Small amount of copper in recovered range metal?

[dogdoc]

I am looking at buying some recovered alloy from roto metals that they say has a trace amount of copper in it. How will that affect casting ?
Thanks
Dogdoc

[lwknight]

303 guy has a lot of discussion about that. As best I can remember from what he said is that it does not affect the hardness or casting but makes the bullets more resistant to fragmenting therefore giving better control of expansion and weight retention.

[aephilli822]

Dang, that is more than I got when TRYING to add copper......

[Grmps]

you may have to turn the pot up a hair to get the same fill out

[dogdoc]

Ok sounds good . They list it as being 0.17% copper which is low. I can increase temp some if needed but did not want to buy it if it would be a major impediment to getting good bullets. Use to cast a lot but got away from it a few years and want to do it again to get the bullets I want for my 44s and 45 colt. I buy commercial for my 40 cal high volume stuff for uspsa but love Lyman 429421 for my 44 specials and mags

Dogdoc

[Tom W.]

It won't hurt a thing. The nickel Babbitt that I used to get from our supplier was mostly pure tin with trace amounts of nickel and copper. Worked great. If you have access to a sawmill or one of their suppliers you can fall into a gold mine as far as tin goes. Unfortunately the mill I worked at closed.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

what do you mean about getting babbit from sawmills, what do they use it for, and does that include the home kind or just the big operations?

[Cowboy_Dan]

what do you mean about getting babbit from sawmills, what do they use it for, and does that include the home kind or just the big operations?

They use it to pour bearings for their heavy equipment. As far as I understand, they have to be periodically removed and replaced due to wear. Probably only larger mills. Other large machines use babbit bearings.

[rmark]

Nickelite babbit (no actual nickel) is about 90% tin, 7% antimony, 3% copper IIRC. Had a bar of it turn up in some scrap lead I bought.

[bangerjim]

Cu hurts nothing. Actually add hardness. I use 3 alloys that have 1-3% Cu in them and they cast great. I had an old Craftsman metal lathe many hears ago that use those poured bearings. Used long before ball and timkin bearings were around.

Babbitt is used for bearing pours for older machinery. Also used in machine shops to hold specific things for matching and sharpening.....since it melts easily at fairly low temps yet is "sort of hard".

Bangerjim

[Tom W.]

what do you mean about getting babbit from sawmills, what do they use it for, and does that include the home kind or just the big operations?

Sorry for not replying sooner. The nickel Babbitt was used for guides on our gang saw. The looked like big silver disc brake pads. I doubt a small mill would use any. However if you're driving around and see a big mill they may let you ask who supplies them, and I'm sure the supplier would sell you some. Our supplier shut down shortly after we did. He used to get me 60 lb ingots of reclaimed battery lead from Sanders Lead in Troy, Alabama. Casting was really good.... but wheel weights were $25 for a 5 gallon bucket full, but most were truck weights.

[Jack Stanley]

I had some range scrap checked and it had .O48 of copper .

Jack

[kevin c]

I am looking at buying some recovered alloy from roto it metals that they say has a trace amount of copper in it. How will that affect casting ?
Thanks
Dogdoc

I have bought this same alloy from Rotometals. I added some super hard to get to around hardball make up. As best I can tell what I alloyed up casts much the same as the 92/2/6 I bought from them, though, truth be told I haven't gotten around to shooting them as I haven't had time to Hi-Tek, size and load them.

ETA: I am casting the Rotometals range reclaim made up to "hardball" at the same temp (720 degrees) as I used with the real hardball: fill out is the same.

[Nose Dive]

Don't get scared with a bit of copper. ROTO can sell hardball and it has some. it helps hardness...thus..less anealing after castings...

Nose Dive

Cheap, Fast, good. Kindly pick two.

[beagle]

Another source of Babbitt may be an old railroad repair shop. Long ago bearings on both the locomotives and boxcars were locally fabricated from Babbitt. May be some still stashed back. The new stuff uses ball bearings. Was at a facility several years back and asked and a guy said if I came back when they redid the bearings I could have the Babbitt. Didn't. Great for alloying copper into your alloy and makes the bullets "stronger" and less prone to strip the rifling. I've gotten 2600 FPS out of the .223 with acceptable accuracy with copper alloyed alloy./beagle