I have some hardball alloy in 5 pound chunks basically setup like plumbers lead.

I have some hardball lead in 5 pound chunks setup like the plumbers lead. Cut off with a flooring chisel as how many lbs you need. Must be about 125 pounds here. Plus about 100lbs of lead solder 60-40 and pure tin in what I suspect 2 lb bars. Most of what I have cast over these last few years will be used up shortly. And up have been mostly casting bullets from wheel weights plus 2%. I do have about 500 to 1000 lbs in roofing lead which I was going to use if I ever got into shooting black powder.I know the hardball can be diluted at least 50-50 with a little tin. My cast iron dutch oven holds approximately 100 pounds safely. Any suggestions on how to process all this stuff into a usable alloy. My velocities are around 1600 feet per second and prefer using gas checks.The tin and solder are in bar form but the lead sheathing is in thick sheets 1/8".I have what is a splicer's knife and is used with a hammer. I have an old UPS scale for weighing.
Any assistance will be greatly appreciated. Frank

Me personally i keep all the various odd ball sources in 2 or 5 pound ingots. 5 pound ingots for my base alloy (range scraps) and 2lb ingots for every thing else. Then i have these wooden creates i bought from the craft store for 10 bucks each. I affixed placards to the front of each crate that has the lead source and aproximate average BHN. So one creat for pure, one crate for Range Scraps and last crate for wheel weights. Range scraps are my base alloy that i use to make everything else.

For my pot sweeteners like pewter. I use a little mini muffin pan to make 2oz coin sized ingots that go into large pickle jar labeled with the source. Each coin gets weighed and labeled with the weight.

If i ever get some hard ball that would go into 2lb ingots.

I like to use a simple mixing cross for mixing my alloy. I used a Lee hardness tester to to figure out my alloys BHN and then i know what my target BHNs are from experience and purpose. The mixing cross is only good for mixing 2 different alloys. If you are mixing more than then i would suggest using the excel spread sheet.

When i get back home I have new ingot molds waiting on me. I am over seas at the moment. I got in on one of the group buys and it has the alloys in the front of the bar so you can stamp it to identify the alloy incase they get mixed. So i will probably converting all those ingots over to my new ingots. Still keeping them separated thouh.

I would just process it all into 2 lb ingots. Keep the ingots separate. You never know when you might need to trade. If you must you could always use the mixing cross to mix up some 12 BHN alloy with the hard ball and pure. Then add 2%tin. Say a batch of 200 lbs at a time. Thats prettt close to about normal wheel weight alloy that you mostly use.

I’d mix 10lbs of hardball with 10lbs of roofing lead and see how it fills a mold, add 60/40 if you need better fill. Once it works, scale it up to 100lb batches and make ingots.

There are calculators that will help you be more precise, someone will be along with a link momentarily.

For the most KISS? trade the more valuable alloy for wheel weights, keep tin to sweeten the pot.

if you want close to coww +2% tin.cut the hardball 50/50 with pure +1% tin will be close enought to the alloy you are use to.from the testing i see from BNE coww average about 3% sb and .5%sn.the hardball cut 50/50 +1% sn would be 3% sb 2%sn eazy enough

Funny story. Our old range used to have a lot of handgun shooters who used store bought hard cast bullets especially 45 auto. So when they had their monthly high power matches they closed the pistol range. So once a month I'd mine the pistol berm. All the 45 bullets were identical and they got tossed in their own bucket. Have close to 100 lbs stashed away.Was looking to convert the hardball alloy with pure lead and some tin just sort of like the wheel weight with 2% I've been using for years. You've given me some great ideas but that will have to wait. Hot as heck down here and frequent t-storms. Thanks again. Frank

spread sheet that lets you plug in alloy and weight of it and it calculates the final alloy percentages and the approx. BHN http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...oy-calculators

If you don't have MS Office with Excel you can download the free and open source Open Office Calc which will also open and run the calculator. https://www.openoffice.org/product/calc.html

Tip of the hat to bumpo and the most excellent lead alloy calculator! Lets you play with adding more of this or less of that to instantly see what the final alloy will be. I generally plug in 70 pounds of some basic ingredient such as COWW or plain lead. Then start adding "sweetener" until the results are what I want for an alloy. Make a 70 to 100 pound batch and am a happy caster for a good while to come.

In process engineering there is sometimes what is called a size reduction step. I have used a plain old hatchet to chop up blocks of pure lead; it doesn't hurt the tool at all, and is fairly quick.
Wayne

Those ingots look like a square 4 sided pyramid with the top cut off. And are attached altogether. Probably use a saw to cut them up and weigh them on a old ups scale. Frank

Did you get the hardball ingots from a caster who poured them himself? I've never seen hardball in ingots like plumbers lead.

If you use just the one alloy, I'd do what's already recommended above: mix 1:1 with pure to get 96-3-1, adding tin to taste, in fairly large batches for consistency, and keep a good portion, maybe even a majority, in reserve in case you want to sell or trade or mix something different.

If you have a way of catching the chips, a dual bladed circular saw makes quick work of sheet lead. I've cut up to 1/2" thick with no problem using a HF unit.

Used to live in NYC and remember buying them from a gunshop in New Jersey. UPS would always say what you got in there lead. I'd always answer yes heck wasn't lying. I have a 5 gallon bucket full of melted down 45 auto hard cast commercial bullets in ingots I scrounged from out pistol range berm. Frank

Well, if it quacks, waddles and swims like a duck, maybe it doesn't have to look like one.

Or maybe I just haven't seen enough ducks!