Processing Wheel Weights

[Hawnjigs]

To process wheel weights into ingots, this is what my carport melt/pour station and equipment look like. Everything is second hand salvage or home made, except the burner & small Lee Ladle.
1. Box fan to suck away smoke & vapors
2. Cast iron propane burner inside wooden wind break barrier
3. Heavy stainless pot with approx. 50# melt capacity
4. 1-1/2# ladle and 1# ingots mold both cast iron - ingot mold in use sits separately on a heavy lead block heat sink
5. Slotted steel ladle for stirring and skimming clips + Lee ladle for skimming powder dross
6. Large stainless bowl for agitating skimmed clips to dislodge clinging lead dross
7. Steel mesh strainer to separate COOL dross into powder waste & larger recycleable lead fragments + waste collection can
8. Work table with heavy aluminum sheet top - propane tanks under

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[Hawnjigs]

Here are some tips:
1. I like to separate clip-on and stick-on WWs & at the same time sorting out and discarding steel & zinc weights + trash. Most steel weights are obvious due to rivets, but zinc weights take practice to recognize - both are much lighter than lead.
2. Clip-ons: first melt stage will be silvery sludge clinging to the clips, IMMEDIATELY after most of the sludge has liquified off the clips and formed a black powdery floating dross, skim out the clips with a slotted ladle and remaining floating dross with a closed ladle into a metal bowl. By stirring and tossing the skim a lot of the lead still stuck to the clips can be separated and some useable lead particles can be strained out of the powder waste after disposing the clips. IMPORTANT: zinc has a slightly higher melting point than lead and any unmelted WWs floating with the clips should be removed immediately as zinc contamination of the melt is a bad. NOTE: the powder waste should be properly disposed of as a hazardous material.
3. Stick-ons: these are much softer lead and should be processed separately and saved for when there is a need. A paint thinner soak detaches the plastic adhesive tape if you want to avoid the plastic burn smoke when melted.
4. If you're new to wheel weight melting, watch out for trapped moisture in the clips that can cause lead splatter when dropped into the melt.

 

[LedHed]

Like the equipment - I'm sure the price was right. Excellent deal when you can recycle. Those are some great tips on the WW lead recovery.

Got ~ 5 five gallon buckets of both clips and two sided tape (for years) - been putting off cleaning it. Hate it. Forget the tape stuff - had the misfortune of heating up a pot of those WWs before I new how bad the stuff smoked.

 

[Hawnjigs]

I live in the country so can get away with it, but in a suburban neighborhood the oil, grease, tape, & paint attached to WWs makes a foul smelling smoke guaranteed to P*** off neighbors or even family. Might fly under the radar on a rainy day.

 

[AtticaFish]

Looks like a well thought out set-up to deal with a rough type of cleaning. Living outside of town has its advantages. I've been on the outskirts of a very small town for too long now, don't think i could ever go back to having neighbors anymore!!!!!

The melting/pouring side of this hobby is some what greek to me but i think this is excellent tutorial material.... do you mind if i post it on the main site in the tutorials section? Either way - thanks for posting it up here.

 

[toadfrog]

I live in what was once a remote area. I have neighbors now close enough to hear their cars start in the morning. Hate it. But that's life . Be careful raising to much of a stink when melting lead . Some idiot will think you have a crank lab going . It happened to a friend of mine . Cops showed up Treated him like a convict tossed his shop and everything. When they didn't come up with anything they left without even the smallest of apology . With a little encouragement the person that created that situation has moved back to the city where he belongs.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Mr. Site Co-Owner, your privelege to post at your discretion.

We're rural, but somehow managed to have neighbors on each side - in 15 years here we've gone thru drug dealers(Eric & a Poto family in sequence), drug abusers(too many to list), belligerent drunks(too many to list), violent domestics(too many to list), suspected brother murderer(Steve), suspected son murderers(Peter & Jaydene), a deaf gal who hooked up our phone daily to her braille keyboard(Gina), pet rabbits, chickens, ducks that wandered over & ate our plants, a dog that would steal our footwear(Calvin), a cat that would spray my work area & equipment(Sambo), a certified loony who periodically stopped taking her meds & would yell bizarre accusations at us(Yanna), a son who flatted her mother's friends tires and sold all her valuables for dope money(Tommy). Latest arrival is a rather well known burglar. Our one good neighbor, a gay couple, is probably gonna get foreclosed after one of them passed on recently.

If you've got young uns around not a bad idea to avoid messing with dirty scrap lead. Maybe, in the future, you can aquire a bottom pour melter and good clean ingots if you want to venture into the metals casting aspect of jigcraft.

 

[toadfrog]

Good grief, You ever think about moving Hawn ! I'm glad you mentioned the kids I forgot to say that I do work in the health care field. Lead will accumilate and stay in the body especially the young. Its effects will show up fast and ugly sometimes. It is a miracle I'm still kicking . WE didn't have that kind of information back in the day.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Yup, the fringes seem to attract outlaws & misfits. Just saw a movie "Winters Bone" about life in the Ozarks. We settled where we could afford to buy, house lots in our subdvn are still under $10G. Tenants in this area tend to pay first months rent + security deposit then squat until evicted which could drag out as long as they can dodge being served by the Sheriff. But, nobody ever complained about my wheel weight burn sessions.

 

[JSC]

Hawn .. with all that goin on . . think of what a great book U could write .. 40+ years when I moved to this house we were only 1 of 5 that lived hear year round now its the other way around and more houses but I am still kinda out in the country even thou I have City water and just got sewage hook up with the city ... cost me more than I want to mention my billfold is now lighter than I would like for it to be and they will be gettin more money out of me every month ... I could have lived with the septic tank but not with the wife and the sewage was now available ... Things just arent what they were in the good ol days =:^) ..

Be waiting on the Book Hawn ..
JSC

 

[Hawnjigs]

Everyone's got a book in em - most like me have too much going on to write it. Anyone with some mileage has stories to tell, & some that they won't.

My wife's gal friend thought the Missouri hill country was gonna be paradise - bought 100 acres to raise horses, with woods & fishing ponds(she doesn't). She's back after a few years - Island girl couldn't handle the cold winters & hard neighbors.

We don't have septic or sewer, our second hand house was built in the days when the drain line went into a crack in the lava rock base. Never backs up, but we still don't know where it is.

Say Mods, this being a fishing forum would you like me to tone down the ramble?

 

[jjsjigs]

Hell no Hawn... it's just getting interesting. Please do go on.

 

[LedHed]

Hj
It's your post - I'm enjoying it....

Seen way worse on other sites.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Well OK, here's a posting today on the local Craigslist Rants and Raves.
http://honolulu.craigslist.org/big/rnr/2192685899.html

Before it expires, here's the poster's opinion of Puna, Big Island of Hawaii where I live.

"Congratulations! You have finally found out what so many people will never figure out about Hawaii! Ninety nine percent of the permanent residents there are COMPLETELY FULL OF SHIT!!!!!!

Not just the hippy dippies but the locals and Haoles that talk all this Aloha crap. Do you know the translation of Aloha? It means fuck you white man, get off my land and send me a big fat welfare check when you are gone.

Puna is the dregs of the fucking universe. Everyone talking all this love and cosmic horseshit meanwhile they will steal you blind and fuck with you to no end if you don't buy into their love and Aloha horseshit. Glad I only visited there and never got stuck. PUNA may just be the most bat shit crazy place on the planet. Maybe even more so than the Middle East."