hello all,
i just cast up a bunch of wheel weights today and found i had 400 lbs of zinc contaminated ingots.
im told zinc will galvanize my bore . do you guys agree? these bullets would be used at less than 800 fps 158 gr 358s. seems like low velocity rounds might not be an issue but i dont know.
i could use 'em for cannon balls....guess ill be needing a cannon been looking for an excuse.

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the rules? there are no rules

Zinc will not harm your bore in any way.

What makes you think that the alloy contains zinc?

If the zinc contamination is bad enough, you will get very poor quality bullets. The resulting bullets would be bad, maybe even unusable, but no damage will be done to your gun.

The post above is correct, even if your lead has zinc in it, it will not deposit the zinc on the bore in such a way that it would be considered galvanized. At most you will lead the bore as you would with any other lead bullet.

Zinc and lead makes a very poor alloy and if you know for certain that the zinc content is high, I may look for another source of lead. High zinc content results in higher casting temperatures and the liquidity of the resultant metal fluid will be lower leading to problems during pouring and upon cooling of the bullets.

If you have a thermometer that is accurate enough, you could test the purity of the lead using melting point before and after fluxing, if elevated both before and after you probably have some contaminant along the lines of zinc which will not be removed by normal fluxing procedures.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...om-molten-lead

^^contains a possible method of removing zinc from lead. I'm skeptical about it as lead and zinc sulfate have similar enthalpies of formation and both are likely to be produced, but *IF* the post is correct, it does offer a solution to your problem. Use at your own risk.

the ingots have a kinda flat galvanized look to them .not like the pure lead or 3% tin alloy i made earlier. there wasnt enough zinc that i could see it in the pot either. in the past ive seen it look like kinda crusty sandy looking slag mixed in with lead.
so the galvanizing the bore thing is not a concern?

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the rules? there are no rules

have tried fluxing with sulphur the first time i melted wheel weights got a lot of zinc that time..didnt work. was more selective this time but must have missed a bunch anyway

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the rules? there are no rules

Wow, that's some procedure. Probably best done outdoors and away from dwellings. It sounds like it could be suffocating to the pot stirrer. The best use for zincified lead is probably fishing net weights.

oh well it only cost 50 bucks for w.w. 20 bucks for propane and most of my sunday afternoon haha. my lead/tin alloy was successful though ,i think wont know till i cast some bullets though i guess.

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the rules? there are no rules

Have you tried casting bullets and measuring the harness of them?
It would be a shame to waste all that lead and effort over what may turn out to be a minor impurity.
I wouldn't reject it unless you can't get nice castings or they fall apart while shooting them.

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Nemo

The appearance means nothing.

It is impossible to galvanize a bore in this manner. There is no concern whatsoever.

DO NOT FLUX WITH SULFUR!!! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!!!

Selective??? Of what?

How do you know there was zinc?

Re-melt the lead and flux with beeswax or wood sawdust. I think the problems you are experiencing is due to the improper methods you are using. I suspect your lead alloy is fine.

the zinc can be plainly seen on some weights some are even stamped zn. this time i tried to select only the weights which i believed to be lead.

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the rules? there are no rules

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^^Some interesting information about PbZn and PbBi alloys. Gotta love 1860s scientific articles.

All-in-all, I think I would give the PbZn alloy a shot (pun intended), worst thing that happens is they cast poorly or fragment. Of course, I'm not taking responsibility for what happens, but I would try it.

I understand now. I thought you were trying to determine the mix of the alloy by the appearance.

I think you should try casting some bullets and seeing how they turn out. If the mold fills out, you are golden, regardless of the alloy (pretty much).

It only takes a minute quantity of zinc to spoil bullet alloy. There is no practical way to separate metals from a true alloy. If the mixture won't cast properly, it is junk, and good only for weights, but my guess is that it will work.

Please let us know.

If the wheel weights were clip on style the appearance would indeed be as you described . Pure lead has a nice and shiney silvery finish to it and adding tin to it just makes it a bit more hard but doesnt change the finish .

The difference in the clip on weights is the Antimony and tin content in it that takes the alloy to a BHN hardess rating of appx. 12 where your pure lead would be closer to 6 BHN .

A good test to see if you have zinc contamination would be to take a small batch of say 5 lbs. or so and bring it up to a melt temp of near 700 degrees and see if the top of the melt cleans up with regular fluxing . If it has zinc it will skim over rather quickly with a slurry like skim and will keep repeating this after ever attempt at fluxing .

