Stick on wheel weights

TomSp8

Active Member
When separating clip on and stick on wheel weights, are the coated stick ons treated the same as uncoated stick ons? Should I only use the uncoated if I want soft lead for muzzle loading bullets?
 

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462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Dikes will tell you if the painted weights are lead, steel or zinc. My money's on the last two.
 
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TomSp8

Active Member
No. They are lead for sure, the coated cuts just about as effortlessly as the uncoated ones. My first big batch of weights I melted, I separated all the clip ons from the stick ons in separately marked ingots. Just got to thinking if I should also separate the coated stick ons from the uncoated stick ons for use in "pure lead" muzzle loader bullets.
 

TomSp8

Active Member
Being new to this, I am pretty methodical when sorting. Steel gets culled first, using a magnet and obvious fe markings, then anything marked zinc, then clipping the rest with dikes. Nothing goes into the "lead" bucket unless I've snipped them, even stick ons.
 

Foo

Active Member
I don't sort at all. By the time you sort a large batch of lead you could have ingots and started casting bullets. Steel and Zinc melt at a higher temp and can be skimmed off the top of the pot. Just keep the lead temp below zinc melting point. Steel, like copper jackets, will never melt. Just the way I do it. YMMV.
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
I don't sort at all. By the time you sort a large batch of lead you could have ingots and started casting bullets. Steel and Zinc melt at a higher temp and can be skimmed off the top of the pot. Just keep the lead temp below zinc melting point. Steel, like copper jackets, will never melt. Just the way I do it. YMMV.
if you are smelting a large batch ....this is very chancy! Especially if you have jacketed bullets in the batch! I have recorded in excess of 850 deg waiting for the copper jackets to release the pure lead! Never take chances always sort out the bad stuff! It will save a lot of headaches in the end!
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
antimony melts at like 1200-F.
it manages to melt with the lead [630-F] and tin [450-F] at 600~ no problem.
 

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
As far as I am concerned, Different, is Different. If unable to confirm. Just treat handle them separately.

I have a few buckets going of some I dont identify. When I have enough Ill smelt and test. Till then they hang out in coffee cans of buckets waiting.

CW
 

TomSp8

Active Member
Well for fun, I went and bought a set of art pencils, as I've read about using them, and watched a few videos. This set was at Michael's for $9 and has a nice metal tin to keep them in. I lightly sanded the two samples to ensure a flat somewhat polished surface, and to remove the coating from the one sample. I used several online charts found to generally reach a bhn of each pencil. The uncoated stick on scribed easily with the softest pencil 8B, which should be about a 5bhn. The coated stick on required a 2B pencil before leaving a scribe that I could feel with my fingernail, which should be about a 12bhn (give or take). So with that analysis....I will melt and ingot the non coated stick ons separately and mark them accordingly.
 

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Rick

Moderator
Staff member
The thing to remember is that the adhesive WW are extruded, not cast. When ingotized, you may get different test results.

:headscratch: When made into ingots results will be different from what? An ingot will cool much slower when melted and poured into a mold, extruded wasn't melted. What are you comparing?
 

Ian

Notorious member
Based on a decent amount of testing, all painted stickies equal clippy alloy. Uncoated have about 1% antimony and almost nothing else important, so nearly equal .22 rimfire or jax bullet core alloy.
 

JustJim

Well-Known Member
:headscratch: When made into ingots results will be different from what? An ingot will cool much slower when melted and poured into a mold, extruded wasn't melted. What are you comparing?
Extruded lead is work-softened. When extruded lead is melted and cast into ingots, the ingots will usually be harder than the extruded lead wheelweights.
 

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
Every time I attempted to test a ingot I got different from cast products. Even after months of stabilize time.
I dont test ingots anymore.
 

TomSp8

Active Member
Based on a decent amount of testing, all painted stickies equal clippy alloy. Uncoated have about 1% antimony and almost nothing else important, so nearly equal .22 rimfire or jax bullet core alloy.
Ian, that answers my initial question to a T. And matches my test results. Thank you.
 

Foo

Active Member
if you are smelting a large batch ....this is very chancy! Especially if you have jacketed bullets in the batch! I have recorded in excess of 850 deg waiting for the copper jackets to release the pure lead! Never take chances always sort out the bad stuff! It will save a lot of headaches in the end!
I keep a thermometer in the lead and turn down the heat if it gets too hot. Stirring the pot to get those jackets down in the molten lead helps expedite melt time. I also use a dutch oven pot and use lid to make it go faster. I normally melt range scrap (jacketed bullets) separately from wheel weights (rarely find any anymore) so I don't worry about zinc with range scrap. If doing wheel weights I watch the temp and there isn't any jackets in it to wait on. But I hear ya, that temp can creep up on ya and ruin a batch of lead if not watched. My batches are usually 25-40 lbs.
Have a great day.
 

stlg67

Southeast Texas
I'm new to this also, but I always separate everthing, sticky w.w., clip on lead w.w., zinc w.w., throw the steel away. Elvis Ammo made some zinc bullets for 300 blackout and they seemed to work well, figured could start with those when the lead dries up.