making shot with pure lead

[skywalker]

hi every one new to this site a world of information as avialable quite a blessing for us tinkers my problem is that i have received a set of shot drippers from mr james stewart he says not to use pure lead i have approximately a ton available wheel weights are almost impossible to get here in s. al. the battery people pick them all up how can i mix this lead to run through these drippers thanks skywalker

[heathydee]

I have used pure lead ; usually scrap lead from roofs , for years . The resulting shot however is very soft and may not be suitable for the purpose you desire. I use my shot exclusively for skeet shooting and have noticed no adverse results in the last 15 years. Mr Stewart's recommendation may be because of the softness issue or perhaps to do with the heating potential of your machine . I believe (although I am happy to be coorected) that pure lead requires a higher temperature to melt than an alloy of lead .
I would go ahead and try it and see what results you get . Best of luck .

[skywalker]

heathydee thanks for the reply. i am trying to make #9 shot do you know if lino type would harden the lead? if so what ratio would i use # per hundred weight?

[Sitsinhedges]

I use 3 parts pure lead to 1 part lino and testing suggests this equates to about 3%antimony. Use it at 2-1 for really hard shot.

HTH
Andy

[schutzen]

If you have a ton of wheel weights, use them. Straight wheel weights make good shot from my Littleton.

[Boz330]

You might try adding tin to it.

Bob

[skywalker]

hey fellows thanks for the help. i will give your suggestions a try as soon as i get this equipment up and running

[RP]

the softer the lead the bigger the shot the harder the lead the smaller the shot. Nozzles for 9 will drop lets say 7 1/2 with pure or soft and 9s with WWs thats what I have found with my shot making. I use reclaimed boolits to make most of my shot and it works good.

[shotman]

I second ricky p also watch for the zinc ww they will make a big time mess in the drippers. If you buy lead. watch what you melt . If you buy off feebay dont buy anything but raw ww. If it is in ingots dont use it in a shot maker. Spray your shotmaker and drippers with Kroil before you use it

[crowbeaner]

I made a bunch of super hard shot using 50/50 pure and linotype; the resulting shot has 7% antimony and will break your teeth. Pure lead shot will drop larger than the specified size from the Littleton; it also is not as good for high speed loads such as heavy field shells require. I'd mix 2 parts pure to one part lino and keep the melt temp as close to the same as is possible. I used a Lyman Mag 20 pot as an auxiliary source of lead to keep the level in the ladle up and keep the melt temp regulated. USE PURE ANTIFREEZE! Diluted concentrations won't work; the shot flattens out and is useless.

[acemedic13]

I am going to order a stewart shot maker the first of the year. I have not received any info from them yet. I have not recieived any info back from littleton either. SOOOOOOOOooooo I thought I would ask you men. Does the shot maker melt the lead in the ladle or, do you have to pre-melt it and pour it in there yourself? Thanks........ACE...

[Sitsinhedges]

I am going to order a stewart shot maker the first of the year. I have not received any info from them yet. I have not recieived any info back from littleton either. SOOOOOOOOooooo I thought I would ask you men. Does the shot maker melt the lead in the ladle or, do you have to pre-melt it and pour it in there yourself? Thanks........ACE...

It melts it in the ladle, there is no need to premelt. All you need to supply is a catch tank and coolant, then a few accessories to process the shot once made.

[acemedic13]

Thank you for the info. I assumed that....but we know what that leads to.....

[686]

give him a call, nice man to talk to.

[randyrat]

I have a home made shot maker and have not had time to refine it yet. now it's tooooo cold to play with it.

i used a 6" channel bean,closed off both ends tilted it forward. Bought some nozzles and drillled and put them in the front.
[INDENT] The only shot i made so far was some footballs...I need help. later in the spring i'll have to tinker with it some more. From what i understand under 50degs it won't make shot. I used a turkey burner(high output) for the heat source just under the channel. I was able to make a hand full of decent shot, so i know i'm not too far from making more.
[INDENT] What is a better source of heat to use?

