Lyman #2 from Wheel Weights

[oldrodder]

I read somewhere that there is a recipe for making #2 Alloy from a combination of wheelweights, pure lead and 50/50 bar solder. I could be wrong about the ingredients!
Anybody here know the proportions?
Thanks for the help,
Mike

[Screwbolts]

Yes I do, 9 lbs of ww, and 1 lbs of 50/50 is one of them .


Ken

[Screwbolts]

One of the recipes that uses Pure PB is:

4 pounds of Lino
1 pound of 50/50
5 pounds of Pure PB



Laus Deo,
Ken

[runfiverun]

you have to add antimony to ww's to make #2.
you can try to make it without it.
not knowing how much antimony is really in the ww's you're using is gonna slow things down a bit too.

[blackbike]

Where did you read that?

2#s lino
5#s WW
tin=1.5%,,antimony=6.3%,, lead+92.2%
YWWMF

[Screwbolts]

Blackbike, whom is your question directed to?

[Screwbolts]

R5R, yes, without knowing the exact % of alloy make up of the particular WW your holding. Antimony and tin may be needed to get the exact same percentages of Lyman #2. I posted what I remembered as what the old 3rd edition of the Lyman manual has in print.

I just dug it out to check and that is what they printed at the time of the printing, Page 57. YMMV My copy is from the 4th printing August of 1987.

Ken

[Kull]

From the stuff you listed....wheel weights, pure lead and 50/50 solder you can't make Lyman #2.

[runfiverun]

back in the day [tee hee]
ww's were pretty standard in their make-up they used to have about 4% antimony as a standard [average],before that they were @ 7%.
nowdays 3% is more likely.

now the lino-ww's and adding 2% more tin to a similar recipe in post #5 is how I make an approximate 4/6/90 alloy.
it comes out pretty consistent [as far as average weight] as cutting lino in half and adding 2% more tin.
using ww's is really guessing, the best we can do is to make our ww alloy batches as big as possible to have the most consistency as possible.

[Taylor]

L.A.S.C. has those recipes.

[milrifle]

I tried the 9 lbs of COWW and 1 lb of 50/50 solder a while back and got an air cooled hardness in the neighborhood of 11, as I recall. Far from the 15 I was so naively anticipating. I had several tell me that wheel weights ain't what they used to be. Guess few things are.

Perhaps they would have eventually age hardened to 15? I don't know, but they didn't get there in the 2 weeks that many suggest for waiting to shoot air cooled. Maybe that's why others suggest 6 months and longer?

[Case Stuffer]

Go here

http://www.rotometals.com/Bullet-Casting-Alloys-s/5.htm

Many common alloys listed with thier percentages.

Lyman #2is a old standard but depending on your needs / inteended purposes contains over twice as much tin as necessary for good casting. Since tin just happens to be the most expensive ingredent there are better alloys for most applications. Hardball(2-6-92) is the alloy used by a great many commerical casters .

One of several great threads here

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...or-Handgunners

[freebullet]

Hello I thought this link may provide useful info. Being new to casting it helped me a great deal in formulating a good starting point. http://www.lasc.us/castbulletnotes.htm

[Defcon-One]

Lyman #2 is (5% Sn, 5% Sb, 90% Pb). You can't get to 5% Antimony with wheelweights, pure lead and 50/50 bar solder without adding Linotype or Superhard to the mix!

Here's what I use:

Lyman #2 Alloy (5/5/90):

Option #1:

20.75 lbs. - Linotype
3.32 lbs. - 50/50 Solder
25.75 lbs. - Pure Lead

Option #2:

12.35 lbs. – Linotype
3.8 lbs. - 50/50 Solder
33.7 lbs. - Clip-On WW

But my favorite is:

11.20 lbs. – Linotype
3.05 lbs. - 50/50 Solder
31.5 lbs. Isotope lead (One Large core @ 1, 3, 96)

If you have the large Isotope core, go that route. If not, then do the Pure Lead one because there is no Arsenic in those mixes. If you can't do either of those then try option #2 and you'll be as close as you can get with COWWs which do contain Arsenic!

Note: I like big batches for consistancy and these make about 45-50 lbs. at a time. Obviously, You can divide these numbers by 2, 3 or 4 to get a smaller batch.

[ubetcha]

Lyman cast bullet book 3rd edition
#1 version
9lbs ww
1- 1lb 50/50 solder bar
equals 10lbs Lyman #2
#2 version
4lbs lino
1-1lb 50/50 solder bar
5lbs pure lead
equals 10lbs Lyman #2


if low on BHN may try adding some chilled shot and heat treat.My understanding is that the chilled shot has some traces of arsenic and antomony which is required for heat treating

[Defcon-One]

Yeah, but they won't work!

#1 version:

9 lbs. COWW
1 lb. 50/50 solder bar

Equals 10 lbs. of an alloy containing 5.26% SN, 2.70% Sb, 92.04% PB. Light on Antimony, and not Lyman #2! This also has a bit of Arsenic and copper in it, which I ignored!

#2 version:

4 lbs. Linotype
1 lb. 50/50 solder bar
5 lbs. pure lead

Equals 10 lbs. of an alloy containing 6.6% SN, 4.8% Sb, 88.6% PB. Closer, but still not Lyman #2! Also, a waste of Tin.


They also say that Linotype is 3% Tin, 11% Antimony and 86% Lead, but it is usually assumed to be 4% Tin, 12% Antimony and 84% Lead and those are the numbers that I use.

[runfiverun]

i'm closer to defcon-1's #2 mix
I like to make sure I have less tin than antimony.
so I bump the numbers a click 35 lbs ww's and 13 lbs lino and 1.5 lbs of tin.
i'm shooting for closer to 4/6 though just to make sure.
I usually up the batch size to about three times that much.