#2 alloy

[Mooner]

hello im new to casting and would like to know the best mixture of alloys to get to the lyman #2 alloy. Even pounds are the easiest for me but all are welcome. also i know it has a BHN of 15. If i quench them about what hardness would i achive?? Rite now im going to load for 357 9 and 40. any advice is welcome.

thanks kevin

[lwknight]

The real #2 Lyman is 5% tin and 95% lead. Quenching will have no effect.
I like the "Hardball" or 2-6-92 (tin-antimony-lead) for my pistols. No quenching required.
What do you have to work with ? We can easily figure out the ratios to get what you want
but still need to know what is available.

[Mooner]

Well I have 50 pounds pure and nothing else I have a line on ww just waiting to hear back.

[lwknight]

Sounds like you need to start scavenging.
Clip on wheel weights and anything with tin in it like pewter or solder.
There are gobs of posts on this forum about materials to look for.
Recipes come after options are acquired from scrounging or just outright buying
whatever you need from suppliers like rotometals.com or our own swapping and selling section.

[bumpo628]

Rotometals sells Lyman #2 for $2.89 / lb. Or, you could buy the tin and antimony alloys to mix with your pure lead and make your own for about half the price (assuming the pure lead was free).

Here is a recipe that uses Rotometals superhard (30% antimony, 70% lead), pure tin, and pure lead:
3.25 lbs Superhard ($4.29 / lb)
1 lb pure tin ($16.50 / lb)
15.5 lbs pure lead
That will give you an alloy with 5.06% tin, 4.94% antimony, and 90% lead.
The resulting alloy will cost $1.54 / lb as long as the pure lead was free.
If the pure lead cost about $1 per lb, then that alloy would cost you $2.33 / lb.

So, either way you can save some money making it yourself. You'll need to get the order over $99 to get free shipping from rotometals, but that is easier than you think. 12 lbs of superhard and 3 lbs of tin will get you there.

Download my alloy calculator in the link below if you want to try your own recipes.

[Mooner]

Thanks for the advice! Like I said I'm just getting into it and there's snow on the ground so this first batch of lead may have to have some things from rotometals. And I will look at that chart. Thanks again!

[Tom Myers]

The real #2 Lyman is 5% tin and 95% lead. Quenching will have no effect.
I like the "Hardball" or 2-6-92 (tin-antimony-lead) for my pistols. No quenching required.
What do you have to work with ? We can easily figure out the ratios to get what you want
but still need to know what is available.

I believe that Lyman #2 alloy is composed of 90% Lead, 5% Tin and 5% Antimony.
Water quenching Lyman #2 will make the alloy harder.

A 1/20 Tin/Lead alloy is composed of 95% Lead and 5% Tin
A 1/19 Tin Lead alloy is composed of 94.74% Lead and 5.26% Tin
Water quenching a Tin/Lead alloy will not have much effect on the hardness of the alloy.


The Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook Edition #3 suggests 2 recipes for mixing your own # 2 Alloy.

A:  
  9 pounds wheelweights 
  +                          Makes 10 pounds of # 2 Alloiy
  1 pound 50 / 50 solder

B:
  4 pounds Linotype
  1 pound 50 / 50 solder    Makes 10 pounds # 2 Alloy
  5 pounds pure lead 

