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View Full Version : How do I use Linotype??



Muskrat Mike
06-17-2007, 08:43 PM
I've only been casting a couple of years and have been using WW's mixed with 95/5. Now I have several tons of pure lead and need to fiquire out how to best use it. A friend just gave me 4 22# ingots of Linotype and I fiquire if I know how I could mix it with the pure lead. What's my best option ?? Thanks ahead of time!
:coffee:

grumpy one
06-17-2007, 08:50 PM
You've got both an economic issue and a technical issue there. I'm told that pure lead can often be exchanged for more than an equal weight of WWs, and the WWs already contain about 4% antimony, so if you are planning to make bullets of say 14 BHN or more, you might think about swapping some of your lead for WW. So the first point to clarify is what hardness bullets you are trying to make.

If you are trying for well over 14 BHN and don't want to heat treat your bullets, linotype is a good source of additional antimony to get that hardness while adding a useful amount of tin at the same time. However mixing lino with pure lead is not likely to be an economically attractive solution compared with mixing WW and lino.

mike in co
06-17-2007, 08:59 PM
place the linotype in several flat rate priority mail shipping boxes and ship them to me....i will put them to use.......

454PB
06-17-2007, 10:35 PM
It depends on what hardness you desire.

I mixed my linotype 50/50 with pure lead, then did some hardness testing. The resulting boolits tested 19 BHN, and looked very much like straight linotype boolits.....very shiny, well filled out, and no frosting.

Additional information, my linotype is a mixture of linotype and monotype, and still in the letter forms. It probably averages 24 BHN, but there is no way to determine it's hardness batch to batch. What I'm calling pure lead is dead soft, but not certified pure lead.

I have a lot of this linotype, and I'm not too worried about conserving it. If I was trying to conserve it, I would reduce the proportion to about 40%.

Assuming your linotype is the accepted mix of 84% lead, 12% antimony, and 4% tin, mixing it 50/50 with pure lead will result in 92/6/2. This is the recipe for "magnum" alloy sold by Taracorp and Midway.