Anyone know about making fishing weights out of old lead wheel weights? Im a mechanic and have TONS AND TONS of old wheelweights in the garrage have had a few people come by and ask for them - was thinking Id try it - looked at a melting pot and molds but seemed to cost more than its worth ... that and are fishing weights still made from lead? If you know a good site to get the stuff to make the weights at a lower price than Bass Pro please pm me,

alot of people use wheel weights.  Make sure you flux it good to get all the crap out of it.  I would not use wheel weights in a bottom pour pot until you melt down the lead and clean it first.

IS it worth spending 50 on a melting pot and 30 a mold ? Way i see it you can buy a years worth of weigtht for that price... Unless i were to sell packs after making them - i do have about 8 5 gallon buckets worth.....  

Also FLUX ? Im confused like welding?

Before you spend your money look around and I'll bet you already have what you need. A propane burner on your grill or an electric hot plate for the heat source. A small cast iron pot for the lead and a cast iron ( cornbread ) pan for pouring ingots, check flea markets for those. Put the wheel weights in the pot and when they have melted skim of the steel clips and the scale or dross. Add a pea sixed piece of bees wax  or commercial flux to the pot and stir slowly you will get more scale that will need to be skimmed of to clean the lead. Now you can pour the cleaned lead into the cornbread mold to cool and form the ingots. Now you can use the clean ingots to remelt and pour whatever you like.

Be very careful with molten lead and avoid any moisture source, even a drop of sweat hitting the molten lead will cause big problems and its best to work outside if you don't have an exhaust system in your shop.

Wheel weights work great.  Not sure why you need a $50 pot when you can buy one for $30.00.  The deal with making your own baits with lead is to make sure you have a mold or MOLDS that you will actually use to offset the cost of the equipment needed to start.  

YOu can save some SERIOUS money by making your own lead baits.   If you can't find what you need from Do it molds you can do a google search on Shawn Collins Custom Molds and he can literally make anything you want.  It's pricey but worth it and his molds make Do It molds look like scrap aluminum.  

Back to wheel weights you definitely need to flux your lead.  Take a candle and dip it in the lead for 2 seconds and stir your lead and the dirt and crap will float to the top and you can scoop it out.  

Definitely get a box or ceiling fan to keep the fumes away.  I usually make lead baits ONCE per year (usually in the winter)  to keep away from the fumes.  

Here are two videos I did on lead making.  I will admit I did a bunch of No No's in the video.  Use gloves and proper ventialation and I am sure there are more.  

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1202387649/0#0

 They have a lengthy post on tackle underground about fluxing lead.  A guy there that seems to be a seasoned metallurgist says that if you don't light the smoke created by the wax, than the process is in vain.  I've started chucking in a cube piece of wax, and light the smoke with a grill lighter.  It seems to have a pretty significant effect on the fluxing process.