250 pounds of wheel weights and a dream

[358jdj]

I recently came across about 250 pounds of wheel weights.  I have a propane turkey frier burner.  What I want to do is melt down the wheel weights into ingots.  I don't have the time or $ right now to start casting, but retirement is coming in a couple of years.

To make the ingots I am thinking of melting the weights in a dedicated 10 quart cast iron pot.  After fluxing to remove the junk and clips, I am thinking of ladeling the molten lead into muffin tins to form the ingots.  Am I thinking of doing anything wrong at this point?

Will an ordinary old cheap ccoking ladel work?  Will a cheap set of throw away muffin tins work?  Can I just flux with some old motor oil or a mixture of motor oil and sawdust?  If so, how much per pot of molten lead?

Caution will be taken to avoid fumes, watch out for moisture in the weights, burning oneself with the melt, ect.

Any help and suggestions are welcome.  At this point in time I just want to get the wheel weights cleanup up and in a form that will easy to store for future use.

 

[Lloyd Smale]

everything will work with the exception of the throw away muffin tins if there the ones that are made out of alluminum foil theres to many places for the lead to grab the sides. They may work if you peeled the off afterward ive never tried it. In a big pot a tablespoon of lube oil would do it. What i do is when the wws are melted i stir the pot with all the crap in it real well the rubber and junk will actually flux in any tin thats floating at the top the remove all the clips dirt and junk. then fllux and clean the lead. Then pour it into ingots.

[Will52100]

That's pretty much what I do, except that I use a Lee ignot mold for wheel wieghts and a couple of the cheap sheat metal muffin tins for pure lead.  Seperate your WW's, the stick on type for aluminum mag wheels are soft lead perfect for round balls and such for black powder.  You will find that some WW's don't melt, they are a zink alloy, just discard them, they'll float to the top. Then I can melt the cleaned ignots in my melting pot without a ton of crud or smoke. 

[HL]

Ditto on the muffin pans. They work, but just one time. Best to get one of the cast iron ingot moulds from Lee, Lyman or RCBS.

Just my .02

HL

[cjensen]

First: Don't use an aluminum melting pot. It will give way. 250# of lead on the ground is a bad day.
Second: Consider topless pop cans for one time use ingot molds. Cheap and holds a good amount. Make sure they are dry.
Otherwise stink away with the used motor oil and stand upwind.
Lastly, think big. A large pot of the same alloy is a good thing.
A good melt is a good day.

[BIG Dog454]

I  like to use bees wax for flux, seems a lot cleaner to me.