Calehedron
posted this
19 April 2008
I got a PM last night/this morning about some of the calculations. From what He said and I tested, some of the purer alloys do not work. Like Lyman #2 for example, if you plug in the exact parts of lead/antimony/tin it comes out to 7.5 when published data shows 15. I am not sure why Lyman comes out that way or is there something that they did to their alloy to double the hardness shown.
One the other side, when I was testing my formulas that I had found in a few cast bullet articles and documents, I used the calculations just as I have in the past when I combine Wheel Weights with a little 95/5 tin antimony solder and came out with just about the BHN I tested myself.
One of the reasons I believe is that it doesnt take heat and rate of cooling into consideration. The antimony and even arsenic in Wheel Weights have a failrly dramatic effect on hardness and heating and cooling.
So for now, I will concede that some of the virgin mix alloys may come out wrong, but at least a few of pre made alloy combos get you pretty darn close. My aplologies to those that I may have “offended” coming in on my first post and “fixing” something. But I do promise to figure out WHY it doesnt work. I am a science and electronics geek at heart that has a giant love of shooting and hunting so I will not let it go for a while.
Edit: There are some pretty large differences in base metals/alloys from http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm>http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm and the spreadsheet. The biggest one is Tin showing 7vs30 BHN and Antimony being 50vs30 along with several smaller ones.