Help need on mixing alloys

[RP]

I have never mess with alot of mixing of tin lino and lead. So heres my ? I have some lino babbit and reclaimed boolit lead I want to mix it for boolit alloy. I was told one lb of lino to around 18 lbs of my reclaimed boolits which is softer then WWs now i have babbit or tin to add to the mix. I want to make a 100lb batch up for later casting and have found it takes awhile to get a true hardness reading after casting a boolit. In a simple ratio what would a good mix be like 5 lbs lino 1 lbs tin to 90 lbs reclaimed WWs??

[grumpy one]

I have never mess with alot of mixing of tin lino and lead. So heres my ? I have some lino babbit and reclaimed boolit lead I want to mix it for boolit alloy. I was told one lb of lino to around 18 lbs of my reclaimed boolits which is softer then WWs now i have babbit or tin to add to the mix. I want to make a 100lb batch up for later casting and have found it takes awhile to get a true hardness reading after casting a boolit. In a simple ratio what would a good mix be like 5 lbs lino 1 lbs tin to 90 lbs reclaimed WWs??

If your WW are what I currently think is standard composition (0.9% tin, 2.5% antimony - which means you have separated the dead-soft stick-ons but tossed the harder stick-ons back into the mix, thus greatly increasing the tin content of the WWs) your 90 lb WW, 1 lb tin, 5 lb lino mix give an outcome of 2% tin, 3% antimony. This is a seriously good rifle bullet alloy - it will heat treat to give about 24 BHN, with very high toughness, which is desirable for hunting bullets. It has too much tin to achieve really high hardness, but that is the price you pay for getting the toughness. If you only want handgun bullets, this mix is overly exotic for all but serious magnum applications.

If you only want to shoot targets, you don't need the toughness and therefore probably don't need so much tin (though it does make casting easy). If you already have the WWs melted down and you didn't include the harder stick-ons, you will get a bit more antimony and quite a lot less tin than I have shown above.

[243winxb]

Lyman uses there #2 alloy to get the correct bullet diameter as it drops for the mould.90% lead , 5 tin, 5 antimony. To make #2 alloy, use 5 1/2 lbs wheel weight, 1lb 50/50 lead/ tin bar solder, 3 1/2 lbs pure lead.

[SciFiJim]

The age old question, What are your going to use the alloy for? What hardness are you looking to get for a finished boolit.

If you are going to make up a 100 lb batch then 90 lbs of scrap, 9 lbs of lino and 1 lb of tin would make a good mix for pistols.

ps. the two above posted while I was typing. You said that you are using range scrap that was softer than wheel weights. If that's the case then you will need to add more antimony via the use of lino, thus the 9 lbs for a 100 lb batch.

[RP]

Yes iam using reclaimed boolits which test softer than WWs I am looking for a hard alloy i can use in my rifles and mag pistols thanks for the info and ideals guys

[Echo]

Being a noobie, I must ask if 1% antimony is sufficient for hardening? Nine pounds of lino to 91 pounds of other stuff gives about 1% antimony...
And the pound of tin would develop about .00136% tin, which may or may not be sufficient for mold fill-out, depending on the amount of tin in the range scrap. I believe that I would add 1 1/2 pounds of lead-free solder to make sure you get up near 2%. Or try the above and see if it works to your satisfaction. If so, press on...

[runfiverun]

1 lb of tin to 100 lbs is 1% and is usually plenty for fill out.
and the worse he should do is 2% antimony from range scrap and the lino, water dropped should give about 14-15 bhn.
and about 9-10 air cooled..... good enough.

[WHITETAIL]

+1 on the 2%.:castmine:

[armyrat1970]

I believe anything above 3% tin is just a waste. Tin does not do much for hardness. 2% is probably right on. Antimony or tin from range scrap is just a guess. If you use Lino you have a good guess about the antimony and tin added to the mix for the alloy if using pure lead. If you get the boolits to hard you can cause more leading if you drive them to fast because you will then have the boolit skimming over the lands. Don't see any need for a BHN of above 20 for a rifle. Even less for a handgun. A BHN of 10 to 14 should do well for a handgun and 18 to 20 for a rifle. BHN of 14 to 18 should work okay for both in the pressures used.

[cajun shooter]

I use a alloy of 13-14 BHN for my shooting and it works great. The #2 is 4lbs of lino 5 lbs of lead and 1 lb of 50/50 solder. I have some alloy that checks out at 8-9 BHN and I mix 30 lbs with 15 lbs of lino to come up with my alloy of 13-14 BHN

[Slow Elk 45/70]

As stated above on the 13-14 BHN and if you water drop that alloy , it will be plenty hard for most rifle shooting.

[Leftoverdj]

Lord only knows the composition of the range scrap and the babbit. Fortunately, you don't have to be exact. I agree in general with the other guys. Mix up a batch and see what you get. It's going to be usable even if it's not really what you want. Once you know what the batch tests out to, it'll be simple enough to amend it to what you do want. If you are rich in linotype, you might want to use a little more than has been suggested. 85-15-1 would be my guess.

[243winxb]

Match the pressure(PSI) of your reload with the BHN- (Bullet's BHN x 1422 = Pounds per square inch.) Don't go over this psi. Something found on another forum. http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n420/joe1944usa/BHNAlloys.jpg

[Jim_Fleming]

very interesting table!

[armyrat1970]

Match the pressure(PSI) of your reload with the BHN- (Bullet's BHN x 1422 = Pounds per square inch.) Don't go over this psi. Something found on another forum. http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n420/joe1944usa/BHNAlloys.jpg

Very comparable to the chart listed in the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook but gives a little added info.