Wheel weights

I am still getting well over 70% lead in the weights I collect from 2 sources. I immediately separate all weights that are not lead alloys, and discard them.
The steel ones are visually quite different, and easy to spot. I use side cutters to check for zinc if I am not sure.

A poster mentioned the plastic "coating" on many weights now. That is done to prevent electrolysis [thus corrosion] when they are clipped to any alloy wheel.
I hate it because it has to burn off and stinks when it does so.

If I miss any zinc ones, they will float to the top of the molten lead as long as the temp is not too high. I skim them off with the clips.

All stick-on weights are also separated and melted in a batch. Those ingots are marked as pure lead.

I have half a lifetime supply of lead ingots, and the rest are still wheel weights, to be processed as time becomes available.

Regards, Dave.
 
I just got 9lbs of WW and 5lbs of Stick on Wts and whatever of the clip on crap (zinc, metal, plactic).
Thanks to CGN Pauli I'll be able to cast some 165 NOE for my 30-30





These are recovered Lee 170gr GC from my Win 94 30-30 at 100yds. Theyre about a #2 alloy. Almost starting to mushroom;
 
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Well I finally decided to get on this before it is too late. First shop I walked into had a full 5 gal. After separating the steel with a magnet and the zinc with side cutters, I'm looking at a metric crap load. Figure it's North of 100lbs of lead and about 83% of the bucket. (Edit: Weighed them: 18 lbs soft lead, 118 lbs of lead). Lots of old weights.

The shop owner said to come back in a month or two for another bucket. Since i brought him a six pack, he offered to hold it for me.



The one question I do have is regarding the Plombco stick on weights (image below). Are these suitable to melt in with the muzzleloader friendly stick-on weights? They are clearly lead, but unsure if they are as soft as the regular stick on weights.

Example:
21290018_pbo_47325_pri_larg.jpg
 
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Cut one half way through and start bending. Soft will bend multiple times before breaking, anything else usually breaks after bending 3-4 times.

I always assume the unpainted stuff is pure.


Just looked at the pic...those I do not consider pure.
 
Thanks man! I tried it and they are more brittle. Looks like they are an alloy. I'll melt them with the rest of the WWs.

Walked in to another garage on the way home today and grabbed two more buckets. Just finished sorting them. 76% lead with the bulk of the scrap being the stick on steel weights. Those are a PITA! It's like playing a sadistic version of Majong tiles.

I'm now up to 60 lbs of soft lead, 220lbs of lead alloy. Will be starting the melt tomorrow!
 
At one of the local tire shops there are 3 of us after the weights. We try and make sure we all get some weights and the owner is good about it too. His service guy will actually load them in the truck when your not looking if he is tired of having them around the shop. I'm going to ask about home delivery because he drives right past my house. Lol
 
I still don't understand why people go to the trouble of sorting though a pail of WW to remove zinc and steel - if you enjoy it and have the time, that's fine, but it's not necessary, and in fact you're bound to miss some anyways. I did that for my first pail, but for the several tons of raw WW I've done since, I only removed the stickon WW's, and those that I noticed that were obviously zinc or steel - as I ladled them in. All you have to do is pay attention - as soon as the melt goes from "mush" to "liquid", you ladle out the waste that will be compromised of steel clips, zinc and steel wheelweights and of course the odd lug nut, screw, etc.

My newest WW is about three years old and most is five or older. I have yet to encounter less than a 70% conversion ratio (raw to ingot), but the two pails I have yet to process are the newest and the ratio might be lower.

I always sort out the zinc afterwards from the waste and make up zinc ingots, just for fun and to make the odd zinc bullet in the past. It takes a lot of time and a lot of heat to melt them - heat so high in fact that any lead that might be in with it had long since melted and was glowing red. It's also a bugger to cast them too, as the heat level is way above anything that would work for lead, and the bullets are quite light for their size, and brittle.
 
Andy said:
I still don't understand why people go to the trouble of sorting though a pail of WW to remove zinc and steel - if you enjoy it and have the time, that's fine, but it's not necessary, and in fact you're bound to miss some anyways. I did that for my first pail, but for the several tons of raw WW I've done since, I only removed the stickon WW's, and those that I noticed that were obviously zinc or steel - as I ladled them in. All you have to do is pay attention - as soon as the melt goes from "mush" to "liquid", you ladle out the waste that will be compromised of steel clips, zinc and steel wheelweights and of course the odd lug nut, screw, etc.

My newest WW is about three years old and most is five or older. I have yet to encounter less than a 70% conversion ratio (raw to ingot), but the two pails I have yet to process are the newest and the ratio might be lower.

I always sort out the zinc afterwards from the waste and make up zinc ingots, just for fun and to make the odd zinc bullet in the past. It takes a lot of time and a lot of heat to melt them - heat so high in fact that any lead that might be in with it had long since melted and was glowing red. It's also a bugger to cast them too, as the heat level is way above anything that would work for lead, and the bullets are quite light for their size, and brittle.
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If you are sorting after the fact why not just sort them? I know I've only melted one pail but I didn't get any zinc mixed in but I was over the top careful. After dropping one in on purpose at the end just to see the difference I don't think I will spend as much time sorting in the future. My pot got full enough with just the clips in there I can't imagine dealing with all the steel and zinc in there as well, and the plastic would be terrible.
 
yomomma said:
Meh, its not that big a deal really. There is also a line of thought that you end up with more of the arsenic if you do a good flux before you scoop out the clips.
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When I started scooping out clips I found I still had some "stuff" stuck to them so I dumped them back in and fluxed and they came out much cleaner. Everything went really well until I dumped the ingots out on the driveway. Apparently they weren't quite hard enough and I got a bunch of crap stuck to the tops of them. Next time I'll dump them on something cleaner :)
 
Andy's right-on on about temperature difference, however I still sort on a 1/4" wire mesh(2"x3" wood frame) removing plastic, rubber and zinc-steel(avoiding lead-oxide dust). Fumes from melting/burning plastic and rubber are bad news.
 
The decision I made on sorting them prior is that I don't have so much going into the pot, using propane/etc. Got 25% less stuff to scoop out, and I was already going through them for the stick-on weights. I suppose it is personal preference. Added security if I screw up and the temperature rises enough to melt the zinc.
 
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