with all my "alloys" I can make something like this ?

[mac1911]

So I have 4 known alloys ....tested that is only the wheel weights are "ok" for my needs.
What I am left with is a several alloys at around 1.5%-3% Sb and 98.5%-97%PB 300lbs or so then 75lbs of the lyman2/hardball type alloy

I load mostly target loads of 38spl and 45acp and rifle loads in the 1200-1700 fps range.

My plan is to use some of my non tin alloys and sweeten them up some with some solder 63/47( several bars) and or some known alloy of Sn 4.5% Sb 6.8% Pb 88.2% lyman2/hardball hybrid ? also have about 10lbs of "pewter"

my combined alloys look like this which is a blend of the lyman #2 and pewter to the Sb 1.7% Pb 98.3% alloy

Mixed Alloy Tin % Antimony % Arsenic % Copper % Silver % Lead % Weight Est. Hardness Unit Price ($ / lb) Price ($)
2.24% 2.10% 0.00% 0.03% 0.00% 95.6% 44.0 11.2 $0.30 $13.07

I can only do 50lb batches in my pot at a time.

my goal is to spread out my alloy for long term use. Lead still coming in but at a much slower pace.
I have wheel weight alloy as well.

[Rich/WIS]

My rifle shooting is in the 1500-1600 fps range and my alloy is approximately 92-6-2. Pistol is either range lead, COWW or 96-3-1 which is basically COWW plus 1% tin. Rifle bullets are all GC'd and sized .002 over bore and the pistol (1911 45) .001 over bore. All are lubed with the same White Label XLOX 2500. Have good accuracy and no leading with these combinations.

[mac1911]

My rifle shooting is in the 1500-1600 fps range and my alloy is approximately 92-6-2. Pistol is either range lead, COWW or 96-3-1 which is basically COWW plus 1% tin. Rifle bullets are all GC'd and sized .002 over bore and the pistol (1911 45) .001 over bore. All are lubed with the same White Label XLOX 2500. Have good accuracy and no leading with these combinations.

I made a batch of alloy and bumped the tin to 3% to end up with a 3/3/94 alloy. I did a little test from air , to quench to , heat treat and by finger nail I dont see much change. I dont have a Bhn tester but have been using the pencil tests. Im going to retest after they have been sitting for a week plus?
My largest wheel weight alloy stash came in at .5% tin 3% antimony 96.5% lead ( average of several 50 lb batches tested) Im running low on that alloy so its time to find something to bland up to maximize my stash

[Green Frog]

You spend a lot of time and effort defining the composition of your various alloys, but never say exactly what you want to use the bullets for. If you're just looking for a specific alloy, you have plenty of information to calculate how to blend it; you'll just need to do a little algebra. If you are looking for an alloy with certain performance properties in certain bullets, that is the information needed for anyone to make meaningful suggestions.

Just as a general rule of thumb, if a particular alloy has anywhere from about 1.5- 4.0% tin it will cast fine, and antimony is added as needed for desired hardening in some alloys. If you want to do water quenching, the antimony content is what makes this possible... supposedly quenching binary Pb/Sn alloys gives no increased hardness. Again, the alloy you need to mix will depend on the bullets you plan to cast and their applications.

Hope this helps,
Froggie

[mac1911]

You spend a lot of time and effort defining the composition of your various alloys, but never say exactly what you want to use the bullets for. If you're just looking for a specific alloy, you have plenty of information to calculate how to blend it; you'll just need to do a little algebra. If you are looking for an alloy with certain performance properties in certain bullets, that is the information needed for anyone to make meaningful suggestions.

Just as a general rule of thumb, if a particular alloy has anywhere from about 1.5- 4.0% tin it will cast fine, and antimony is added as needed for desired hardening in some alloys. If you want to do water quenching, the antimony content is what makes this possible... supposedly quenching binary Pb/Sn alloys gives no increased hardness. Again, the alloy you need to mix will depend on the bullets you plan to cast and their applications.

Hope this helps,
Froggie

looking for a some what broad coverage alloy from the various amounts of alloys I have on hand.
I have a good amount of wheel weight/soft alloy blended up for most of my pistol needs. Target loads 38spl/45acp and some 32sw once in a while
Then its rifle from mouse fart 130 grain loads to 200 grain loads from 1200-1600 fps with a few pushing 1900 fps. all for target shooting

[Neverhome]

I went through the same thing recently. Consolidation of all my random alloys.

I ended up going with an assumed makeup of 96/2/2 with a dash of arsenic. It tests at around 11bhn. I use it as is in lower pressure/speed rounds. I use the same alloy for rifle too though. I just oven heat treat it to where I need it. 460 degrees gets me to around 24 bhn. I haven’t dialed in the temp for higher or lower bhn yet but I have no doubt I can dial in a very broad range of usable hardnesses.

I got really tired of having 10 different piles of random alloys. I still have a few outliers that just wouldn’t play nice with my percentage goals but my mess is better than it was

[USSR]

I make my alloys as I am casting. Doesn't make sense to make all my various forms of lead into a single alloy in advance, as I use various alloys according to the loads I will be using. Just MHO.

Don

[Conditor22]

I've aquired a bunch of "mystery lead", I smelt it and leave it in stacks for a few weeks then test the hardness, mark all the ingots and store it in my rack.

When I get ready to cast, I decide on the hardness I want and if I don't have ingots of that hardness I will blend ingots to get the desired hardness.

IF that mix doesn't get good fill out at m,y casting temperature 680-720° I will throw in a little pewter/tin (I have containers of .5 oz boolits) until I get good fill out.

