What Do I Need To Know About Using Wheel Weights?

I have just bought a Palmer Hot-Pot 2 and have made the rounds of the hardware stores & home centers (Lowes, etc) and found that no one sells lead. Even their solder is "lead-free." But my wife had the oil changed in her car today and brought back probably about a pound of used wheel weights. I have also bought 8 of the largest egg sinkers our Wal-Mart carries. So what do I need to know about the used wheel weights? I know they have a piece of steel attached and I assume that I've got to fish the steel out of the pot of molten lead. Sounds like fun. Or is there a way to remove them before melting the lead? Also, the weights are not at all shiny as you would expect after being attached to a car rim and traveling thousands of miles on the highways, driveway & back roads of America. Do I need to clean the weights before I melt them, and if so, how do I do that? And if there is some other question that I'm too dumb to ask, supply the answers anyway. Help a newbie out!

Take care

GF

Today's wheel weights are not or very little lead. Very hard to work with in small molds. Needs to be cleaned very good before use. So much trash it can mess up your pour pot. Sometimes you can find a guy on ebay that sells pure lead. Pure soft lead is all you want to use until you get more into pouring. Might try local salvage yards also for pure lead. Also check your dentist for the lead they use in their X-rays. Some have it laying around and will give it to you or sell for cheap.

10 lbs Pure Soft Lead Ingots Virgin Lead 99 9 for Sinkers Jigs Molds Duck Decoy | eBay

I buy my lead on eBay get ten pounds and you will pour heads for a long time

What about sinkers that you can buy commercially? Are they real lead? I will have an opportunity in the near future to buy some large salt water sinkers. I can probably acquire a good bit of lead quickly that way if the sinkers would be OK to melt down and turn into jig heads.

They should be fine in most cases. Just check them. If they will scratch with your thumbnail should be good to go. If they are large, home grown and shinny could be wheel weight metal. That stuff works ok in large molds that are hand poured. Unless it is just poured good lead will be almost dark gray colored.

How hard is it to melt a 10 lb ingot in a Palmer Hot-Pot 2?

Have to cut it up.

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Originally Posted by cray

Have to cut it up.

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X2!

With a hack saw or what? How would you cut it up? And into how many pieces?

I had a chunk about 20 lbs one time. Tried hack saw no go. Fine tooth blades the lead clogs them up. Ended up borrowing a Sawsall with rough cut blade. More work than I want to take on again. I would say about 3 inches and about 6 inches long would be the biggest I would want to fool with. If you had a outside heat source like a fish fryer you could use and old pot and make something to pour it into to make ingots. Don't get mad at me but this fooling with hot lead is very dangerous and you need to take precautions when fooling with it.

Yes, Cray. Melted lead is a dangerous thing to mess with. You sure don't want to get any water in it. And you don't want to spill it on yourself. I watched my buddy trying to melt down about a 5 or 10 pound "hockey puck" of lead some years ago. He melted some off with a blow torch which I don't have & I was just wondering how I would go about melting down a big piece. That's why I thought the wheel weights would work. Because they are small.

GF

Be real careful melting down the big weights that come from overseas as they been known to add fillers to the molds before pouring the lead in. Be sure all your used lead is very dry before adding it to melted lead, any moister will make the lead pop and or explode.

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Originally Posted by Gill Fisher

Yes, Cray. Melted lead is a dangerous thing to mess with. You sure don't want to get any water in it. And you don't want to spill it on yourself. I watched my buddy trying to melt down about a 5 or 10 pound "hockey puck" of lead some years ago. He melted some off with a blow torch which I don't have & I was just wondering how I would go about melting down a big piece. That's why I thought the wheel weights would work. Because they are small.

GF

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You can use a base from a turkey cooker and an old cooking pot to melt down big pieces of lead and for cleaning it.

On the wheel weights caheck and make sure they don't have a Z, ZA, ZF, ZN or P-Zn they're Zinc and it can screw up your lead and you'll have to toss it - plus fumes from Zinc aren't good!!!

Fatman, I just looked at all the weights and none of them have a Z of any kind on them. My wife got them from a friend who said he was saving them to melt down to make jig heads but he was willing to share some of his stash with me. All the weights are of 2 or 3 specific shapes and types with the only difference being the amount of weight of each one. I don't know if he was saving out the ones that were the purist lead or not, but they are all very much alike. I can scratch almost all of them with my thumb nail and they look shiny where I scratched them. The ones that I can't scratch appear to be painted.

GF

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Originally Posted by Fatman

On the wheel weights caheck and make sure they don't have a Z, ZA, ZF, ZN or P-Zn they're Zinc and it can screw up your lead and you'll have to toss it - plus fumes from Zinc aren't good!!!

