Wheel weights now,watch out guys and gals new stuff is real potent

icehunter121

icehunter121

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Okie dokie so for us ppl that like to cast our own slugs.In the past 6 months or so I have gathered up 3..5gallon pails of wheel weights.Now we all know to cast with adequate ventilation.My shop has a door that is 14 feet by 12 feet and a walk in door.Open the doors up and have at er!! Did that yesterday,not sure of what some of the weights are coated with...but its nasty ####.17 hours later and I can taste the smoke in my mouth. My plan was to just melt it all down,and pour it into cupcake pans and use it from there so I am just using the lead.

New plan now is that the lead pot stays outside for the first melting to burn off the epoxy coatings and crap.Then remelt it and go from there.I didn't stay in my shop while it was melting,I was doing yard work and just walked in occasionally to check on it. But that was enuff to give me a serious bad taste in my mouth and a really bad cough...Melt that #### outside and walk away from it...
 
Epoxy paint! And some of them are not lead. They will have a foam rubber glue backing on them (designed for alloy rims) Some of the traditional styled lead weights will also be dipped in epoxy in an effort to encapsulate the lead and prevent it from leaching into the environment.
 
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ciphery said:
Epoxy paint! And some of them are not lead. They will have a foam rubber glue backing on them (designed for alloy rims) Some of the traditional styled lead weights will also be dipped in epoxy in an effort to encapsulate the lead and prevent it from leaching into the environment.
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Trust me I know about epoxy paint and 2 sided taped weights.I just wanted to let ppl know to melt them outside for the first time. Even in winter time with the doors open this would be way to harsh. There is also something that is added to them that has a melting temp close to lead but I don't know what it is.In melting 40 pounds I have probably 3 pounds of some kind of mystery silver stuff that looks like molten slag,
 
Sounds like you got a bunch of zinc weights in your mix! See how they cast. If you cast at your regular temperature and do everything normal and end up with cavities and bad fills, then you got zinc weights mixed in......not good!
 
My guess is your silvery stuff is zinc, the casters worst nightmare! More and more wheel weights are made of something other than lead and zinc is one of the substances. I put each individual weight in the pot by hand, weeding out the zinc. They are usually marked zn and feel lighter then lead, they also make a ting sound when dropped on concrete compared to a thud!
 
Not worried about pigeon #### or water,I know all about that and what happens. I just did a quick google search on zinc and it melts at 780 degrees,my pot was set at 750 for a quick melt. Zinc melting will give a frothy appearance which is what I had. There was also the odd ww weight that when put in would make a pop,not like water in a bowl of lead but a air pocket blowing up would describe it.That sounds like zinc from the google approach. So now its remelt all I did yesterday at less then 700 degrees and skim that crap off...
 
icehunter121 said:
Not worried about pigeon #### or water,I know all about that and what happens. I just did a quick google search on zinc and it melts at 780 degrees,my pot was set at 750 for a quick melt. Zinc melting will give a frothy appearance which is what I had. There was also the odd ww weight that when put in would make a pop,not like water in a bowl of lead but a air pocket blowing up would describe it.That sounds like zinc from the google approach. So now its remelt all I did yesterday at less then 700 degrees and skim that crap off...
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You can't get that zinc out of that batch now, all you can do is dilute it by adding more lead.
If your melt temperature is about 650 degrees, the zinc will float to the top and can skimmed off with all the rest of the unwanted stuff.
There is a chance that it is not zinc however, so if you flux the melt several times and skim of the dross, maybe all will be good.
I use a handful of dry sawdust, throw it on the melt, let it char for a couple minutes to evaporate any moisture, then stir into the melt, and skim off. Works better than other fluxes, I find.
 
Go over to cast boolits and look up zinc removal. You use copper II sulfate which will leach some of the zinc out, but not all.

And as for your melting pot, unless it's got a PID temperature controller then you need a thermometer in your pot to measure what the actual tempature is.
 
Spawn-Inc said:
Go over to cast boolits and look up zinc removal. You use copper II sulfate which will leach some of the zinc out, but not all.

And as for your melting pot, unless it's got a PID temperature controller then you need a thermometer in your pot to measure what the actual tempature is.
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Its a rcbs promelt with the setting dial on the side. Playing with more chemicals to me sounds like too much grief. I can take the time to get rid of the zinc. Or at least dilute it down. Its 24 hours now and still coughing,at least cant taste the burnt paint/lead now..
 
Where pray tell do you find copper sulfate anymore. When you skim the top of the lead like that your also going to loose any tin that might be there so you will have to add more later. Does the fumes from the weights smell like rotton eggs.Thats the zinc smell. I stopped casting indoors many years ago when I found out just how much lead goes into the air.
 
Zink melted into your wheel weights makes only one good thing.
Shot for shotgun shells. For the same reason that bullet casters hate it, shot makers love it. The surface tension causes the lead to ball up and resist flowing (filling out a mold)
 
I have a small pair of bolt cutters that I test-pinch each wheel weight with before
cleaning & melting. You'll soon easily tell the difference between lead and zinc with
this method. Zinc has much more resistance to the pinch than lead.;)
 
icehunter121 said:
Its a rcbs promelt with the setting dial on the side. Playing with more chemicals to me sounds like too much grief. I can take the time to get rid of the zinc. Or at least dilute it down. Its 24 hours now and still coughing,at least cant taste the burnt paint/lead now..
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Assuming it's a bottom pour pot, I would invest in a proper smelting set up. $50 turkey fryer and an old propane tank cut in half. You can make bigger batches and have better consistency. As well you won't muck up your pot.
 
SHELL SHUCKER said:
I have a small pair of bolt cutters that I test-pinch each wheel weight with before
cleaning & melting. You'll soon easily tell the difference between lead and zinc with
this method. Zinc has much more resistance to the pinch than lead.;)
Click to expand...

I test them by hitting each wheel weight with the corner of a file.
 
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