Wheel weights

[gerardjohnson]

What are they making wheel weights of these days? I melted some today to mold some bullets and got the weirdest colors. The surface of the lead is continually covered with a sort of thick sludge. Skim it off and it comes back again in a few minutes. Within a half hour or so the bottom pour spout plugged up. The flow just kept getting slower until it was only dripping, then stopped completely. Is there a way to recognize the non-lead product? How can I clear the spout?

 

[Spawn-Inc]

some questions for you first!

1. what are you smelting/melting all the wheel weights in? if it's your casting pot, that's the main reason your bottom pour is clogging. spend some monies on a fish fryer, etc and get an old cast iron pot or steel propane tank, etc and melt down all your scrap lead in that. you will be able to make bigger batches and have more consistent lead/alloy mixes. and you don't get any garbage in your casting pot.

2. what temperature did you melt your WW's at? zinc melts at 780F as i recall, lead is 620f. either watch your pot carefully or get a thermometer or temperature probe.

i believe pure lead can give that funny lead colouring (purples, etc) but the sludge sounds somewhat like zinc. it will look like oatmeal if you have some zinc in your lead.

 

[gerardjohnson]

Thanks for your reply. I was melting at something over 800f and the oatmeal description sounds right. Can I use that lead at all or should I throw the rest out? The bullets I made while the pour spout was working seem OK so I assume the zinc must be on top. I'll try to do my melting at 700f from now on. How can I clear the spout?

 

[Spawn-Inc]

How many lbs was contaminated with zinc? If a little bit I would consider tossing it but at the same time I might try and mix it with all the lead I had (pending how much) The best method is to empty your pot completely and clean it out.

Zinc will make it harder to get the bullets to fill out the molds nicely, you will have round instead of sharp edges.