Making an alloy

[kbstenberg]

Another New guy question
When a person is mixing an alloy what is the proper procedure.
A Just dump all the componants in your cauldrin an let melt together
B Dump together, melt, flux once
C Dump together, melt, mix ingrediants with a stirring device, flux
D Do all of C and stirr again after fluxing
I had some me time at work today an got to wondering.
Kevin

[docone31]

Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble!
In reality, I tend to take one major part of the alloy, then blend in the smaller parts.
It seems to me, the alloy blends better.
This way, I get better control.

[Shiloh]

If using antimony, alloy it with tin first. It will alloy with lead and tin if added all together, but will take a while for the antimony to amalgamate into the melt.

Shiloh

[Dale53]

My preferred base metal is WW's. I smelt them and put them into various sized ingots. I keep my metals separated (WW's, scrap lead, linotype, refinery mix, and tin. When I am ready to cast, I assemble (on a scale) the ingredients for that particular need (target, BPCR, Magnum pistol, or rifle). It only takes a minute or two to assemble and drop in the pot. I typically cast the whole pot at one sitting (sometimes two pots when things are going well). A pot full, for me is 20 lbs+.

Keeping my various bullet metals separate lets me keep my options open. I can cast Schuetzen rifle, modern rifle, Black Powder Cartridge Rifle, or these days, mostly target pistol, hollow points (several different velocities each requiring a different alloy for best performance) and magnum pistol.

If I only shot IPSC, as a for instance, that normally requires LOTS of production (when I shot IPSC I ran through 15,000 rounds per year and my two sons together did another 15,000 rounds) then it is productive to make up a particular lot for that purpose of several hundred pounds and GO TO IT!

30,000 .45 ACP bullets (200 gr) takes 860 lbs of bullet metal, not counting any waste.

These days I only use a couple or three hundred pounds a year.

FWIW
Dale53

[runfiverun]

i do closer to d then ingotize and use those ingots for casting.
if using an alloy that just requires tin i add the appropriate amount of tin to the casting pot and stir.
while i cast i will empty my pot down about 8-10 lbs and re-fill add tin stir/flux and start recasting.
but i use a 40 lb pot so it don't take much time to re-heat everything.
if i were doing long range stuff i'd have ingots of alloy on hand to keep the pot full or use most of the pot and keep that batch separated.
for general handgun stuff i just do as above and run the 10 lbs at a time then take a short break chuck the first few pours back and go again.