Or, don't think zinc ...

I melted down some old wheel weights this afternoon and made cupcakes to use this winter.

Afterwards, I had a 5 gallon bucket of some kind of lead-looking anchors. I've had them for years and been suspicious of them. So, after I was done I threw a gallon or so in the melting pot to see if they melted and at what temp. Around 620 I see floaty silver stuff starting and think I'm good to go. Around 650 I still have anchors floating in the silver liquid. Hmmm...

I decide to run it up to 700 and see what happens. Zinc melts at 780 so I think I'm safe. Around 700, they start to liquefy. It turned into a half seized up batter up to about 740 and I shut it down.

I'm thinking some of those anchors are lead and some are lead/zinc alloy. So, at some point I'll melt them down, fish out the zinc and throw it away.

The zinc, in case anyone doesn't know, can have a violent reaction with a steel pot. Elvis Ammo on Youtube blew the bottom right out of a new pot, which is why I didn't push it any further.

Pic below of my happy little ingots and the evil zinc floating in molten lead.

Attached Images

	ingots.jpg (147.8 KB, 181 views)
	thinkzinc.jpg (80.5 KB, 197 views)

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There was a thread here just the other day, talking about Sulfur, helping decontaminate zinc from lead.

Ivan

Sounds like a smelly proposition...

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I rendered a pot of various scrap, and came up with some of those anchors too. They look just like the ones in your pic.

I'm not sure they are zinc. I'm thinking the ones I have are aluminum. They don't seem very heavy for the size.

Either way, I tossed them in the aluminum recycling bucket.

Had a guy ruin probably an 80 pound pot of WW's by tossing in some zinc weights. Ended up using the alloy for heavy halibut sinkers.

I long for the simpler days of the past. Wheel weights were a nice lead bullet alloy.

.45 and 10mm brass were all large primer, not the occasional small!

I doubt you ruin 80# f good alloy dropping in a few zinc ww. That is pretty small amount for 80#. I have had some 5# zinc contaminated ingots from a friend. When I dropped one into my 30# casting pot, it seized up running at 700. I upped the temp to 750& fluxed like crazy & skimmed off the the sludge on top. I got the alloy to pour at 750. Then I melted down the remaining ingots on their own & fluxed like crazt. Added some pure lead at 1-1 & got castable alloy.

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Thanks for the insights and experiences.
My only "contribution" is this not-so-helpful (but humorous) PSA video about zinc.

The Simpsons - A World Without Zinc - YouTube

PS: How about that zinc firing pin?

There is zinc content in a lot of lead products. I have never had anything that was very high in zinc. Right now I have two 5gal buckets that are full of what looks like belt buckles and they are hard. I know they contain zinc. I will melt and skim it off, no big deal. I pour into ingot molds for easy use in electric pot. My main pot is an old Lee that is 40yrs old. Bottom is still in it. I can’t guess how much metal has been run through it. I made bullets and fishing tackle as a business. Much of that metal was mystery alloy and contained zinc.