$25 for 10lbs Lino, too much?

[Namerifrats]

Have a guy with Linotype. Selling 10 lbs for $25. Not sure if that's shipped but I doubt it. Too much?

[kevin c]

How much would it cost you for the component metals?

Lead and tin (in the form of pewter ~92% Sn content) are ~$1 a pound and ~$9 a pound respectively in the S&S. Antimony is harder to find and work with, but if you could combine it yourself into your lead (problematic and potentially unhealthy to do at home according to some) it's about $7 a pound from Rotometals in the amounts we home casters might want to buy.

Linotype is nominally 84% Pb, 12% Sb, and 4% Sn. To make it yourself might cost you, per pound, 84¢ in lead, the same in Sb, and 36¢ for the tin. That's $2.04 per pound in materials cost, not including the propane to alloy it together, and your time, effort and gas to scrounge it all. Your cost is lower if you can source the raw materials for less, more if it costs more (by way of example, my lead and tin cost substantially less, but my source of antimony is Rotometals SuperHard, which is pricey).

This assumes you can analyze scrap and that you want an exact alloy. Neither is necessary for many applications.

[6mm win lee]

What does rotometals say? Five pound bar is 20.99 or 4.20 a pound. Getting a thousand pound pallet could be 3520.00 or 2199.00 plus shiping depending on the style of ingots. So 2.50 a pound seems like a good price to me.

[GregLaROCHE]

Linotype is getting harder to find. I’d buy it.

[jdfoxinc]

Look on S&S foundry type for just over $2.00/lb.

[lightman]

It sells for $2 a pound plus shipping in the S&S section here pretty often. $2.50 a pound ain't too far out of line. Its getting harder to find.

[dverna]

I have 400 lbs or so and would not sell it for less. It depends on what you can buy it for elsewhere. Mine is "foundry" linotype so I know it is "good stuff". I would be leery of buying linotype that was in those little ingots many people use unless I knew the person. It is too easy to "cheat". Kevin's post is worth looking at to get a feel for value.

[bangerjim]

$2-3/# is reasonable these days, considering it it becoming short in supply "in the wild". (Roto will always be able to mix it on demand.)

[fredj338]

$2.50 shipped is a bargain. Even in a flat rate box, still pretty good deal.

[Tripplebeards]

What do you guys need so hard of an alloy for? I’ve ran WQ straight old wheel weight alloy with PC up to 2650 FPS and over with zero leading. Most my boolits now a days are 50 % pure and 50 % COWW ac. I just don’t see a need for anything harder.

[megasupermagnum]

What do you guys need so hard of an alloy for? I’ve ran WQ straight old wheel weight alloy with PC up to 2650 FPS and over with zero leading. Most my boolits now a days are 50 % pure and 50 % COWW ac. I just don’t see a need for anything harder.

The best use of Linotype in my opinion is mixed if you have a source of soft lead. Things like roof flashing, stick on wheel weights, lead piping, X-ray lead, etc. I even heard of a guy who ran some kind of air rifle club, and melted the captured pellets. Those pellets are soft lead. It seems to me the harder lead sources like clip on wheel weights are what are getting hard to find, at least for free. I don't even try anymore. I take what I can, but the bulk I buy. $2.50 is not outlandish for linotype, considering you could mix that 6:1 lead to linotype, and get a good alloy. That stuff goes a long way.

[Stewbaby]

Payed $2 for the raw stuff recently so $2.50 in an ingot, as stated, ain’t too bad.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Lino is great for making Lyman #2 alloy. $2.50 a pound is a good deal.

[jsizemore]

I'd want $3/lb shipped for mine.

[6mm win lee]

Mostly my reason is bullets. The other is a hedge against inflation. Ten years from now Linotype could be ten Federal Reserve Note dollars a pound and guys would be hard pressed to find it at any price. So the conversation could go [some bullet caster] "I need some Lino." [Me] "Well, I have a few pounds I could let you have for nine bucks a pound."

The mechanics is no different from buying gold, silver, and platinum today.