Wheel weights that wouldnt melt?

M

MikeinMinn

Inactive
Decided to start casting my own bullets so I went to my local tire shop and he was nice enough to give me 1 and 1/2 five gallon buckets full of wheel weights. I had some time so I got the castiron kettle out and fired up the camp stove. I melted down about 7 or 8 lbs of weights and started to skim off the clips and dirt. I noticed that there was 3 weights that would wouldnt melt. Do they make weights out of something else. It should be noted that my camp stove was bearly hot enough to keep an inch of lead in the bottom melted.
 
There are lots(maybe 10%, more to come) of zinc and steel wheelweights. Both can be riveted to the clip(a giveaway). Zinc is sometimes marked Zn, is usually plastic coated or painted. Zinc can be stick on, usually coated. Steel will never melt, and isn't a problem. If you're really persistent the zinc may eventually melt and ruin the whole batch.
 
If it don't melt, don't forceit! LOL! As stated above, those are WW's that need to be culled. Zinc melts at 781*-ish, while lead melts at over 100 degrees cooler. So, once you lead WWs start to melt, get ready to flux before scraping your clips and non-lead ww's out of the mix. You do not want to melt the zinc ww's in your melt. It ruins the castability of the lead. good luck!
 
Just wondering what zink does when you use it in casting?
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If you TRY to use it in casting you mean.:p Zinc increases the surface tension of the metal so the mold will not fill out properly. Even 1-10,000 is enough to ruin the melt. It does not and will not work, don't bother "trying" it. You'll just contaminate all your casting equipment.

Thankfully, zinc melts at a much higher temp and is easy to spot and fish out before it does any damage.
 
I have been pulling the Fe and any weights that are rivetted. I dont think I melted any zink ones, but where can I get some of that acid that I read about in a post.
 
A much cheaper and safer way to determine if you have Zn or not is to use a pair of side-cutters or wire cutters. It shouldn't take much pressure to make a dent in lead weights but requires a LOT of force to dent the Zn ones. Not 100% foolproof, but close enough.
 
Get used to the new weights, lead wheel weights are on the way out -- a change to make us safe from the hazards of lead wheel weights that litter our highways.
FYI: Installing new lead wheel weights has been banned in California since 01/01/10!
 
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