My OFFICIAL guide to sorting Wheel Weights for lead Bullet Casting - reloading lead cast bullets
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- Опубликовано: 23 дек 2011
- Some techniques for sorting out Lead from Zinc, and Steel wheel weights for bullet casting. There are numerous ways to sort.
While I prefer pre-sorting other alternatives are to carefully control your melt as not to exceed the melting temperature of zinc. Once the lead is molten the zinc and steel will float on the surface and can be skimmed off.
Some useful techniques for testing during hand sorting include cutting with cross cutters or dikes to test softness. Lead will be soft, zinc and steel will be very hard.
Another method shows in tapping the wheel weight on a hard object. Lead will have a dull thud while zinc and steel will ring.
Zinc contamination will result in poor mold fillout and a lumpy looking melt. Once Zinc has alloyed into your lead there is no removing it. You can only dillute it with more lead or ditch it and start over.
Once you sort enough you will also learn to ID them visually but still use the above listed methods for questionable wheel weights. Once sorted you can then safely smelt, clean, flux, then pour your lead into useful sized ingots. More modern lead wheel weights don't contain as much tin as they used to so you may need to add tin to your melting pot when casting bullets. A good cheap source of tin is pewter from thrift stores and yard sales or solder. Tin is the key to nice mold fillout and good looking bullets.
Your final bullet should be mostly lead with small amounts of antimony and tin. I have found that smelting with a wood fire is most cost effective for me but many people melt lead with propane stoves and turkey fryers, others with electric pots but those are often limited in capacity.
be sure to wear plenty of safety gear and keep moisture away from your molten lead. Moisture can cause catastrophic and highly dangerous explosions with molten lead everywhere. Heavy gloves, etc.
The fumes from lead at these temperature is not a concern but you should be very careful with the fumes from all the wheel weight filth and contaminates burning off. Cleaning wheel weights with a hose can be dangerous if they have not compeltely dried prior to smelting. If you must melt wet lead then put it in the pot prior to applying heat, this will allow the heat to evaporate and dry the lead.
Lead poisoning is a very serious concern. Keep children away from your lead and don't eat or touch your face while working.
Lead wheel weights are mostly phased out at this point but many garages have old buckets of them laying around. Inquire, you have nothing to lose! 
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I needed a video to tell me how to tell zinc and lead apart without any specialist equipment. I didn't expect to find one specific to projectile casting and specific to wheel weights... which is specifically what I needed!
Bravo and thanks!
*This is my second set of weight discs and I also have the 2 ounce and **enjoyable.fishing** recommend they work great and fit into the tackle box perfectly. the quality is there so I'm happy with them.*
Lead melts at 621.4 F. Zinc melts at 787.2 F. That is a 166 degree window. I sorted 2-3 huge buckets of wheel weights by hand before I decided forget this! I use an electric burner that heats to 650 F maximum and just dump everything in and will NEVER do this agonizing task or sorting wheel weights ever again!
True story. Heat it up and skim off the crap
I hope to all that's holy that you use adequate ventilation when you touch that stuff. Lead is terrifically dangerous stuff, especially in kids!
i just picked up 200 of W W, had my first mistake and turned 10 pound of lead into lead/zink alloy, your video is great, i'm setting up a similar sorting layout now to make sure i don't make that mistake again
Very good video. Informative! Thanks!
After casting for 8 years, I just smelted my first pot of wheel weights. I mine reclaimed bullets from dirt berms for most of my lead. I paid $.25 a lb from the scrapyard for these. with around 80% return, I'd say that decent. Also sold off 3 1/2 buckets of smelted bullet jackets. Ready for it? $508.00 in scrap weight. Also found 2 half bars of 50/50 solder, probably 2 lbs and 8 lbs in ingots of what seems like Linotype or similar hard lead. Those were $.60 lb.
Great video thanks for your information
Very Well Done. I have a similar system of sorting out Wheel Weights. Clean surface protection as cardboard or LawnLeaf bags,Wearing Good Rubber Gloves and Washing/Drying the WW, Needed We are 100% Correct to do so. One Benefit of Authenticating The Wheel Weights is in case of Interruption; I had a small Cast Iron Pot on the Burner, received a phone call and when I Checked back The Thermometer was over 800+ Degrees, If Zinc Wheel Weights had been in there the entire pot would have been ruined.
