How to tell wheel weights apart?

[juststarting]

Hi all

Randomly I pulled over at mechanic's I was driving past and asked for wheel weights. They were happy to hand them over.

Now, I read that wheel weights have stamps on them to indicate which alloy it is. The only thing I am seeing is weight in grams, nothing else.

Obvious question, how do I tell them apart, for casting?

[Chronos]

Just grab them with a pair of side cutters, the zinc ones are a bit harder afaik

Chronos

[juststarting]

This is my lack of experience talking, but does that imply that there's only two alloys used in wheel weights? Zinc (no good), and whatever else (suitable for casting)? I thought there was also lead or even more variants?

[Chronos]

This is my lack of experience talking, but does that imply that there's only two alloys used in wheel weights? Zinc (no good), and whatever else (suitable for casting)? I thought there was also lead or even more variants?

Yes, there's lead and there's the "new fandangled environmentally friendly" Zinc

I think Zink is far more common in stick on weights but one of the casting guru's will be along shortly to correct me if i'm wrong.

zic will melt at a higher tempo than lead but will make your cast bullets more brittle and crystalline than lead. I've got about 40kg of ingots in the shed that I'll get around to casting someday when I get something to cast for....might need a cannon to use them up

Chronos

[bladeracer]

This is my lack of experience talking, but does that imply that there's only two alloys used in wheel weights? Zinc (no good), and whatever else (suitable for casting)? I thought there was also lead or even more variants?

The primary thing is to ensure you don't get _any_ zinc in your bullet alloy.
Even one zinc wheel weight will ruin your melt.
My advice, don't bother with wheel weights unless you're going to be doing an awful lot of cast shooting and need to keep costs down.
Buy lead shot or bullet alloys for about $10 a kilo. A kilo of lead will give you 100 150gn bullets.
These days you can even buy bulk shotgun shells on special and dump the shot out of those.
250 1-oz field loads will give you 7kg of shot for around $100, and you can reload the charged hulls with whatever you want, like buckshot and slugs.

[Noisydad]

Usually but not always, zinc weights sre marked Zn, aluminium ones are marked Al and steel are marked Fe. All of those will make a "plink noise when tapped with your pliers. Use the pliers to try and cut them and you'll soon identify them. Stuck on weights are nearly pure, soft lead and clip on ones are somewhat harder. Both have their uses in bullet casting.
Don't melt dirty lead in any of the electric pots or you'll get crap in the valve and it'll leak worse. Melt your scrap into ingots first to clean the crap off it.

[Oldbloke]

Yep, you tube is your friend.

[Supaduke]

A place to source lead may also be lead light window suppliers. All the stripping around the stained glass is pure lead. Never bothered with casting but my ol man used to make stained glass windows and he had shiploads of lead.

[Chronos]

A place to source lead may also be lead light window suppliers. All the stripping around the stained glass is pure lead. Never bothered with casting but my ol man used to make stained glass windows and he had shiploads of lead.

funny you say that, a mate gave me 40kg of lead light strip offcuts but i haven't touched it as i wasn't sure of the alloy. might get some antimony or tin and alloy it up. now i need a hardness tester

Chronos

[juststarting]

I am looking at wheel weights, rather than pure lead to get the right hardness for Marlin 44MAG. Everything I read, I think some on the forum here says that lead is too soft for it.

Back to wheel weights, it's my preference since I don't have to go far and look or buy it, just drop by the local tyre place and grab a bunch. Also, alloy hardness. I'd like to keep the bore as lead free as I can.

Anyway, none of them are stamped, some do make a different noise when whacked with steel. So yeah, it's YouTube time.

[bladeracer]

I am looking at wheel weights, rather than pure lead to get the right hardness for Marlin 44MAG. Everything I read, I think some on the forum here says that lead is too soft for it.

Back to wheel weights, it's my preference since I don't have to go far and look or buy it, just drop by the local tyre place and grab a bunch. Also, alloy hardness. I'd like to keep the bore as lead free as I can.

Anyway, none of them are stamped, some do make a different noise when whacked with steel. So yeah, it's YouTube time.

