Harder than Lino???

[Bula]

Hello all, newby here. I'm just getting all my 'stuff' together to start casting. I just sourced about 75lbs of Type metal from a freind who works in binding and embossing. The make up is as follows:

83.5% lead
5% tin
11.5 % antimony

This is pretty close to Lino but with a little more antimony and tin %'s. My question is what would you do with this? Do I add wheel weights if so what %? I am casting for pistol only (45 acp and lc, 38 sp, 44 mag and .357) Can I use this as is? Any advice is much appreciated.

[C A Plater]

Hello all, newby here. I'm just getting all my 'stuff' together to start casting. I just sourced about 75lbs of Type metal from a freind who works in binding and embossing. The make up is as follows:

83.5% lead
5% tin
11.5 % antimony

This is pretty close to Lino but with a little more antimony and tin %'s. My question is what would you do with this? Do I add wheel weights if so what %? I am casting for pistol only (45 acp and lc, 38 sp, 44 mag and .357) Can I use this as is? Any advice is much appreciated.

I'd melt it into ingots, mark them as type metal and use it to harden up WW or pure lead. You can use it as is but it will be a bit harder to size and pretty much act like a FMJ on the target. I've used it in the past mostly in .357's and recall no problems doing so.

[Bass Ackward]

If you asked me what to do with it, I would put it under my pillow and sleep with the danged stuff. It's getting hard to come by. It don't eat anything for gosh sakes.

You can shoot straight WW or less for most 90% of handgun applications. Because once you dilute it, it's diluted forever.

But that's me. :grin:

[David2011]

Hello all, newby here. I'm just getting all my 'stuff' together to start casting. I just sourced about 75lbs of Type metal from a freind who works in binding and embossing. The make up is as follows:

83.5% lead
5% tin
11.5 % antimony

This is pretty close to Lino but with a little more antimony and tin %'s. My question is what would you do with this? Do I add wheel weights if so what %? I am casting for pistol only (45 acp and lc, 38 sp, 44 mag and .357) Can I use this as is? Any advice is much appreciated.

Bula, Monotype is an alloy of tin 3%, antimony 11%, lead 86%; pretty close to what you have. I like to add 1/2 pound of Monotype to 20 pounds of wheelweight alloy. It makes a beautiful boolit, looks like a Lasercast, if you have ever seen their products. It casts a little heavier than the stated weight based on Lyman #2 but the detail to the mold is perfect. A 170 gr. RCBS SWC .40 Cal with my alloy weighs about 178.5 gr, as an example; close enough for me to 180 gr. for IPSC Major loads. Corners of bases are square and sharp and every microgroove from the manufacture of the mold is picked up in the boolit. I use mostly RCBS and Lyman molds which do have a hint of machining marks that I don't consider flaws in the molds as they ae consistent and concentric.

David2011

[ANeat]

Save it; For 45 acp you can get by with straight WW or even a WW and pure lead mix. WW alone is a better option for the Magnum stuff if youre pushing it. If you dont have any other bullet metal you can always use it to barter for some WW ingots. Im not sure exactly what some guys would swap but I would guess a 3 to 1 WW to linotype wouldnt be to far off. Especially if you can find someone local.

Adam

[Lloyd Smale]

even me probably the biggest preacher in the hard bullet camp on here wouldnt waste it on 45acps ww is plenty hard for them. I even cut ww with range lead or pure to use it up. Lynotype is getting real tough to find especially stuff as hard as what you have there. Most of what ive found lately is old overused stuff that will only make a bullet about 18bhn as it is. Hold on to that stuff for alloying where your really need it.

[Bula]

Thanks all, much appreciated. Looks like I'm gonna get it into ingots and hold onto it.

[MT Gianni]

If you are close any one here should be able to trade ww for type metal even at 2 for 1 if you can't get any. Hard alloys have there place but I personally believe it comes after the first 300 lbs of ww sent down range. It takes that long to really believe what they can do. Gianni.

[Leftoverdj]

We're all agreed that your metal is much too valuable to shoot straight. When lino was much more readily available, my standard alloy was 6 parts WW to one part lino It was lovely stuff to work with.

[KCSO]

I generally do big batches at a time and I will mix my alloys to give me either 1/2 and 1/2 WW and Lino, Straight W/W and pure lead. I try and keep about 50 lbs of pure lino for special purposes, but i very rarely use it any more, as with the right lube and bullet diameter i have found that I don't need anything that hard. Prior to a melt I mix my leads to get a specific hardness and then when i smelt i multiply by 10 in a batch. Say 40pounds of Lino and 40 of wheel weights or 50 of wheel weights to get what I need. Your 75 pounds would be mixed with abut 90 pounds of w/w to make my most used target formula of 1/2 and 12/.

[jhalcott]

Bula, what are you planning on casting for,rifles or handguns? High speed alloys are usually harder than plinking alloys. I got about 50 pounds of monotype years ago. I mixed it with WW or lead trying to find THE BEST alloy for sillywet shooting. After leading up several barrels,I went back to a lyman #2 alloy. I think I might still have a couple pounds of that mono in my stash!