Nicely done.
Thank you so much !
Hi, good idea, I tried that once but even the lead and zinc ones have steel clips. Would have been nice though. Thanks.
very, very useful. thank you.
Pretty good info and great video (thanks for not adding crap music background!) - you know you are missing out in your stick on weights? Some are a magnesium/aluminum alloy. We used to use them on motorcycle wheels to avoid the stress of spoke-wrap lead weights.
for wheel weights to tell the apart visually steel ones will be stamped with Fe on them witch indicates iron( which is what steel is made from) zinc will have a Zn and the lead ones will not have those. the different types of shapes for weights have letter designations for them as well, some of those are AL MC PT and a few others, and others will just have the weight on them.
what do you do with the zinc and steel weights when you're done
hard to get a tyre fitter to give you them nowadays. I Pick up the lead from the range where the cowboy action shooting takes place. they all use commercial cast bullets from virgin bullet alloy, score!
If your casting bullets using wheel weights do you use antimony to bring up the Bhn and how much? Thanks
I just did this routine today. I just dumped them into the melting pot because I am making fishing sinkers and am not really conerned about bullets deforming. I ended up with a tub full of roughly 4 ounce ingots. the crucible for making the sinkers will hold 3 or 4 of them. I was just after clearing the slag from the mass today
I want to know how much tin is in my lead, the ingots I got from wheel weights was more brittle than the pure soft lead I already have, leading me to believe there may be another metal in the wheel weights like tin
what do the ones that are stamped AL MC PT made of??
Thanks
If it wasn't for the clips a magnet would quickly sort out the steel weights
In reference to lead wheel weights pureness or softness, are they all generally the same? Thanks, AGW.
98% lead, balance antimony and other metals.
I made some 200 grain conical bullets from zinc tire weights last night they came out okay but I'm questioning weather or not to shoot them from my .44 remmingtion 1858 sheriff with the brass frame any advice
It's the first I'm learning about zinc and tire weights or even for casting if anyone can help I just started collecting tire weights
easy way to sort them just use wire snips if it cuts in its lead. a guy i know uses a huge pot with a digital temp control and he just pours in all the weights and scoops out the ones that float
Where do you get the weights (or how)? Do you just go to tire shops and ask for them or do you have to buy them? Seems like most places would be hesitant to give out weights since lead seems to have gotten a bad wrap. But I have never went in search of weights.
hi there, i did the same thing, i just chucked everything into the pot, what ever melted, melted, i got rid of the gros, and poured my ingots, so now i have lead/zink ingots ?, how do i separate that now ?
I'm not a bullet caster, I found your video by way of scrapping, but your videos are excellent and filled with info. My question is, are there wheel weights that are an alloy of zinc and lead? I thought I read that the oldest weights are pure lead, and then later on they were 60% lead 40% zinc and now they are just plain old zinc or steel, with no lead. If there are zinc/lead weights do you just try to sell it as zinc?
seems like he said, you would need to re-melt it, and control the temp low enough so it is below the melting point of zinc and it will separate itself
I recently got 2 5 gallon buckets full of weights, and not all lead. I did the scratch test and as well as looking at the stamp/cast lettering and separated much of it. when I cast my ingots and projectiles they appeared to have somewhat of a crystal design much like how water freezes. is it something I should worry about? why does it do that and how can I fix it?
Antimony will make a crystal look. A lot of my ingots do that. Just Flux it and it will mix back with the lead when you cast, you want that in there
ive turned many hundreds of pounds of mixed ww into bullet metal over the last 40 years. turned just last saturday i rendered 100 plus pounds of mixed wheelweight into ww bars, and pure lead bars for round balls, in about four hours. i get obvious lead clip on weights melted and any zincs that get in the pot float on molten lead zinc floats so skim those off with the clips and dross. i shoot muzzleloader so seperate the stickons and flat weights get tossed in a pile. run a BIG magnet through those and seperate the iron from soft lead. 20 lbs soft lead and 69 pounds ww. tapping and using nips on them works but is very tedious.
How do u get the sticky off?
Can you use stick on weights?
Print style terminology
Debossed: under the surface aka as stamped
Embossed: over the surface
nice!