IF you crank the heat up too high the boolits will shrink when they cool.

I don't worry about alloy as much as I worry about BHN

[mac1911]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akuSu1KfPnE&t=71s

[mac1911]

I went through the same thing recently. Consolidation of all my random alloys.

I ended up going with an assumed makeup of 96/2/2 with a dash of arsenic. It tests at around 11bhn. I use it as is in lower pressure/speed rounds. I use the same alloy for rifle too though. I just oven heat treat it to where I need it. 460 degrees gets me to around 24 bhn. I haven’t dialed in the temp for higher or lower bhn yet but I have no doubt I can dial in a very broad range of usable hardnesses.

I got really tired of having 10 different piles of random alloys. I still have a few outliers that just wouldn’t play nice with my percentage goals but my mess is better than it was

I took advantage of the time home all through march-june. I had lead everywhere. Gathered up all the known scraps and smelted everything into ignots and labeled
Flashing, Range Scrap, COWW , SOWW, ALL THE RANDOM SCRAPS, even found a good pile of dross from my early days getting into the game. I remelted that even. Recovered about 9lbs
I have several batches tested for known alloy content. So know I have a good base of alloys and was able to take the smaller batches and make one batch that I can find more uses for.
I still have pewter/lino type/Solder on the shelf also. just not in large quantities.

[Conditor22]

from LASC

[white eagle]

I make my alloys as I am casting. Doesn't make sense to make all my various forms of lead into a single alloy in advance, as I use various alloys according to the loads I will be using. Just MHO.

Don

my set up as well no need to get ahead and make a bunch
just need boolits when I do need them

[mac1911]

my set up as well no need to get ahead and make a bunch
just need boolits when I do need them

I used to adjust my alloy in the casting pot also but Im sure I have wasted some alloy over the years. This will keep me busy for a while with the 30 cal rifle loads. Just glad to finally get my lead in check and know what I have

[jsizemore]

I make my different alloys as I go. If it's all mixed together then you can't change it if you change your mind.

[mac1911]

i have a large stash of wheel weight alloy and soft flashing alloy.
I think the 2/3/95 alloy is a good base for anything i might need in the future.
Plus it was nice to get 150# of random alloy into nice stacking ignots

[USSR]

i have a large stash of wheel weight alloy and soft flashing alloy.
I think the 2/3/95 alloy is a good base for anything i might need in the future.

I've got a large stash of wheel weights and pure lead as well. However, like jsizemore said "If it's all mixed together then you can't change it if you change your mind", or at least, it's much more difficult.

Don

[mac1911]

The large batch of wheel weight alloy and soft flashing alloy remains as is.
I had a few small batches of 50lbs or less random alloys that i figured I could make something useful for my needs. With only 20# or so of the lyman#2/hardball and 100# or so of the 2%sb and 98% Pb i could make something thats more suited for my needs. Pure lead I can sell off easy to the front stuffers if need be.
Lyman#2 or Hardball is really a waste of tin and Antimony for what I load.
Its all good and I will be loading some of the new alloy soon.

[Green Frog]

Back when I was involved with ASSRA and Schuetzen with antique rifles I kept a goodly supply of my “standard” schuetzen alloy of 25:1 mixed from roofing lead and pure tin. At the same time my Dad mixed up a bunch of Lyman #2 equivalent when he happened on some monotype to go with his pure lead. This was the only time we kept very much “pre-mix” on hand. Of late, I try to keep my lead alloys as unmixed as possible and wait to make up alloys as needed and when needed. This seems to work for me since my bullet needs vary more than they used to.

Froggie

[fredj338]

Save your harder alloy for rifle stuff. The 38sp & 45acp are low pressure/vel calibers that can almost run on pure lead. So I would look for something softer like berm lead or pure lead & sweeten that with your harder alloy. It is pretty much what I do. I shoot 100x more service caliber pistol than rifle. Plus you can water drop your harder alloy for upper end rifle loads.
I keep my various alloys separate & blend in the casting pot. It lets me be more versatile. Most of my shooting now is service calibers but I used to shoot a lot of magnum revo stuff.

[mac1911]

Save your harder alloy for rifle stuff. The 38sp & 45acp are low pressure/vel calibers that can almost run on pure lead. So I would look for something softer like berm lead or pure lead & sweeten that with your harder alloy. It is pretty much what I do. I shoot 100x more service caliber pistol than rifle. Plus you can water drop your harder alloy for upper end rifle loads.
I keep my various alloys separate & blend in the casting pot. It lets me be more versatile. Most of my shooting now is service calibers but I used to shoot a lot of magnum revo stuff.

Exactly
i have plenty of soft lead, what I consider pure, it proofs out at 6 with the pencil test.
I have plenty of wheel weight alloy that tests at .5% tin 3% antimony 96% lead
Not sure what the other .5% is ?

I had 100lbs of 3% anitimony 97% lead from random scraps i blended plus the 25lbs or so of roughly 5% 7% 88% alloy I picked up ..... I figured It would make a good alloy blending them.
So i have several alloys on hand some in hundreds of pounds some in 10s of pounds.
Wheel weight- Coww and Soww
Flashing lead
Range lead
A bunch of 22lr lead from a 22lr range
Solder bars
Pewter
Linotype
Along with a few hundred pounds of unprocessed lead "collars"
At this point I could blend other alloys in the casting pot.
i run alot of cast in rifes but rarely exceed 1700fps and top off at 1900 fps. Im running my rifle cast loads out of surplus rifles with 1/9 1/10 twist and find so far even heat treated bullets accuracy drops quickly at 2000fps or more.