I direct this question towards, Smith Crazy, Paul, Skip Or anyone else that wants to answer.

I have been casting bullets from wheel weights for over 40 years and I was asked a question today that I just got a dumb look on my face and answered "I don't really know".

I just never bother to find out as it wasn't that important to me.

The question I was asked was.

"Out of 100 lbs of wheel weights how much useable/castable lead do you get?"

I told the person I never took time to work it out but my best guess was about 70# buy the time you took the tire stems, lug nuts, paper and the metal clips out it was close to 30% loss.

I have already casted all of my wheel weights into ingots, none left at the moment
Inquiring mind NOW want to know. :-)

__________________
Semper FI

I would say that's about right, seems like the amount of trash in with the lead varies from my local tire dealer, but I suspect if I get 100 lbs picked up probably equals 70 or so pounds of usable bullets....I am finding more and more zinc weights otherwise I would say closer to 80 lbs of real lead

my best guess would between 60% and 70% for wheel weights into usable ingots, but depends on how clean the bucket of wheelweights is. Once bought a couple of buckets from a salvage yard and disappointed with 50% return. Still, if free when doing wheel/tire work or tire rotations, happy with what I get.

Well, I can honestly tell you this, and it is no guess, I get about 85% to 90% from the wheel weights I am getting. Not much zinc or steel here in Indiana, um, yet!

The clips are steel and weigh next to nothing when you compare them to the lead.

Now, I did just get some range lead the other day and that is giving back only about 65% or so but, hey, its still all free!



If your area has switched to more zinc or the buckets you get have a bunch of valve stems and other junk in them, it is no telling what you will get. My buckets usually weigh right in at 120# give or take 10#.

YMMV but that is mine. Proven over several loads now!

I have to truthfully say, I don't know. I separate all of mine to get the junk out and then I put clip on in another pile from the stick on. Then I melt plumbers lead and other suspected pure lead with the stick on weights. IOW what I store isn't just as it comes in a bucket.

I've been casting WW's for 25+ years now.

A frequent question I see on one site I am member of always give's me a chuckle.

How many pounds of WW's will I get out of a 5 gallon bucket?

Gentlemen, I don't believe there is any hard and fast rule on that one. I once unloaded 7 buckets off the back of my pickup backed up to my garage. I had a set of bathroom scales handy and just below the tailgate of my truck. In that 7 different buckets, 3-4 of them weighed close to the same...110-120 Lbs. I had one go a low of 102, and one hit a high of 172 Lbs. I'm guessing that last one is going to have plenty of small WW's in it, or some very large truck weights near the bottom.

About the only answer I have to "How many pounds of WW's do you get out of a 5 gallon bucket?" is pretty simple.

Mister, once you've smelted and poured all the WW's into ingots, weigh them out. Then and only then will you know how many pounds of WW alloy you got out of THAT 5 GALLON BUCKET.

Murphy2000

it varies wildly from score to score.
not only do you have useless scrap like dead lug nuts broken tools and other floor sweepings in various ratios, you also have iron and zinc weights in increasing proportion.
there can be no hard and fast rule here ...

__________________
it just needs more voltage

Well So far I agree with all the posting.

I just used the 100# weight as an example. I also have had buckets of wheel weights range from 75# to over 150# So that wasn't part of the search.

I think the best answer for my purposes is from Venomballistics in that there is no definite answer, not even a
"Rule of Thumb"

__________________
Semper FI

My loss has been about 30%to 35% but is going up with more steel and zink in the mix.