Question about WW

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glenliz87

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Well, I started to sort my wheel weights today as I am going to melt them & pour into ingots tomorrow. I don't plan on adding any tin until I'll be casting. I came across a lot of them that were stamped "MC" & "MCG". According to the Lyman cast handbook, these should be magnesium. I also came across some stamped "T". What are these? Can I melt all of these with the rest of the WW and still cast good bullets? Some are quite a bit harder to put a scratch on them & some aren't. Do I have to dispose of them? Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
 
The zinc ones will be a different shape and are usually coated in plastic. The regular looking weights are all lead as far as I have come across. I have never heard of a magnesium WW, seems to defeat the purpose of a weight by using such a light metal.
 
So far, I don't think I found any zinc WW. The ones in question seem to have a hard coating on them that cannot be scratched like the ordinary WW. On some, the coating peels off which makes it easier to tell if it is actually lead or not.
 
The melting point of Magnesium is 1200 degree F. You don't need to bother sort magnesium, it will float with the dross and can be skimmed off. Zinc ones are square with two holes and are much harder than lead. They also have a coating like you describe. Remove them first.
 
The different stampings on the WW designate the type of rim they are to be used with, not the material used to form them. As far as I know they should all be made of a lead alloy. The plastic coatings are just to protect the wheel surface from oxodation where the WW are placed.
 
use a big pot for your pre pour melt.....Keep things around 650 and the zinc ones will float. If your weights came from an old shop there probably isnt any zinc. How I get around it is bottom pour into my molds from a large 45 pounder and just dump the last 1/8 inch of mix. That gets rid of any trash
 
Thanks very much for the helpful replies. Since I'll be making ingots first, this will give me a chance to sort the bad from the good. I wasn't sure about that coating myself whether it was another type of alloy or just to protect the rim from oxidation as Dlowe mentioned. While melting, I'll keep a close eye on the melt. If any WW float to the top, I'll skim it off. I'm assuming the zinc will float to the top when the melt turns to liquid.

The WW I purchased are from busy tire shops so it is hard to say what kind of stuff is in there. I did come across quite a few of stick on WW, I was thinking of just throwing these in with the clip WW. I just received my RCBS cast pot which I'll be using on an electric hotplate. I do not have a thermometer to check temperature of the melt so I will likely keep it on high heat until the WW turn to liquid then back off to somewhere between medium & high. By the way, this cast pot sure is tiny. I wonder how long it will take to melt 250 lbs of WW..:)
 
Go to your local thrift store and buy the largest cast iron pot or dutch oven they have. Pick up a used Coleman camp stove as well. Use that to do your pre-melts. If you don't have an ingot mould, a couple of old muffin pans from the thrift store will work fine. Get yourself a strainer and soup ladle while you're there. Using the small RCBS pot and an electric hot plate is going to take forever and you'll be so sick of it, you'll probably never try casting again. A lead thermometer is a great accessory to have, but you can guesstimate temp of the melt by the appearance of the bullets, it., wrinkled vs. frosted. Hope it works out for you.
 
I heard the stick on type have zinc in them, is there any truth to that?.I have never tryed to melt them.

I would suggest to mark and seperate each ingot pour(leter/number punch and hammer ect). Say your going to do 30-50lbs at a time. If you find a batch from one particular pour is bad... than you know wich ones are bad and wich are not.

Look for stainless steel items for ingot moulds. I use stainless sauce things from the dollar store, aprox 1lb of lead each. Counting ingots is allot easyer than counting your bullets.
 
Just throw them all in a big pot and melt...anythat don't melt, chuck out with the clips, make sure you do not put wet ones into the melt or it will explode and you will visit with the tinsel fairy. You can only put wet ones in a completely empty pot as they will dry from the heat before they melt.
 
and dont forget the eye protection. if you have ever been around a lead pot, and had a weight with some INTERNAL moisture blow up, you will understand
 
I did my first melt today, things went quite well. Takes about an hour to produce enough melt for 6 1lb ingots. It is rather slow, but I don't mind one bit, winters are long so it gives me more to do..:)

Of all the WW I melted today, only 1 didn't melt & floated to the top. All the WW that had a coating on them melted as easy as the rest. The coating just floated to the top. I don't think it was a plastic coating as it should have melted with the lead being that hot but it didn't. Anyway, I will find out what kind of bullets they make when I get my molds.
 
