Lead that expands?

[Rio]

I molded 40 bullets, lubed and sized 2 weeks ago. Went to shoot today and was having trouble loading them. When I checked the diameter the bullets had grown .02. What would cause that?

[M-Tecs]

.002" maybe but not .020"

[Rio]

Yep missed a 0 .002

[mfraser264]

Suspect some low melt elements are mixed in. Most every alloy I have worked with shrinks when it solidifies. I had heard that some low melt specialty alloys expand when they solidify, fusible alloys. Need to dig into the books and see what I can find. Take a look at this link http://www.csalloys.com/

[243winxb]

bismuth alloys.

[runfiverun]

antimony.

[Rio]

Will skimming do any good?

[Rio]

Will skimming do anything to help?

[runfiverun]

it's a natural thing.
antimony/bismuth makes them grow a bit.
copper will allow it to happen too, it's a slower process but they do get bigger.
just give them time to settle down then size them, you'll probably see some spring back from the sizer too.

[mfraser264]

Rio,

Skimming will not help the situation. As the metals are in solution or somewhat equally mixed and distributed, specific elements will not separate and float tho the top, alloys do not work that way, especially when in this particular mixture. You may be able to dilute the alloy and reduce the percentage of expanding alloys. Alloys are easy to create and near impossible to separate back into the individual metals. That is why the gold and platinum (called Noble metals) can be recovered once in an alloy, they will melt and become part of an alloy but separate easily. When I was in the Aerospace casting industry we used platinum in small amounts. We then collected the parts we cutoff that were rich in platinum and sent them out for refining. A 55 gallon drum could hit 6 digits in checks back to us.

[Rio]

Ok thanks

[garrisonjoe]

Cerrosafe alloy. At some times in it's lifetime-after-solidifying, it's larger than cast. Bismuth acts that way, if I remember right.

GJ

[masscaster]

I like to leave my Hard Cast Boolits sit in an unsealed container for 2-4 weeks before Luber Sizing. Since a lot of us here, myself included, use reclaimed Lead. There's no tellng what's really in some of it.
Also, Water quenching Large Calibers such as heavy 45/70 boolits and up will retain moisture until fully/completely dried. This can also cause some expansion. A heat lamp and cookie sheet usually does the trick.
Jeff