First I would like to apologize for taking up so much time on the forum. A lot of my questions are elementary level but the support I’ve received has exceeded anything I expected.
Second I realize that the subject of alloy and lube are like sticking your toe in fish bowl full of piranhas.
The target is to center line me with an alloy and a lube that I can use over the spectrum of boolits I cast. Thanks to the directions in one of the above stickie’s my pot is scrubbed clean. The Hydrogen Peroxide and white vinegar brought everything back to pristine condition. My sizer is clean and ready for lube. Right now I’m just waiting for some fresh alloy to arrive to start casting again.
Alloy: I’m not a chemist and I do not have time to source salvaged lead. I’m also a purist and believer that if all bullets don’t go through the same hole there’s a 99% chance its user error. All I need in a consistent repeatable alloy heated to the right temperature, a clean mold at the right temperature and I can cast quality boolits. From all of the searches on the forum I’ve come to the conclusion that I need a brinell hardness of about 13 – 15 for my needs. That will stretch from 35 Remington deer loads to 2,600 .222 loads. All of the strings I’ve read had me a bit confused about mixing my own, so I made the decision to buy my allow from a source that has a chance of being repeatable.
I assume hardness can be tweaked by dropping in water versus dry dropping. Going out on a limb, I might be able to cast 22’s for my .222 in the 2,600 fps range by water dropping and use with my 35 Remington deer rifle by dry dropping them. Sorry to say I just don’t have enough experience to tell you whether that is right or wrong. And although my casting equipment is rapidly growing I do not have a hardness tester.
So the first big question is this; Brownell has a product that's sold as 92% Lead, 2% Tin, 6% Antimony. Is that generic enough that I can cast everything from sub sonic 22’s to 1,800 fps 35 Remington deer loads to 2,600 fps .222’s. It’s sold as 16 BHN.
Question two is about lube. I had been using some mystery lube that came with the Lyman kit that I liked very much. Not too soft, didn’t require a heater and it only took a fraction of a crank to fill the grease cavities. Very consistent and there was no oozing after you walk away. After running out of that I tried Lyman Orange Magic but hated to be futzing around with the heater (no controller added, just on or off). Then I went to Lyman Ideal (without the heater being used) and found it too soft. Not a big BIG issue because I size and load back to back. But the adjusting of the tension on the lube compression was very delicate. Too much and it left lube under the gas check. If you cast two or three without tweaking the tension the third one might not be fully lubed. Then I bought some White Label from NOE and although I haven’t used it yet it, it feels like the mystery lube I was originally using. That translates into no heat needed and you could tweak just a 1/32 or 1/64 of a crank to fill the lube rings with no oozing.
So there you go. I bared my soul and waiting for the arrows to come a flying. Thanks so much for all of the help. Bill.
PS: I’m casting for 35 Remington, .357, 9mm, 7.62 x 54 Mosin, 22 K Hornet, .222 Remington and about ready to jump into a 45LC project. My primary sport is short range Benchrest Competition with a 6PPC. But I get as much enjoyment out of shooting a 3 inch off hand group with my 35 Remington as I do shooting <.099 groups with my Bench Rest guns. Thanks again.