Using wheel weights

[leadchucker]

Hi Boolit dudes, can you guys help me out with using wheel weights to make boolits. So far l have melted down some clip on WW in an old aluminium sausepan and made some ingots.
l must say the end product looks like sh1t and when tested with a Lee hardness tester could only manage around 8BRN.
l thought WW were supposed to be around 11-12 BRN
Any hints or tips would be very handy .
thanks John

[BulletFactory]

The BHN can vary a bit, depending mostly on how many stick on weights you have. Set them aside, pure lead is a handy thing to have around.

[44man]

Hi Boolit dudes, can you guys help me out with using wheel weights to make boolits. So far l have melted down some clip on WW in an old aluminium sausepan and made some ingots.
l must say the end product looks like sh1t and when tested with a Lee hardness tester could only manage around 8BRN.
l thought WW were supposed to be around 11-12 BRN
Any hints or tips would be very handy .
thanks John

First, before you do anything else---GET RID OF THE ALUMINUM PAN!
It can melt and dump everything.
The metal needs to age a while before testing hardness, it will harden and expand.

[bumpo628]

Please post a picture of the object you tested. It might help some of the gurus arounf here help you out.

[jdbark1952]

I also recently got a bucket of WW, I have separated out all the iron and zinc ones I could find. I have not yet started melting them, I have a stainless steel pan I intend to use for that on a gas burner.

Yesterday I was reading here that the stick on WW are pure lead, and should only be used for black powder application. I'm guessing that is what Leadchucker melted down, I'm curious about how to make them OK to use for my 357 and 45LC. Or alternatively, what is a good use of the pure lead.

Sorry about the newbie questions, I did do a search and there is just so much info here it is hard to find exactly what you are looking for when the forest gets in the way of my stupidity.

[kelbro]

You CAN shoot near pure lead with a little tin added at surprising (to me) velocities but I would recommend a little harder alloy for someone just starting out.

[sisiphunter]

Keep your lead for hunting boolits. i mix a bit with my ww to soften it a bit, so you get good expansion and minimal fracturing of the boolit.

Also yes the ww alloy will harden as it ages a bit, try it in a week then in two weeks, see what difference you get. Also for general usage pistol boolits I generally cast with a mold that is proper sized when dropped from the mold, then I drop the boolits from the mold into cold water to harden them....Just make sure your water pail is not right beside your furnace, Water into lead is not a good thing. I usually use a towel draped slightly into the water to reduce splashing.

[bumpo628]

what is a good use of the pure lead.

A lot of people mix pure lead and clip on WW in a 50/50 ratio.
You have to add a little tin or solder to get the alloy to fill out the mold properly.
You want the tin % to be between 0.5% and 2%, depending on the mold.

[jdbark1952]

Thanks,

So if you can shoot the clip on weights Ok, but can have a 50/50 mixture clip on/stick on, but it needs some tin or solder, could you achieve the same result with a 75/25 ratio and not need the tin or solder?

The solder, do you use solid rosin flux or hollow acid core. And do you have an idea about a ratio there, ounces of solder and pounds of lead mixture.

[fredj338]

It's tough to get a good BHN reading on an ingot surface. I can assure you, clip ww do go around 12BHN after a few days. I am quite happy shooting 50/50 clip ww/lead for low pressure rounds like 38sp, 45acp & 45-70. Little to no tin is needed to get good fillout in most molds, but YMMV. Tin from Rotometals is economical vs most solder I have priced in a store. Adding 1% tin can make casting really easy though.

[gray wolf]

First, before you do anything else---GET RID OF THE ALUMINUM PAN!

First lets read that quote again, Aluminum can fail on you at any time.
It's not a joke. Calling us bullet dudes is a joke, scared for life is not.
Second when you Hi-jack a thread it's hard to give the OP a fair shot at his answer.

could you achieve the same result with a 75/25 ratio and not need the tin or solder?

Tin is added to increase the fluidity of the lead which can help with fill out in your mold.
WW have a small amount of Tin, lead does not.
As a new caster there are many reasons why you may not get good fill out, or wrinkled
bullets, hot spots or frosted bullets. The addition of tin does not make up for other casting errors, or turn your metal into a magic alloy. So don't use it as a band aid, plus it's costly.
1.6 Oz. of tin added to 10# of metal should be close to 1% added tin.
Added because WW have a little tin in them to begin with. So you would be adding 1% extra tin if your metal has any tin to begin with.

OK to use for my 357 and 45LC. Or alternatively, what is a good use of the pure lead.

Trade it for WW,-- mix it with WW,-- or some folks use pure with the addition of tin at different ratios in order to harden there bullet to suite the needs of there particular rifle or pistol.
Low pressure rounds do not need to be water dropped. Hard cast is for when hard cast is needed, and can be a detriment to some calibers.
Slug your bores and achieve proper bullet fit, .001 / .002 over bore size.
You may consider reading the Lyman cast bullet book as it will answer many of these questions.

Sam

[songdog53]

When casting for 357 i use ww and add a bit of nickel Babbitt to it and makes for hard bullet but not too hard to preform well. Course if add enough Babbitt will never mushroom.

[leadchucker]

Thanks for the helpfull info gentlemen.
Will try a 50 / 50 mix of WW and pb
Have retired aluminium pan and replaced with stainless steel.Thanks for that tip.
happy casting
John

[leadchucker]

[IMG][IMG][I[IMG]<a href="http://s1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa450/bearman3/?action=view&amp;current=IMGP0562.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa450/bearman3/IMGP0562.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>[/IMG]MG]http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa450/bearman3/IMGP0562.jpg[/IMG]
WW were used only.
Lee hardness tester still gives 70{its been a few weeks}since casting.

[tryNto]

Fixed your Pic for you...

[leadchucker]

Thanks TryNto

[leadchucker]

Just melted up another batch of WW today . Did a hardness test and came up with 80. l quess it will harden over the next few days to at least 70.
l find the whole process of melting down WW pretty messy.Is this part of the deal ?
Do l need to toughen up?

[RobS]

Age hardening of WW alloy takes a week to two weeks and is pretty stable from that point. This is also to note when casting boolits, do yourself a favor and let them age harden before loading them so your cartridge case doesn't swage down on the base of the boolit making your pefectly sized boolit undersized.

Welcome to the forum!!!

[leadchucker]

Age hardening of WW alloy takes a week to two weeks and is pretty stable from that point. This is also to note when casting boolits, do yourself a favor and let them age harden before loading them so your cartridge case doesn't swage down on the base of the boolit making your pefectly sized boolit undersized.

Welcome to the forum!!!

Didn't know they did that, thanks for the info.

[XWrench3]

I USED to melt everything together when i first started smelting also. then i found out (at least around here) how hard it is to actually get soft lead. now i save out anything i think might be soft, and check it before i melt it down with clip on w.w.'s. i figured that for handgun applications, a little softer would be better. but after shooting a few thousand of them, i can tell you straight air cooled wheel weights function just fine in handguns. as for what you cast looking like scrap, adding some tin (solder) to the mix will help out a lot. also, if you are NOT getting the mold hot, that will also mess things up! a cool mold will always make ugly boolits!