Melting Wheel Weights Into Lead Ingots - Easy DIY Metal Casting 

*This is my second set of weight discs and I also have the 2 ounce and **enjoyable.fishing** recommend they work great and fit into the tackle box perfectly. the quality is there so I'm happy with them.*

I'm a bullet caster. For flux, try a hardwood dowel. Scrape the bottom and sides when you stir. Not as stinky as wax or messy as sawdust and gets all the way through the melt. A 1" oak dowel from lowes/home depot last a long time and does a great job ive found without all the downsides

The slow progression of a scrapper into a refinery

I've enjoyed seeing the progression of your channel over the last couple of years. Everything has improved, and in videos like these you're like the Mr. Rogers of scrapping.

I do this all the time because I cast my own bullets. The harder you make your lead the more you can charge. A 9mm round doesn't have to be that hard, so you could mix a 1 to 3 clip on to stick on ratio for low velocity, low pressure application. Now, rifle rounds--high velocity rounds--need to be much harder. A little info on the Brinell hardness scale, and you can really get the most bang for your buck from your lead. You could even cast hard and soft separately, but be aware that the pure lead (the stick ons) melt at a higher temp than the clip ons. You may need to flux just to get them to melt. Final comment: please please please never do this indoors. Not even with the garage door cracked open. Stick on weights contain rubber and toxic adhesives that you don't want wafting into your home. And while we are nowhere near the boiling point of lead at melting point, lead fumes (though heavy) are released at only 900 f. The candle you are adding burns at 1100-1200 f, so some fumes from the surface lead could be released. These will settle into dust, which will contaminate your work area. Best to do this outside where the work space can be doused in water and then swept to prevent airborne poison. The dust from your buckets is actually not a threat (too heavy to float up), but the very fine dust from fluxing can be serious business!

Interesting vid, as usual. Here in the UK, clip-on lead wheel weights haven't been sold for years. I still collect lead scraps, but don't sell it. I melt it on a much smaller scale on my workshop woodburner (which was a gas bottle, see the vid on the link below if interested: Thubprint, boot it off if it offends). I use a crucible made from the bottom 2/3 of an old mig gas bottle with 3 blobs of weld on the bottom and cast into a moulds made from the bottom of another. A crucible load melts in about 10 minutes, any fumes are exhausted from your workspace (up the chimney) and it uses zero sequestered carbon - wood fired. I don't flux and don't stir, just pour and the lead runs out clean from under the skin of impurities, leaving the steel behind too. Very little supervision required, get on with other scrapping. Great for the winter as the wood burner keeps things nice and cosy. Just don't get it too hot - wood firing on low draught is ideal. Every once in a blue moon I get the dripper out and make lead shot and sell at mates rates to scuba diving friends. The shot is not perfectly round, but is plenty good enough and 'hardness' impurities don't matter. There you go, a little wrinkle from over the Pond. Here's the link. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-De1LbSrsZrc.html 'Channel' isn't deliberately monetised - YT have recently started adding ads off their own bat - most of it's ecological bollocks, so pretty niche.

Used to melt lead fishing weights for fun as a kid. I'd really like to do this now

I've been researching the process of melting lead. And tbh I'm a stickler for safety. You're the only youtuber so far that doesn't make me cringe bc the lack of safety precautions. Bare minimum gloves and a respirator right? Wrong. So good on you for being different

Every video is literally a guide to make a little bit of extra money and I love it, Keep producing great work Thub! Now its time for me to start emailing local Tire shops!

As a bullet and sinker caster I appreciate this video! I got about a lifetime supply of lead and tin. Clip on wheel weights make good bullets. That soft lead makes good musket balls or sinkers as is. I always smelt them seperate as soft. Def more money selling ingots. No need to buy expensive molds. Use cast scone or corn cob molds from thrift stores. Muffin tins work also but break easy.

