current linotype prices?

[fireflyfather]

What prices are you guys paying for linotype these days? I've been pricing ebay @ over $1 per lb shipped. Haven't been able to contact local scrapyards yet, but want to have a sense of what people are paying before I talk to them.

Is $1.25-1.50/lb reasonble for lino?

[MT Gianni]

Foundry fresh lino @ $1 a lb used to be the standard when ww were 10 cents a lb. E-bay sellers may sell something less than lino with the tin burned out of the alloy. Gianni

[leftiye]

Gianni,
Re: fleabay- That's if they sell you linotype Atall! I recently bought 120 lbs oF linotype from a guy there. It tested at BHN 7! I think it was pure with 5%tin maybe. Got the usual "I really don't know anything about this item" excuse. Doesn't it seem dishonest to them to say it is something is such and such if they don't know that it is such and such? Anybody know of any good sources of linotype that will ship USPS flat rate box?

[fireflyfather]

leftiye, do you have an ebay username to AVOID for us? i don't want to get burned by the same guy. I may have to buy off of fleabay. Only seems to be one place in town here that will sell metals (lots of places buying!).

Edit: They don't sell scrap. Looks like solder or ebay linotype for me.

[GLL]

Always buy linotype in letter-strip form unless you know the seller ! You never know what you are getting if sold as ingots.

Jerry

[454PB]

Dopey me....

I sold 600 pounds of it in letter forms two years ago for .30 cents a pound.

[snuffy]

I'm paying a buck fifty on Thursday for lino in 1# ingots. And I have tested it with a lee hardness tester, it ranges from 18 to 21 BHN. My long time friend at the local gunshop has been on the look out for me for some time. He has a line on some still in 22# pigs, but the fellow wants to sell it all or nothing, he has 4 tons of it! I'm taking 200#!

[sav300]

Hmm so I did a good deal at $20au for 20kg ingots of linotype?Have access to 1/2 ton if the stuff!
May have to buy the rest and sell/stock pile.
Lionel

[mtgrs737]

I too have been burned on the ebay linotype sellers, getting depleted tin linotype at good stuff prices. Most sellers will temper their descriptions with the "I don't know anything about this stuff" thinking that they are covering their a$$. I have emailed them after testing and informed them that if it is not up to almost linotype hardness then they should not be listing it as Linotype! But as hard lead and give the hardness level in BHN, but the emails are ignored. This is a buyer beware area for certain.

[Adam10mm]

I paid $1/lb for lino. Some in ingots and some in bars.

[LET-CA]

I've bought linotype on ebay several times and have always received it in "letter strip" form. No problems at all. I don't buy anything in ingots. I'll cast them myself.

[MakeMineA10mm]

I just bought a 43 lb bucket at the scrap yard for $.60/lb.

I haven't seen the outrageous lead prices/difficulty in obtaining in my area, like others have though...

[Adam10mm]

Just got another 60# off ebay @ $19.88/21# x 3 lots.

[shotstring]

The tough thing about winning the auctions for less than 30# is that the shipping eats you alive. One dollar a pound lino becomes $1.50 a pound linotype. I did pay more than I like to pay for some brand new bar stock though - all tested out at 22 BHN. Got 250 pounds of the stuff at $38 for 40 pounds, but the shipping was high at $12.95/per as the bars were too long for flat rate boxes. Still, I think of it as my Sunday-Go-To-Meetin' linotype. 8-)

[Adam10mm]

If they don't ship in a FRB I don't buy it. Simple as that. I will not pay more than $10 for shipping alone.

[klw]

Art Green has linotype.

[fireflyfather]

Art Green has linotype.

Details?

Website?

[klw]

Details?

Website?

Sorry. I keep forgetting that some folks don't know art. He has been selling alloy for at least twenty years, probably longer. 78 I think. His brother is still working and is in his early 90's.

I've got a standing order with Art for 100 pounds of linotype a month up to two tons. I've got two tons of alloy, most of it in the form of bullets that have been visually inspected but not yet weighed. I plan ahead.

I can not get to his phone number at the moment but as soon as I can I'll post it. Art does not have a web site nor e-mail. Only person I know of who still uses carbon paper.

BUT his alloys are good and his prices are low.

[fireflyfather]

(310-274-1283) is the number, according to the LASC website. Must call.

Now that I've asked, what ratio of lino to stick on weights will approximate clip on weight hardness? I want to harden up my stick ons.

[David2011]

Your stick-on weights are pure lead for our purposes. You didn't say how hard you want the allow so it's hard to give a good answer. You might try a small batch with 4-1/2 pounds of lead and 1/2 pound of linotype. That would yield an alloy with about 2% tin and 6% antimony. Linotype has something like 4% tin, 12% antimony and 84% lead. Wheelweights are around .5% tin, 4% antimony, .25% arsenic and 95.25% lead. The proportions are very different but mixing the two will give a harder alloy. If 4.5 lb pb to .5 lb lino isn't hard enough, keep trying by shifting in 1/2 pound increments to get what you want.

Easy math: figure on a basis of 10 of your blended alloy. If you add 1 lb alloy to 9 lb lead you will get 10% of the metals in the hard alloy in your final mix. The 4% tin in a pound of lino ends up being 0.4% in the 10 pound blend and the 12% antimony ends up as 1.2%of the mix.

