Yeah, i found that site yesterday. tons of info there.
Any other lead for casting besides wheel weights?
- Thread starter soulchaser
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Yeah, i found that site yesterday. tons of info there.
They often have free shipping deals to the lower 48. If you can have it shipped near the border and drive across you can save a lot. Lead ingots aren't controlled for export or import for private individuals so just declare them normally.
I love Linotype. I also really like Pewter, which is mostly Tin.
Now, last fall I had a bunch of Zinc ingots given to me just because the fellow wanted to get rid of them. They had been laying under one of his sheds for years and he just wanted them gone. There were 25 of them running just over 2kg each. Not wanting to waste them or turn them into weights, I decided to cast some of them into bullets as is.
They are quite hard, no I didn't test them but I estimate around Bn 18-20. They also require more heat to melt and the molds need to be a bit hotter to get a smooth shiny bullet. I had read reports that the bullets tend to be frangible but when I shot them out of my 45-70 at close to 1500fps they held together well even after going through both sides of a 15in pine log and getting caught in the snow. They were misshapen but no different than a similar No2 blend bullet. They didn't crumble or break up at all. They were just fine for target shooting and judging from the pine log shot at 100m, they would have easily taken down any deer or bear.
I haven't been able to bring myself to mix it with known lead or wheel weights but I think I will do so this spring. I have read all sorts of evil Ju Ju will go on and it just may be true. I suspect, it will just take more experimentation with temperature/flux. After all is said and done, for every bullet I shoot at a deer/bear/moose/elk etc, I shoot a couple of hundred into a target and the bank behind it. I suspect this is true for most of us. For some, the ratio may be much higher. Especially with pistol shooters.
Also, I haven't tried Zinc with hollow based bullets. It may be to brittle for the skirts to expand properly. I will find out.
It would be a shame to reject this metal and turn it into fishing weights when it makes pretty decent bullets.
Now, last fall I had a bunch of Zinc ingots given to me just because the fellow wanted to get rid of them. They had been laying under one of his sheds for years and he just wanted them gone. There were 25 of them running just over 2kg each. Not wanting to waste them or turn them into weights, I decided to cast some of them into bullets as is.
They are quite hard, no I didn't test them but I estimate around Bn 18-20. They also require more heat to melt and the molds need to be a bit hotter to get a smooth shiny bullet. I had read reports that the bullets tend to be frangible but when I shot them out of my 45-70 at close to 1500fps they held together well even after going through both sides of a 15in pine log and getting caught in the snow. They were misshapen but no different than a similar No2 blend bullet. They didn't crumble or break up at all. They were just fine for target shooting and judging from the pine log shot at 100m, they would have easily taken down any deer or bear.
I haven't been able to bring myself to mix it with known lead or wheel weights but I think I will do so this spring. I have read all sorts of evil Ju Ju will go on and it just may be true. I suspect, it will just take more experimentation with temperature/flux. After all is said and done, for every bullet I shoot at a deer/bear/moose/elk etc, I shoot a couple of hundred into a target and the bank behind it. I suspect this is true for most of us. For some, the ratio may be much higher. Especially with pistol shooters.
Also, I haven't tried Zinc with hollow based bullets. It may be to brittle for the skirts to expand properly. I will find out.
It would be a shame to reject this metal and turn it into fishing weights when it makes pretty decent bullets.
Instead of mixing lead with the zinc, might want to consider using tin or antimony... Lead doesn't seem to work that well unless in low percentage, or zinc in low percentage in the lead. It's a castability issue... Avoid aluminum molds with zinc...
That is a good idea. I have a couple of hundred pounds of pewter that I picked up cheap last spring and it should work well to smooth it out without wasting good lead. The thing is, Zinc is significantly harder than lead already so it wouldn't take much pewter, which is mostly tin to get it to the right Brinnell number.
So, reading some stuff on castboolits.com, is my understanding correct t the clip on lead WW are already a mixture of lead, with a little antimony and tin while the lead stick on WW are just lead?
IF I can find the lead clip on style (I'd be casting mostly for pistol (9mm)) would i need to add tin and antimony to the mix or are they already in the WW in sufficient amounts? Maybe add a little tin from plumbing/electrical solder, to ensure good smooth casts?
IF I can find the lead clip on style (I'd be casting mostly for pistol (9mm)) would i need to add tin and antimony to the mix or are they already in the WW in sufficient amounts? Maybe add a little tin from plumbing/electrical solder, to ensure good smooth casts?
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Yes you are mostly correct. The SOWW are not pure, but have so little of the other elements that everybody considers them the same as pure.
COWW also have arsenic, another good thing to have. With COWW you just need to add about 2% tin. This makes good rifle bullets especially when water dropped.
