Well, I have 100 pounds of range lead on hand, one heavy equipment lead counter balance weight( I think its 50 to 60 pounds, maybe more), 12 pounds of tin and one pig of linotype.
What alloy can I make out of this mess, or maybe the best alloy from blending all of this. I may be able to come of with 50 pounds of WW also.
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Thanks,
Jerry
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Jerry,
All depends what you are going to shoot. Handguns will shoot fairly soft alloy good. Rifles need a harder alloy. I'd shoot the Lino 'as is' for rifle.
If you are going to alloy, you ought to have a hardness tester. The Lee gets you close enough. You don't need much tin, 1-2 pounds per 100. Range lead differs from either small-bore league shooters using 22lr about 10Bhn or if you have a lot of handgun shooters it could be as high as 14-15Bhn...............Dan
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I have a PTC Model 316 Hardness Tester (http://www.ptc1.com/steel316.html) out in my machine shop.
Most of this will be for my rifles, like my 45-70 and my 308, but also for a variety of 9mm and 45 ACP handguns as well as many of my Contender barrels.
Thanks,
Jerry
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Jerry,
If you want to make use of all your lead, plus the wheel weights, you might as well alloy it all together. It ought to make a good hard alloy for auto handguns, Contender and rife bullets. Using the alloy for all of them is a lot easier than trying to keep track of different alloy bullets around the bench.....................Dan
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Dan,
I like to have a large consistant amount of lead on hand. I cast for a couple of weeks, 6 hours a day every few years. Then I size, lube, etc. Then I box them up until next winter and then load until all of 30mm ammo cans are full.
So I think this may make a batch of hard lead. But I am open to suggestions.
:}
Jerry
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Put the lead and wheelweights together...add 2 lbs of tin or so. Then check the ingots and add more lead again if it's to hard. Shoot the Linotype as is or sell it. keep the tin for the next batch or sell it.
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Then what do I do with the 50 pounds of solder that I have been hording for a few years. I actually started out with 200 pounds of solder, that came with a surplus wave soldering machine. :D
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Jerry
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I'm a sort of a slob. If I owned it I'd find about 50 pounds of wheel weight and throw the whole mess together for a good all around Lyman no.2 sort of thing. You've got good stuff, shoot it up and have a ball.
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Del,
I am no where near a neat freak. This is my year to cast and load. I have been dragging lead, solder and stuff around.
I have ordered and collect many molds (or moulds) to cast different bullets for different guns that I have. I was a CBA member back in the 80s. Which I left the states to further my education and career, so casting fell by the wayside. Now I am making up for lost time.
Jerry
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Jerry,
If it were I, I would consider saving the lin-o-type just for match quality bullets. They seem to make the most consistent bullets so you would be able to reproduce the round if needed. If you never plan on shooting matches, just chuck it into the pot with all the rest.
As the others have said, 2% tin is enough for good casting. Tin is now and likely to be the hardest component to find for making alloys, so I would be conservative with it and the solder.
Personally, I would melt the weight and lino for a mix for the 45 and high speed stuff. Then everything else for the rest of your use. I know that means two different alloys, but I think you would be better off that way.
Ric
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Ricin,
If that means two alloys, that want needs to happen. I have the space and the time to do things right.
I will look at the alloy work sheet on this forum and see what alloys I can do. Plus I want to get some more wheel weight for this casting, and to start collecting a pile of lead again.
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Jerry
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Jerry,
FWIW, I have found that WW's plus 2% tin is about the softest alloy that will feed in semi-auto pistols, and that only with a round nose design. My problem has been stoppages from the bullet being deformed on the feed ramp and back of the barrel. Energy that is used to deform the bullet isn't available to complete the feed cycle. So, I have a batch of WW+2% that I have added 10% HS Babbitt metal that makes up into 16 BHn alloy.
Match bullets I have been making out of linotype because of low reject rate, consistent bullet weight and size, no need to let age for final hardness and availability.
Black powder bullets and the few HP pistol bullets I cast are from 30/1 lead and tin.
Everything else is WW+2% tin. Well, that isn't really quite right. The last 100# melt had about 1 cup of shot salvaged from dud shotgun shells, a couple of sticks of Lawrence commercial pistol alloy someone gave me, a hundred Lazar Cast 45 colt bullets and five pounds of my rejected cast bullets and miscellaneous range scrape. When I make up a lot of alloy I try to clean up the shop of everything that isn't lino or 30/1.
HTH, Ric
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Well, I have 100 pounds of range lead on hand, one heavy equipment lead counter balance weight( I think its 50 to 60 pounds, maybe more), 12 pounds of tin and one pig of linotype. What alloy can I make out of this mess, or maybe the best alloy from blending all of this. I may be able to come of with 50 pounds of WW also.
Jerry,
If your “range lead” works out similar to mine, it will resemble about 3% antimony, less than 1% tin and a trace probably 0.005 to 0.010 arsenic. By itself it will be about 12 BHN.
The fork lift counter balance is probably “close” to pure lead, with less than 1% other alloying elements, about 5.5 BHN.
If the linotype is a new pig which hasn't been used, its probably about 20 pounds at 22 BHN. So a quickie estimate yields
100# x 12 BHN = 1200
50# x 5.5 BHN = 275
21# x 22 BHN = 462
171# = 1937
1937 / 171# = 11.32 BHN - good revolver bullet and BPC cartridge alloy “if it casts"
I would melt the range lead, the counter-balance weight and the pig of linotype together and see what hardness you get and see how it casts. If it doesn't cast well I'd add not more than 2 pounds of the tin. Any more would be a waste of metal that's worth about $15/pound!
73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia
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Ed Ricin,
Thank you for the info, I now have to get some of the bigger pieces cut up and fire up my turkey fryer, to melt all of this down and make usable size ingots from it. I think will alloy a little on the soft side and then I will had WWs and Tin to harden it up.
I recently got my Tin for aboy $5 a pound. :D
Jerry
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I am think about this for a recipe
100 Pounds range lead
10 Pounds wheel weights
2 Pounds of tin.
These would be for pistol and other not really that hard of alloy type of bullets.
Jerry
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Just curious.
How did it work, and what did you end up with quantity and BHN wise?
73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia
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Ed,
I use a PTC Instrument Model 316 Hardness Tester to test my lead with.
Jerry
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I use a PTC Instrument Model 316 Hardness Tester to test my lead with.
Excellent! How did the mix turn out? About 10-12BHN which you hoped?
How much alloy did you get and how well does it cast?
73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia
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Ed,
It was a 12, or in engineering terms, 11.8 It cast very easily and I made up about 220 pounds of the alloy. So far the bullets size well, I use my own lube, and they shoot great with little residual lead in the barrel.
If my regular work load and putting up the new micro foundry will give me some time, I was going to cast up a bunch more bullets this week or weekend.
Jerry
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10-4 similar to what I use. Isn't it great when a plan cxomes together?
73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia
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Ed,
Yes it is. I have the alloy, the lube, soon a special place to smelt and cast in.
Here is where the micro foundry building is at in the construction phase. I need to put the steel roof on and finish the trim. Then it will be ready to go.
Take care,
Jerry
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