Love it! I have a lead melter for this reason, got it at an estate sale. Check your eBay sold listings and if you live in the U.S. you can make a bullet casting bundle and ship flat rate.... food for thought! Doing this with copper bars and aluminum works well too. Now that i learned about zinc i am intrigued. Thanks so much

I have a dump truck load full Of wheel weights , literally. My dad has a tire shop as did my grandfather before him. We have over 100 five gallon buckets in our warehouse. My family has been hoarding for many years . Nearly forty we are looking to scrap it . We need the space and it’s in our way.

I got several pounds of pure lead from scraping 4 cast nets I found in a junked boat. I melted them down using regular brick in a gravel driveway, burning charcoal briquettes, melted them in a stainless steel mixing bowl from a yard sale (25c) and poured into muffin tins from the same yard sale (10c)

Why is it relaxing to learn about scrapping? But it is!

My god my mind has been blown away, this is such an original and out of the box idea! I freaking love it, great work man!

Dang, Thubbie! You are right. I had no idea I needed to know all this, and learned SO much. Thanks!

Thank you for this post. Today I celebrated the anniversary of my 21st BD and I found this extremely informative. Long time follower and feel like I am getting closer to graduation with honors from Thubprint University

For sorting wheel weights, use a pair of wire cutters to see if it is lead or zinc. You will not be able to cut or dent the zinc. Use a magnet to see if it is lead or steel (obviously test away from the clip). I stick a hard drive magnet to the back of my wire cutters for easy access. Cast all of your "alloys" separately. By that mean that you should not mix clip-on WW's and Stick-on WW's since they are different alloys (Stick-on WW's are softer). Bullet casters will trust you more if you let them know where the lead came from.

Im def gonna be keeping an eye out for the wheel weights from now on. Im gonna check out some of my local car mechanics n junk yards because in my area they really dont think about scraping the scraps or saving stuff like that to sell. especially the ones that specialize in tire changing n balancing ive seen buckets outside of their shops next to the dumpsters. Im gonna start a led smelting empire lol. Especially with the way America's economy is goin in the toilet its only a matter of time before the olds days n obsolete ways are teaching us how to make a living n survive.

Good job. Always nice to see someone making something out of not much.

I'm not sure how feasible this is here in Brasil, but this tutorial definitely earned my subscription to your channel. Thanks for all your tips.

You have an excellent sense of humor

ive done stained glass for many years and use the lead off cuts to make sinkers. cheers Thub

try magnet fishing in the warmer weather along with cleaning up the river you can get serious metal out of it including fishing weights if you go to the right area, some places have a community cleaning group that cleans the rivers but with the virus some places are neglected, best places to try would be city canals or if there is a river that flows near or through the city that works too

can you make post-apocalyptic survival and search guide.

getting a little more sophisticated Thub.

invest in a steel cauldron. you can find them sometimes at yard sales. put the cauldron over a rocket stove made of bricks. you wont need to worry about the cold weather...

Wow, my mind is blown away once again on your knowledge of how to make some extra cash on every day items. Thanks for the video.

You had my subscription at antiquated lead/acid car batteries.

Should heat the molds up to prevent steam explosions.

I used to pour lead as a child with my dad out in our back garage. I'd also weigh out the gunpowder too.

Thub, what a great, interesting and fun video! You are an Alchemist...

Really cool. When I was a kid, my stepdad used to make jig heads for fishing and we melted a lot of pails of wheel weights with a propane torch and a ladle in the vice. It was a good deal for him. The weights were free and he had free child labour to hold the torch on the ladle. Thanks for the tips. I am trying to figure out how to maximize my scrapping as there are no decent yards within hours of me.

you were right, I love this weeks video! Cheers!

Neat! Good advice and I didn't know you could use a camp stove to cast any metals at all. I know aluminum has to be much hotter than that, but it's still really cool seeing lead on a camp stove. Great video!