Cut this 50/50 with pure for handgun bullets.
Nothing is ever set in stone but the above is a good starting point.
COWW also have arsenic, another good thing to have. With COWW you just need to add about 2% tin. This makes good rifle bullets especially when water dropped.
Cut this 50/50 with pure for handgun bullets.
Nothing is ever set in stone but the above is a good starting point.
The idea was for castability rather than for hardness. I can't remember if it's by volume or by weight, but lead will only absorb 1.8% zinc before it starts trying to separate which causes trouble in the molds... Zinc will absorb about the same percentage of lead. If you stay under the absorption amount, it should cast just fine.
It's like those guys that panic because one zinc ww got into their 20 pound batch of lead. Not a big deal...
Bassmaster
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This is correct, and after discovering this I don't bother separating them from the clip on's any more....it all goes into the mix.
After reading about the scarcity of Lino, I guess I should consider myself fortunate to have what I have
Really wish we had someplace like Rotometals in Canada.
They sell 5lb ingots of all kinds of different recipes for bullet casting. They do ship here, but I did a trial order, and the shipping was more than the lead, plus there would probably be duty/import charges on top of that.
I work at a recycling yard and we get all kinds of lead coming in,plumbing, dive weights,boat ballast even some marked ingots sometimes but what I look out for is the lino-type.
Linotype is not only very hard it is also brittle, if you bend a sheet of it far enough it will snap,linotype is becoming scarce due to digital printing equipment being a lot easier way to print stuff. The alloy casts very nicely but is itself too hard for most bullets so I mix it with near pure ie: plumbing/roof flashing lead until I can just barely scratch it with my thumbnail.
I am going to invest in a hardness tester and go all scientific with my alloys but so far I have had no problem with leading in the bores, this may change as I start casting for rifles.
Here is a link to some good reading on the subject:
http://www.lasc.us/castbulletalloy.htm#recyclebatteries
Linotype lead is extremely hard. I cast a batch of 158 swc for making some .357 mag loads cut with some soft range lead and got some solid bullets. When fired into sand they retained about 90% material and 75% of their shape! No gas check required
Partially correct. The stick on weights that are painted grey are for all intents and purposes the same as clip on weights. You bend them and they crack and break. If you have bare lead stick ons they are close to pure. There is a sticky at cast boolits in the lead section with xrf data showing this. It's also real easy to tell just by bending them. The pure unpainted ones bend very easy and are hard to get to break at the separation lines. The painted ones crack and break with much more force required on the first bend. I sort the painted SOWW in with the COWW but the plain ones get put in the pure pile-which usually is very small.
Just GST.... Canada post does get a bit cranky if you ship an extra large flat rate box full of lead or tungsten ingots...
Try your local dentist or hospital X-ray department. Local hospital up here sells their isotope lead bottles. Money goes to the Hospital Foundation. I usually mix it 2 parts WW to 1 part Isotope lead and bullets work just fine. I originally thought the isotope bottles would be pure lead but they seem much harder.
Take Care
Bob
Take Care
Bob
I checked into Roto Metals awhile back, and I believe they said the package couldn't weigh more than 15 lbs. So after dollar exchange, shipping and tax, the lead would run you about $6.00/lb. I think you can buy bullets here for less that that.
bgasrickshaw
Regular
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- Beautiful B.C.
I realize that this thread is a few years old so I don't know if anyone will see this, but this seemed like the right place to post. I just bought a little over 800lbs of lead left over from medical imaging, 630lbs is in the form of 33lb chunks in neat little plastic buckets, used I believe for transporting the stuff they inject before doing a C.T.(I think) scan. Most of the rest(150lbs) is in the form of small containers, (big enough to hold 2 or 3 ping pong balls), labeled "Sodium Iodide for oral use". Also got a 22lb apron and a 20lb "portfolio" for transporting x-rays.
I was wondering about residual radiation but after reading this thread I think it sounds unlikely to be an issue.
The lead, which i suppose is pure,(will need to test it I guess), is clean and shiny. If anyone reads this and has any updated info on this subject I would be very appreciative of a response. Thanks in advance.
I was wondering about residual radiation but after reading this thread I think it sounds unlikely to be an issue.
The lead, which i suppose is pure,(will need to test it I guess), is clean and shiny. If anyone reads this and has any updated info on this subject I would be very appreciative of a response. Thanks in advance.
The last batch I picked up in the fall was mostly ZINC. I didn't find any steel. Zinc casts up just fine. You need to be more careful with temps though or it will foam. Still, it's fine for pistol bullets and practice rounds. I wouldn't suggest it for hunting as it's quite hard and crystalline in nature.
It will be pure, no testing necessary. No worries about radiation.
