Hi folks
At the weekend I made some brass, with my foundry mate. The good bit was realising that since UK law has changed on using lead for wheel-balancing weights, most of them are made of zinc. I have been collecting ones found in the road as I cycle to and from work for some time, and my mate tapped up someone he knows in a tyre place and came up with a small box full.
We melted a load of scrap copper - wire, pipe, etc etc. We put some broken glass in which formed a nice sticky lid (we're blowing waste oil into a wood fire, and the whole thing is pretty dirty). When it was good and runny we threw in a weight, pushed it through the glass, and held our breath (this was done outside - like welding galv, you really don't want to breath this in).
The mix must have been pretty hot, because the first two or three caught fire, a bit like magnesium, and fizzed like fireworks with a bright white flame and lots of that unwelcome, mildly toxic smoke. Once the mix had cooled a little, we added a lot more (going for about 35% by weight) and it seemed to work alright. Bit of a stir, we poured it, it came out looking like cast brass and the test rod I made cleaned up nicely in the lathe.
Maybe 5% of the weights turned out to be steel and hung around in the dross. If you do this, it will be worth going over your weights first with a magnet, though of course the steel clip will be magnetic in all cases.
At the weekend I made some brass, with my foundry mate. The good bit was realising that since UK law has changed on using lead for wheel-balancing weights, most of them are made of zinc. I have been collecting ones found in the road as I cycle to and from work for some time, and my mate tapped up someone he knows in a tyre place and came up with a small box full.
We melted a load of scrap copper - wire, pipe, etc etc. We put some broken glass in which formed a nice sticky lid (we're blowing waste oil into a wood fire, and the whole thing is pretty dirty). When it was good and runny we threw in a weight, pushed it through the glass, and held our breath (this was done outside - like welding galv, you really don't want to breath this in).
The mix must have been pretty hot, because the first two or three caught fire, a bit like magnesium, and fizzed like fireworks with a bright white flame and lots of that unwelcome, mildly toxic smoke. Once the mix had cooled a little, we added a lot more (going for about 35% by weight) and it seemed to work alright. Bit of a stir, we poured it, it came out looking like cast brass and the test rod I made cleaned up nicely in the lathe.
Maybe 5% of the weights turned out to be steel and hung around in the dross. If you do this, it will be worth going over your weights first with a magnet, though of course the steel clip will be magnetic in all cases.
