Value of foundry type lead?

[firescout]

I've located this source for several hundred pounds of foundry type lead. The seller states it is a lead/antimony/copper/tin alloy. IIRC, it is harder than linotype metal. He wants $1/lb., but that seems a bit high. Was considering offering him $0.80/lb. for about 50 lbs. I'd think that mixing some of it with a large amount of my stick-on lead wheelweights would make for a fairly hard bullet alloy.

[snaggdit]

I recenty bought 120 # for .50 a lb. It does harden up pure or WW good. I don't know about the copper content, though. Here is a link to the alloy compositions:
http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm
Hope this helps. BTW, I found that with this much antimony and tin you have to flux a ton when smelting. If you just toss in a letter block with your pure, should be less work to flux. I was told to (and it works great) flux with crushed charcoal.

[Lloyd Smale]

I wouldnt pay that for linotype but would consider it for foundry if i knew in fact it was foundry. I guess what im saying is if it was still in block letters i would but if it were melted into igots id pay less.

[cohutt]

I processed 400lbs of monotype over the weekend and was surprised at the amount of silver oatmeal on top- I have been doing pure lead mostly for a while.
I cranked the heat and stirred/fluxed and most all of it went into the melt nicely

The first pot and then the pile and bucket of ingots (the big bricks in the back are pure or soft lead)

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m284/cohutt/smelt%20102/smelt016.jpg

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m284/cohutt/smelt%20102/smelt021.jpg

[imashooter2]

I've often wondered why folks process type metal from the letters into ingots. Seems to me that the original form is just as handy (more so since the increment sizes are smaller) and that melting it just removes value to potential buyers because they can't be sure what they're buying. Same with solder (radiator shop drippings and such excepted).

Not that many of us would plan to sell our type metal stash, but the future is never certain.

[cohutt]

That's a valid point, Imashooter.

I debated whether to ingotize it or not. I went ahead and did it Saturday after doing 600 lbs of soft and pure; the weather was nice and I was on a roll so i kept going. No plans to sell any of it, just to alloy it with my stock of pure & soft lead as I cast over the next 20 years or so>

[Jaybird62]

I just got a source of either foundary type or linotype shavings and dust. It's still in the vaccume bags. The quantites are large enough that I plan to sell some of it to offset my costs.

[firescout]

Thanks for the info, so far. I'm somewhat interested in the type metal, but not sure if $1/lb is worth it for bullet metal.

[snaggdit]

If you are looking to cast for some HV rifle loads, this is cheap for the tin/antimony to mix with pure. Pure tin is like $10 a lb. If all you are doing is pistol boolits, you can mix this 40:1. Goes a long way. Still, like I said earlier, I paid $.50/ lb, but considered that a bargain. I would offer $.75/lb and see what he says.

[hammerhead357]

cohutt, nice pot of metal. It looks to me like you have a lot of monotype in there with some foundry type and some lino. It will sweeten pure lead very well I did find that when I used an alloy like that to make lino with WW that I had trouble with the copper freezing in the spout of the casting pot. I would have to freeze the copper out of the alloy before pouring it into ingots to cast boolits with. I don't know if you will have trouble like that if you are making a softer alloy or not.
Well that was just my experince with it. I still have about 400 or so lbs of mixed foundry-monotype and several hundred lbs of lino stashed away looks like you are working on a good stock pile of lead....Wes