If the zinc content is there you might as well plan on using that alloy for making small boat anchors or fishing weights and such stuff . I sort the ZN (zinc) labled weights from the scrap wheel weights I come accross and keep them for fishing sinker melt and they work nicely as well as being environment friendly as they go into our water sources and remove those pesky old fish that pooh in our water

10 Spot

A guy gave me a bucket of "triangular" shaped fish net weights and said they were lead. I have read enough comments about making weights out of zinc to be concerned about the contents of my "treasure". Are net weights more likely to be zinc than lead or a combo of both or what?

Any wisdom will be appreciated.

So where do you cast your fish nets in Wyoming?????

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Forum consigliere

I had to ask whut the durn things were. I've seen a butterfly net, but I never seen a butterfly I wanted to eat.
I got the weights from a BIL when we ventured out there to the left coast. That bucket was the best thing I brung back.

If them weights turn out to be zinc, the trip worse than I thought.

IGGY ,,,,

Those weights could be nearly anything ,,, Lead, Babbit, zinc, or any form of alloys such as used in sailboat keels . What you need here is to find someone who has a tester that measures BHN ( brinnel hardness number ) and make a few cast bullets out of those sinkers to see where they rate . If they measure anywhere between 6 BHN ( lead ) to around 15 BHN you should be able to use the lead . The BHN rating will dictate the best use for the lead . Softer lead alloys would be good for lower pressure loads such as target wadcutters in non magnum applications . BHN ratings of 10 or higher can be used in top end loads and you can always add pure lead to soften the alloy or tin and linotype to harden the alloy as needed for potential magnum pistol and mid range rifle bullets . Whatever you opt to do just make sure to keep the results well labled and seperated . Once they are smelted and or alloyed they tend to all look alike .

10 Spot

Thanks,
There is an outfit that sells lead bullets out west of town.
I'll do what you suggested. Be shame to let 100 # of something to go to waste.

Flat or frosted appearances can be caused be high temp of a good alloy during the melt.

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Quis custodiet ipsos custodiet

You need to pay attention to the smelting temp when doing ww. Keep it under 725deg, the zinc floats to the top whole & can be skimmed. It doesn't take much zinc to ruin an alloy. If you can get it to cast, it will shoot & not harm the bore, but getting it to cast is the issue. A mild zinc contaminatoin can be fluxed out by using sawdust & stirring & skimming until you get less "oatmeal" looking dross. Best to not even go there. Buy a casting therm, don't let the melt go over 725deg, you will have no more problems.
Fishing wts can be anything but if they will dent easily, they are more than likely a lead alloy. ZInc is quite hard, won't easily dent.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

From my understanding of PbZn alloy, this method will only remove non-alloyed zinc present in the solid metal. The alloyed Zn, is effectively dissolved in the Pb and will not be removed by melting temp or fluxing.

Talking with an analytical chemistry friend of mine today about this very issue and the idea we had was to add HCl, has some common name in the home improvement store that I can't remember, very slowly and ZnCl should precipitate out. More simply, keep the PbZn ingots or bullets and add them to more pure Pb in the future, you get to use the material but the Zn will be greatly diluted.

Muriatic acid my friend.

As said once zinc and lead become a solid solution, it's not coming out just from differing temps.

The chemistry might be good but the method sounds dangerous. Pouring liquid acid into a pot of molten metal??? It sounds like a way to get acid and lead on your face, on the ceiling, everywhere.

Zinc has a hardening effect. Cast bullets will be harder (you'll notice this when sizing) , and probably cause increased pressures. But it doesn't have the lubricity of alloying metals like antimony. Meaning more friction going down the bore.

There was a company years ago that touted their high zinc content bullets and .38 reloads as being less toxic on indoor ranges.

One other fact about zinc- it will eat your pot and moulds.

Just melt WW slowly, and stay below 725 and the zinc will float on top. Alloy with zinc in it will not melt below this either, so just fish it out.

It's easy to keep out- just regulate your temperature and fish out the floating zinc with clips and other assorted sundry junk.

Zinc does make good cannonballs, but as I said, it will eventually eat up and through any iron or steel pot or moulds. This is the best reason to keep it out of your casting equipment.

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Lost it all in a boat accident

Lyman used to tout pure cast zinc bullets, with loads appearing in older Lyman hand books. The light weight of the zinc made for some spectacular velocities!