Lead Alloy Combo Check

[BigBore45]

I have used wheel weights to cut pure lead but i am running out of them and cannot find any around my area so i thought i would give this a go.


I was gonna go 20lb pure lead---20lb magnum lead shot----1lb 95/5 solder

If i did my weight and figures right the above combo should yield

2.5% antimony---2.5% Tin----------95% lead

the antimony figure is off the shot bag at 5% so cut in half with my mix.

so that should drop close to electrotype lead around 12 BHN with a trace of Arsenic of course from the shot. so should be able to heat treat +1-3 BHN with the antimony and arsenic.

If anyone disagrees i would like to know before i get to it.
Thanks everyone

[Quickdraw4u]

Your math is correct! The lead shot is a great idea! Let us know how this works as far as mold filling and how much the heat treating/ time changes your boolit size. How much would it cost to make this mixture if you had to buy all the components today?

[BigBore45]

i dunno the cost today i got 300lbs pure lead for $.80/lb and though that was a good price around my area. i have 50lbs of # 7 1/2 size magnum shot that has been sitting by the reloading bench for a couple years i got it cheap somewhere, cant remember. I never load light shot i just buy the cheap stuff at walmart. I just load my pheasant loads,buckshot, and slugs.

gonna have to order super hard metal from roto metals to cut my pure lead. cant find wheel weight lead anymore.

[runfiverun]

it should work.
you'll have a mess of graphite to deal with, I'd clean the alloy up really well before I mixed it and for sure before adding the Tin.
personally I wouldn't add that much tin, and your gonna get more like 18-20 bhn just by water dropping from the mold.
by dropping the tin amount i's bet you could get 25 bhn or more with a proper heat treatment.

anyway.
I'd clean the shot and make ingots from it before I pursued this any further.

[BigBore45]

should i change my ratio then. i want around 10-12 bhn. its mostly for 45 acp and some 45 colt around 800-900 FPS

[BigBore45]

was also contemplating 1.5oz 95/5 solder to 4 lb pure lead. i think that is roughly 40:1 this could not be water quenched though. not a big deal

[OS OK]

Have you tried the lead alloy calculator provided by a member here in the forum…Lead Alloy Calculators 020611.zip (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=29267&d=1297031096) …this is not the latest version, you can look around and find it easily enough. I like it, easy to use and you can monkey with the input weights to get exactly the percentages you want. Beats doing calculations by hand.

OS OK

[BigBore45]

If i did this right on the calc. 1 lb shot @ 5% antimony- 3 lbs pure lead- 1:80 mix with 95/5 solder . should yield 10.1 BHN

[BigBore45]

How does this look?

80:1 lead-/-95/5 solder .............1.17% tin---.06% antimony-----98.8% lead

mix that in at 4:1 above mix 4lb/1lb magnum shot 5% antimony.............. ---95% lead---- trace of arsenic.


final lead alloy:
Mixed Alloy
Tin = 0.94%
Antimony = 1.05%
Lead = 98.0%
Weight (lbs) = 5

the calculator gave me 9.8 BHN with ability to water quench if desired. __________________

[runfiverun]

that looks good, you don't need a ton of hardness to poke boolits out of a 45.
I generally figure about half again for water dropping from the mold.
I like to wait about a month for everything to settle down before I use them if I quench cool.
the 3-1 should equal ww's and soft 50-50 which works pretty well.
if your getting 452 or a titch bigger from the mold then you should be good to go.

[quilbilly]

I am doing my alloys much the same at 60% pure, 36% chilled birdshot, and then I add a couple pure tin fishermen's splitshot (size 7 ). That alloy works well in both my rifles as well as handguns plus expands well in terminal ballistics tests.

[PBaholic]

If you have a bathroom scale, a drill press and a micrometer, you can measure the Brinell Hardness easily.

166678

The point needs to be 1/4" round, like a ball bearing. Brinell actually created this standard using a 7/16" ball bearing.

You just apply 200 pounds of force through the drill press into the lead, and measure the diameter of the indentation. The larger the indent, the softer the material. The force is not critical, so +/- 10 pounds doesn't change much.

I even made a point, and put it into a file handle. If I press as hard as I can it's around 200 lbs. I use this at the junkyard to see how hard the lead he has is.

[runfiverun]

that method is the principle that lee's hardness thingy works on.
I have seen some just put a ball bearing in their press and hang a 40 lb weight off the handle then measure the dent.