Linotype lead
- Thread starter dargrim
- Start date
blaser.306
CGN Regular
- Location
- Saskatoon , Sask
Add hard lead shot to your melt , It contains antimony as well as arsenic . This will also make it possible to harden your lead !
- Location
- The Conservative part of Ontario
Wheel weights, hardened by dropping into a pail of water right out of the mold, are hard enough for all but the most demanding aps IMO.
Keep that water pail well clear of your melt. one drop of water in the melt with cause a small explosion of flying molten lead.
Keep that water pail well clear of your melt. one drop of water in the melt with cause a small explosion of flying molten lead.
Sure expensive to add the new tin solder to lead for bullets! And the bars of old 40-60 or 50-50 solder are getting hard to find at garage sales.
As John Y has already said, wheel weights with the new bullets dropped in water are all you need. Not only all you need, but I will wager you wouldn't find any difference, whatsoever, between them and the best rated, tin added bullets you could make.
I keep the pail of water on the floor, beneath the hot lead well back on the bench. That way, the water can't splash high enough to get near the molten mixture.
As John Y has already said, wheel weights with the new bullets dropped in water are all you need. Not only all you need, but I will wager you wouldn't find any difference, whatsoever, between them and the best rated, tin added bullets you could make.
I keep the pail of water on the floor, beneath the hot lead well back on the bench. That way, the water can't splash high enough to get near the molten mixture.
Tin by itself does not add a lot of hardness--makes the cast fill out the mould better. What has been said above for water quenching is the cheapest solution. We used thousands of .44 and .41 plain and gas check bullets in silhouette competition that were done that way with little or no leading issues.
BattleRife
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- of No Fixed Address
That advice is 50 years old. Tin is expensive as hell these days and linotype is virtually non-existant. I have never seen it.
I'm amazed that you find wheel weights too soft for your purpose. They are about the hardest lead alloy in common use this century.
The advice to use lead free solder to alloy your bullets is deceiving. Some lead free solder is 95Sn-5Sb and works great, but most of it is tin-silver, and would likely be a serious problem in bullet casting.
PerversPépère
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Shawinigan (Quebec)
Lyman no.2 recipe
Try water hardening on Lyman no.2 mix (9 pounds of clean wheelweight metal to 1 pound of 50/50 plumber's solder).
It fills the molds very well and responds quite well to water quenching.
I usually size before hardening. I lube bullets with a dilute solution of Lee's Liquid Alox and size with Lee's sizer. You can also place gas checks at that stage.
Once done, I put them in an oven at near-melting temp for an hour and dump them in a very cold pail of water.
Try to lube them in a lube sizer with a same diameter die to avoid disturbing the hardening.
PP.
Try water hardening on Lyman no.2 mix (9 pounds of clean wheelweight metal to 1 pound of 50/50 plumber's solder).
It fills the molds very well and responds quite well to water quenching.
I usually size before hardening. I lube bullets with a dilute solution of Lee's Liquid Alox and size with Lee's sizer. You can also place gas checks at that stage.
Once done, I put them in an oven at near-melting temp for an hour and dump them in a very cold pail of water.
Try to lube them in a lube sizer with a same diameter die to avoid disturbing the hardening.
PP.
blacksmithden
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Linotype is pretty much a thing of the past. When I say that, guys who are older than my 41 years ALWAYS have a suggestion where to find it (without buying it new from a metal supply place BIG $$$$). I've checked out plenty of their leads but I've never had any success. Things like "oh...you just have to go to a small print shop in a small town. Some small town newspapers still use it".....I have news. No they don't, and they haven't in 30-40 years. People either have no idea what you're talking about, or your'll run across an older fellow who remembers it, but laughs when you ask if there is any left around. I've never had a gram of real linotype in my hand. Wheel weights, melted down, cast, and dropped in water is all you need....and is probably the best you're going to get unless you're willing to pay through the nose for new, virgin alloy.
Denny, if you were close I would I would just hand you a bar, so you could no longer say you never had any in your hand.
I still have some bars from the long, little troughs they were in to melt in the press.
