Now there will be no lead wheel weights.

[Manedwolf]

Yay. EPA pulls off another "ban something that isn't any threat to anything". Wonder how much the replacements will cost. Probably a lot.

 

Manufacturers, Retailers to Put the Brakes on Use of Lead Wheel Weights
September 3, 2008

Tire companies, big box stores, and the government are putting the brakes on the use of lead wheel weights. Through EPA's National Lead-Free Wheel Weight Initiative, partners have agreed to phase-in the use of lead-free alternative wheel weights and reduce the amount of lead released into the environment by 2011.

"Our partners have pledged to reduce or eliminate their use of lead wheel weights," said Susan Parker Bodine, assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. "Their efforts will remove millions of pounds of lead from the environment and the waste stream."

Eliminating lead wheel weights is a significant step toward reducing the overall amount of lead released into the environment. EPA estimates that 50 million pounds of lead per year are used for wheel weights in cars and light trucks. It is common for wheel weights to come off when a vehicle hits a pothole in the road or stops suddenly, which results in lead entering the environment. Lead-containing wheel weights also add lead into the environment as they move into the waste stream at the end of product life.

The charter members include Firestone Complete Auto Care; Firestone Racing (a division of Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire); Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.; Costco Wholesale; Wal-Mart Tire and Lube Express; Sam's Club Tire and Battery Centers; Wal-Mart Transportation; Hennessy Industries Inc.-BADA Division; Perfect Equipment; 3M Automotive Division; the U.S. Air Force; U.S. Postal Service; General Services Administration; Ford Motor Co.; General Motors Corp.; Chrysler; Plombco; the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers; the Town of Blacksburg, Virginia; the Ecology Center; Sierra Club; the Environmental Council of States and several small businesses.

For more information, visit www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/minimize/nlfwwi.htm.

http://www.ohsonline.com/articles/67043/

[Declaration Day]

If it brings the cost of ammo down (unlikely), I'm all for it. 

I think the new weights should be made out of spotted owls. 

[freedom lover]

It's too bad. Now the price of new cars will go up further and so will the price of certain types of maintenance. The reloaders will also be affected adversely. At least the program is optional. I don't see how solid lead could affect the environment much unless it was melted or powderized.
Does lead break down easily? It certainly is soft.

[Manedwolf]

It's too bad. Now the price of new cars will go up further and so will the price of certain types of maintenance. The reloaders will also be affected adversely. At least the program is optional. I don't see how solid lead could affect the environment much unless it was melted or powderized.
Does lead break down easily? It certainly is soft.

No. You can dig up minie balls on civil war battlefields. White coating on the outside of I presume lead oxide, the rest is still intact.

I am reading that the pushed "replacement" is a specialized 3M product that comes on a roll and must be applied in a ring with what looks like special tools.

Wonder how many EPA officials' dinners and kids' college tuitions 3M had to pay for to get this through.

[brimic]

If it brings the cost of ammo down (unlikely), I'm all for it.

It just made bullets for me and other casters much more expensive

Zinc will be the replacement for lead in W/Ws- they already use it in most foreign cars and its cheaper.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lead-containing wheel weights also add lead into the environment as they move into the waste stream at the end of product life.

No you bureaucratic numbnut, wheelweights are recycled, resmelted, and reused to make new wheel weights (or bullets).

It is common for wheel weights to come off when a vehicle hits a pothole in the road or stops suddenly, which results in lead entering the environment.

Yeah, as a chunk of metal

[MrRezister]

I think they should replace lead with depleted uranium.  I hear it's all the rage.

[Tallpine]

Their efforts will remove millions of pounds of lead from the environment

I thought we had been doing that for a long time - it's called "mining" 

[Manedwolf]

I think they should replace lead with depleted uranium.  I hear it's all the rage.

Enriched uranium.

"Dammit, Ed in th' tire shop's bangin' them weights t'gether agin. I tole him he gonna blow us all up and I ain't got no fallout shelter no more."

[Stevie-Ray]

Damn, I was planning on casting this year. I gotta get cracking on those tire stores!

