Large batches of alloy?

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Do you make large batches of alloy or a pot at a time? In the past, I've always made a pot at a time, but thought I might streamline things so I made up 150 lbs of 50/50 COWW/Soft+.5% tin. My hoard just worked out to 50/50 or so and it seems to shoot well enough in just about everything when powdercoated.

[farmerjim]

I make large batches.

[Winger Ed.]

When I came across 2-3 five gal. buckets of wheel weights, or several hundred pounds of pure Lead,
I would smelt them down into ingots when I got bored, or wanted out of the house.

I didn't mark them, you could tell by the color which was which.
The Lead turned gray pretty soon, and the weights stayed fairly shiny.

When I cast boolits, I'll do 40-50 pounds at a time, and adding to the pot goes faster with less fluxing.
I usually add in one gray one and a silver one at a time, or whatever according to what I'm making at the time.

[RedlegEd]

Hi All!
I'll usually make up 40-50lb batches of specific mix alloys (e.g. Lyman #2, 20:1, 30:1, etc.,) because I know what I have and it doesn't change. However, if I have WW, range scrap, who-knows-what, etc. I'll mix it all together into a big batch (150lb+) to get it as homogeneous as possible. I'll then get it analyzed so I know exactly the alloy composition of that batch. As long as I use that batch, I can accurately predict/replicate bullet weights and as-cast diameters. Ed

[Bookworm]

When I'm mixing Lyman #2, I make 50 pounds at a time.

Making 50/50, I'll make at least 100 pounds at once.

[rcslotcar]

I usually do large batches (80#) at a time. I'll cast a few bullets to test hardness on my Saeco tester then mark the ingots with the hardness. I now have several hundred pounds of lead that I can mix to the desired hardness I need.

[country gent]

When I was blending my own and smelting down old lead, I had a big pot and did it 350 lbs at a time. I would melt lead and clean flux and pour into 3 lb ingots. ( Angle iron ingot molds) These were marked as to date, pot number, and material with stamps ( IE xx xx xx x ww pl s swl) when blending an alloy an ingot from each pot was added to close got the base metal then the needed antimony tin was added to bring it up to what was wanted, This was done in the big pot 350 lbs also. This allowed for a long run off bullets all the same. These ingots were also stamped with alloy and date

[RP]

I do large batches you will have more alloy that is the same mix doing it that way. Well that is my thinking.

[skeettx]

I do LARGE batches
That way I get a consistent alloy
Mike

[kevin c]

Large batches, about 240# (what my processing pot holds) at a time. I shoot a lot of the same boolit in action pistol.

The downside is that it commits a large amount of metal to the alloy. It can be changed into something else by remelting plus the addition of other metals, but it's not as flexible as working up from the base ingredients (and you can't remove what you don't want, although it can be diluted).

[stubshaft]

Large batches of 150# each.

[redhawk0]

I keep individual materials in muffin tin or ingot form....then I'll mix up an 80-100 lb batch and pour that into corn cob molds...The only thing I use the corn cob mold for is mixed alloys...so I never get them confused. (They are also marked).

I just whipped up 175 lbs of soft lead today...in muffin tins.

Everything I have gets stamped with what it is (no ink pens)....PB for soft lead, LIN for Linotype, WW for wheel weights, RL for Range Lead and PEW for Pewter. The corn cob molds get marked as Alloy #1....#2....#3 etc and I keep records of what is mixed and quantity for each Alloy.

I like doing it using this method because the materials get fluxed, then the alloy gets fluxed....I get very little debris in my casting pot that way.

redhawk

[Eddie Southgate]

Mostly large batches .

[Mitch]

I have gone to haveing all my lead tested.I melt clean and alloy lead in big batches about 350lbs per batch.No guessing or wasting alloy.Just imagin if you are guessing and think you need to add tin. so you do and then you have it tetsted.You have 1% more tin than you need in a 350lb batch that is 3.5 lbs of tin weather no matter what your source of tin is it could be as much as a $70 for the extra tin from Roto.Just wanted to point out how i look at things.I can repetet any alloy at any given time.i can cast thousands of bullets before i need to alloy again.I use angle iron ingot molds 2 banks of 5 at about 4 lbs each.They stack nice and fit into my lee 4-20 and RCBS promelt.I stamp my ingots with a Number i am up to 17 batches tested.I print 2 copies one for the garage where alot of the lead is and one for the loading room. Just a bacsic idea of how i do my alloys and keep tract of what i have.