I add 1/2 lb monotype to 20 lb of wheelweight alloy and it makes a significant difference in the way the metal casts and looks. I get little lead fouling in IPSC major loads in .40 S&W so I believe a little good metal makes a big difference. Whatever alloy you mix, flux well to get it blended.

[fireflyfather]

You didn't say how hard you want the allow so it's hard to give a good answer.

Um, you missed this part:
what ratio of lino to stick on weights will approximate clip on weight hardness?

You know, 10-12 bhn for clip-on weights....isn't that the average?

So what ratio of lino to pure lead will give the same hardness as air cooled clip ons?

[LET-CA]

Just scored a couple of hundred pounds of linotype at 20 cents a pound. Picking it up locally next Wednesday.

:-D

[Springfield]

If ya want the hardness of clip on wheeleeights, why don't you just use clip on wheelweights? Not trying to be a smartass, just wondering. Wheelweights are much easier to get and cheaper.

[fireflyfather]

Have buckets full of clip-ons. Trying to find a way to convert the stick on weights I sorted out into useable alloy. We're all scroungers here who hate to waste. On top of that, I am trying to build up a supply. If I can find a way to use the stickies, then it increases my supply by that much more.

[MakeMineA10mm]

If you really want to burn up that Linotype by mixing it down to make something close to WWs, you should try this:

4 lbs Linotype + 3 lbs WW + 13 lbs of pure lead = 96% lead, .87% tin, and 3% antimony. Little more tin and a little less antimony than WWs, but that's probably better for castability and obturation anyway, and it's darn close.

[klw]

[QUOTE=MakeMineA10mm;252444]If you really want to burn up that Linotype by mixing it down to make something close to WWs, you should try this:
QUOTE]

Did I miss something here? Making wheelweights out of linotype? Surely not!

Art Green, incidentally, has something akin to wheelweights, I think, that he is selling for about $0.40 cents per pound plus shipping. I've ordered 800 pounds.

[dale2242]

Talked to a guy today that has a lot of lyno. $15 for a 25# ingot. That figures out to a $.60 lb. The ingots are the original that were used in the type casting machines so I think the alloy should be reasonably good.

[MakeMineA10mm]

Did I miss something here? Making wheelweights out of linotype? Surely not!

Art Green, incidentally, has something akin to wheelweights, I think, that he is selling for about $0.40 cents per pound plus shipping. I've ordered 800 pounds.

I know, I know. I can't hardly believe it, either, but, hey, if the guy is linotype rich and needs something to sweeten (harden) his pure lead, I'll help him with his formula...

As for me, I stick with this formula:
73 lbs WheelWeights (traditional clip-on style) + 2 lbs of 95-5 Solder + 1 lb. of Linotype = 3% tin, 3.5% antimony, 93+% lead. That's softer than Lyman's #2, a little harder than straight WW, and it has goodly amount of tin for good fill-out and shiney boolits! :mrgreen: Costs me about $.35/lb, mostly because of the solder...

[shotstring]

Excuse me as I am rather new to the forum, but who is Art Green? Does he sell lead commercially?

[fireflyfather]

Don't have ANY lino at the moment. Simply trying to find the most cost-effective way to make useable alloy out of pure lead. Solder works out to be about twice as expensive as lino.

[klw]

Excuse me as I am rather new to the forum, but who is Art Green? Does he sell lead commercially?

Art Green has been selling bullet alloys to shooters for at least the last 20 years. Probably longer. He is NOT in the computer age. Uses a typewriter and carbon paper. His phone number was listed earlier. Very nice guy.

I don't know if he still advertises. But you use to see his ads in the Handloader.

Bill Ferguson also use to sell alloys but stopped a couple of years ago. Bill still sells casting related equipment, I think, but stopped selling alloy because of the cost.

When Bill was selling linotype he would buy it new from a foundry in large quanities. That got expensive. Art, at least now, buys up used type from old print shows that he sold the linotype new to decades ago. That allows him to have much better prices.

Bill is in his 80's and in poor health I think. Art is approaching 80 but works 14 plus hours a day.

[Scrounger]

Excuse me as I am rather new to the forum, but who is Art Green? Does he sell lead commercially?

Yes. He is located in Beverly Hills, believe it or not, and advertises in American rifleman and other publications. According to a poster here, his telephone number is (310-274-1283).

[ktw]

Don't have ANY lino at the moment. Simply trying to find the most cost-effective way to make useable alloy out of pure lead. Solder works out to be about twice as expensive as lino.

1) Save it as is. You will find someone willing to trade clip-ons for it eventually or you may take up BPCR or muzzleloading someday where having some will come in handy.

2) Stick-ons are near pure, not pure lead. It will heat treat to harder BHN. Heat treating isn't as difficult as it sounds.

3) Alloy it evenly back into your clip-on supply. it may knock a BHN or two off your alloy, but it will heat treat well if you need something harder and at least you will have one uniform supply of alloy to work with.

-ktw

[leftiye]

Firefly, If you've got pure lead already (that's the expensive part of this recipe), then just mix it half and half with good clean wheelweights. It is a good alloy for most applications as it can be hardened (heat treated or water dropped). Heat treated it is about 22 BHN or harder (about as hard as linotype). Doesn't cast shiny like linotype does, and you might want to add some tin (from solder) to help fillout. Cast with your mold a little hot, just on the near side of frosting and it makes very fine boolits.

[ANeat]

Like the others mentioned WW and pure mixed 50/50 works great in the majority of handguns. Add a little tin if you like, 2% is enough.