Rusty wheel weights?

[*Paladin*]

Hey all- I just scored a bucket of WW's, but they are covered in rust from the clips. The WW's were in a bucket of rusty water from rain (they were stored outside). I dumped them in my driveway and rinsed them with fresh water, but are there any issues with smelting these down? I'm assuming there will be a good bit of dross from them, but other than that they should be good, right? Obviously, lead doesn't rust...

[Typecaster]

Just go to it…no issues with rust. Just follow the usual precautions about adding wet WWs to a pot—don't.

Richard

[Doc Highwall]

Also don't let the temperature go above 700deg and the zinc wheel weights will float to the top with the steel clips to be thrown away.

[*Paladin*]

Just go to it…no issues with rust. Just follow the usual precautions about adding wet WWs to a pot—don't.

Richard

Thanks Richard and Doc! Yeah, I'm going to let them dry in the sun all day and maybe tomorrow to make sure they are dry. I'm still new at this and don't want a visit from the famous Tinsel Fairy!

[D Crockett]

Paladin there is no problem with the ww being rusty but you can have a big problem if you dump in wet ww into a pot of liquid lead you will get a steam explosion and you do not want that the best way to get around this is empty the pot before you add any more ww to the pot or get a steal bucket and put all the wet ww in it put it on a turkey fryer and put the heat down low enough to get the water to evaporate trust me you do not want a steam explosion it hurts a lot when ww hit you in the chest with force hope this helps D Crockett

[hoosierlogger]

i make a pretty good score every spring on rusty WW. My buddy that owns a tire shop gives me 3 or 4 buckets of rusty WW that his dad hauls around in the bed of his truck for weight in the winter. They will melt just the same as the rest of them.

[*Paladin*]

Cool! Thanks for the info all! I have them moved into the garage drying in front of a small heater. I won't be using these for a few days, but rest assured knowing that they will be bone dry before I smelt them down. It will be fun to turn these ugly orange WW's into pretty silver ingots...

[docone31]

Iron, iron oxide, it floats.
Premelt the wheel weights in a seperate container. Start them cold in the container.
This way, they won't pop.

[Suo Gan]

Sometimes you need to get lead dry a little quicker. I use a propane weed burner to blast my lead (and ingot molds) before I smelt it. I bought a couple from Harbour Freight for $10 a piece. It works especially good for big rolls of flashing or big chunks of lead that are impossible to "dry out" in winter. You could put them in a metal trash can or pail and blast them off and they would dry in a couple of seconds...you can see the surface get moisture on it and as they warm you can see it evaporate. I think doing it this way is the only safe way to render lead down in winter.

Or if you don't want to do that, you could start cold, add cold, wet wheel weights to the pot and the heat of smelting will cook the water off.

[zxcvbob]

Just fill your melter up with cold WW's and don't worry about whether they are wet or not. They will be dry by the time they start to melt.

[thegreatdane]

Just fill your melter up with cold WW's and don't worry about whether they are wet or not. They will be dry by the time they start to melt.

This is good advice, assuming you have one pot of wet ones and they're in from the moment heat is added.

[Linstrum]

First of all, don't throw out zinc weights!

By all means keep them separate from your lead weights, but do NOT throw them out! I certainly hope that lead remains a cheap and easily obtainable metal for us to cast our boolits from, but from the way things are going that is not very likely and when our lead supply dries up or becomes exorbitantly expensive, that particular zinc alloy is the stuff we are probably going to be casting our next generation of cast boolits from!

Lead is the last member of the carbon family of elements and like carbon it is extremely inert in a household environment at room temperature compared to most other commonly encountered metals. What little lead does corrode is prevented by the presence of metallic iron touching it so it is in electrical contact with it and conversely under the same conditions lead promotes the corrosion of iron. Same kind of reaction as a zinc or magnesium sacrificial anode like are used to protect water heaters, ships, underground pipelines, water and oil well casings, sky scraper frameworks, etc, built from iron and steel. For wheel weights that have been left outside and gotten rusty, this is one way I tell lead wheel weights from zinc weights because the steel clips on lead weights are always plenty rusty while the clips on zinc weights are not rusty. This isn't 100% foolproof because a steel clip on a lead weight also will not rust if it is touching a zinc weight so it is also in electrical contact with it, is electroplated with chromium or zinc, or painted. As a backup test procedure I have a known zinc weight I use for scratching suspect weights with rust free steel clips and if the weight scratches deeply or gouges, then it is lead. If the known zinc weight just skids across the suspect weight, then it is likely zinc because Zamak and other zinc die casting alloys are quite hard despited having a fairly low melting point.


rl888

[GP100man]

Flux & Stir , Flux & Stir !!!!

Merry Christmas !!!

[deltaenterprizes]

Water can be trapped between the steel clip and the lead even after being out in the un for a while and feel dry to the touch. A hot pot can be refilled just do not add to alloy melted in the pot.

[DeadHandRed]

I just melted a pot full of rusty lead head nails, no problems.

[zxcvbob]

If your pot is too small to hold the entire batch of possibly wet scrap, fill it up, melt the stuff down, flux, and skim out the crud. Pour some ingots just until the pot is about 1/4 to 1/3 full, and let it cool until the molten lead starts to harden. Now fill it up again with more scrap and turn the fire back on. Letting the lead harden prevents splatter when you add more scrap. The residual heat give the new lead a head start on drying and melting.

[WHITETAIL]

YOu guys are right by sayin
load a empty pot and put a lid on it.
But not tight.
This will keep the lead from jumping out.

[*Paladin*]

I smelted all of the rusty WW's down over last weekend and have lots of beautiful silver ingots from ugly, rusty WW's. Wasn't really much more dross with them tha any other pot of WW's. Thanks to all for the advice!