Your video series is awesome

Nice my work has buckets of these lol

I really enjoyed this vid, thanks. I've just done my first car battery lead recovery and I'll deffo use some of the advice here for my second run :)

I heat up old projectiles from old army camp that metal detect. Get lead & copper/ brass from jackets. Win/win

pretty nice project. whas up tothis melting thing, dont know if you know, but "street copper" is good in that, maybe you can get some ideas there. thank you for this vid and stay healthy. you your family and everybody out there. greets from good old germany

Thank you of another information 👍👍

What a great - and fun - idea! Thanks, Thub.

Loved the video man. Keep up the good work. The amount of time you spend researching and preparing really shows. Keep doing the thing. From Sacramento, CA. Oh yeah I made the short video on cleaning pressure relief valves, hope it helped you or anyone and I changed the name to Jadrew Scrapper just in case I ever post anymore. Deuces!

Even two years ago a 10 dollar bucket of wheel weights was a unicorn. More likely 50-100 at a dealership.

Really enjoyed the editing on this one. Voice description over video was 👌👌

Very nice ideas idol

ladies and gentlemen may I present the man, the legend, the OG himself.....Sir Thubs!

I poured lead in to molds that was Han Solo in carbon just for fun lol and if you're looking for a lot of lead Believe It or Not sailboats have alot in it and I have a video up showing a chunk of lead in the back of the truck it was heavy it was a big pay day

First time seeing your videos. These are excellent tips. I’m very intrigued. I’m looking forward to trying this technique as soon as I get a camping gas stove.

Good advice my friend. Greetings from Greece😃

Always good to leave it better then when you found it. Good Advice from a Good Video.

Great info!

Your demeanor and content has led you to a new subscriber. Cheers

Awesome stuff

I make fishing lures. I melt it down in my wood plugs, as ballast weight. Any lead I come across I save it. Someday I am going to get a melting pot or a ladle for melting led into plug bodies, and actual molds.

i like the format

That was a genius video!

Another interesting video

I was really glad when Brunswick Smelter closed down. I hauled truckloads of lead out of there quite often and every time was a huge hassle with the shipping staff. You should look into a Devil Forge furnace and make ingots to make you dollar on all your scrap.

As a diver, I use lead for my body weights to help myself sink. Something for you to think about. Because dive weights are expensive af

Sort the Zn by sound, on a metal bench there is a tone difference. Try not to melt for bullet casters is that is your final customer. Fish weight is another good source to sell to. Some down riggers use 10 pounds

ive melted zinc with charcoal and a steel "crucible" mix drink shaker. used a bunch of diecast car castings i didnt want and got a 5lb ingot

Candle wax, that's a new one. That was freaking awesome!

thanks

Great video as ythe comments agree! I le in cornwall UK here Ti. Ws mined heavily. I spoke to a gravity miner and he asked if I could bring a sample in for him. I never knew the price 15000 a ton

Nice

Propane @ 20.00 a tank don't for get Tha cost. I use a weed burner torch from Harbor Freight met 40 lbs at a time

big fan keep doing the thing

Spend $5 on propane to make $4 more. This summarises the metal scapper RU-vid space so, so well.

Genius

Love the channel so far! You're a wealth of information!

That was quite interesting, cheers Thub :)

It's great to tune in to your videos very informational keeps me going thanks for your hard work much appreciated, watched you and your little daughter yesterday on a video lovely see the bond yous have best of luck buddy all the best to you and your family, keep up the good work ✌

This was one of your best videos. Very interesting and nice presentation. Kudos to you sir up there in the great white north!

While pondering what my next income stream should be I happened across your videos and I must say that you have inspired me to include scrapping as one of those streams. I found I like taking things apart especially if they don’t need to go back together and I like your teaching style immensely. Keep the great videos coming I’ll be tuning in for sure. 😊

I have found that there are 3 kinds of wheel weights...pure lead, Antimony and steel. Out of a bucket of the latest weights, I'll bet I threw away over 25% of the newer non-lead weights

Hell yeah, dude!

