Rooster Ron Wayne Posted September 12, 2014 Posted September 12, 2014 I WAS just given 5 five gallon buckets of wheel weights . What is the easy way to tell lead weights from Zink weights?
The Original Lumpy Gritz Posted September 12, 2014 Posted September 12, 2014 Look for a "Zn" stamping. LG
Cliff Hanger #3720LR Posted September 12, 2014 Posted September 12, 2014 Zinc melts at 787.15 F. Pure Lead melts at 621.5 F. You can separate the two melts by watching your temperature. Try about 650F.
Springfield Slim SASS #24733 Posted September 12, 2014 Posted September 12, 2014 Go to www.castboolits.gunloads.com and look it up, many pics and advice to help you out.
Bramble Mountain Buzzard Posted September 12, 2014 Posted September 12, 2014 With lead alloy WW's (clip-on) mixed with zinc, you have around a 90 degree window. I generally will cull plenty early when smelting. I'd rather lose a little lead than have a contamination issue.
Garrison Joe, SASS #60708 Posted September 12, 2014 Posted September 12, 2014 Drop on concrete floor if you can't spot the Zn raised letters on a suspicious weight. Zinc rings. Lead-antimony alloy of a lead wheel weight will thud. Take a large side cutter pliers to the weight. You quickly learn that zinc is much tougher and hard to cut by hand. Lead, with pressure, cuts much easier. Zinc is much lighter in density. I can feel the difference just tossing it in my hand. Zinc will stay shiny gray much longer. Lead goes dull gray in just a month of being on a car. But, beware of the lead weights that have been factory painted shiny gray to match the aluminum wheels they are made to fit. I sort by hand, looking them over and if need be, dropping a few on the floor. Then, in a dedicated melting pot, once the lead starts to pool up, cut way back on the heat so that any zinc and any steel (they will often be marked FE) can pop up out of the melt and float like bobbers on the surface. Stir a lot, flux with wood shavings and old candle wax. Skim the zinc, steel weights, steel clips, road dirt, rubber tire valves, etc. off as they separate. A lead thermometer is very handy to have for smelting down weights until you develop a feel for what the proper heat to melt lead without melting zinc looks and feels like (by thermometer, not more than 725 F). Don't melt down the weights in your casting pot. The casting pot only gets clean metal put in it. Get an old cook pot or cast iron dutch oven from a thrift store or your neighbor's yard sale and melt down the weights over a turkey fryer burner. Cast into muffin tin to make 1 pound ingots or get a Lyman ingot mold. (Some folks call this smelting, but after running a copper smelter for four years, I kinda know what smelting is, and this isn't it). Good luck, GJ
Pit Bull Tex Posted September 12, 2014 Posted September 12, 2014 The way I do it is a good pair of cutters.The lead cut easy and the other don't.I put the lead in one bucket and the other in the garbage can.
Doc McCoy, SASS #8381 Posted September 12, 2014 Posted September 12, 2014 You should be able to put a deep scratch in the lead with your thumb nail, not in the zinc. We don't worry too much about it. Throw it all in the pot, the zinc floats on the lead along with the steel clips.
Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283 Posted September 12, 2014 Posted September 12, 2014 Howdy I like the drop them on the floor method. Lead goes 'thunk', Zinc rings. Oh Lord, I can't help myself. Zinc is spelled with a C not a K. Sorry, I couldn't stop from writing that.
Garrison Joe, SASS #60708 Posted September 12, 2014 Posted September 12, 2014 You should be able to put a deep scratch in the lead with your thumb nail, not in the zinc. Wheelweights take a real hard press with the thumb to let you make a mark with fingernail. Soft lead, yep, that will mark easily. Good luck, GJ
Doc McCoy, SASS #8381 Posted September 12, 2014 Posted September 12, 2014 Wheelweights take a real hard press with the thumb to let you make a mark with fingernail. Soft lead, yep, that will mark easily. Good luck, GJ Good point GJ, that's also how we (roughly) check the quality of the ingots after melting the wheel weights.
Widder, SASS #59054 Posted September 12, 2014 Posted September 12, 2014 Howdy I like the drop them on the floor method. Lead goes 'thunk', Zinc rings. Oh Lord, I can't help myself. Zinc is spelled with a C not a K. Sorry, I couldn't stop from writing that. YES DJ, you are correct. And, there is a difference. ZINK could be interpreted as being short for Zinkenite. It is a steel gray mineral. ZINC on the other hand is describe as a bluish-white, lustrous metallic element. ..........Widder
Hoss Posted September 12, 2014 Posted September 12, 2014 I wish zinc was usable for bullets. we use tons of it on our boats and barges for cathodic protection. I would have an unlimited supply!
Garrison Joe, SASS #60708 Posted September 12, 2014 Posted September 12, 2014 I wish zinc was usable for bullets. we use tons of it on our boats and barges for cathodic protection. I would have an unlimited supply! It has been used for target pistol bullets. In the 50's and 60's. Can be cast in steel/iron bullet molds. Very tough on luber sizers, if I remember reading articles (must be cast to within just a couple of thousandths of the desired diameter or you break the connecting links, handles, etc). Some degree of concern that it wore out barrels faster than lead. Zinc has been die-cast for a hundred years or more. If we ever lose lead because of politics, there is always zinc. Just don't shoot it on any Cowboy range where folks will reclaim the lead! They will NOT care for it. Good luck, GJ
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