Lead alloy calculators

[michiganvet]

Lino will vary in composition depending on what type of printing it was intended for and how many times it has been recast. You need to cast a pure lead bullet and then your particular LT in the same mold , then compare the specific gravity of your LT to determine what you have.

[meeesterpaul]

Here is an alloy that might fit on one end of your scale and a piece of lino.

I can sell some of the letterpress type that I have. Which page should I list it on? What alloy should I make the ingots - or - do any of you want the hard stuff as is (lots of small pieces)?

[1bilmr59]

I liked this thread good info.

[ColColt]

Many moons ago I worked in a print shop part time while going to college and ran an offset press as well as an old Kluge which you had to set the type to print. I bought a passel of that stuff for 25 cents/lb and actually had so much, I still have some of it.

[hanleyfan]

why won't Adobe reader run this? the only thing I found to run this on my windows 8 computer is office excel and I am not going to pay 130.00 just to run this program. My old Vista computer ran this on adobe but not my new one.

[JWFilips]

why won't Adobe reader run this? the only thing I found to run this on my windows 8 computer is office excel and I am not going to pay 130.00 just to run this program. My old Vista computer ran this on adobe but not my new one.

No need to spend money on Bill Gates Software
Go to www.openoffice.org & down load the freeware version of Microsoft office The spread sheet app runs it flawlessly

[bangerjim]

why won't Adobe reader run this? the only thing I found to run this on my windows 8 computer is office excel and I am not going to pay 130.00 just to run this program. My old Vista computer ran this on adobe but not my new one.

Well......is IS an Excel spreadsheet and it DOES run in MS Excel......not Adobe reader.

The zip file is only because this site will not allow raw files.........only compressed.

I can even run this on my iPhone and iPad with absolutely NO problem.

bangerjim

[junkman1967]

Download open office. Its free and has a program to run excell

[Quovardis]

Guys,

I have a question on the BHN calc, rotometals (and Bumpys cals) formula states this 8.60 + ( 0.29 * %Tin ) + ( 0.92 * %Antimony)

This suggests to me that the base BHN for pure lead is 8.6 and if I use the calc with say 10lbs of lead it indeed comes up with a hardness of 8.6.

However from what I can see online and on Bumpys calc the BHN of pure lead is 5, taking this into consideration would the correct formula be: 5.00 + ( 0.29 * %Tin ) + ( 0.92 * %Antimony)?

Dont mean to pick any holes or anything and the fact that im a noob means that for sure could be missing something....

[bangerjim]

Guys,

I have a question on the BHN calc, rotometals (and Bumpys cals) formula states this 8.60 + ( 0.29 * %Tin ) + ( 0.92 * %Antimony)

This suggests to me that the base BHN for pure lead is 8.6 and if I use the calc with say 10lbs of lead it indeed comes up with a hardness of 8.6.

However from what I can see online and on Bumpys calc the BHN of pure lead is 5, taking this into consideration would the correct formula be: 5.00 + ( 0.29 * %Tin ) + ( 0.92 * %Antimony)?

Dont mean to pick any holes or anything and the fact that im a noob means that for sure could be missing something....

I think this is the best it can get!!

Try plugging just 1# in to Hard Ball or Lino or any of the alloys and the "Est. hardness" at the bottom is usually always wrong. It only works for certain alloys............ but the rest are way off.

Try 1# of PURE TIN!!!!!!!!!! O....M....G!

Using 5 in the formula REALLY makes all the others even more *****.

Use this as a SWAG. Hardness is a relative thing anyway!

bangerjim

[DK1911]

Bumpo et al:

I've worked with your calculator for the last year or so as I've scrounged for lead. I really like the tool, admire the work it took to make and I recently started trying to alloy for hardness. I am seeing some of the same differences "et al" is seeing. Rotometals has a linear equation starting at 8.6 HB. A reference on LASC has the same linear equation starting from 5 HB.
I'd like to do some experiments to look at the lower end of the Tin, Antimony concentrations. I THINK there may be higher order (squared, cubed) or even exponential equations that may fit the data better for calculations of air cooled alloys.
Has there been anyone publish (or link to) work like this here already? There's a ton of posts here. If someone's done it, I'd like to see what they found.
My thoughts: 99.9% pure lead, 100% pure tin, Rotometals superhard (30% antimony). Walk the concentrations up in 1% steps to 5% tin, 6% antimony (30 samples) and check HB at each point.

Any "als" have an opinion on this?

[Brucifer]

Thanks Bumpo, Nice. I am slowly getting a handle on your sheet. I have 1 question so far. Why when I enter the same % for a alloy in one of the Custom Alloy rows do I get a higher Brinell? Have I frilled something? Wait that 2 ??

[bumpo628]

A reference on LASC has the same linear equation starting from 5 HB.

I'm glad you are getting some use out of the calculator. Do you have a link for the LASC formula?

I have 1 question so far. Why when I enter the same % for a alloy in one of the Custom Alloy rows do I get a higher Brinell? Have I frilled something? Wait that 2 ??

