Newbie with pure lead and babbit

[valathar]

Howdy!

I'm home in IL visiting my parents for a couple weeks... and brought my bullet casting equipment (which I bought in California and can't use there since I live in a tiny apartment). I'm going to leave it here with Dad, and in the meantime I want to start casting up some bullets, and reload with dad a bit. I already reload plenty, just haven't ever cast boolits :)

I've got probably 40 lbs of pure lead, and 25 lbs of Babbit. Dad uses this babbit to cast bearings for the dredge he works on seasonally, and it looks shiny and seems much lighter than lead. I'm assuming this means it's mostly Tin.

My question is, what approximate mix should I use of these to come up with a suitable boolit? I'll be shooting this in 38 special, 357 magnum, and might even cast some bullets for 7.62x54R and .30-30. I have molds for each of these here.

Is Babbit and pure lead all I need? Do I need something else to add more arsenic? Never done this before, and I'm chomping at the bit to finally give it a try now that I can do it in dad's shop with a nice concrete floor that won't burn ;)

[kawalekm]

Hi Valathar
I've used recycled babbit I got from a local metal scrap yard. I made good cast bullets with 9.5 lbs of wheelweight lead and 1/2 lb of babbit metal. This made approximately Lyman #2 alloy. Using pure lead though, your bullets will be a little softer. I think they'll be fine for 38 and 357, but maybe you'll need harder alloy for the rifles. You can try it and see what happens. What I'd suggest is that you stop at you Dad's favorate auto shop and see if they have some recycled wheel weights you can have. Add babbit to wheel weights and you'll have super alloy.
Michael

[454PB]

This question comes up quite frequently. If the babbitt is tin based, it's far too valuable to use in high percentage as a hardening alloy. You would be better off to sell it or trade it for some other lead alloy with a high antimony content as kawalekm said. Pure tin is selling for $7 to $10 per pound, and your babbitt might be as high as 90% tin.

[valathar]

Could I add some chilled shotgun shot to get the stuff I need from the wheel weights for proper hardening? That I can get.

Went by a tire shop to get wheel weights yesterday, I was perfectly willing to pay for them too... flatly refused.

[EDK]

I work in a power plant and sometimes go on temporary assignments to other plants in the system. The older plants still do some bearing re-casting and re-boring. After 37 years with the company and 3 different locations, I know most of the long time maintenance employees from working with them. Most visits get me either scrap lead or the babbit from the bearing work. I take a home made mould with me that makes a 3 lb lead ingot; I use the LYMAN mould to make approx 1 pound ingots of the babbit.

Casting for Cowboy Action loads in revolvers or for my BIG 50 Shiloh Sharps, I use one of the 1 pound babbit ingots and 20 pounds of cleaned scrap lead. You might want to go with a bit more tin if you're loading hotter loads. A pound of the chilled shot might help the casting because of the arsenic, etc. it contains..but you don't need a lot. Someone over on GBO used straight chilled shot, IIRC, and got boolits with a Brinnel 32 on a LEE tester. You could probably trade the shot for lead and get some boot from a shot shell reloader...that stuff has gone through the roof on prices also.

:cbpour: :redneck:

[leftiye]

If it's magnum shot only. The straight chill has only about 1% IIRC. Both have arsenic which helps. Magnum shot has about 5% antimony. This will heat treat to an unbelieveable hardness, and by itself is all you need for any bullet making.

[valathar]

Okay guys, I got lucky. I got some wheel weights from an old friend who has a small tire shop. Not a whole bunch, but maybe 10 - 15 lbs worth.

So now I'm at about 40 lbs of lead, 25 lbs of Babbit, and 10 - 15 lbs of wheel weights.

I might try 10 lbs of lead, 10 lbs of wheel weights, and 1 or 2 lbs of Babbit and see how it works.

[EDK]

10 lbs wheel weights, 10 lbs lead, NO MORE THAN 1 lb of babbit. Water drop them and they will be plenty hard--even for the rifles.

Try to get a LYMAN ingot mould for the babbit if you can. Then use one ingot for 20 lbs of pure lead. Straight wheel weights might not require any babbit if you drop them in water as you cast. Water drop all the boolits. Your 25 one pound ingots of babbit would be enough to make 500 pounds of alloy for handguns.

If you want harder alloy for rifles, figure out your percentages, blend it to suit AND keep the left over rifle mix separate from the pistol blend. At $7 a pound--or more!--you want to get the maximum usage from the tin/babbit.

My step kids borrowed some of my lead stash for weights in their cars. Sometimes it came back; other times...we have a family disagreement about whether or not it did. One sure thing is that the babbit/tin goes in my vehicle and no one else's! It is purposely put in an awkward area for access in the shed. They see it as scrap metal and no big deal; I see each ingot as $5 -to- $10.

:castmine: :Fire:

[454PB]

You may want to take a look at this web site for more info on Babbitt (two b's and two t's)

http://www.alchemyextrusions.com/babbitt/