ingot alloy question

[herbie]

My lead alloy ingots i made from WW pure lead pipe and lead scrap mixed together. When i bang them together they make a "ting" sound. i made sure the temp didnt go above the zinc melt temp so i dont think its zinc contaminatio but i thought that lead alloy ingots should make a low dull sound? also some of my ingots have a sunken top.(used muffin pans.)

let me know your thoughts on those two issues please. i just hope its not zinc!

[snuffy]

Any alloy that has some tin and antimony in it will "ting" a little. If you had just melted the lead pipe, it would have made that thud sound!

[375RUGER]

You don't know what you have because of the unknown of the lead scrap. Do you know what was the weight of WW and lead pipe and lead scrap before you melted them all together?

Check for stickys on methods to check the hardness with pencils.

I have a couple of different known alloys that I shoot that go "tink".

[runfiverun]

see post number-2.
just a little tin will make a ptink sound,it's not quite the same as alloy with antimony.
you really have to have a tuned ear and consistent drop to tell them apart.
the sunken tops is a really good educational picture of what is happening in a mold, and why a good sprue is important.
that was the mold trying to fill in the center better as the alloy cooled on the outside, and it had no more lead to pull from.

[williamwaco]

Drop a clip on wheel weight on concrete so that it hits on end.
That is the sound you should be listening for.

Disregard the second tink when the clip hits.

[mdi]

So, if I use my electronic guitar tuner, what note should I be looking for? B sharp?[smilie=1:

[I'll Make Mine]

So, if I use my electronic guitar tuner, what note should I be looking for? B sharp?[smilie=1:

I'd go for Q flat... [smilie=l: You really can't go by pitch, since it'll depend as much on the size of the piece as on what it's made of (a guitar string doesn't change composition when you finger it to a higher fret, but it certainly changes pitch). It's the sound quality, what a musician would call timbre, that's strongly dependent on composition. You can easily tell the difference between a metal xylophone bar and a wood marimba bar, even when struck with the same mallet; the difference between tin/lead and tin/lead/antimony is subtler (and has a great range of variation with percentages), but it's there.

[shadygrady]

well if its zinc send it to me for lead

[Griz44mag]

Maybe you could get a 50 dollar tester and test the alloy to see how hard it is.... Ting, thunk, plunk, Sorry, I have never seen any of that information in a loading table..
If you are going to use scrap lead, it's a good idea to get at least that one extra tool.