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Thread: zink?

  1. #1
    Boolit Man
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    zink?

    on my last post i got some good info and someone mentioned the dreaded zink monster. how do you identify the zink ww from lead? and what would happen ifin a zink ww or two got into the mix?
    "when the going gets tough... eat more fiber!!!"


    "duckndawg"

  2. #2
    Boolit Master

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    Alot of zinc has holes and rivets that hold the clips on. I myself just keep my temp under 650degrees and the zinc floats with the clips. I put in a handful and pick out the floaters with a pair of pliers. You may get a few coated leads that will float for a second or so but when you grab them they will squash or fall apart. The zincs will stay solid.

    There was a thread I believe it was called " the good the bad and the the ugly"

  3. #3
    Boolit Buddy cohutt's Avatar
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    Zinc also turns copper colored after a bob or two on the lead if you don't cacth them before hand. +1 on the rivets- even the teeny ones have a rivet connection to the clip.

  4. #4
    Boolit Grand Master

    imashooter2's Avatar
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    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=2268

    As the others said, if one gets in the pot it will float. Unless you aren't paying attention and get the temperature high enough to melt the zinc. Then one zinc weight can ruin many pounds of alloy. It destroys the casting properties.

  5. #5
    In Remembrance

    NVcurmudgeon's Avatar
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    Most of the riveted weights I have seen are steel or iron. There are also stick on weights, about half the size of the lead stick-ons, that are also magnetic. The few zinc weights I have seen were all clip-on and were marked ZN, often wth a number divisible by 5, indicating grams weight. Surest way to avoid trouble is to
    keep temperature under 650, with will melt lead alloy weights, and pure lead stick-ons, but is safely under the melting point of zinc by 100 degrees or so.
    Eagles have talons, buzzards don't. The Second Amendment empowers us to be eagles. curmudgeon

  6. #6
    Boolit Buddy
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    I agree with NVcurmudgeon. All the ones I've seen with rivets are something ferrous - they stick to a magnet. Definitely not Zn... The zinc one's I've come across so far have all been marked Zn somewhere on them.

    Use a thermometer, keep it under 650F and get rid of anything that floats. You'll be fine.

  7. #7
    Boolit Buddy cohutt's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lurch View Post
    I agree with NVcurmudgeon. All the ones I've seen with rivets are something ferrous - they stick to a magnet. Definitely not Zn... The zinc one's I've come across so far have all been marked Zn somewhere on them.

    Use a thermometer, keep it under 650F and get rid of anything that floats. You'll be fine.

    I bet my copper colored floaters are ferrous then, not zinc after all - they're in a can somehwere in the shop, i'll double check if i can remember tommorrow.

  8. #8
    Boolit Master


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    Keep your eyes open for ZINK if the tire shop services imported cars and GM Cadallacs. Not proven fact, thats what i was told.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master
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    Every riveted WW I've encountered was steel. Not all the zinc was marked Zn though. I don't bother to be careful about either, I just keep the temperature rise fairly slow. When the clips will first come free and rise to the top I skim them off, along with the black crud. If there is still silvery lead adhering to the clips, keep stirring - it's not quite hot enough. As soon as the lead stops sticking to them, skim. Any steel and zinc weights that got into the pot will be part of what you skim off. However you will also skim some painted lead weights. Separate those and melt them carefully before the pot temperature rises. Some painted zinc weights are visually indistinguishable (to me) from painted lead ones. If they melt at the temperature where the steel clips first float cleanly, they're lead. They just take a bit longer to melt than unpainted WW.

  10. #10
    Boolit Master
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    Hi,
    Use A 2nd Pot To Do The Refining In.

  11. #11
    Boolit Buddy
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    I just went through a bucket of WW my brother-in-law brought to me this evening. I found about ten zincs. Most were stick ons, 3 were marked with a ZN and one was a rivet with no markings on it, it was'nt lead and no magnetic value. This is the first bucket I've ever gotten with zinc in it. I was hoping the zinc's had'nt come this far south.

  12. #12
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    44man's Avatar
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    I finally figured it out! Zink is only found in the Republik of Kalifornia. It is a new element with liberal electrons that do not settle down until huge amounts of tax money is dumped in the pot. It is extremely dangerous if breathed in, they will turn your brain to mush so all you can see are demoKrats.

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BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
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