Altered wheel weight composition?

[deleted] 3 years ago

Does anyone know whether the new wheel weights (flat, rectangular stick-on) type have an altered chemical composition?

I heard this morning that folks have not succeeded melting them like the old wheel weights.

Replies 9

Lead is being phased out of wheel weights internationally so a lot of whet you'll find here now are zinc or even steel. Zinc is a bitch if it gets into a lead melt as relatively little of the stuff messes up a lot of lead. I'm not aware of any easy way to get it out of a lead melt either so I've binned a fair bit of contaminated lead over the years. Getting hold of wheel weight scrap is harder and harder nowadays though as it seems to be collected from the fitment places on a contract basis for the most part. My local tyre place used to give me theirs in 20l buckets for a case of beer a couple of times a year but now I buy range scrap.

@M @mohamed 3 years ago

I got a box of wheel weights from a fitment center some type back. Went through the lot which took some time, hardly any lead weights in it. All zinc based. Stopped asking them for more.

@2 @223 3 years ago

The wheel weights are often marked to identify the material (and weight):
Steel = Fe
Zinc = Zn or Zk
Lead = Pb

@T @treeman 3 years ago

The stick on weights are all alloys and lead substitutes, in short useless. You only want the metal clip on type of weights.

@O @oafpatroll 3 years ago

The stick on weights are all alloys and lead substitutes, in short useless. You only want the metal clip on type of weights.

Sadly those are not 100% guaranteed to be lead either anymore.

@414gates 3 years ago

It's easy to separate the lead from the zinc and steel.

Use a wire cutter, close the jaws on the item. If its lead, it'll be soft and the cutter jaw will sink into it.

It it's zinc or steel, it won't.

The last time I bought wheelweights by the bucket nearly half of them were not lead.

@K @krazong 2 years ago

I find that the stick-on wheel weights which are actually made of lead (Pb) can only be used for muzzle loaders. In fact, they are so soft that it's in fact almost pure 100% Lead. Because it's not really an alloy, it casts with great difficulty and does not flow as well as the crimp-on wheelwreights. You also would want to increase the temperature a lot to effectively cast a nice bullet without wrinkles. They made great roundballs and I use them exclusively to cast my .715" and .735" roundballs. These balls consume huge amounts of lead, being 550 and 650 grains respectively.

@T @troglodyte 2 years ago

I find that the stick-on wheel weights which are actually made of lead (Pb) can only be used for muzzle loaders. In fact, they are so soft that it's in fact almost pure 100% Lead. Because it's not really an alloy, it casts with great difficulty and does not flow as well as the crimp-on wheelwreights. You also would want to increase the temperature a lot to effectively cast a nice bullet without wrinkles. They made great roundballs and I use them exclusively to cast my .715" and .735" roundballs. These balls consume huge amounts of lead, being 550 and 650 grains respectively.

*******************************
I was told the stick on weights are NOT pure lead, the need to be softer than lead and are therefore an alloy. I have believed this since forever,
I now actually researched it to correct your post only to find that the stick on weights I have been turning down are actually the real thing ..........................Waaaaaaaaa ha ha ha !

@2 @223 2 years ago

I find that the stick-on wheel weights which are actually made of lead (Pb) can only be used for muzzle loaders. In fact, they are so soft that it's in fact almost pure 100% Lead. Because it's not really an alloy, it casts with great difficulty and does not flow as well as the crimp-on wheelwreights. You also would want to increase the temperature a lot to effectively cast a nice bullet without wrinkles. They made great roundballs and I use them exclusively to cast my .715" and .735" roundballs. These balls consume huge amounts of lead, being 550 and 650 grains respectively.

*******************************
I was told the stick on weights are NOT pure lead, the need to be softer than lead and are therefore an alloy. I have believed this since forever,
I now actually researched it to correct your post only to find that the stick on weights I have been turning down are actually the real thing ..........................Waaaaaaaaa ha ha ha !

I measured the hardness of ingots cast from stick-on lead wheelweights at 8BHN.
Pure lead is supposed to measure 5BHN.
So it is soft, but still harder than pure lead.
Actual pure lead may become scarce, as many are recycling, and some impurities will always find a way into the alloy.