Hardness vs. Mass

[Johnw...ski]

I have always tried to mix my bullet metal so it would pour bullets the same weight or maybe a bit lighter than what the design weight of the mold is.
My thinking has been that if it is slightly lighter it is probably harder.

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

I am not sure I want to spend fourty bucks for a Lee hardness tester if I don't really need it.

John

[405]

Generally I'd say (with some SWAG) that most less dense material to alloy with lead like the common alloying elements of antimony, tin, etc.... hence "harder" alloy.... would yield a less dense (less mass per volume) material.

The caveat skew to the rule may be temperature, crystalline structure of the alloy and the shapes of molecular bonds of the alloy.... especially with unusual or unknown alloy elements???

Then, to fine tune the density and hardness I've heard that gold works great!
:mrgreen:

[XBT]

I cast using pure lead, wheelweights, and linotype, or combinations of these depending on the hardness I want.

Using these alloys your thinking is correct. Lighter = harder, heaver = softer.

[runfiverun]

yep the stuff that you mix in the lead weighs less than the lead[unless you use gold etc]
so the more in there the less it weighs and the harder it is up to a point
but i dont think i will find out how expensive i can make them cost