What might be the cause of color change ?

[71montess]

When I melted up my plumbing lead it all came out the darker color, then I melted a 4”x4” block of what I thought was lead. It was soft like lead but it came out this lighter color .

[Dusty Bannister]

Pick an ingot of each as close to the same physical size as possible and compare weight. I suspect you are going to find the silver ingots are lighter. Perhaps that ingot had more of the wiped solder joint material (more tin).

[Conditor22]

71montess Welcome to CB.

different alloys will have, different colors, different weights different melting points and drop at different sizes.

Pure lead will be the softest, the heaviest and also drop the smallest from the same mold.

PM sent

[country gent]

Antimony tin additions vary color and weight some. Did the lighter silver ingots melt faster or slower, where the hotter? die cast alloys can be melted in a hotter pot usually around 1000* are much lighter than lead and harder than lead. A quick test if you have an automatic center punch is to set it to the lightest strike it makes and punch the soft and lighter compare the punch marks size between the 2. Bismuth and some other material melt easily the cerosafe alloy melts around 120*. The 4" block almost sounds like pure tin from an industrial dip solder operation.

[71montess]

I’ll try the centerpunch and see which is softer. Getting the lead hardness right is my challenge, being new to making boolits am I correct that round ball muzzleloader it’s not as critical as handgun or modern rifle ?

[71montess]

[QUOTE=Conditor22;4668849]71montess Welcome to CB.

Thank you, I’m here to learn .

[bangerjim]

Don't get lost in the weeds. Hardness today is not as critical as thought in the past.

You can do hardness testing "on-the-cheeeeep" with a set of artist's pencils and the chard you can find on here. Do a search.

Next best thing is a LEE hardness tester kit (sorta cheap). Slow and rather cumbersome, but it will get you in the ballpark far better than pencils.

Best is a CabineTree-type tester (kinda expensive) that will give you very accurate AND repeatable hardness reading. I have had one for years and use it all the time.

Also download the FREE alloy calculator spreadsheet on here. Gives you a good idea what you will get from mixing known (important to know!) alloys and pure.

banger

[Conditor22]

I've been happy with the pencils, quick and easy, good for field testing when buying mystery alloy [take a chisel with you to scrape a smooth spot before testing]. Also, have a Lee. The Lee works fine IF you make/buy a stand to hold the "scope" in



Looks like Buffaloarms bought out CabinTree

Lead Hardness Tester Standard Model $133.84 shipped

https://www.buffaloarms.com/lead-har...rd-model-ctlt1

[wv109323]

For black powder muzzleloading rifles you want soft lead. That is so the soft lead can be pushed down the bore. A hard alloy is difficult to seat because the rb is engraved by the rifling.
I have not seen lead the color of yours. Mine which is mostly coww is shiny.