Casting with Wheel weights?

[GoodOlBoy]

I know there is a thread about this in the archive area but I thought I would bring it back up.

Anybody cast using wheel weight anymore? Just found out my boss knows a tire chain owner who is looking to get rid of quite a bit of WW lead (yea yea I know there are some zinc ones out there too) My understanding is that he has somewhere close to a ton of it laying around between the stores and he is getting desperate to have it gone. He is considering paying a specialty company to pick it up. Now while I couldn't use a ton of it immediately (and couldnt even haul that much except in ALOT of car trips) I was thinking about picking up whatever I can from him, remelt it into ingots, and save it for later.

GoodOlBoy

[Rocky Raab]

Oh heck yes. Get all you can while you can. Lots of tire companies say they plan to phase out lead wheelweights - to save the environment, doncha know?

[GoodOlBoy]

Yeah I already have plans to buy a ingot mold and a cast iron pot after the first of the year.

GoodOlBoy

[Jack]

For an ingot mould, scrounge up a muffin pan. Either aluminum or cast iron works fine. You'll get round ingots instead of rectangular ones, but it makes no difference, and you can usually find a muffin pan for pennies, if any cost at all.

[Rocky Raab]

Years ago, I spotted a cutesy little cast iron pan that made four corncob-shaped muffins about six inches long and an inch wide. That little light over my head came on - yup, it made perfect lead ingots.

Somehow, it disappeared, and I don't even know where or when. It probably ran off with my RCBS mould for 9mm Makarov bullets, which is also absent without leave. They're probably making little 95-grain babies somewhere...

[skeet]

That is what I usually use even though I have a couple of Saeco ingot molds. Hey Rocky..I just bought a Makarov the other day. 30 bucks and for 10 bucks more I got 8 boxes of ammo.. Wolf ammo but it'll shoot. Is the Makarov hard to load for?? Might have to get a set of dies....or I'll just sell it cause I got a new in box Sig Sauer 232 380 at the same time.

[GoodOlBoy]

My wife would kill me if I stole her cornbread pan. I have been told there is a recycler about 20 miles west of me that used to have a lead smelter and used to reclaim lead from everything in the world. Gonna see if he still has it. If he does the guy that was telling me about it said he used to slag it and drop it in 5lb blocks for 10 cents a pound. Would sure save me the trouble if the old guy is still around. With my luck the old guy sold it a week ago. But we will see. If not I will pick up the lead and do it myself.

GoodOlBoy

[Rocky Raab]

Keep the Mak. They're about like a 380+P or even +P+ with only warm loads.

Go read my article on it at my web page, and decide for yourself. I found it quite easy to load for. It would be even easier now that proper brass is readily available - I had to make all mine from trimmed-down and expanded 9mm Parabellum.

I wonder if I loaned that mould to somebody?

[BILLY D.]

GOB

If you are into doing your own casting I would grab all the WW's I could get.

My neighbor is into casting for fishing tackle and the WW's he's getting are about 1/4 zinc stuff. And this is a small population state.

He's handicapped and this takes a lot of sorting time in his day.

It won't be too long and you will have to purchase lead from some kind of dealer and pay through the nose for it IF you can get it at all.

Best wishes, Bill

[PJgunner]

I'd glom on to as much of that wheel weight metal as I could get my hands on. Tire dealers here in Tucson won't even sell it to me anymore. For the enviornment, don't you know? :mad: If I was closer to you, I'd jump in and give you hand getting that stuff before it goes away. Now that it's getting cooler around here, it'll be about time for me to settle down and do a large run of bullets.
Paul B.

[Adam Helmer]

GOB,

Lead has its uses, but straight lead is too soft for handgun or rifle bullets. It is fine for muzzleloader projectiles, but leads horribly in rifles and handguns. Wheelweights are better because they contain antimony and make harder bullets. Put some tin in the pot with WW and drop the bullets from the mould into a bucket of water for really nice, hard bullets.

My quenched WW bullets have not leaded yet.

Adam

[denton]

Separate the "stick on" adhesive weights from the "clip on" weights. The stick ons are not quite pure enough lead to satisfy a muzzleloading fan, but they are close. They do not make good pistol bullets without adding something like linotype metal. The clip on variety have a higher antimony content and can be made into very nice pistol bullets, very cheaply.

[Rapier]

GOB,
For supplies in lead melting try a plumbing supply house. Also check the Arkansas Department store. I got a 100# pot, lead ladel and powdered flux in cans from a supply house and at the WalMart I bought a propane single burner free standing fish fryer rig, without bottle, for $29. I use about a dozen muffin tins which I get from anyone will to give them up. I use a stainless steel fork and heavy leather gloves to flux the wheel weights and clean off the slag, then a cast iron ladel is used to ladel off the material into the tins. I mark the top of each muffin with WW to signify that they are not my regular alloy.
Best,
Ed

[Rottweiler]

Good Ol Boy

That guy get rid of all that lead? I'm a ways west of you but for a good share of it, Me and my 1 ton pickup will come haul it off in a day

[Contenderizer]

I've thought about casting my own bullets, but I'll stick to cigarette smoking ... it's healthier. Rocky, your Makarov mould is in the mail.

Happy Holidays everyone.

[PJgunner]

"I've thought about casting my own bullets, but I'll stick to cigarette smoking ... it's healthier."

Not true. Use decent ventilation, don't eat or smoke while casting bullets or cleaning lead, and wash your hand well before eating or smoking and you won't have any problems.
I cast in a shed with the window open and a fan blowinf from the window toward me. The door at the other end of the shed allows all the smoke and fumes to be blown outside.
At one time, I used to work for a company in San Francisco that sold cast bullets. Usually there were three or four of us working at the same time literally emptying one pot while another pot was melting the next batch of metal. The room was maybe 10x10 feet square, no windows, no ventilation no nothing. We smoked, ate and drank while we were working. While that was many more years ago that I've cared to count,and I have been casting bullets for 54 years, with all the BS about lead and the hazards, I decided to get myself checked out for any problems with lead. It's a simple blood test andit turned out that the lead in my system was well below what is considered normal for a person of my age (70) Even under the more stringent standards for today, the lead in my system is below those levels as well. However, these days I do work using suggested precautions.
I guess my point is maybe there is more to all the anti-lead BS than meets the eye. After all, look at the movement to remove lead from all bird shot and in bullets with California leading the way. Make it illegal to possess lead or lead products and there goes most of the bullets for rifle and for all practical purposes all handgun ammo.
I quit smoking back in 1975. That allowed me more money to shoot and reload and yes, cast more bullets.
With reasonable care, casting bullets is a hell of a lot safer than smoking. been there and done both. ;)
Paul B.