Question for the "Alloy Masters"....

[41mag]

Ok, I am somewhat new to this. I understand measuring in pounds, ounces, grains, grams, and so forth. Somehow my mind simply doesn't always wrap around simple things like percentages. It registers but then when I get everything ready to go I usually end up weighing everything out anyway.

This said, I have been using a blended alloy, put together from several hundred pounds of purchased, mixed WW lead of varied hardness, with a few ounces of 96% tin 4% silver solder thrown in for kicks and giggles. So far it has come out to be around the 12-14 BHN area. Casting with it has been very easy and fill out has been good.

This said I had one last batch, roughly 40lbs of the mixed ingots, half melted in my big pot when I ran out of propane. So this past week I fired up the pot again as I needed to clear it out and get ready to blend up some more. When it melted up nicely and I finished up with my second flux, I added 6 oz of 96% Tin 4% Silver solder to it.

I haven't had the chance to pour any of it just yet, but they already appear a bit more ringy than the others made from the same lead mix. They are also quite a bit more shiny.

My question is do you think I added enough to actually sway the hardness? I was simply looking to give it a bit easier fill out. I had added 3oz of the same to all of the other, just had this precut and rolled up, and didn't catch it until after it was a done deal.

My thinking is that it shouldn't effect the hardness too much, and fill out should be at least as good or better than with the other. All of the boolits I will be using this on are going to be air cooled so I am hoping that it stays somewhere in the same range.

Your comments are very much appreciated.

[williamwaco]

According to my calculation that is about 6/640 = almost exactly one percent tin.

I have never tried any thing that small but I seriously doubt if it will change hardness. If you have less than 1% tin in the 40 pounds it will help fill-out. If you have 2% or more tin in the 40 lbs, you just wasted your solder.

[sqlbullet]

your bullets are already running hard so I doubt it will make much difference p. Lokking at some data 20:1 is 10 bhn. 16:1 is a 1.2% increase and ups the hardness to 11. But 10:1, a 3% jump, only runs 11.5 bhn.

Like fill out, you reach a point of diminishing returns about 16:1.

[41mag]

Thanks for the replies. Like I mentioned the 16:1 thing I understand in my right brain, trouble is when I get started putting it together my left brain is having issues, and needs weights. LOL

I had one 60# batch of the ingots that was notably harder and came out to around Lyman #2. The rest was right in with the WW I had on hand with some maybe slightly softer.

Like I mentioned I divided up what I had on hand into equal piles of the purchased ingots. Each pile ran about 70-80 pounds on average, but this was the last one and even through it was smaller it has the same ingots only by half the amount.

I had the solder weighed and cut for a full pot, and didn't even think about it. When it got ready, I simply stirred it in really well, then fluxed it once more like the others. I kept the temp between 600 and 625 the whole time, and it made some great looking ingots. I wasn't overly concerned with using too much solder while doing this as 6oz seemed like a small amount in 60-70 pounds. It was once I realized I put it into 40# that I thought, Oh **** wonder what that is going to do. LOL

I have a decent supply of it, which should hold me over for a few years easily. One of my coworkers had given me 16 full rolls of this same stuff. I figured that even if I fluf up a mix, I should still be ok, as I can simply blend it back into some which has none added to it right?

I ordered two RD molds this weekend to put some of it to use in. I am hopeful it will produce some good boolits for my 41, and 45 Colt to use on the hogs and deer.

[williamwaco]

I never heard of too much tin hurting anything but that said I don't like to cast linotype.

Most references list the tin content of linotype as 4% tin. This stuff flows like water. It makes beautiful bullets but it is so liquid it will not even puddle up on the top of the sprue plate. It just runs off like water and splashes all over everything.

Most references list the content of Wheel weights as one half to one percent tin. I find that to be usable but adding about 1% or a little less tin to wheel weights makes the bullets shinier and the corners a little more crisp.

If your wheel weights are one half percent lead. Adding 1 ounce of solder to 100 ounces of lead would give you an alloy with approximately 1.5% tin. That should make great bullets and cast well.

Note that is one ounce of solder to six and a quarter pounds of lead. Isn't it amazing how very little tin it takes to make a very large difference in casting quality.

Curiously, the old alloys of 16/1 and 20/1 come out to 6.25 and 5.0 percent tin. That is even more than linotype. I never tried either of those alloys because I couldn't afford that much tin.




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