boolits.
I find quite a few large rifle cal. boolits in our backstop. So far, one was Zinc.

Besides the higher heat, there's only a couple extra things do doing it, like what kinds of pots,
and I think you're limited to Iron molds.


For those so worried about the penalties for using pennies for something other than spending money---
As a Mod. It's your duty to warn them about doing a search for 'penny floors' so they don't flip out and have convulsions.
Especially warn them about clicking 'images' on the search engine page.

[dtknowles]

Looks like the answer is "No".

When the zinc pennies came out a melted a few and made a ring just for giggles. I have been casting zinc for things other than bullets. People have been casting zinc for a very long time. I am not looking to cast zinc bullets as I have hundreds of pounds of better bullet alloy.

Tim

[Sasquatch-1]

My question is why use pennies? There are plenty of items going in the trash that have cast zinc frames for sub-components. One that comes to mind is the power wheel cars that are battery powered that little kids ride on. I often see these in the trash, and you are going to get a lot more zinc out of one of those than melting down pennies.

[thompsonm1a1]

in my area the fishing boats take the zincs on the boats every year and i can get 100lbs with no problem. the only problem is that the local dealer will only give you 40 cents a lb, what a ripoff. i melt them and put them into 2lb bars and set on them for a while to see if i can get a better price in the future.

[GregLaROCHE]

I used to put pennies on the RR Tracks back in the late 50's...the only thought I had then was..."Is it worth it to have an oblong penny to carry in my pocket or is it worth 'not' being able to buy that big juicy chunk of Double-bubble gum?"

I used to do the same thing, but back then they were all copper. Later I moved on to putting 22s on the tracks.

[rsrocket1]

I would consider casting a zinc bullet out of pennies as "adding value" to the pennies. You are melting a few cents worth of pennies into many more cents wort of bullets.

If it were a federal offense to "deface currency", all those machines that squish pennies into souvenirs would be outlawed.