Oh yes, got these long after they quit using them, just had to ask one of the owners if he had any left. "Sure, I'll bring you some!"
I also have some pieces that were used and still have the printing on them.
I still have some bars from the long, little troughs they were in to melt in the press.
Oh yes, got these long after they quit using them, just had to ask one of the owners if he had any left. "Sure, I'll bring you some!"
I also have some pieces that were used and still have the printing on them.
Yup, that is all you need, no need for lino or mono lead. Straight lead for target .38 spl around 700 fps is good. Lyman #2 for .357 , 9mm, .45acp. Water dropped Lyman #2 for 41 mag, 44 mag.
When you drop the bullets into water as was suggested earlier have the bucket off the bench and to the side. You can even put a piece of fabric over the to top of the bucket and cut an X patern so when the bullets are dropped in the water the fabric will catch any spashes.
For rifle bullets you use Lyman #2 and heat treat them in the oven after you have installed a gas check on them. Once done you run them in a sizer that is 1 thou larger in diameter to add the lube into the grooves. People who like the Lee Liquid lube just lube them as normal after the oven.
The majority of leading barrel problems is sizing to the wrong size and using the wrong lube.
Jump over to Cast bullets website http://castboolits.gunloads.com/ and you will have all the info you can possibley handle.
- Location
- The Conservative part of Ontario
The USofA guys have postal Flat Rate boxes. As long as it'll fit in the box, it ships for a fixed price, up to 75 pounds, IIRC. Makes for a tough day for the postie, good for the sellers and buyers down there.
Not sure, but I think there is an international flat rate box. Might be worth digging around the USPS site to see. Could actually make it cheaper to buy by mail from the States.
I've actually seen a bit of Linotype or monotype at a scrap dealer in Edmonton, though it was a few years back (2004 ish), so I am certain it still surfaces. I am on the lookout for some for small caliber casting, so may just buy some. You get a lot more shooting per pound out of 50 grain bullets. Finding a scrap dealer that has some and does not sell it by the Troy Ounce, on the other hand, is gonna be even tougher than finding it in the first place. Most of them are pretty much on top of what the stuff they are buying should be worth, although there are still a few...
dargrim, what are you trying to accomplish exactly? Stopping leading? Look really hard at lubes and sizing. Look at the water dropping too, to harden up the WW alloy.
2 percent tin is about the max that will do you any good as far as fill out goes, or so I would be led to believe. I found that raising the temperature in my pot worked better. You need t be throwing really high tin percentages ($$) to get much harder than you can with WW alloy.
Realy take a good look at the castboolits site. Lots and lots of info on alloys and how to treat them to get what you want from them, as far as heating them or water dropping.
If you want to try the stuff, though, check out the TO Yellow pages under metals suppliers and make a few phone calls and get some prices to see if you can get some for less than mail order will cost you.
Cheers
Trev
Not sure, but I think there is an international flat rate box. Might be worth digging around the USPS site to see. Could actually make it cheaper to buy by mail from the States.
I've actually seen a bit of Linotype or monotype at a scrap dealer in Edmonton, though it was a few years back (2004 ish), so I am certain it still surfaces. I am on the lookout for some for small caliber casting, so may just buy some. You get a lot more shooting per pound out of 50 grain bullets. Finding a scrap dealer that has some and does not sell it by the Troy Ounce, on the other hand, is gonna be even tougher than finding it in the first place. Most of them are pretty much on top of what the stuff they are buying should be worth, although there are still a few...
dargrim, what are you trying to accomplish exactly? Stopping leading? Look really hard at lubes and sizing. Look at the water dropping too, to harden up the WW alloy.
2 percent tin is about the max that will do you any good as far as fill out goes, or so I would be led to believe. I found that raising the temperature in my pot worked better. You need t be throwing really high tin percentages ($$) to get much harder than you can with WW alloy.
Realy take a good look at the castboolits site. Lots and lots of info on alloys and how to treat them to get what you want from them, as far as heating them or water dropping.
If you want to try the stuff, though, check out the TO Yellow pages under metals suppliers and make a few phone calls and get some prices to see if you can get some for less than mail order will cost you.
Cheers
Trev
