Wheel Weights Usage

[Wooly]

I know that wheel weight lead is a little harder and the composistion make up is somewhat different, but is it really all that bad to use for making jigs? I have access to a large qty -- however I have never used before. Just looking for opinions.

thanks,

[dlaery]

In my opinion they are good. You just need to melt them down outside because of all of the clips and impurities coming off the top when melting. Use eye, lung, bare skin protection. Be sure you know all of the precautions first. When dumping in W.W. in to hot lead clips can have moisture in them and when that comes in contact with the hot lead it can cause the lead to blow up in you face.

[Jig Man]

I have used it. It is a bit harder than plumbers lead and a bit softer than the printers lead that I have.

Like stated, there is a bunch of gunk that has to be skimmed off. If you have a cast iron pot and a fish cooker you can set up outside melt it and skim of the gunk. I do that and ladle the good stuff into a piece of angle iron with the ends bent up. It makes a small bar 3' long. I can later cut it into ingots with a hatchet.

[toadfrog]

Absolutely do not melt them in your pouring pot Please. Not all wheel weights are lead. some contain chemicals that can with a little time pit the inside of the pot. Take your thumb nail like a knife pressing hard drag it across the weight. If it does not leave a crease be leary of it. Also drop them from about shoulder high to something hard like concrete if you hear anything other than a dull thump set those aside as well. Some tire shops have a parts list that will tell whats in a weight by symbol or no. . Now that you have the lead sorted and melted .Take a piece of kiln dried oak dowel rod stir the lead with the dowel Skim off the dross . Keep doing this until you only get black dust from the dowel burning . Now your lead is not only clean but fluxed.

[cadman]

I definitely use them, and mix them with softer lead. No problem at all. Like mentioned above, take extreme precautions they do hold water in the clips. A dangerous mix if you put them in hot lead.

[Fatman]

Take as many as you can get. I know the ones that have a Z or a ZA on them are Zinc (My mechanic told me). Melt em down, flux a few times and pour clean ingots to be used later.

Personally I always used my Lee IV pot and never had a problem but I always clean my pot out after using it. It's been going strong for 20+ years.

The tire weight lead might not work well in all your molds so keep a list for which ones pour well with just the wheel weight lead or a mix in others.

Fatman

[Pitbull Baits]

I just am getting into the lead side of the lure buisness. I melt my wheel weights I get in a 8 inch Cast Iron skillet I bought at Wal Mart for $10.95. It also has a pour spout on each side which makes it eaasy to pour the lead out into my muffin pan. I also have a stove out in my shop which makes it easy to do. I can about 4 to 6 pounds at a time. Its also is easy to skim the left over crap out with a spoon. The Iron, coatings, dirts and wheel clips will float to the top so its pretty eaasy to skim it. I would say don't melt them in your house it gets pretty smokey and my stove is a ways away from where I vent my plastic pots out. Stinks for a couple days after I get done melting them.

[Oldfart9999]

As I went through this thread I noticed no body mentioned ventilation for lead fumes. It is very important, lead is a poison and it fumes even when clean. I pour in my basement but I have mounted a vent fan directly to the outdoors. I'll be cleaning and making ingots outside this spring or summer when there is a breeze to move the fumes away from me.

Rodney

[sdsaw]

As I went through this thread I noticed no body mentioned ventilation for lead fumes. It is very important, lead is a poison and it fumes even when clean. I pour in my basement but I have mounted a vent fan directly to the outdoors. I'll be cleaning and making ingots outside this spring or summer when there is a breeze to move the fumes away from me.

Rodney

When I'm melting WW, it's outdoors and downwind for me!

Brake dust and the adhesive from the stick on flexible WW's smoke badly

I use a 20lb. capacity Magnum Pot without a pour spout

BTW, the stick on WW's seem to be fairly soft lead

I melt them separately and make special ingots with them

[mkvnmtr]

Read the stickys at the top of the page and dont let any of the wheel weights marked zinc get into your mix. If you do it once you will see why. I have lost up to 20% of weight to zinc in the mix. Just a little and it never quits making slag that does not flux out. The steel weights will not hurt anything , they just will not melt. I do them outside while I am inside because the smoke from the grease is kind of bad.

[cz75b]

WW metal is great stuff, as long as you get the lead-tin-antimony variety and they appear to be getting scarce. What folks are saying is that use of WW requires an extra step, a melting, skimming, fluxing and ingot exercise but well worth the effort. This is definately an outside job. That said, the outcome is a great casting metal that will perform much better than pure/soft lead, better in so far as filling out mold cavities better because of the tin content. Wheel weights are versatile and one of the best deals out there but apparently not for long. As mentioned beware of zinc contamination, it is a deal breaker. Enjoy and as I've said before, look into a bullet casting site for hints from folks who swear by WW for much of their shooting needs. Its where the mold release idea came from here.