Went through a bucket of WWs today. Seems straight forward enough to sort out the Fe and Zn and plastic weights ( I've been crushing the corner of each with the throat of a pair of pliers. All those so far marked 'micro' have been soft.
This kind marked 'Al' are also soft. Good to go ?

the AL designates wheel type, the weight is lead alloy

Thanks deerstalker. Lots to learn..

me too since i have reached the age i have forgotten all i knew, or thought i did. what were we talking about?

I melted a bunch of WW a few months ago. Used a pair of dikes to check any I wasn't sure about.
Zinc has a slightly higher melt temp so I was looking for any "stragglers" in the pot. They all seemed to melt at the same time.

Pretty sure they were all lead!

On another note. I used a muffin tin to pour them into ingots.
Do not set your muffin tin mold on a milk crate! 😂

or on the wife's grandmothers antique wood cutting board! don't ask.

About the only letters on wheelweights to worry about are FE and Z or ZN. The other letters are either the Manufacturer or the type of wheel that they are made for. You really don't have to worry about the ones marked FE. You won't melt them at the temps that casters work at.

Sorted out the Fe, Zn, and plastic weights. Started with a 5 gallon bucket maybe 4/5 full. That included all kinds of crap from the tire shop floor.. valve stems lots of lug bolts, washers, some trash, and of course the undesirable weights.
Finished with this much lead. Not super, but free and I'm happy enough. Dirty job.

Noticed that every weight marked "micro" was lead.

Ouch

Same round these parts.

It gets easier after you sort a few. You get a routine established and you get a feel for the Zinc weights. Get a box of those rubber mechanics gloves.

One of the buckets that I got last year had a used oil filter standing up in it. Another had a wheel cylinder draining in it. Talk about nasty. But the lead was still good and shiny once it was melted!

If al goes as planned a buddy is planning to come over in the morning and we plan to smelt all of the scrap we scavenged last year. We'll see..............

Ah the good ole days. Enjoy the scavenger hunt and melt at the end of the day

I am glad I came across this subject. I didn’t know there was a difference and anything about the markings. So avoid Fe and Zn.

How hard are wheel weight bullets? I am very new to casting. I have only used range lead before.

The newer ones are about 12 BHN but the ones from the early 70's run 14 or slightly more.

Well, I guess nothing stays the same. I just found a Zinc weight with the "Micro" name on it! Up until now all of the Micro weights that I saw were lead.

I have a bunch of wheel weights and used them for my muzzleloader , and tried to swage them down to .452" . It got stuck and could hardly get it out. I now only use wheel weights for sinkers and jigs.

You need to cast them into bullets first.

WW alloy is far too hard for ML guns. Round balls should be pure lead, and I wouldn’t try anything harder that 30:1 lead/tin in a bullet gun.

Thanks digital Dan. I found that out real fast. They make good sinkers and jigs though, but I think they are a big lighter.