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weights with P, AW, AL stamped on them are usually good. Getting to be fewer and fewer of them. If You get zinc in them, it makes an alloy that is sludgy and does not pour worth a darn. You can thin the alloy down with good lead however. Then turn the heat all the way up on the pot and they will pour. Pain in the butt and I try hard to avoid. Any weights stamped Fe are steel weights and will not melt. That is what the wheel weights are going to.CF

I have 9 with "AL" 5 with "AW" 1 with "MC" but some of the "AL" ones also said MC. 2 or 3 that have "T3W" and 1 FN. And that's all of them. I think if I try to work with these, I'll melt down the "AL" ones first. They are the largest ones anyway.

I tried using unclean lead and man what a pain in the rump. Found out it wasn't worth the hassle for how little I pour. IMO better off buying some clean lead unless you are into mass production of large sinkers and have a lot of time to clean the lead.

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Originally Posted by arkansasbowhunter

I tried using unclean lead and man what a pain in the rump. Found out it wasn't worth the hassle for how little I pour. IMO better off buying some clean lead unless you are into mass production of large sinkers and have a lot of time to clean the lead.

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What did you have to do to clean it? How do you go about cleaning all the grime off the wheel weights?

Thanks

The grime will come to the top but you will have to flux it a LOT!

What does that mean? How do you "flux it?"

GF

I'll try to walk you thru what I do with the oddball weights I get. I use a coleman camp stove that uses liquid fuel as a heat source. I found an old cast iron pot with a handle. but a dutch oven will do also. You want it big but not huge. all wheel weights or scrap in the pot, I even pile it up very high over the top as there is a lot of dead space. Do this outside in the garage or under a porch, fan(s) present is a big help. Pump up the stove and light it, turn it up all the way and let it cook. It's gonna smoke while all the junk is burned off, sometimes a lot. I have a large commercial kitchen size strainer spoon that I use to stir and strain the steel and other trash out. A regular will do, I just found this one and like it. Once all the trash is out, stir to make sure, and throw in a chunk of candle, maybe a half inch piece. Be aware that it might and will probably go to flame, hence the long spoon. Important that while this is going on you stir to help the unseen trash and impurities come to the surface. This may take several tries to get it clean, don't be in a hurry. Ladle the product into an ingot mold, or anything of the correct size that will fit into your pot and let them cool. Hope this helps.....Skeet.

Does the pan have to be cast iron? What about the newer non-stick stuff? Those are easy to find anywhere. If it has to be cast iron, how about a cast iron fry pan or skillet, as long as you don't have too many weights?

GF

I feel bigger is better with the higher sides also being safer. Never tried the non stick stuff. I was always told to use cast iron and didn't question it. Smaller pot for smaller amount makes sense. I use the big one cuz I usually do many pounds at once. It isn't a giant undertaking but being the scrounge I am I tend to come up with enough to make at least 40lbs. A steel can to put the skim into is also needed as it will be too hot for most trash cans these days. I found all of my equipment at yard sales or flea markets.

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Originally Posted by Gill Fisher

Does the pan have to be cast iron? What about the newer non-stick stuff? Those are easy to find anywhere. If it has to be cast iron, how about a cast iron fry pan or skillet, as long as you don't have too many weights?

GF

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Do not use a non-stick pan or pot. Many of the coatings used on them are toxic when heated to high temperatures. It normally isn't an issue when cooking food. But lead melts at 621 degrees Fahrenheit. That is plenty hot enough to vaporize the coatings. You don't want any part of that.

This is what I use to melt the lead down. I have actually boiled lead on accident with this thing. I deal with a lot of lead. I would check scrap yards for old plumbing pipe or for the lead bricks that they use in the medical buildings to protect against X-Rays.

Academy - Outdoor Gourmet Pro DLX Propane Jet Cooker



Hope this helps,

Bobo

x2 with Skeet!! Make sure your scrap can is also dry!! I have a cast iron pot with a lid so if anything pops the lid stops it from splattering. Have all my wheel weights cleaned up so haven't messed with any for a while. My local mechanic has some full buckets full of them so when I take my car in I sort out the good ones.

Around here, scrap places pay 20 bucks for a 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights. I offer to pay the same price and usually gross 100 lbs of good lead ingots. I have buddies at tire shops and other places that save it and give it to me for jigs in return. No big deal, just skim the stuff that doesn't melt. Yes there is a ton of junk but we are dealing with toxic products so...

Also, I have a buddy that works at a casting plant. All casts are run through xray and the machines have lead that must be changed. Usually 1000lbs. I get 400 or so every time they change. Get an ingot mold or old cast iron muffin pan and do all your smolting at one time. Then you always have good clean bars of lead.

I have an old cast iron pan that fits both burners on a Coleman white gas stove. Make sure your lead is dry (no moisture) before you melt.

They give some great advice and helped me out get started. It's a lot of fun but will frustrate you to death if you use unclean lead. I would first start with some store bought clean lead so you can see how it's supposed to pour. I would still flux it though. Fluxing the lead helps greatly no matter where you get it.

Great advice Arkansasbowhunter.

I started with a little dirty lead and gave myself fits of rage until I got it right. I'm glad we have sites like this with people willing to give information. I learn new stuff everyday