Use 50/50 solder sticks to harden your melt. The solder is 50% lead and 50% tin so 120gms of 50/50 solder in 1kg of lead will give you roughly a 6% tin alloy for hard cast bullets - around 10BH. Solder is expensive though and it's easier to just use lead shot for around 12-14BH.
You shouldn't have any leading if you use plenty of lube, gas checks, a 6% alloy and keep velocities lowish.
The only significant leading I've seen is in 8x57mm at more than 2200fps.

[Oldbloke]

Regarding wheel weights.
Get a pair of side cutters.
If it's hard toss it. . If it seems soft ok
The ones with the steel clip used to be the go, soft flat stick one are pure lead, so OK.

[juststarting]

Yep, just watched bunch of videos on this... The sound and the wire cutters test seems straight forward. I need to drop by and pick up more, then I'll post progress.

[Medic]

You;ll honestly get to simply learn them by look. Unsure, side cutters as others above said.
Best trick is to get your pot hot enough to melt lead with a thermometer, but not hot enough to melt zinc. It will float.
I always flux now with not only a bit of candle wax, but always a few grams (about 3 to 5) of copper sulfate from bunnings, then add about 1 inch of 50/50 solder, lead/tin from bunnings. WW don't contain much tin and it will help fill out your molds, the copper sulfate will draw out zinc plating and other impurities. If you add 3 grams, get it real hot and stir and stir, you'll pull out about 20-50 grams of junk. Both solder and copper sulfate are available at bunnings for very little, the CS will last years for 1 500g bottle of crystals.

[juststarting]

I haven't had the time to pick up more ww, so it's on hold for now, until I get some time, that said - thanks! I am actually taking notes, will post progress reports when I am at the sorting stage. I watched bunch of YouTube vidioes, all have the same three suggestions, sound, cutters, temperature. Additives is new... Time to do more research! Damn stupid hoby, should have taken up drugs instead.

[Oldbloke]

What, work and family getting in the way of man type interests such as shooting and fishing. Faaaarrrrkkk again.

[juststarting]

Yeah, pretty much OB. And the kids are too young to outsource remedial tasks to :/

[Mango bill]

A good source of tin that's easy to find is pewter, it's nearly all tin with a little bit of copper that can be skimmed off the top of the melt. You can find it scrounging around the Op Shops. You don't need much so a pewter goblet will go a long way.

[agentzero]

Yep, you tube is your friend.

Errr. I don't know... some of the videos there... ha ha.

[fenderstrat]

A good source of tin that's easy to find is pewter, it's nearly all tin with a little bit of copper that can be skimmed off the top of the melt. You can find it scrounging around the Op Shops. You don't need much so a pewter goblet will go a long way.

What about antimony? Where do you get that?

[bladeracer]

A good source of tin that's easy to find is pewter, it's nearly all tin with a little bit of copper that can be skimmed off the top of the melt. You can find it scrounging around the Op Shops. You don't need much so a pewter goblet will go a long way.

What about antimony? Where do you get that?

Any of the linotype's have high mounts of antimony (2-20%), or just use lead shot like I do. Lead shot is 2-6% antimony plus some arsenic, for a similar price to buying pure lead. Lead Free Solder has a small amount of antimony, too small to be economical.
Just using magnum lead shot gets you about 13BHN with no additives.
50/50 solder added to it at 50/50 takes it to about 18BHN, but it's expensive due to the tin solder. A kilo of lead shot might cost you $10 but the kilo of 50/50 solder will cost you nearer $50.

[bladeracer]

A good source of tin that's easy to find is pewter, it's nearly all tin with a little bit of copper that can be skimmed off the top of the melt. You can find it scrounging around the Op Shops. You don't need much so a pewter goblet will go a long way.

What about antimony? Where do you get that?

Or Ebay for $65/kg
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/331964516167

[duncan61]

I am a plumber and have pure lead.The solder idea to get tin is cool

[lole]

Errr. I don't know... some of the videos there... ha ha.

I've spent days of my life there watching 'fail' videos