where can i find linotype?
- Thread starter CALIFORNIA
- Start date
Remember Google is your friend even when hunting for outdated materiel and printing methods no longer used from the good old days.
You can just use wheel weights and 50/50 solder
The problem is the cost of shipping lead or linotype can be prohibitive even if you find a good source. Note, Rotometals has free shipping if purchase is over $100.00
http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/linotypealloy.htm?gclid=CKqGkK7R5KQCFdR65Qods2k5KA
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?f=57
You can just use wheel weights and 50/50 solder
The problem is the cost of shipping lead or linotype can be prohibitive even if you find a good source. Note, Rotometals has free shipping if purchase is over $100.00
http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/linotypealloy.htm?gclid=CKqGkK7R5KQCFdR65Qods2k5KA
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?f=57
easyrider604
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Greater Vancouver, BC
What calibers and velocities/pressures would you be loading for?
Depending on your requirements, you may need lead that ranges in hardness from pure lead all the way to pure linotype. There are different alloys/hardnesses of lino, BTW.
Required hardness depends more on chamber pressure than muzzle velocity, and correct bullet fit (to the bore) is even more critical than hardness. For example, given the same pressure, a slow burning powder will yield higher muzzle velocity than a fast burning powder.
What you want is a bullet hardness/softness that will allow the bullet to obturate (expand due to pressure) to a diameter that will create a tight seal between the bullet and the bore. This tight seal will prevent the hot propellant gases from leaking past the bullet, that will in turn melt some of the bullet, thereby leading the bore. A bullet that is too hard for the pressure, will not expand to fill the bore, and will cause leading.
So "hard" is not always "correct". IMO for any given pressure, slightly soft is better than too hard.
For example, in .45 acp and 38 spl, you could get by with pure lead bullets that are correctly sized for the bore (.001 larger than the bore) but properly lubed. Speer 45acp and 38 spl full wadcutter bullets look like they are made from pure lead (or close) and they do not give leading problems if loaded to recommended pressures.
I got 40 lbs. linotype (don't exactly know the alloy) from ebay and it cost US$50.00 shipped to a US address.
Depending on your requirements, you may need lead that ranges in hardness from pure lead all the way to pure linotype. There are different alloys/hardnesses of lino, BTW.
Required hardness depends more on chamber pressure than muzzle velocity, and correct bullet fit (to the bore) is even more critical than hardness. For example, given the same pressure, a slow burning powder will yield higher muzzle velocity than a fast burning powder.
What you want is a bullet hardness/softness that will allow the bullet to obturate (expand due to pressure) to a diameter that will create a tight seal between the bullet and the bore. This tight seal will prevent the hot propellant gases from leaking past the bullet, that will in turn melt some of the bullet, thereby leading the bore. A bullet that is too hard for the pressure, will not expand to fill the bore, and will cause leading.
So "hard" is not always "correct". IMO for any given pressure, slightly soft is better than too hard.
For example, in .45 acp and 38 spl, you could get by with pure lead bullets that are correctly sized for the bore (.001 larger than the bore) but properly lubed. Speer 45acp and 38 spl full wadcutter bullets look like they are made from pure lead (or close) and they do not give leading problems if loaded to recommended pressures.
I got 40 lbs. linotype (don't exactly know the alloy) from ebay and it cost US$50.00 shipped to a US address.
Any good foundry should be able to supply Linotype, but you should pic k it up.....Big ed in the Mustang is incorrect (sorry yank), his adding of 50/50 solder to wheel weights will certainly make the alloy flow better and make nice shiny bullets but would prolly SOFTEN the mix. 50/50 is 50% tin and 50% pure lead, and while it makes a nice alloy, and prolly good for 90% of the time it will not result in a hard or harder mix. Only lino or heat treating or a combo would harden his wheel weights appreciably....IMHO
I posted this before I read Easy riders' post and he is right on in regards to the disadvantages of bullets that are harder then necessary, and which can actually be less accurate and cause an increase in leading. Except for higher velocity, bench rest, target shooting, I can see no proper use for bullets cast as hard as you usually see from most commercial casters.
I posted this before I read Easy riders' post and he is right on in regards to the disadvantages of bullets that are harder then necessary, and which can actually be less accurate and cause an increase in leading. Except for higher velocity, bench rest, target shooting, I can see no proper use for bullets cast as hard as you usually see from most commercial casters.