Fantastic thinking my friend! I haven’t come across or had the opportunity to even consider what to do with lead wheel weights. Just recently i brought about 10 pounds of lead i peeled from a bunch of weird coated wire i found by the superior water front near my work... i found it walking on my lunch break. It was either some kind of fishing or net weight, or old electrical wire? But i digress, now im questioning wether i should have saved it for future smelting and private selling🤔 it was very corroded tho and kind of made me nervous having around... in fact when i first started peeling it off the wire inside I wasn’t wearing a respirator and quickly realized what an idiot rookie mistake that was

Cool video - lot of work.. I might just save the time and make the quick $10-15 bucks and fast turn-around for the cash instead of melting. But I guess the melt was fun to do.

how was I not subscribed to this channel?

I work at a tire shop and I pocket every lead weight so Im winning especially now that I know about this fuckin awesome shit!

You’re the man

Decent process you have there. May I contribute a few fine points ? Today, too many wheel weights are made steel or Zinc, Those can't be put in your melt, zinc is oatmeal lumps in molten lead. So be watchful of what you add to your pot. The fumes are harmful from this process. Melting lead or worse zinc. Work outside or under a fume hood. You cant rush the melting & fluxing process.. Pick off any floating steel clips carefully . But Before you try to scoop them or the "Dross" from the melt : You should do the wax flux thing/flame up the fumes, TWICE. & before you scoop the junk out Wax, Flux again with hardwood sawdust, ignite while stirring. This step insures you won't be skimming off the valuable antimony from in wheel weights. If you know the weight of your working pots content you can add pewter to the mixture at 1 or 2 % And stamp that Sn content right on your ingots. That is my preferred mixture for pistol 1% or for rifle bullets 2% Tin.. Sorry for the long post..keep up the good work & be careful. uncle mike in ct.

I've been collecting scrap lead for a significant number of years and processed it on my kitchen stove🤣 However, I never thought of trying to sell it as I always thought the price was too low, it's just fun to do. Here in the UK, we have stringent gun control and I'm unaware if there are people who make they're own bullets unlike Canada and the US!! Definitely one to think about finding a market to sell it on, thanks 😁 LIAYFI...

I smelt my own lead a lot for my freedom seeds for my bigger boom sticks

Great video man. Its nice to see the progress of your channel. Your da man!! Keep it ip.

Ohhhh that car battery bit was point on. Also don't forget you can get silver from those weights aswell

I actually have a melter for lead. My father used to make lead balls for muzzle loaders.

Cheap suggestion to help: Buy and use Ceramic insulation for your pot.

Hot tip: Take up metal detecting, lol. Lead screams at around the same range as silver, so either way you're gonna come out ahead.

Outstanding!👍👍👍

I didn't realize that stick-on weights were lead, i thought they were zinc. Thanks for the info!

Thanks for sharing

To find more free lead or copper, you could take a look at your local shooting range if there is one in your area ;-)

I have a tire shop and have been selling them for cheap cheap. Like 5 buckets $20

Thubprint, Top video Also you don't waffle in your videos, now " Great Ride were hear to Party and not ta hide even da Pollice we pass zem da Beer through da Fence".

join a range for as much lead as you can collect. the fun is actually in the copper. the copper and brass jackets are no2 copper. most jackets are ruptured on impact and the molten lead flows out. the lead fill jackets just go in the no2 copper lot. I use a deep fry steel basket and shake it a little bit to turn them around in a nice pool of molten lead I heat with scrap wood from my wood shop. free fuel too.

I've a bucket of weights & other dirty lead that I may try this with. Thanks. Do you have a video about light ballasts?

Nice👍

Hey Thub you are really impressing me with the always increasing quality of your videos ;) Just a. Quick trick if you want 3 to 4$ a pound for your ingots :) sell them on ebay!!!! If you look at sold comps there is loads of castings ingots being sold for that price everyday. Even unmelted lead scraps can fetch that price on ebay. Customers are happy to pay the shipping to save the hassle of finding good lead.