Type metal question

[35isit]

I have come into possession of lots of type metal letters, spacers and long pieces with three tubes molded in them. How do I tell what they are without melting them down and having them analyzed? Can I add "some" to each pot as I cast? Or do I need to weigh my base metal and add my type by weight? I've cast a lot of boolits with straight wheel weights and straight linotype. Need some guidance adding this.

[Tatume]

Lots of opinions out there, but personally, when I want to cast bullets that are hard, I put a handful of type in the pot. If later I want some that are softer, I put in soft lead. It's not very precise, but it works well enough.

[lightman]

Yes, you can add a measured amount to your pot. There is a alloy calculator that can be downloaded that is very useful for this. There are a few different kinds of type. Linotype, Foundrytype and Monotype are the more common types. When new, the composition was very exact but constantly remelting them depleted the alloy after a while. Basically Linotype will be a line of letters making words and sentences. It comes in bars weighing around 22#. There were also spacers that varied in alloy content. Foundry type and Monotype were single letters used in headlines and such. Foundry type has a groove or notch in them. A quick google search can show other types and the alloy content, so I won't copy that here.

I have quite a bit of all three. When I first started casting, not knowing any better, I cast with all of them straight up. It made beautiful bullets, well filled out, but very hard and brittle. It did not shrink much and was hard to get them to drop from the mold. They were also very hard to size. All of these need to be cut with softer lead, we just don't need bullets this hard.

I've been real happy with straight wheel weights but I have added 10% type occasionally.