[Sindawe]

I think they should replace lead with depleted uranium.

Well, technically lead IS depleted uranium.



But we'd best not let the Greenies hear of that. 

[280plus]

The Ford dealership my brother worked at had an excellent lead weight recycling program. They took the lead weights from the scrap bucket and reused them. 

They be out o bidness now... 

[zahc]

From what I hear this is already a pita for casters because even one zinc wheel weight in a bucket of lead ones will completely ruin the flow characteristics of the melt for casting.

Why do we put up with the EPA?

[charby]

Why do we put up with the EPA?

Exactly.

Asphalt paved roads are a toxic dump but you don't hear the EPA banning their use.

[brimic]

From what I hear this is already a pita for casters because even one zinc wheel weight in a bucket of lead ones will completely ruin the flow characteristics of the melt for casting.

It does and is a PITA. A little zinc will ruin your lead.

[freakazoid]

What are lead wheel weights?

[mtnbkr]

What are lead wheel weights?

Kidding right?

If not, look at a normal car wheel (before you flip it over in an anarchist rage), you'll see little silver blobs (1" to 3" long) clipped to the rim.

Chris

[freakazoid]

Kidding right?

<_<
>_>
Yeeees...  (looks around nervously, trying not to look like an idiot)

If not, look at a normal car wheel (before you flip it over in an anarchist rage),

But how else are you supposed to look at the underside? 

you'll see little silver blobs (1" to 3" long) clipped to the rim.

Did a little quick google search. I didn't know that that is what those where. Cooool,

It does and is a PITA. A little zinc will ruin your lead.

Is there any way to sort them out?

[brimic]

Is there any way to sort them out?

The zinc weights will usually say 'Zn' on them or might have Japanese characters on them. They are also often shinier than lead weights. They float on molten lead, you can simply pick them out of a melt. If you melt down 50lbs at a time on a turkey cooker and walk away to do something else while the whole mess is melting, a zinc weight could get hot enough to melt. I had a 20lb batch of lead soured by one of these, I almost gave up casting in frustration until I figured out what had happened.

[freakazoid]

Where do you guys get them when you use them to melt down? Do you go to a salvage yard or something?

[mtnbkr]

Steal them from the cars of wealthy capitalists.

Seriously though, most folks got theirs free from tire shops back when they were a disposal annoyance.  Not sure how folks get it now. 

Chris

[French G.]

You ask every little auto repair shop and everyone of them has a buddy who gets them for bullets. Near impossible to get these days. I've got a line on 2-3000 lbs of lead X-ray room sheathing, its owner, AKA my dad has got me as first refusal before he sells any of it.

[HankB]

Pure zinc (or the Zamak alloy) by itself can be cast into bullets - Handloader magazine had an article on this a number of years ago.

IIRC, before the advent of JHPs, someone was making swaged or cast lead bullets with a zinc washer at the base which would scrape out barrel leading with each shot, and Remington had zinc or zinc-jacketed bullets for a while with metal piercing qualities.

Bullets cast of zinc will be lighter and harder than lead bullets, which means they can be driven faster and - at close range - give better penetration through hard targets.

[Antibubba]

Forget the removal of lead from the environment.  What has sold this to the auto industry is that it will require a special tool to install it and remove it, and that it won't be available to us plebes.

[mtnbkr]

Forget the removal of lead from the environment.  What has sold this to the auto industry is that it will require a special tool to install it and remove it, and that it won't be available to us plebes.

Aren't there adhesive attached weights for wheels where traditional weights are innapropriate?  If so, why not use those rather than the new ones if the tooling is an issue.

Chris

[Manedwolf]

Forget the removal of lead from the environment.  What has sold this to the auto industry is that it will require a special tool to install it and remove it, and that it won't be available to us plebes.

Aren't there adhesive attached weights for wheels where traditional weights are innapropriate?  If so, why not use those rather than the new ones if the tooling is an issue.

Chris

Yes. I have them on my Koenig wheels.

They're lead.