Zink in W/W

[furface]

Is there a way to tell if W/W has zink in them.

[Hank08]

I hear a lot about zinc in ww and not saying they're not out there somewhere but I've cast tons of WW and I've yet to see one with zinc in it.  I have 5 or 6 ,5 gal. buckets full now and I don't think there's any zinc in any of them.
H08

[blhof]

I've caught a few recently, but they are odd shaped and marked, if in doubt. smack with a hammer; zinc will break, lead bends.

[haroldclark]

Are you guys talking about a Wheel weight made of Zinc?

Will the Zinc melt at 800 degrees?

I have cast a lot of wheel weights and I do recall one or two that floated to the top of the melt.  Didn't have a clue why it didn't melt.

Harold

[Nobade]

Yes, if you keep the temp. down to where WW will just melt, the zinc ones float to the top. If you go too hot, they will melt. Also the clips are zinc coated, and that will also melt if you smelt your WW too hot. Be careful and only get them up to barely above 'slushy' temp. If you melt some zinc into the mix it'll look like oatmeal and never pour a decent bullet. Then you get to throw that whole batch away and clean up everything really well to start over.

[kitchawan kid]

Just read on internet that Washington state will now ban WW lead,i am sure the east coast will follow soon.

[jhalcott]

 This zinc not casting well thing always bugs me. When I worked in the steel mill they had a vat they ran the coils thru. It had a mix of zinc AND aluminum that coated the metal. I used this stuff to cast some EXTREMELY light bullets in several calibers. They didn't shoot very well until you got them going FAST! A 240 grain .44 mold would drop 180 grain slugs. At normal .44 mag speeds they would give a 12" patternat 25 yards! Speed them up a good bit faster than a jacketed .44 and groups would shrink to 1" to 2". They would ruin a barrel in short order though. I never found the correct lube to prevent this damage(?) This high velocity equals accuracy was evident in all the calibers I tried. A 200 grain .30 caliber mold dropped a 150 grain slug that would go 3000 fps and break in half on a steel gong at 200 tards. We used acetylene torches to melt this alloy

[Nobade]

You're right. Zinc, aluminum, and copper in various proportions make a series of alloys called Zamak. These cast extremely well, and in fact are formulated as casting alloys. And yes, you can make bullets out of some of them as you have found out. However, zinc and lead mixtures do not work that way. They form a nasty mess that is lumpy, very sticky, and will not cast for beans. Keep zinc out of your lead!

BTW, this weekend I melted down several large boxes of wheel weights. Sure enough, I found maybe a half dozen zinc ones and some steel ones. Keep your melt as cool as possible and do not allow the zinc weights to melt or you will be sorry! 

[beerbelly]

I melt my WW on an old Colman propane stove. It don't get real hot. After the WW melt there are always several weights that didn't melt floating on top. I skim them off and toss them. So far that seems to work.
                         Beerbelly