[toallmy]

I generally keep my pure and coww separate in ingot form and add one of each to the pot at the same time , if you have them preheated it really doesn't slow down your casting to much . But I understand if you're planning on casting a large run of a 50/50 alloy a few 100 lb batches could easily be mixed in advance with a pound or so of tin mixed in for convenience . I just never know what I'm going to be using my alloy for in advance I guess .

[RogerDat]

Mostly large batches for any finished alloy or known basic ingredient. Dutch Oven holds a bit over 100 lbs. I have made two batches and poured them into bread loaf pans, then taken half the ingots from each batch to melt again so by cross mixing the two 100 lb. batches I have 200 lbs. of same alloy.

COWW's (Clip on Wheel Weights) or soft lead or a batch of scrap that is all the same I will keep separate. So if I get 70 lbs. of soft lead pipe, or 150 lbs. of sheet metal xray room liner I will keep that in bread loaf slabs until used as an ingredient in a larger batch of alloy.

Put more directly if I was doing 50/50 plus 1.5% tin I would take 50 lbs. from a single source of soft lead and 50 lbs. of COWW's add in the pewter for tin according to the alloy calculator and have 100 lbs. of alloy that would behave in a consistent manner. My next batch might be a touch different, say the soft was from a different source, or that particular batch of COWW's was slightly different alloy. Both batches should be very close to the same, and consistent for the next 100 lbs. of bullets.

Last but not least a large batch makes sending a sample into member BNE for testing more efficient. If I have a 200 lb. cross mixed batch I only need to send him one sample. Then I can label all 200 lbs. of ingots with exact alloy make up and plug those numbers into the alloy calculator. I scrounge lead so what I find is what I have. BNE testing it insures I can mix up known alloys for more consistent results. I know the BHN of 92/6/2 hardball alloy. If I make it and he tests it then I'm good to go.

Working off of hardness works too. After all what the alloy is would really just be a way of controlling the hardness to be suitable to the use intended. So what is in the alloy that gives it a BHN of 12 isn't as significant as the fact that it has a BHN of 12. At least up to a point. Enough tin to bump soft lead up to a BHN of 12 would essentially be solder! Sort of expensive way to make those bullets. Some less expensive lead such as COWW's could be used to yield the same BHN but at a much lower cost.

[PBaholic]

I PC as well, but have settled on a BHN 10 alloy of 1 part Linotype and 2 parts soft lead for my 38, 357, 45, 45LC. I use a Stainless Dutch Oven, and melt 30 - 50 Lbs or so, which is manageable. I melt all my lead into a standard ingot:

The mold is made by Lilmacmolds.com A-3651 $10.

Once I have it in a standard form I can identify my unknown alloys by BHN. I leave my pure lead (BHN 4) and Linotype (BHN 22) in ingot form, and just mix them 2:1 into my Lee 20# pot. I keep a some 10 ingots, so I can up the pot size, or cool down the temp.

[FISH4BUGS]

I smelt my ww's and lino into 1 lb ingots and use 5lbs ww to 1 lb lino for my 20 lb pot. Been using that mix my entire casting life. I put the ingots on top of the pot to preheat and drop them in when the pot gets low. Rinse and repeat.
I think last time I smelted into ingots was some 5 years ago.
Works for me.

[fivegunner]

I do Large batches My smelter hold`s about 250 LB`s of alloy, I then pour that into 6 LB`s ingots for use in my pro melts

[JBinMN]

I generally keep my pure and coww separate in ingot form and add one of each to the pot at the same time , if you have them preheated it really doesn't slow down your casting to much . But I understand if you're planning on casting a large run of a 50/50 alloy a few 100 lb batches could easily be mixed in advance with a pound or so of tin mixed in for convenience . I just never know what I'm going to be using my alloy for in advance I guess .

Ditto. I do mostly just the pot and add while I am pouring. I also do not know exactly what I am going to try next depending on circumstances so I don't make up a lot ahead of time. I reckon I could but I just have not decided that it is worth my time for the amount of shooting I do. Besides I am usually testing different things so doing one pot at that time is best for me I reckon...