What about cutting open old lead acid batteries to get the lead?
old Scuba dive weights are another great source...
Most of the newer lead acid batteries are a royal pain because it's lead plated, not all lead. Plus, it's a huge mess. I did a couple and went back to wheel weights. However, if you have a friend with a junk yard, it might be worth it.
@tinderinc You can find current metal prices here... kitcometals website however those are not the prices a scrap yard will pay.
If you are asking how to get the adhesive off of the stick on wheel weights before smelting, don't, just leave it on, it will burn off. If you are asking how to get the stick on wheel weights off the wheels, I don't know... just pry or scrape them off maybe?
Please either get rid of the ads or pump up your video volume ! The ads threaten to blow my speakers and then I can hardly head the video audio. I really like your stuff. thanks
lead buils up in microgroove barrels, marlins, some are made with regular barrels now, on you tube search death of a marlin, remington bought out marlin, and quality lacks, sounds like it was made in the philipines, hope the info helps!
dose any one know why, when i cast 45 bullets, in a lee mold .452 they come out .450?
I s zinc recyclable? I've found a lot of zinc weights and wanted to know if anyone gets money for them at recycling centers.
Been asking this in a few different places. I'm getting into this game really late, and I am wondering if it is even worth getting wheel weights anymore. Anyone?
as a former mechanic im looking everywhere now.
why is it bad if zinc is in the mix?
How do you collect the lead from the dirt at the range? A shovel and a sieve?
Gold panning.
Best way is to make a screen box and just sift :)
Zinc can cause poor fillout in your mold, among other things.
Yes, I have read about this and was wondering how long it would take for someone to mention it. There are a few threads on cast boolits about it. None the less it sounds like a stinky endeavor, best to avoid zinc'ing up your lead to begin with I suppose.
I'm not so sure I would use melting temperature to sort. The zinc may be soluble in lead even if it doesn't melt. Salt melts at 1500 degrees, but dissolves even in cold water.
When your lead starts melting lower the temp, zinc ain't gonna get in. It'll float unless you get it mega hot. Zinc isn't as scary as a lot of casters make it sound.
whats the problem with zinc
tim turner deadly poison fumes
The really big problem are not steel one. The Zinc is dangerous because of the melting temp is really close to Lead one. And Zinc can really do a disaster into Lead alloy.
I've heard you can use sulphur to remove the zinc, but so far I have not found any videos on the subject..
i thought zinc sticks to maginets ( sorry if i mis-spelled that its been a long night lol )
The first step in separation could be by mass, right? Why not put it all in a big bucket and shake it for a while. The lead should make its way to the bottom of the bucket and the top layers could be discarded rather fast in comparison with checking them all individually. If there are steel parts on lead weight that's still a problem though. I have never melted any lead, just wanted to share the idea.
You'd need to shake it for days and a bucket of wheel weights is anything but easy to move loll
What u use the lead for
+Graham Bate read the title
lol, I was drinking at the time.
Graham Bate lol
to get rid of thye steel ones why dont you just run a magnet over the pile
MORRRRREEEEEEE
@tinderinc A scrap yard today quoted me 0.24 lb for Zinc
Yeah i would that of your melting steel in your pot, your likely evaporating your lead at those temps lol
How many cars u destroy ? :-)
+Ultra SRBin mechanics usually give them away in buckets for free.
+turgsh01 not in all places some places the mechanics have to submit them to certified lead scrap refinery's depending on your location
will wardell That must be an American b.s. law. I feel bad for those ppl. Here in Canada, I don't know of a single mechanic that can't either sell or give lead wheel weights away to anyone.
Most free states just give them away or sell them. I got a half a bucket today from a shop that gives me a few buckets a year. It's never that hard for me to get lead. Just ask nicely and bs a little and most guys will help you out.
@@turgsh01 hold on I'm sure we Canadians also will eventually have restrictions on lead loll
no, its tire. not tyre. not tier.
who care's!!! city slicker!!!
damn this looks tedious
no
''zinc'' not sink! get off you're mobile device!!!
its tier not tyre! get off you're mobile device!!!
UM ACTUALLY... IT'S TYRE. EEJIT! If your gonna correct someone make sure you know what your talking about. But I guess you were going for tire (not tier) which is the Americanization of the correct English spelling of TYRE.