Coppewr lead alloy ???

[Misfire99]

I found some copper lead alloy for making bearings. Has anybody used this alloy before? I haven't gotten my hands on any yet so I can't do any kind of comparison with a known sample. But it's supposed to be hard. The specs on it are 36% Tin with 51% Lead, 1% Copper and 12% Antimony. Melt Temp Around 360 deg F.

With the high tin and the antimony levels it looks very hard and somewhat light. I suspect I would cast it 50/50 with pure lead.

What do you all think??

TIA

[454PB]

1% copper should not be a problem, but you should dilute it down a lot further than 50/50. that 36% tin is what's expensive and hard to find.

[kellyj00]

it melts at 360 degrees?
wow.

[beagle]

You'll have no problems with that alloy. I'd take all I could get./beagle

[Lloyd Smale]

If a guy mixed that 1/3 to 2/3s ww it would come pretty close to lineotype

[Ricochet]

Yeah, I'd be using that as an enrichment metal to add to other alloys. Mainly going by the tin content. 1% tin's usually plenty to enhance mould fillout.

[mtgrs737]

Great find!!I would think the same thing, 1% tin would give good fill out, and the antimony would harden a bit too. 50/50 would be a waste of tin, and too hard anyway. I bought 5bars of 63%Tin 37% lead bar solder on ebay for $2.50 a pound in 12 pound bars a while back and I am planing on using it to help the alloy fill out better, I figure about 1% tin should do it.

[Misfire99]

I think I should add that it costs 4.50 per pound when you buy between 10 and 50 pounds.

I found it looking for linotype. There doesn't seem to be a hole lot available where I am.

[Lloyd Smale]

that price would be a little on the rich side for me! But then with linotype drying up around here it may be a necessity down the line.

[Bass Ackward]

I think I should add that it costs 4.50 per pound when you buy between 10 and 50 pounds.

I found it looking for linotype. There doesn't seem to be a hole lot available where I am.



Price would be too high for me, I'd shoot jacketed for that.

A lot of us in that same boat. That's why you get it when you can. Sadly for me that is either during a recession or when someone has passed.

The greatest benefit to this board is the flexibility to learn to use something else in the mean time.

[Misfire99]

It used to be cheap to cast. I would go to the local metal recyclers and get linotype or pure lead cheap. I moved to another state and there are no metal recyclers for a hundred miles or more.

I have found that Midway has linotype. I have used it but it doesn't cast the way I remember linotype casting. Maybe the stuff I had before wasn't truly linotype. I mixed the midway lino 50/50 with pure lead, I still have some of that, and it worked better in filling the mold and giving a good looking bullet. But I turned the heat way up. I was casting 500grain .459 semi-pointed bullets this morning around 4:30. This went well until the pin fell out of my Lee mold. I didn't worry about it but just switched to the 405 grain hollow base and finished the pot. These bullets look good, much better then the straight lino from midway.

The place that had the alloy I posted about is Roto Metals. Here is a link:
http://www.rotometals.com/

Here is a link to the alloy I was talking about:
http://www.rotometals.com/ALLOY-COPPER-HARD-1-Pound-_p_1-1630.html

They also have an alloy that has just lead and antimony consisting of approximately 87.5% Lead and 12.66% Antimony. Melt Temp Around 473 deg F. I think this is to high of a percentage for antimony. The bullets could break before they even get near the rifle. Here is a link:
http://www.rotometals.com/ALLOY-4-HARDWARE-1-Pound-_p_1-1628.html
but it might be good to mix with lead and tin solder and pure lead. A pound of this alloy, a pound of solder and a pound of pure lead should cast nice. It's a lot cheaper to0. Only, yea only. $2.70 per pound.

The thing that really caught my eye about this place is it has free shipping on orders over $99 and under thirty pounds.


I have a friend that was casting what he thought was linotype. He had casted about a thousand or more bullets in his magna machine. He was loading on his Dillion and dropped one of the rounds on the floor. The bullet broke off right at the case mouth, this was in a 38 super. I think he must have had mono or foundry type not linotype. Mono and foundry type have a much higher antimony content and makes a very brittle cast. And there he sat looking at a five gallon bucket of loaded 38 super using these bullets. What a pain. He's an A class IPSC shooter and didn't want to risk using these bullets in a match.

[Icorps1970]

I found some copper lead alloy for making bearings. Has anybody used this alloy before? I haven't gotten my hands on any yet so I can't do any kind of comparison with a known sample. But it's supposed to be hard. The specs on it are 36% Tin with 51% Lead, 1% Copper and 12% Antimony. Melt Temp Around 360 deg F.

With the high tin and the antimony levels it looks very hard and somewhat light. I suspect I would cast it 50/50 with pure lead.

What do you all think??

TIA

Too much tin in the alloy can increase leading.
I would alloy this with more lead to get the tin levels down to 5% or a little more then add what I needed to make them as hard as necessary. Tin hardens the metal somewhat but its best feature is lower melting temp. This makes for better flow since it does not set as fast when introduced into the mold.

[felix]

Add a one pound bar of it per 20 pound pot of WW. ... felix

[Misfire99]

I find it interesting that nobody is concerned about the copper. When I first posted this that was what had my interest. How the copper would effect the cast. Maybe it isn't a problem.

[Ricochet]

1% copper in an alloy that I'd be using in relatively small percentage to add tin? Not an issue for me.

[leftiye]

1% copper might actually be a good amount to add to boolits to make them harder and tougher. Any one think this is too much? Too little? (Differing opinions solicited!)

[Ricochet]

Biggest problem with copper, if there's too much of it, is supposed to be that it clogs pouring spouts and can interfere with mould fillout. Don't really know how much is too much. I'm just pretty sure that if it were used the way I'd use the stuff, it wouldn't be too much.