I was wondering if storeing wheel weights outside in rain and snow will effect them overtime. I know they will have too b dry before I melt them down. I'm new too this
I never had a problem, but I always melted outside with a large furnace and poured it into pucks in a muffin tin..
It will oxidize over time and the white powder that is the oxidation is lead oxide and it is hazardous, but I never thought about it when I started so many years ago.. and now I read that it is very hazardous.. lol.
I found in melting oxidized lead I would just add some more flux and eveything worked out good. I don't know if I would melt oxidized lead inside though.
So, outside is ok if you dont mind the oxidation. If you put everything in 5 gallon buckets with a tight fitting lid, they might not oxidize, I never tried that.
There's not gonna be any appreciable effects on the metal except the clips are going to get rusty (and who cares about that!).
But (huge big word almost as big as "if") you'd better make sure that you bring them up to temperature without explosively spattering yourself with molten lead. It really hurts when that happens. What happens is that water seeps in around the steel clips down inside the pieces of lead. And about the time that water turns to steam it's done been covered up with liquid lead and tries to behave like it belongs in Yellowstone. In a split second you're a casualty.