[Sitsinhedges]

Just to clarify, when you Americans describe something to be football shaped do you mean American football, ie Rugby ball shaped oval, or English soccer football round but with facets like the leather patches that make up the ball when stitched together?

Cheers
Andy

[randyrat]

Let me clarify. they looked like little rat turds with pointy ends on each side. LOL

[Sitsinhedges]

Let me clarify. they looked like little rat turds with pointy ends on each side. LOL

Thanks for that.... I think :lol:

FWIW, I believe electric cooker elements and controllers are the way to go with shotmaking, much more controllable and safe, esp when a lot of the coolants are potentially flammable

[DLCTEX]

If an American says football he means football. If he's talking about soccer he'll say soccer ball. Few American men talk about soccer.

[Russel Nash]

And even fewer American men talk about rugby... I reckon...

sitsinhedges wrote:



FWIW, I believe electric cooker elements and controllers are the way to go with shotmaking, much more controllable and safe, esp when a lot of the coolants are potentially flammable

BINGO!

We have a winner!

I think I have seen the pics of your set up in the other forum. I like the digital thermometer setup, touching the lip.

I have a thermometer too, but the darn thing is in cecius...arrggh... I have to multiply that by 1.8 and then add 32 for it to make any sense to me, in Fahrenheit.

I think about the only propane fired shotmaking setup I have seen that I like is the one by "heathydee", the guy from New Zealand.

He even made his own burner out of tube steel.

Here in the States, this is a good time to make birdshot, indoors. Using propane indoors, like in a basement is probably a good way to die from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Not to mention the flammability of some of the coolants you guys are using.

I didn't know this, but antifreeze is flammable. Eeeekk....!!!

[Russel Nash]

for now, the spot lead price keeps dropping, so the scrap price for wheelweights keeps dropping.

If it keeps going like that, some of these commercial recyclers aren't gonna be making any money going around to the national franchise tire chains to pick up lead wheelweights.

So hopefully, more wheelweights either picked up for free or cheaper for the rest of us.

:mrgreen:

Well, at least until China starts sucking up the lead for their electric (battery) powered cars.

[acemedic13]

There was a member from Austraila who posted his shot making contraption. It was really cool. I cant' remember the exact post. If you search the threads you can come up with it. He gave a blow by blow on the homemade version. Was a simple and effective (looking) machine.

[heathydee]

I posted about my shotmaker in a thread entitled " gonna build a shotmaker "in this forum about 3 or 4 pages back . Best of luck with it.

[Sitsinhedges]

Think this might be the one

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=27239&highlight=shotmaster+shotmaker

[Paul Eagen]

Does anyone know how to control these heating elements that you can get out of an old stove. On the ones that I have taken apart the wires that come from the burner elements go to a circuit board, then to the control knobs. I'm thinking that there has got to be an easier way to control them, without the circuit board, maybe a voltage regulator. Any ideas

[Russel Nash]

@Paul Eagen....

You can do a search of my old posts...

Methinks the cheapest solution would be to pull the guts out of an old, OLD electric stove or oven.

That might take a trip to a junk yard.

Or a call to a mom and pop style appliance store to ask them what they do with the old stoves/ovens when they deliver a brand new one.

You can do a search of my threads.

I started one recently about pics of the innards of the RCBS Pro Melt.

When I called RCBS, they said that the temperature controller on the Pro Melt was $42.

Granted, with Christmas, the New Year, and Obama's inaugration coming, the phone at RCBS has been ringing off the hook, so I haven't been able to get through.

What I would like to know is if the RCBS Pro Melt controller also includes the thermocouple.

Somewhere in one of my threads somebody posted links to a digital temperature controller and a stainless shielded thermocouple.

So maybe for about 60 bucks you could have a programmable temperature controller.

It's kinda risky, but you can wire the element directly. It's not the safest thing.

Depending on how quickly your shotmaker looses heat, you might be able to find a balance that way. Which would be more hit and miss and trial and error. Which is kind of a pain with shotmakers.