CASTER Whellwheigt and alloy hardness

N1c0l4s

N1c0l4s

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Hi everyone!
I have a general question about harness. I got the lee tester and everything i test seem to be realy smooter than what i should expect.

My lyman #2 made from 9pound of WW and one pound of tin babbitt turn around 10 BHN and should be at 15.

My 20 to 1 alloy turn around 8.2 BHN and should be at 10.

what are your experience with alloy and tester? and can some of you can tell me how hard they get with those alloy?

Have a great day all'z
 
You are right.. i had made a time laps test...
Almost alll my lead alloy stabilise after 4 month... running this test from close to 2 years now and havent see realy change past those 4 months. Doing one reading each month for each alloy
 
My Lyman #2 made from 9pound of WW and one pound of tin Babbitt turn around 10 BHN and should be at 15.
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Lyman # 2 consist of 5% Tin, 5% Antimony and 90% Lead with a BHN of around 15 air cooled. Wheel Weights if you have the good ones have around 0.5% Tin, 2% Antimony and 97.5% Lead which should give you a BHN of around 12 at best air cooled. Some basically your mix is higher in Lead and lower on antimony which would explain the difference in the tested BHN being lower. The alloy makeup of your Tin Babbitt may have some consequences of the final BHN of your bullets as well.

All is not lost as the wheel weights in your mix contain a small percentage of Arsenic which is a catalyst which aids in hardening of the bullets if they are water quenched from the mold or heat treated before or after sizing. I prefer to size mine first an heat treat as the sizing process can work soften the leads outer surface reducing some of the hardness, this is with bullets that will be tumbled lube or that use traditionally lubed if you plan on powder coating those bullet here are some guideline that I found useful.

A few notes on cast bullet air cooled or quenched from the mold and how the curing process will anneal the cast lead bullets using an alloy that responds to water quenching or heat treating. Your results may vary depending on the original alloy used and the as cast BHN and at the time the bullets BHN is tested.

1. If you air cool your bullets when cast then PC them an allow them to air cool again the second time there is no change in the as cast BHN of the bullet.

2. If you air cool your bullets when cast then PC them and quench them right out of the toaster oven they will gain a hardness of about 75% over the as cast BHN.

3. If you quench your bullets out of the mold to begin with then PC them and allow them to air cool they will soften around 50% from the original first quenching BHN.

4. If you quench your bullets out of the mold to begin with then PC them and quench them right out of the toaster oven a second time you only loose around 15% hardness from the first quenching.


 
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Thank's for those niiice information.

At this time, i only try PC a few time.. I want to understand and be able to do traditional lubing first. One step at the time.
I have made a lot of reading on l a s c . u s and i try to understand the best i can all waht said there. English is not my first language ( anyone who read me had see that! haha ) and sometime translation give weard thing.

My babbitt is suppose to be tin antimony(0.5 to 2%) and cupper (4-5%). I have to reduce my cupper content if i wanna cast well with the alloy. l a s c . u s have explain the way we can do it and Lyman cast bullet book's too. It seem to work but i cant tell if i loose some antimony in the precess too.

So if i understand well, i am not too far from what i should get with my L2. Should try water quench Or heat treating, or both.

I had load some of those bullet in 9mm and i have leading following the land of groove. that mean my pressure is to low to opturate well. Have to try again with little more powder!

Yes i know, the fit is more important than the hardness :)
I had made soft bullet to slug all my cylinder on revolver and my pistol barrel.
Form now, i had pretty good result in 38 spl and 44 spl. I am just beginning with 9mm and will try 357 mag soon.
I was casting from range scrap lead for those little fart and my alloy was at 10 bhn from the range. was expecting my L2 will give me real more harder alloy than my range srap lead hehe.

Soo much to learn, and i have soo much fun to do it and way much to share with you here :) I have learn a lot and hope i'll can share to someone one ov these day. Surtout en français si certain on de la misère avec la traduction de l'anglais ;P !!
 
I cast with 3 pounds pure to 1 pound ww. Water quench from the mould, powder coat, size. Mine test between 12-14bnh on my lee tester. I sever 2 thou over slugged diameter. Shot probably 2500 though my 9mm and only get a slight bit of leading.
 
Your hardness tester might be right. It depends mostly on how much antimony there is in your ww metal.

Lots of variables. Wheel weight alloy commonly varies from under 1% to over 3% antimony.
ASTM #2 babbit is 7-8% antimony but lots of variation possible there, too.

When testing hardness remember the temperature effects. 60F/15C is the usual standard calibration or measurement temperature. And the test medium should be flat - convex or concave alloy surface screws up the reading.
 
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hometownhero said:
I cast with 3 pounds pure to 1 pound ww. Water quench from the mould, powder coat, size. Mine test between 12-14bnh on my lee tester. I sever 2 thou over slugged diameter. Shot probably 2500 though my 9mm and only get a slight bit of leading.
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Did you have same result with regular lube bullet too?
 
normaly i use a wascutter bullet or semi wadcutter. i test in front of the nose.


I had buy pure antimony! i've read some way to melts it in alloy! next test to do when i get the chance to do it :)
 
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