Bassmaster
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- WMU 48 - Whitetail country
Wow.....some people are so touchy
Big ed, bank your mustang somewhere else, the original post was in regards to Linotype, I do not use wheelweights, but use alot of tin and Linotype in my casting, so may have misspoken in regards to your #2 alloy. Tin is an expensive alloy to add either way, and if you want to make any alloy alot harder Linotype is the way to do it. Noneck 180 is just trying to butter me up, he wants one of my rifles!!!!!.....Ben
Antimony is the key ingredient for hardening. Tin will add some hardness but mostly aids in mold fill-out. I have shot gas checked WW alloy boolits up to 2100 fps without any evidence of leading. I must confess though most of my rifles do their best at around 1800 fps. I have yet to experience significant leading even with plain based boolits provided they are sized right.
Take Care
Bob
This certainly has been an amusing thread 
. I had no idea how well the Tim Horton's invasion was doing.
With respect to adding lubrication to loaded ammunition, there is an article in my copy of Cartridges of the World that describes exactly that practice. Although I'd never heard of it, they made it sound relatively common place at some time in the past.
Of course bullet lube is folly, everyone knows that real bullets are paper patched
With respect to Linotype, I don't have a source as I cast with just lead and tin, but I know you can buy lead with 7% antimony from Metalex out here on the west coast.
I hadn't heard of Canada Metal, I'll have to give those guys a try....
Chris.
. I had no idea how well the Tim Horton's invasion was doing.With respect to adding lubrication to loaded ammunition, there is an article in my copy of Cartridges of the World that describes exactly that practice. Although I'd never heard of it, they made it sound relatively common place at some time in the past.
Of course bullet lube is folly, everyone knows that real bullets are paper patched
With respect to Linotype, I don't have a source as I cast with just lead and tin, but I know you can buy lead with 7% antimony from Metalex out here on the west coast.
I hadn't heard of Canada Metal, I'll have to give those guys a try....
Chris.
This certainly has been an amusing thread
With respect to adding lubrication to loaded ammunition, there is an article in my copy of Cartridges of the World that describes exactly that practice. Although I'd never heard of it, they made it sound relatively common place at some time in the past.
Chris.
The firearms manufactures tell you to not lube your cases, the ammunition manufactures tell you to not lube your cases, the reloading companies tell you to not lube your cases and the British and American military tell you to not lube your cases. How much more information do you need?
To this day the British military use oiled proof pressure test rounds to proof their small arms to subject them to the worst possible conditions found in combat. When oil or grease is on a cartridge case it doubles the thrust on the bolt face because the cartridge case can not grip the chamber walls.
The .303 British Enfield rifle used a oiled proof cartridge to seat the bolt head to the bolt body and to seat the bolt locking lugs to the receiver. After proof testing the Enfield rifle was checked with a .067 headspace gauge and if the bolt closed on this gauge the rifle "failed" proof testing due to excessive lug setback.
The British also used a different method of measuring chamber pressure and the copper crusher pellet was located at the very rear of the case. Please read the 1929 Textbook of Small Arms furnished above.
It clearly states if the case was not lubed the copper crusher pellet received only half the amount of bolt thrust due to the cartridge case gripping the chamber walls.
Below is the more modern method of mounting the pressure transducer along the side of the cartridge case. The British mounted the copper crusher pellet at the rear of the case indicated by the red arrow, this method measured true "bolt thrust" while modern chamber pressure methods do not.
And, more recently, I read a credible writer advocate using only quality ammunition in WWll-surplus machine guns like the MG-34 and the MG-42 (to avoid gun blow-ups) but - if one insisted on using cheap surplus ammunition, one could take the precaution of waxing the case necks to prevent case separation.
That was in SOF, during the eighties.
Not to derail the linotype discussion, but in re-reading the orignial post regarding lube and ammo I misread it a bit.
The article I was refering to in Cartridges of the World was talking about a lubricant that you dipped the loaded round (bullet only not the case of course) into before you fired it. Interesting stuff. IIRC the article concluded that it was a bad idea anyway
Chris.
Some guns have used lubricated cartridges:
-The Fiat Revelli, Breda 30, and Japanese Type 96 machine guns all had a mechanism to oil rounds as they chambered.
-The Pedersen rifle used ammunition that was factory coated with a thin film of wax.
-The Fiat Revelli, Breda 30, and Japanese Type 96 machine guns all had a mechanism to oil rounds as they chambered.
-The Pedersen rifle used ammunition that was factory coated with a thin film of wax.
How in the world is "waxing the case necks" going to prevent case head separations.
Below is a factory loaded Winchester .303 British case, it has stretched over .009 in the web area and the headspace on this Enfield is set at just under .067. Now how much do you think this case will stretch at the maximum headspace of .074 with a rim thickness of .058. with.016 sixteen thousandths head gap clearance.
The main body of the case grips the chamber walls and the rear of the case stretches and thins to meet the bolt face. Waxing the necks doesn't do a thing for the rear of the cartridge case, time for "Myth Busters".
