Wheel Weight Alloy Recipe

[MarkK]

What is the best way to duplicate WW alloy and its water quenching/hardening properties? I have lead, tin, type metal (letter blocks and spacers), 50/50 solder and 63/37 solder at my disposal. Many thanks. Markk

[bfuller14]

MarkK,
Go too the bottom of the page and click on Cast Bullet Notes From Iasc.us
Go down too about the fourth section: Cast Bullet Notes.


Hope this helps,
Barry

[bumpo628]

WW's are said to have about 0.5% tin and 3% antimony. Since you have so many choices, you should check out my alloy calculator. There are many ways to make what you want.

[Matt_G]

Bumpo is right on the composition, for the most part.
However there is one thing in WW alloy that greatly affects how it heat treats and that is Arsenic. (As)
WW alloy has roughly 0.25% As in it.
What the arsenic does is act as a catalyst. It allows a lead/antimony alloy to achieve a greater hardness level when heat treated than it would without it.

Please note that As is not required to heat treat a lead/antimony alloy.
It will heat treat with zero percent arsenic in it.

Here is a link to an in depth explanation on this.
Heat Treating Lead/Antimony/Arsenic Alloys (http://www.lasc.us/HeatTreat.htm)

[Shiloh]

From L.A.S.C.
http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletAlloy.htm

Various Salvaged Lead Alloys
Top of Page

Common Bullet Alloys,
Composition and Hardness

Alloy Tin% Antimony% Lead% BHN Arsenic
(Trace)
Foundry Type 15 23 62 ? No
Monotype 9 19 72 28 No
Stereotype 6 14 80 23 No
Linotype 4 12 84 22 No
Lyman # 2 5 5 90 15 No
Electrotype 3 2.5 94.5 12 No
1 to 10 tin/lead 9 --- 91 11.5 No
1 to 20 tin/lead 5 --- 95 10 No
1 to 30 tin/lead 3 --- 97 8 No
1 to 40 tin/lead 2.5 --- 97.5 6-7 No
Hard Ball 2 6 92 16 No
Clip-on .5 2 97.5 11 Yes
wheel weight 12
Stick-on * ** 99.5 6 No
wheel weight
# 8 Magnum --- 2-3% 97-98 *** Yes
Plumbers Lead --- --- ****100 No
Lead --- --- 100 5 No
*Not known, presumably .5 to .75% tin. Stick-on weights are nearly pure lead with a BHN of 6.

**Not known, presumably there is no Sb in stick-on weights.

***# 8 Chilled Shot + 3% tin and cast into bullets tested 8 BHN.

****Plumbers lead should be nearly pure lead as is cable sheathing, lead salvaged from X-ray rooms and roofing sheets. It may not be pure enough for the purist front stuffers but it’s pretty soft and valuable for alloying with the type metals.

[MBTcustom]

I dont mean to criticize the information here, but I am in the unique position where I can get me alloys tested for free, and nothing that has been said squares with my personal tests. I have had numerous samples of WW lead tested from all over the country, and what I have seen with my own eyes is that WW alloy has about 1.5% antimony, no tin and about .5% trash that includes gold, nickle, cadmium, zink, sulfer, etc. etc. certainly not enough to worry about.
If you want to duplicate WW alloy, mix 5 pounds of linotype with about 35 pounds of pure lead. This will give you a mix that has 1.5% antimony, and .5% tin. Not the same, but its close. You're basically trading the .5% trash for .5% tin.
Getting lead tested is an expensive process, so I believe that it leads to a lot of misconception about the actual properties that are commonly found. Back in the 50's (when all this information must have been gathered) I could easily see why the WW's had tin. Because linotype was so common I believe that the WW companies used it too. A lot has changed since then and they are not going to put expensive metals in the mix unless it is absolutely necessary. Antimony is a relatively expensive metal, and tin is even worse. All in the heck they need a WW to do is resist getting deformed when encountering the daily routine of driving, hitting potholes, and spinning at 1000 RPMs. In my mind, it only takes a sniff of antimony to accomplish that goal and my many tests of a broad sampling of WW seem to suggest that the WW manufacturers came to the same conclusion.

[454PB]

I have no way to analyse boolit alloys, so I don't know if linotype or monotype has any arsenic in it. What I do know is that a mixture of 25% linotype & 75% pure lead, cast and water dropped, will yield up to 28BHN.

[jfl1950]

How is plain lead pipe for use in casting?
And the lead they use on the roof to cover the pipes I know that is soft you can bend it with your fingers easy. Would that be used for black powder casting or can it be used for 9MM and .357?

[alfloyd]

"plain lead pipe and lead used on the roof to cover the pipes"

This lead is almost pure lead and very soft. It has a BHN of 5 to 5.5.
Great for Black Powder and too soft for 9MM or 357.

Lafaun

[blackbike]

My vote goes to Tim and his up to date Xray test on todays WW aloys. He gives you the % of antimony, tin, trash, ect. There fore you know what you got.
Hardness test is a different animal. Two different aloys can have the same hardness #. Two hardness testers can have different readings.
Even bumpo628 said, "WW aloys are SAID to have ABOUT...ect"
If I had the materials on hand that you have, I wouldnt be shooting for a loose term like WW aloy. I would go for something like lyman#2
Just my $.02
BB

[Matt_G]

I dont mean to criticize the information here, but I am in the unique position where I can get me alloys tested for free, and nothing that has been said squares with my personal tests. I have had numerous samples of WW lead tested from all over the country, and what I have seen with my own eyes is that WW alloy has about 1.5% antimony, no tin and about .5% trash that includes gold, nickle, cadmium, zink, sulfer, etc. etc. certainly not enough to worry about.

That's why most here when talking about WW's will say things like roughly, approx., ball park figure, etc. when describing the percent of antimony etc. in wheel weights.

I always figure the tin at zero when deciding how much to add to a pot to get 2% so I don't need to adjust anything there.
However, the 1.5% Sb is lower than I would have expected.
Most sources say 2 to 3% Sb and I have always used the lower number. Guess I need to lower it even more...

How consistent is that number? How many batches have you had tested and how old were the wheel weights?
Thanks for posting that information.

[MBTcustom]

I started a thread that details my findings.