Nickle babbit from American smelting

[Eric H]

Hi everyone, I haven't been on here in a couple years do to a bad accident. But I'm back to getting around and back to casting.
Any how, I got a few bars of babbit from a buddy of mine.
Two of them say nickle babbit, three just say babbit, they measure the same hardness and weight as the nickle. Then two more five pounders that look like they are made to break off in one pound chunks. Same hardness. The ratios I have been able to find on all of them are around the same .
90-92 tin 5-7 antimony 4 + or - copper .35 lead and arcenic.
Any how, I have been casting pistol bullets with my range scrap lead. I was figuring to start my 30-06 now that I have some better material to work with. I also traded for 100 lb. Of lino type.
I know I could find all kinds of information looking things up. But then miss out on the discussion. I was wondering realistically. How much if any off this babbit I will use.
I have more lino type and a couple of these bars coming. I cast around 1000 of each is to a year . 9mm 40 sw 45 acp 357 mag. I will probably do 500 30-06.

Thankyou for any info you could give me.

[Tom W.]

The nickel babbitt makes hard and slightly lighter boolits. I used to get it from work ( honestly from the distributor ) and used a lot. You'd be better served using it as a source of tin, mixing it w/ COWW. I wish I had saved some.

[runfiverun]

1 to 1-1/2% in your range scrap will make good boolits no problem.
water drop for your rifle.

[Eric H]

Thanks, was going to try and work up a nice bullet for my 30-06. I figured on mixing with it mostly. Hate to waste tin by over doing it. I also have a little bit of linotype. Just haven't been able to pull off a good rifle slug yet.
I have two lee 180 grain molds. One in a flat point the other with a round point. Looking forward to actually making some hard enough to not lead up. I have a chronograph now to.
Now it's time to cast and have some fun.

[HangFireW8]

Thanks, was going to try and work up a nice bullet for my 30-06. I figured on mixing with it mostly. Hate to waste tin by over doing it. I also have a little bit of linotype. Just haven't been able to pull off a good rifle slug yet.
I have two lee 180 grain molds. One in a flat point the other with a round point. Looking forward to actually making some hard enough to not lead up. I have a chronograph now to.
Now it's time to cast and have some fun.

Welcome back, and sorry to hear about your setback.

Chances are good that hardness is not your leading problem. Please describe the rifle and your efforts so far.

[Eric H]

Well it had to go on the shelf couple years back. But I'm taking up where I stoped. It's a savage model 110. I had originally cast a handful of 180 grains sized and gas checked with the lee sizing die. Usein some Comercial lube I got from here. Can't remember brand , it is purple is all I remember. I would flood coat and use my home made cooking cutter. I didn't notice any leading originally. I had been doing reduced loads with unique.
What I want to do is go with a bit more stronger load. Be kinda cool to actually harvest a deer and bang some 2nd 3 hundred yard steel.
Been lubing all my pistol bullits with rooster jacket paper patch lube. As a tumble lube. Didn't think it would work so well on the rifle due to being shoved in the case and gas checked.

[Eric H]

So just did a new barrel cast. Barrel measured by my digital scale went between 308 and 309. I know my sizing die is 309. Think I will mix some alloy tomorrow.

[bangerjim]

Do an internet search (google is your leeeeeeeetle friend!) for Babbitt. There are over 30 kinds of it and the alloys are listed in extreme detail on several sites.

I now have over 6 different babbitt alloys and use is sparingly for sweetening Pb alloys.

banger

[Eric H]

That's how I found out the amount I did. The five pounders don't have much more than a few numbers and letters. But once I looked them up. I was suprised to see they had the biggest amount of tin and antimony.
I have one ingot in a disk that is bismuth. My youngest wants to keep it . Wich is fine. Can't see my self wanting to experiment with something that spendy.

[bangerjim]

Bi is the new "greenie-friendly" metal for shot.

Bi does strange things to alloys, like lowering the melting point to 145F in the right proportions! I have hundreds of pounds of a Bi alloy like that I use that I can pour into rubber and plastic molds for antique clock trim reproduction. Similar to Wood's metal and CerroSafe.

[RogerDat]

Powder coat might be a solution to leading, assuming your bullet is sized to a reasonably good match for your barrel. The forum on coatings and alternatives will have a lot of information on it. Turns out one can use plastic air soft BB's in the right kind of plastic tub, add small amount of powder coat, add bullets, shake for a couple of minutes, place bullets on baking sheet, then bake. Things come out with a rock hard, slick coating.

I have one of those American Smelting ingots, have it sitting on the wood base for my powder measure to weigh it down. Too neat to melt and I wanted to get some use out of it

[Eric H]

Powder coat might be a solution to leading, assuming your bullet is sized to a reasonably good match for your barrel. The forum on coatings and alternatives will have a lot of information on it. Turns out one can use plastic air soft BB's in the right kind of plastic tub, add small amount of powder coat, add bullets, shake for a couple of minutes, place bullets on baking sheet, then bake. Things come out with a rock hard, slick coating.

I have one of those American Smelting ingots, have it sitting on the wood base for my powder measure to weigh it down. Too neat to melt and I wanted to get some use out of it

Thanks for the idea. I can get lost for hours gleening all the great info in separate forums. Got my first tumble lube formula from there. The 45 45 10. I have used it alot. Then I had read about rooster jacket paper patch lube as a tumble lube. It works great aswell. I have noticed in my whole 5 years of casting. I still love to experiment with new things. That's one of the reasons I like it here. There is a huge amount of info. Floating around this place.

[johnho]

That's really neat. I worked for American Smelting and Refining Co. from mid 67 to the end of 1978. My last job with them was managing a lead and zinc mine in Colorado where we shipped our lead concentrates to El Paso. I see those ingots came from Seattle. My guess is that lead came from the Coeur d'Alene district in Idaho. Thanks for showing it.

[RogerDat]

That's really neat. I worked for American Smelting and Refining Co. from mid 67 to the end of 1978. My last job with them was managing a lead and zinc mine in Colorado where we shipped our lead concentrates to El Paso. I see those ingots came from Seattle. My guess is that lead came from the Coeur d'Alene district in Idaho. Thanks for showing it.

Wow that is too neat to have someone here that used to make these things.