What a good idea. I have kept the zinc wheel weights until I thought of a good use for them. I will cast them into sheets and cut them into strips. These are ideal to use as sacrificial anodes and as moss killers.
Thanks, Caretaker.
Melting wheel weights for bullet casting - all you need to know
- Thread starter blacksmithden
- Start date
What a good idea. I have kept the zinc wheel weights until I thought of a good use for them. I will cast them into sheets and cut them into strips. These are ideal to use as sacrificial anodes and as moss killers.
Thanks, Caretaker.
- Location
- Edmonton, Alberta.
I would only like to add that you need to be wearing a good respirator when doing this work as lead fumes are NOT good for you!
Rotaxpower
CGN frequent flyer
You can't inhale lead fumes unless you get the lead so hot it boils. But you can inhale lead dust which is no good
blacksmithden
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I'm not even worried about that as much as the fumes from the melting/burning plastic coating on the weights, not to mention the other various "garage stuff" that inevitably winds up getting chucked into the pails they put the wheel weights in.
+1 all the other mystery black stuff will kill you long before lead poisoning. Smelting WW is nasty business.
For casting my LEE is controlled with a thermocontroller that allows me to walk away after fluxing till the smoke dies down. With smelting using turkey fryer don't know any way to control temperature electronically so can't just walk away till smoke is gone; have to stay to control temp.
For casting my LEE is controlled with a thermocontroller that allows me to walk away after fluxing till the smoke dies down. With smelting using turkey fryer don't know any way to control temperature electronically so can't just walk away till smoke is gone; have to stay to control temp.
Well someone had to do it! I got things a bit too hot and now have some zinc in my ingots and of course all my bullets' sharp edges are rounded because the alloy won't properly fill the bullet mold. When I remelt the ingots, there appears to be a slightly gold colored sheen on the liquid metal and it can be skimmed off, even without fluxing. Is this the zinc separating from the lead? Regardless, is there any way I can separate/remove the zinc contamination from my WW alloy? Otherwise I may have about 80 lb of wasted alloy... Any suggestions? Thanks.
There was a write up on cast boolits about using sulphur to remove zinc from lead. Might be worth a look for you, as I don't remember the details off hand.
easyrider604
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Greater Vancouver, BC
I would just try and use this "wasted" zinc/lead alloy. Just mold a few, see if they are of the proper diameter, then weigh the bullets. They will be a little lighter than the nominal weight for a given mold, being the alloy does not fill the mold completely.
By how much lighter, well, that will depend on how much zinc got alloyed into the lead, as well. But zinc/lead alloy shouldn't be much harder/softer than Wheelweight or Linotype so it should not harm your bore. It sure can't be harder than copper gilding metal (90%copper 10%zinc) used in bullet jackets.
Zinc/lead is less dense than WW or pure lead, and bullets need to be heavy to be accurate to longer distances. For most plinking use, pistol shooting to 25 meters, or cast rifle bullets to 150 meters, IMO, zinc/lead bullets should work.
Your zinc/lead mix may not be suitable serious target work or competition but check the accuracy for yourself.
If you do decide to mold and shoot this wasted alloy, please come back with a range report. Many of us would probably be interested to hear your experience.
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I tried it.It works wonders BUT it can be very dangerous if not done properly.
Personally I'm not recommending it to anyone just starting with cast boolits-This should be done only by experienced caster and/or with company or supervision.
Here is the report: When I realized what was happening, I had already cast about a dozen 490 gr slugs for my 45-90 using the Lyman 457658 mold. The bases and all grease groove bands had rounded edges instead of sharp edges so I put them back in the pot and added one pig of pure lead so I had 5 pigs of WW with one of lead to dilute the mix. So I cast about 50 and weighed them to select those that were 493.5 + or - 0.5 gr. I shot them today and to my surprise they laid in some good 5-shot groups ( several best-3-shot groups approaching 1 inch) at 100 yd despite the somewhat rounded edges. No leading of the bore either. The slugs are the same weight as when I use a carefully mixed alloy of 1 tin to 25 lead - but harder.
I would still like to get the zinc out - or should I say get the lead out?
Donor: could you PM me with some details please.
Thanks.
I would still like to get the zinc out - or should I say get the lead out?
Donor: could you PM me with some details please.
Thanks.
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easyrider604
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Greater Vancouver, BC
Good to know zinc/lead is useable and delivers good accuracy, just in case same happens to me. Thanks for the feedback.
A final comment for info. After spending about 5 hours on the Cast Boolits website reviewing everything I could find on smelting wheel weights, zinc contamination of lead alloys and good bullet casting techniques I realized that my problem was not zinc at all but melting and casting at too high temperature. At proper temperature, the molten metal will have a silver sheen. As temperature increases and surface oxidation starts, a metallic blue sheen forms and as the temperature gets even hotter, the sheen turns gold colored. That is lead oxide. I was running so hot on my propane camp stove that I had the gold sheen big time and thought it was a sign of zinc contamination. So today I tried again by melting some of my same w-w muffins at full heat but as soon as the last of the solids became mushy, I cut the heat away back and kept it low enough to prevent the blue oxidation sheen from forming but hot enough for easy pouring.
EUREKA! I got good filling of the mold and by waiting about 15 seconds after the pour before cutting off the sprue, I got rid of the "belly-buttons" on the base of the 490 grain slug - just a nice clean cut-off of the sprue. All is well, finally.
I hope this info proves helpful and saves some of the aggravation I have been through... Good luck
EUREKA! I got good filling of the mold and by waiting about 15 seconds after the pour before cutting off the sprue, I got rid of the "belly-buttons" on the base of the 490 grain slug - just a nice clean cut-off of the sprue. All is well, finally.
I hope this info proves helpful and saves some of the aggravation I have been through... Good luck
Thanks a lot Blacksmithden.
My son read this thread and got interested. I had to get a couple of buckshot molds and he has cast quite a few pounds of #1 and #00 buck. Then that got old so he searched into shot making. Next comes the order for drippers. He built his own ladle for making shot and once the drippers arrived yesterday "game on".
It took a bit of experimenting but today he probably made 25 pounds of 7 1/2 shot.
Now I am supposed to get my RPal so I can get a pistol and he can pour handgun bullets.
He is only 15. Thanks a lot Blacksmithden.
My son read this thread and got interested. I had to get a couple of buckshot molds and he has cast quite a few pounds of #1 and #00 buck. Then that got old so he searched into shot making. Next comes the order for drippers. He built his own ladle for making shot and once the drippers arrived yesterday "game on".It took a bit of experimenting but today he probably made 25 pounds of 7 1/2 shot.
Now I am supposed to get my RPal so I can get a pistol and he can pour handgun bullets.
He is only 15. Thanks a lot Blacksmithden.