The coating is used to protect mags from oxidation. The stick on ones sometimes have this as well. Zinc will usually have the clips riveted on. You did good. The zinc ones will float fish them out with the clips and crap and toss them.
 
Did more smelting today & managed about 8 1 lb ingots per hour today, I guess I'm getting better at it..:) I didn't come across any weights where the clips were riveted on which fellow CGN'ers state that this would be zinc. However, all the stick on weights must be zinc. I tried to melt some today but they just floated to the top. No big loss anyway, out of 85 lbs of WW only 2 lbs of these were stick on. I thought stick on WW were lead, I was obviously wrong. At least the ones I have weren't lead.
 
glen: visit the ammunition and reloading equipment sales category on this forum. Newfoundlander has a cast iron pot for sale that will accomodate 50 lbs. to a melt. Combine that with a propane fired turkey cooker burner ( re-inforce with additional angle iron to be sure of no collapse) and you'll be in business in a more manageable way. I don't like to introduce the grease and crud that is on wheel weights to my normal casting pot. The cooker burners are around $40.00 at a local surplus store. A 20 lb propane tank and you're set. You'll be commercial in no time.
 
stocker,
Thanks for the info. I saw those items yesterday that newfoundlander has for sale. Sounds like a great deal. I recently received my RCBS pot from Wholesale Sports so I am using that. It is small, but does the job without a problem just a bit slow. If I had a lot to melt, then I would do like you said & get some bigger equipment. I only have about 140 lbs left to melt & after that I don't know when I will get more WW since they are hard to come by in my area. The nearest city to me is Brandon, an hour & a half drive from here. If there are any in Brandon, I'm sure that they would be spoken for or too expensive maybe. I managed to pick up 250 lbs of WW within 25 miles from here for $17. I figured this was a great deal.
 
Glen: That's a very good price for that quantity of wheel weights if you are wondering. I have about 600 lbs. on hand now and won't do a melt until I have another couple hundred. With my 50 lb. pot I can process them all in about 4 to 5 hours into 4 pound ingots from an ingot mould made up of heavy 2.25" angle iron. My ingot mould has 8 cavities, so, 32 pounds at a crack and then refill the pot. I have an old plumbers or cable splicers type of burner and it really puts out the heat for melting raw wheel weights. I only do a big melt every year or so and usually end up with about 500 pounds of ingots.
 
It is getting hard to find good prices on WW's. Even a few years ago, you could just walk into a garage and they would give them to you no problem. Now in Edmonton, most garages want to sell them for 30 bucks a 5 gallon bucket. The scrap dealers pay the garages 15 cents a pound and charge about 45 cents to buy from them. I usually phone garages about once every 6 weeks or so to see if they have anything to sell. I can usually do about 5-6 5 gallon buckets in an afternoon and the typical bucket weights about 100 pounds and the average yield is about 70 percent or 70 pounds of lead in molds.
As far as molds go I have an RCBS and I usually do up about 100 pounds of 1 lb ingots at a time and then the rest i make into 25 pound ingots with a cast iron bread loaf pot that I have. I have an old Coleman campfire stove that I have reinforced with angle iron and I can do 30 pounds at a time with a big pot that I use. I fill up the bread loaf container first and anything left in the pot goes into the 1 lbs ingots. I usually flux twice to make sure I get all the dirt etc. out before I pour. I have a wall full of these 25 lb ingots with the date stamped into them, man I wish they were gold, lol.

The stick on weights are pure lead, I always seperate mine and give them to my friend that uses them for his muzzle loader.
 
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