De-Alloying Wheel Weights

[Misfit-45]

Is there an easy way to eliminate the tin and antimony from wheel weights to purify the lead? One guy told me that if I really heat up the wheel weights (on High on my Lee electric pot), the tin will float to the top and could be skimmed off. Any truth to that? Does this come under the category of "don't try this at home"?
Marv

 

[Stumpkiller]

Yes. A centrifugal furnace or one that gets to 650°C (1200°F).

Pretty much beyond anything a reloading type electric furnace can do. They max out at around 800°F.
http://www.gravitaexim.com/Lead-metal/Lead-Refining-Solutions.html

 

[Zonie]

Stumpy's right.

The alloys in lead are kinda like salt in the stew pot. Once it's in there it isn't easy to get it out.

For the average (or even the greatly above average) person without $500,000+ invested, separating the various metals out of lead alloys is not possible.

Overheating lead alloys can give off toxic vapors so do not try this at home.

 

[curator]

Skimming off some of the tin won't soften the wheel weight alloy since it is the Antimony in solution that makes it harden. Freshly cast WW is about BHN 6 where pure lead is BHN 5. So recently cast WW alloy is OK for muzzle loader use. After several days the WW alloy slowly (about 2 weeks) hardens to BHN 12 or so. Not Ok for M/L use. One thing you can always do is anneal the alloy at 350-400 degrees in an ordinary kitchen oven for about 2 hours then let air-cool. BHN 6 is restored for a few days then slowly age-harden. You can also anneal then keep in your freezer at 0 degrees to delay hardening.

 

[Dphar]

Is there an easy way to eliminate the tin and antimony from wheel weights to purify the lead? One guy told me that if I really heat up the wheel weights (on High on my Lee electric pot), the tin will float to the top and could be skimmed off. Any truth to that? Does this come under the category of "don't try this at home"?
Marv

If you are shooting RBs WW alloy may work fine, extremely well in fact. But it may require a slightly thinner patch.

Dan

 

[David W.]

Is there an easy way to eliminate the tin and antimony from wheel weights to purify the lead? One guy told me that if I really heat up the wheel weights (on High on my Lee electric pot), the tin will float to the top and could be skimmed off. Any truth to that? Does this come under the category of "don't try this at home"?
Marv

If you are shooting RBs WW alloy may work fine, extremely well in fact. But it may require a slightly thinner patch.

Dan

Dan is correct. An RB cast from wheel weights will shoot just fine, but will cast a larger ball than if it were pure lead, facilitating a thinner patch.

Wheel weight lead is okay for target, but I would use pure lead for hunting. Stick on wheel weights are supposed to be soft. I have never used them since I have beaucoup pounds of x-ray shielding lead.

 

[gmww]

I would agree about wheel weight and hunting only in general sense. Like most things in life there are exceptions. I've chosen wheel weight over pure lead when I need very deep penetration. In my case it was for bison hunting. I also wanted it to break though potential thick bone.

 

[vern faulkner]

I use wheels weight for casting my .32 and .36 flinters that I hunt squirrels with. Don't need penetration there. Just knock them in the head. For my .50 (For deer) I do use pure lead.

Vern

 

[HOGGHEAD]

Is it practical to do for the average guy---NO.

WW has worked fine for me for longer than I care to tell. You use different size patches to find the most accurate load for a pure lead round ball, so a WW round ball is no different. They wil work just fine. Tom.

 

[nkbj]

If you happen to go off and leave a melter full of wheel weight metal cooking in the pot it will separate out some.

 

[mbokie]

Wonder if going to an old junkyard with lots of old cars would turn up any pure lead?

 

[necchi]

Wonder if going to an old junkyard with lots of old cars would turn up any pure lead?

Probably not anymore, even cars from the 50's needed new tires every so often and usually a junkyard makes money by salvageing metals an scrap, so metals are split up and sold.

On that note, Check a local Salvage yard. Most areas have a place to bring in cars for scrap not parts, a place to bring in Aluminum cans, Brass, Copper, etc,,,.

While it's tuff to find "pure" lead there is alot of scrap that's actually soft lead and can be purchased from the scrap yard. I haven't read the entire thread here, but the stick on wheel weights are softer than the ones with clips. I look for Sheet lead, Roofing, Flashing lead an X-ray room stuff.

It's been a year since I bought any, but it was down to 85 cents a pound from $1 the year before.
Make a few calls?? An ask for soft lead,,
Alot of times they don't wanna mess with ya if you only want a few #'s but 30-40 even 50#'s or more makes the purchase worth while.
I bought a sheet of X-ray room liner that was 114# and have less than half left.

 

[BillinOregon]

My dear Phariss: Good to hear that WW round balls work. I'm having a 12-bore rifle built with narrow lands and 1:104 twist (Oregon Barrel Works barrel), and I'm betting a WW ball would have some penetrating power.

 

[mbokie]

I found the part about volume purchase to be true.

I need a co-op effort to buy enough for my bp friends.

I'll always scrounge, it's my nature. But so far, everything you said has been true for me.

 

[Firelock937]

WW's are absolutely wonderful things! I use them for rb's, 9mm, 38's, 45acp, even 30-06 type cartridges for light target loads. Check with local auto repair shops, especially those that do some tires but not only tires. They are less likely to already have a disposal outlet for old ww's.

 

[Otter]

I will only use WW to cast bullets for my smokeless cartridge loads, YMMV. For my RBs I use soft lead and for BP cartridge bullets I use soft lead alloyed with tin. I can afford to be picky, though, because I got ahold of about a half ton of good soft sheet lead a few years ago and have plenty for many years to come.