Neither of these methods will produce a real Lyman # 2 Alloy





Below is a method detailed in the Precision Bullet Casting Alloy Calculator that can be used to determine the exact amounts of Linotype and Tin to add to Wheelweights with a 95.5% ~ 4.0% ~ 0.5% blend of metals that will make Lyman #2 Alloy'
Start with 10 lb of Wheelweights.
10 lb Wheelweights is made up of 9.55lb Lead + 0.05lb Tin + 0.4lb Antimony
To find the amount of Linotype and Tin to add to make #2 Alloy.
The amount of Tin in the alloy will be 0.05 lb of tin in the wheelweights + 3% Tin in the Linotype that is added
Total Tin in the finished alloy will be equal to the total Antimony in the alloy.
Now, let
L = Linotype and T = Tin and W = Wheelweights
0.11L = Linotype Antimony and 0.03L = Linotype Tin
Wt = Wheelweight Tin = 10 lbs x 0.005 = 0.05
Wa = Wheelweight Antimony = 10 lbs x 0.04 = 0.4.
So 0.11L + 0.04 Wt = ( T + L + 0.04 Wa + 0.11L - .005Wt - 0.03L) x 0.05
And There will be 5% Tin in the final Alloy
We start with 10 lbs of Tin so multiply all Ws in the equation x 10 / W
The formla is: 0.11L + 0.4 = (10 + L + 0.4 + 0.11L - 0.05 - 0.03L) x 0.05
Reduces to 0.11L + 0.4 = 0.054L + 0.5175
Finally: 0.056L = 0.1175
L = 2.098214286 lbs of Linotype to add + Tin
Linotype Tin = L x 0.03 ~ 0.629464 + Wheelweight Tin ~ 0.05 = 0.1129464 lbs
Total Antimony = L x 0.11 + Wa ~ 0.4 = 0.63080357 lbs
So, subtract 0.1129464 from 0.63080357 = 0.517857 lbs of Tin to add
10.00 lb Wheelweights + 2.0982143 lb Linotype + 0.517857 lb Tin = 12.61607 lb of #2 Alloy

10 lb WW +
2.100 lb Lino +
0.518 lb tin
= 12.618 lb of Lyman # 2 Alloy



Hope this helps

[lwknight]

Oops , my bad. Yes #2 is 5-5-90.
I guess I was thinking of 20 to 1.
Brain farts happen even to the best.

[Ole]

Well I have 50 pounds pure and nothing else I have a line on ww just waiting to hear back.

If you have 50lbs of pure, then you'll need to add 2.5lbs of tin and 2.5lbs of antimony to it and you'll end up with 55lbs of Lyman #2.

The tin would be easy, but the antimony would be tough.

What you'll need is 39lbs of your pure, 8 lbs of Rotometals superhard, and 2.5lbs of pure tin.

Should put you really close to 50lbs of Lyman #2.

[Tom Myers]

Oops , my bad. Yes #2 is 5-5-90.
I guess I was thinking of 20 to 1.
Brain farts happen even to the best.

Yep, I know whatcha mean. I had to go back and edit my post 5 times to get ride of the math errors and wrong data. And I'll betcha, if someone was to look real hard, they could come up with something I missed.

[Tom Myers]

What you'll need is 39lbs of your pure, 8 lbs of Rotometals superhard, and 2.5lbs of pure tin.
Should put you really close to 50lbs of Lyman #2.

Real close.
You can calculate out the exact amount of each alloy and metal to make #2 using Rotometals Superhard, tin and pure lead.

Superhard is 70% Lead and 30% Antimony.
Start with 10 lb of Superhard which contains 3 pounds of Antimony.
Add 3 pounds of Tin and you have 23 pounds of alloy, however it contains 23.07% each of Tin and Antimony.
Let X equal the amount of Pure lead needed to bring the 13 pounds up to a total weight that contains 5% Tin and 5% Antimony.

So:

0.05 x ( 13 + X ) = 3
0.65 + 0.05X = 3
0.05X = 3 - 0.65
0.05X = 2.35
X = 2.35 / 0.05
X = 47

Add 47 pounds of pure lead to the 13 pounds of Superhard and Tin for a total of 60 pounds of Lyman #2 alloy.

16.667% Superhard
5% Tin
78.33% Pure Lead


To make 20 pounds of Lyman #2
3 1/3 pounds of Superhard
1 pound of Tin
15 2/3 pounds of Pure Lead

Roto Metals Superhard Custom Alloy Setup



Disregard the estimate of the brinell hardness of the Superhard alloy. The range of the algorithm does not extend to 30% of Antimony.

[Mooner]

Wow lots of good info just what I was hoping for thanks guys!

[lwknight]

You don't have to burn off the non stickem if you don't mind some bubbling and fizzing till it wears off.
Anyway most new pans make fugly ingots at first. Some don't care but , I like mine smooth.

[turmech]

To get your pure to consistancy of WW you could add around 10 lbs of linotype. Most would consider WW to be adaquate for the needs you described. I would only buy linotype in it original form unless I trusted the sorce.