You could try re-downloading it and see if the problem is still there. Otherwise, if you click on the box with the hardness on the right it should say: ="Brinell "&ROUND((8.6+(0.29*B43*100)+(0.92*C43*100)),0) on the top one and ="Brinell "&ROUND((8.6+(0.29*B44*100)+(0.92*C44*100)),0) on the bottom one. Try entering 5% tin, 5% antimony in both lines. Then try 2% tin and 6% antimony on both lines. Both recipes should calculate 15 bhn according to the formula.

[Brucifer]

The program works great. What I don't understand is why do the Customs show a BHN of 9 for 100% lead? I thought lead was BHN 5. Thanks for all your work

Bruce

[bumpo628]

The program works great. What I don't understand is why do the Customs show a BHN of 9 for 100% lead? I thought lead was BHN 5. Thanks for all your work

Bruce

The only formula I have for estimating hardness starts at about 9. So, it does not work unless the alloy is harder than that. It really only seems to be accurate if the tin and antimony percentages are both 1% or over. So, you just need to recognize the limitations of the formula when you use it. A member above mentioned another formula from LASC that sounds more accurate. I'll update the calculator with the new formula as soon as I get it.

[histed]

Bumpo - thanks for work. I'm just getting started and I was wondering what mixing pure lead and 95/5 solder would give me for hardness. Now I can play to my heart's content and at least have a good guesstimate before I start. Spreadsheets aren't really my thing - course, I remember slide rules and colored chalk as "high tech".

[tking308]

This must have been a labor of love. Thank you for your work.

[larrymac1]

bumpo, Thanks for the calculator. Quick couple of questions. When calculating for superhard do I just put the percentage under antimony? Is it possible to do a reverse calculator? Put in the lead weight and the BN hardness you want and let it calculate in reverse? Also thinking of conversion although most times it is simple, but my simple brain has a problem with it. Suppose you had 43 pounds of lead and you wanted to get a BN of 13. The reverse calculator would tell you the percentages but superhard is not marked in percentages it is marked by weight. So if the reverse calculator said you needed 5% superhard and 2.5% of tin what would be the actual weights for the 43 pounds? I can do it in 10 pound lots easily enough, which would be 1/2 pound of superhard and 1/4 pound of tin. I can do that in my pour pot but if I am smelting for the first time and I have 75# of wheel weights and want to pour the ingots with the correct amount of additives how can I calculate that? Sorry just sort of dim on math these days.

[bumpo628]

bumpo, Thanks for the calculator. Quick couple of questions. When calculating for superhard do I just put the percentage under antimony? Is it possible to do a reverse calculator? Put in the lead weight and the BN hardness you want and let it calculate in reverse? Also thinking of conversion although most times it is simple, but my simple brain has a problem with it. Suppose you had 43 pounds of lead and you wanted to get a BN of 13. The reverse calculator would tell you the percentages but superhard is not marked in percentages it is marked by weight. So if the reverse calculator said you needed 5% superhard and 2.5% of tin what would be the actual weights for the 43 pounds? I can do it in 10 pound lots easily enough, which would be 1/2 pound of superhard and 1/4 pound of tin. I can do that in my pour pot but if I am smelting for the first time and I have 75# of wheel weights and want to pour the ingots with the correct amount of additives how can I calculate that? Sorry just sort of dim on math these days.

Superhard is already on the list - it is the 12th item down from the top. You just need to put the weight in pounds in the yellow column.

For the two custom alloy rows towards the bottom, you enter the percentages of the alloy components in the five boxes (Sn, Sb, As, Cu, Ag) and the remainder of lead is filled in for you. Excel is a bit funny in that to enter 30% for example, you can type in "30" or ".3". However, to enter 0.5%, you have to type in ".005".

When trying to calculate an alloy like your example, first I enter the pure lead (43 lbs). Then I add some tin and adjust the weight until it gets around 2%. After that, add in the superhard weight and adjust until it gets to either the percentage or hardness you want. Fine tune both as needed.
For your example, I came up with the following:
43 lbs of pure lead + 1 lb of pure tin + 7 lbs of superhard = alloy with 2% tin, 4% antimony, 94% lead, and a Brinell hardness @ 13

Once you find a recipe you like: to make larger or smaller batches, just multiply or divide all the numbers in the recipe by the same number. In the example above, if you wanted a 10 lb batch (total weight) you would divide all the numbers by 5.1. You get the 5.1 by comparing the two batches total weights (51 lbs / 10 lbs = 5.1). The new recipe would be:
8.4 lbs of pure lead + 0.2 lbs of pure tin + 1.4 lbs of superhard = alloy with 2% tin, 4% antimony, 94% lead, and a Brinell hardness @ 13

For your 75 lb WW batch question, you just need to enter the known amounts and use trial and error with the weights of your additives to get what you want. There are several ways to do it depending on what you have on hand. I like to print out the recipes and put them in sheet protectors in a binder when I find one I like so I don't have to fiddle around with the numbers next time.

Finally, I really like your reverse calculator idea. I don't think I could do it for all the items on the list, but maybe I could make one that just used a few components. I think lead, tin, and superhard would be a good start. I'll give it some thought and see if I can come up with something.

[popper]

1st, reverse calculator don't think it will work. 2nd, BHN is over-rated. Too many ways to get the same number, depends on when the test is done, etc. The calculator is GREAT for getting consistent batches of alloy, experimenting with different alloys, etc.