I have run across a few aluminum weights, but I think the AL just means they are OK for aluminum wheels.
I have run across a few aluminum weights, but I think the AL just means they are OK for aluminum wheels.
That makes more sense to me... The ones marked AL or AL-MC had a VERY different, thicker type of coating which would flake off when I bent the WW's with my hands. I figured if I could bend them with my hands and the wire cutter 'bit' into them fairly well (felt just a tad bit harder than the "T" marked lead weights), I assumed they're likely lead. Some of the longer ones I could bend until they 'snapped' in two.
I guess since I separated out all the obviously Steel & Zinc WW's, I'll just 'cook up' the batch now and skim off the floaters!
I like the extra confidence & reassurance I get from going through the whole bucket of WW's one by one, separating out the many different wheel weights!
ALSO - I FOUND SEVERAL ZINC STICK-ON WHEEL WEIGHTS!!!
I didn't know they made zinc stick-ons!
Initially I thought stick-ons were all nearly pure lead - at least that's what I was led to believe from reading the casting books and stuff online!!! Imagine my surprise when I saw several of them were marked 'Zn' and were DEFINITELY harder than the real lead stick-on WW's!!!
All in all, out of the whole batch of wheel weights, I'd estimate that only ~5% of them were Zinc/Steel weights - the whole rest of this most recent bucket were all various types of lead alloys.
All the zinc weights I've found have been stick-ons. Also a bunch of them are steel. If try to melt down a batch of stick-on weights without at least pulling the steel weights out, you will end up getting the lead too hot before you get the trash skimmed out and the zincs will ruin it.
Man am I ever glad I asked the question; valuable information is really pouring in here from all of you experienced boolit casters.
I am now in the process of sorting my WWs and my magnet has picked out a few steel WWs;
WILL MY MAGNET BE ATTRACTED TO THE ZINC WWS.
I have a couple of huge WWs that seem to be lead; but I am still highly suspicious of them; and the knife, side cutters and a file still leaves me in doubt; that's why I have brought out my magnet. The magnet does not work on them; but I don;t know if magnets are attracted to zink or not.
I am printing this entire conversation to put into my personal reloading book; for info that is difficult to find answers to. I find the answers and comments coming into this thread to be invaluable!
Thanks to all.
Ken
"SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES"
All the zinc weights I've found said "Zn" on them. (I've heard that some of them say "Honda" instead of "Zn" but I haven't verified this)
If you pull out all the weights that are obviously zinc or steel, you should be able to melt what's left, slowly. Any zinc or aluminum weights will float on top when it's just melted and you give it a stir.
Magnets are not attracted to zinc or most other metals, but if they're steel, iron, or nickel, or cobalt, watch out!
OK I've read the thread..bottom line, IF I have some zinc in my my lead mix, the result will be difficulty pouring into my mold? New to this process and only casting for plinking at lower velocities at this point.
I picked up a couple of buckets of WW today. As a side note they cost $30/bucket. Total weight of the 2 buckets was 320 lbs. The owner told his guys to mound them up in the buckets. I'm not going to complain since I probably won't be getting any more after another shop fills the two buckets I left with them. If I get any kind of yield from these, I should have enough to last me the rest of my life. If not, I'll buy clean alloy. I'm getting too old to hoist these buckets around.
Back to the thread. I have sorted thru one bucket and am planning to weigh each pile of sorted material. Got dark so it will have to wait until tomorrow. I have a big pile of stick on weights. More than I've ever gotten from a bucket before. If I were estimating, I would say that these would weigh about 30-40 lbs. The zinc, iron, steel, rubber, etc. probably won't be over 5-6 lbs. I had never used the side cutters to test for zinc before. It is an eye opener. Some of the stick-ons that I culled, I would have sworn were zinc until I hit them with the side cutter. Most of what I had thrown out went back on the lead pile. Only a few of the clip-ons turned out to be zinc or possibly, steel(iron). I probably missed some that I threw in with the rest of the clip-ons, but watching the temp should get these.
John
W.TN
And it will pour like cottage cheese.
As I said in my post yesterday, I finished sorting the 2nd bucket of WW this morning. I weighed each pile.
Misc Trash incl. non-lead weights----- 11 lbs 3.5%
Stick-on weights-------------------------- 45 lbs 14%
Clip-on weights---------------------------262 lbs 83%
Total 318 lbs
I didn't use a magnet to differentiate between zinc and iron alloy weights. I wish I had. I believe all the iron alloy weights were stamped Fe. Some of the zinc weights were stamped Zn but not all. The non-metallic trash included with the non-lead weights couldn't have been more than ½ lb. These buckets were cleaner than just about any I have ever gotten. Very few butts, only 1 lug nut, a few sticky tags from tires and fewer rubber stems, etc than usual. The clip-on weights had a bigger % of large weights than usual. By large I mean about 4-6" long. I guess this shop has more truck(not semi) business than most shops.
I'm expecting about an 80% yield of clean ingots from these 2 buckets. The only time I've exceeded that was a couple of buckets that had quite a few very large weights mixed in. These were ¼ lb and some may have been ½ lb. This was from a shop that does a lot of "over the road truck" business.
I hope someone finds this interesting. I did.
