Little help with some ingots

yomomma

yomomma

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So I am quite comfortable with any wheel weight lead. I have lately lucked into other alloys. I cast some into ingots and they solidified a little different than what I am used to.

If I am correct this ingot shows a high antimony content

IMG_20150823_180215_zpsqxtvnxhb.jpg


This wrinkly one I have no idea, although it is very hard about 18 BHN. Any idea what type of lead?
IMG_20150823_180050_zpsq3quakxr.jpg
 
Great video on zinc contamination. I was very paranoid when melting that I would get zinc in mine.

On a side note is it possible to over heat lead? I tried to keep the temperature just how enough to melt but I didn't have a thermometer to check it with so I have no idea how hot it got.
 
How hot was your ingot mold? How large is it? I get different surfaces when the mold is cold vs already hot from several pours. Seems to be "worse" with the smaller molds.
Might even affect the bhn's by acting as a quench with a cold mold. How many ingots did you pour from this batch? If it was several pours, the last ingot might be softer than the first.
What was the source of your lead? Mystery metal? Or a known source? There might be some babbitts out there that give you that bhn / surface, even after being diluted with other leads, maybe?
My $.02
 
Test my ingots with the LEE hardness tester. Save the BHN 20+ for 1:3 mixture with WW for 44 mag bullets that does not lead the barrel.

Planning to use the zinc for fishing weights. Has anyone cast try casting zinc fishing weights.
 
burnaby said:
Planning to use the zinc for fishing weights. Has anyone cast try casting zinc fishing weights.
Click to expand...
Molds and melt need to be hot hot hot! I don't know if an aluminum sinker mold will take the heat for long. They also come out about 30% lighter than lead iirc. Been a while since I tried casting with zinc. I had to help my Lee pot keep the melt temperature up with a propane torch and used a steel mold. The mold had to be extremely hot to get complete fill out and cut the sprue when still slightly liquid or it was near impossible to cut. The first few I had to reheat the sprue plate with the torch to cut them. I've never cast fishing sinkers so I don't know if any of this will be problematic for you.
 
^ Thanks for the tip on the hot, hot, hot. Likely cast over a fire or propane stove instead of the LEE pot to avoid contamination.

30% might actually work out better to get more volume per oz for bottom bouncing weight. Perfect shape is not important as they get banged up pretty quickly.
 
Hot, hot hot, must be hard to achieve. Last time I melted WW for ingots, I had two tiger torches, one on each side of a homemade pipe melting pot and the zink never showed any signs of melting at all. I easily skimmed them off with the WW clips. Wish I would have kept them now to make cheap 1.6" dia. cannon slugs.
 
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