Source for 30% antimony alloy in Canada?

Dogleg

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Does anyone know of a Canadian source for high antimony alloy (around 30% in Canada? Along that same theme; what would be involved to making it myself? I have ox-acetylene and was mulling the idea of getting a forge anyway.

I’ve got by with mostly wheel weights, heat treated for rifles and these days powder coated for handguns, and pure lead and tin for BPCR, but would like to have some options.
 
Industrially, it is considered 'proper' to alloy elements by melting first the constituent with the highest melting point and adding the lower MP metals afterwards. Melting point of Sb is 631°C.

Pb-Sb.gif


There is basically full mutual solubility so once you have the temperature, they should mix readily.
 
Dogleg - go here if you have not seen this already - http s://www.westernmetal.ca/product/pure-antimony-1-lb-ba-sb/ Some years ago I ordered some other stuff from them, when I was casting, and got at least one bag of one pound 100% antinomy - was various "chunks" as I recall - not an ingot - you can do your own math to get the mix that you desire. As per Post #5, I thought it was as simple as to just melt it together with lead - was what my plan was, although I never did follow through - I sold off most all of my casting stuff and that buyer got the bag of antinomy.

You might not need to buy any tooling for this - for years I used an RCBS cast iron pot - maybe held 10 pound lead?? - on a propane camping stove in my garage with East and West doors open. I melted down many 20 liter pails of wheel weights that way - adding sawdust for flux and using wood stick as stir stick, then scooped out clips and crap with a largish spoon. Might have to give it a shot with propane plumbers torch along outside of that type of pot to get extra heat to melt the pure antinomy, but I think is like many alloys - melt temp get LOWER than the constituents - is actually a "eutectic" temp in some alloys that is lower melting temp than any of the parent metals used to make that alloy.
 
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Western metals, Canada metals, Purity Casting, Alchemy Extrusions, maybe Metalex. Rotometals in the US should ship to Canada. htt ps://www.rotometals.com/super-hard-alloy-metal-ingot-5-pounds-30-antimony-70-lead/

There are several custom suppliers but quantities that are worthwhile for them to mix will vary by company. If you can do your research and find a standard product that they carry or regularly mix it might be easier but many will custom mix.
 
D... to get extra heat to melt the pure antinomy, but I think is like many alloys - melt temp get LOWER than the constituents - is actually a "eutectic" temp in some alloys that is lower melting temp than any of the parent metals used to make that alloy.

The Pb-Sb definitely has a eutectic, it is that point (at 17.5 atomic%) in the diagram I posted where the melting point lines dip down to 251.7°C. FYI, 17.5% atomic% antimony equals 37 weight%.
 
I found at an auction these old plugs for screws and such they are high in antimony and work well. Not sure where they came from and how old they are.
 
I should update this a bit. I was told of a source of antimony for not too bad a price and we (and by we I mean son does all the work) just alloy it with lead to the wanted percentage. Its a lot cheaper to ship the antimony than the alloy. What he is doing is use a 3 gallon stainless pot a late friend made me and heats it with 2 tiger torches. 1 would work if you had nothing but time, but 2 is so much faster that it isn’t even funny.

Thanks Barisk for the antimony source tip. :)
 
Stainless pots are know to fail suddenly when used for smelting alloy. You want cast iron.

cast iron is known to crack and fail suddenly when used for smelting alloy. You want heavy walled steel, stainless or mild steel. watch for pits and discard when visible, get a new pot

OLD cast is better, but they can be sold for big money. not worth destroying the value with lead inclusion.

modern cast is a crack waiting for heat to come apart
 
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