John
W.TN
Hi John (and everyone else too),
I found your post very interesting since I have been yielding around 80% as well !!! So, in my opinion, you are doing good. I am glad I am not the only one taking note of the yield. By keeping track, we will no doubt notice the "decline" of yield, as lead WW's are phased out. I am sure I don't have to preach to the choir here... WW's are already banned in Europe and as most know, the push is on to prohibit the use of lead WW's (and other lead products) in the USA. I hope and pray that the yield drops ever so slowly!!
With kind regards,
Kathie
Glad I found this thread (& the site). Bought my 1st WW today & got 1 1/2 5 gal buckets full for $20 but have no idea how much trash is in there. I'd say in all the buckets weight ~ 200#. Have my 1st mold, ladle, & flux on order from Midway. I'll be using a fish cooker, surplus pot, plumber's ladle & muffin tin for smelting. I have 3 1# bars of 50/50 and 3 of 95/5 solder. Assuming 75% yield of smelted metal, what else do I need? Pure lead? How much per 10# of WW? I know I won't need to use all my solder but how much would be in order? Sorry for all the newbie questions and yes I have been using the search feature & will continue to do so. If anyone can point me to a few good threads for newbie smelters I'd be grateful. The shop I bought my WW from does have one more bucket of weights - should I buy it or sort the batch I got today 1st to check for junk? They said I was the 5th person to call looking for weights today! Another shop I called said something similar and all the other shops that had weights wanted $25 per bucket.
Knowing me I'll get all the stuff to cast and the EPA or some other agency will outlaw lead entirely & I'll be stuck with a bunch of back breaking buckets of lead.
NRA Life Memeber
Jim Fleming
I will bleed, Red, White, & Blue forever.
USAFR (Retired)
NRA Endowment Member
VFW Life Member
Hello. Im new to bullet casting and I got my first pile of WW today, lucky I saw this thread.
I found so many steel, aluminum and zinc WW.
There were also some funky ones that I have never seen in my life.
They were like hollow plastic tubes, about ¼ inch thick and where stick ons. I cut one open and poured the content out, it was filled with lots of round ball pellets which I think are lead.
There were allot of zinc clip ons which did not have any Zn markings on them, I did the squeeze test.
Lots of stick on zinc as well.
A few aluminum ones.
Overall I think about 10% to 15%$ of the batch was not lead.
Humm... zink in Wheel weights again.
Shrug..
I have cast at least 100,000 bullets, over the last 40 years.
I mean, I don't like zink wheel weights, cause they are a pain to cast, but I have buckets of zink cast pistol bullets, and once you get the hang of casting zink, they cast ok.
Keep your mould squeeky clean.
Use brake cleaner to clean it, and a tooth brush.
Next, pencil in the entire mould cavity with a #2 pencil. The entire cavity !
CAST HOT !
What will happen is the zink bullet appears dirty, there is nothing you can do about that.
Also the zink will not want to fill out in the cavity.
So, use very hot lead.
Use a very hot mould.
Then, pour a good header puddle, and while the header puddle is liquid hot, drop the mould about an inch on to a wood surface, just to jar it a little. that will knock the hot lead into the tight places of the mould.
Once you get the hang of casting zink, they cast pretty well.
x
Dont use them for deer hunting cause the hardness and expancion characteristics are unknown.
For game, use lead tin, or good quality wheel weight metal, air cooled.
I am new to the forum and just getting started to cast bullets. I was afraid that lead was going to be banned. I don't know how much I can afford to buy. I guess I will do what I can. Also do you think that lead bullets are going to be banned also?
Bob T
Welcome Bob T. With this new administration, who knows what will happen next. I suggest if you are getting into casting you try to find a good source for wheelweights, like a tire repair shop, and buy what you can. Roof jacks are usually pure lead if you run across any. If someone in the neighborhood is have a new roof put on stop and ask them if you can have to old roof jacks. If you get serious about casting you will never have enough alloy. The cheaper way to go would be any type of bullets you can find at the range and pick up. Any free lead you can aquire like roof jacks. Buying wheelweights from a repair shop and you can always buy online from places like MidWay USA. Of course that will cost a litle more but you can get some good alloy.
Again Welcome.
If a man has nothing greater to believe in than himself, he is a very lonely man.
Think about it this way Bob...
How much do you shoot a year? How old are you? Don't answer me publicly or privately, just do the math questions there in your home.
Once you get started reloading, you're very highly likely going to triple or quadruple your shooting, (if you've been reloading you probably already know that.)
Anyway, the point is do the math, Sir... How many of what kind of bullets are you likely to shoot in a years time. How many years do you think you're going to shoot...? Multiply and add the combined numbers up...
Me personally? I just bought FIVE HUNDRED (500) POUNDS of wheel weights... And that's not all that I have, by any stretch of the imagination.
LOL!
I also am very seriously interested in making a bullet trap for recycling my lead, just in case I run out...
P.S. Welcome to the best dang Reloading Forum on the 'Net...
Jim Fleming
I will bleed, Red, White, & Blue forever.
USAFR (Retired)
NRA Endowment Member
VFW Life Member
Has anyone ever tried sorting by using a voltmeter, i don't have any zinc ww to try it with but if anyone wants to try let us know how it turns out.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |