OK I am getting all my first smelting equipment lined up. I should have everything in hand in a week or two. I am reading a little every day.... work a lot of hours and precious few days off so I can't read non stop.
The thought occured to me 'when should I alloy my lead?'. I have two buckets of wheel weights I want to smelt first - along with 4 large piece of pure lead that weigh 23 pounds apiece. Still not sure how to melt them due to their size, but I can start on the WWs first.
My question is, when do I alloy for a target hardness? Most of my bullet casting will be for practice ammo in .44 special, .45 Colt, .45 ACP and .40 S&W in handguns. I will very soon want to make some .30-30 bullets, but the velocities on those will of course be quite a bit higher than the handguns.
Only after I have done this a while and am comfortable with the process will I begin making hunting (harder) handgun bullets in calibers from .32 up to .475. Sooo.... when do I alloy - during smelting or during casting?
A better question might be do I HAVE to do anything to WW? What appproximate brinell hardness will WW yield? If I target 12-16 BH for handgun loads is that a good range and will WW be in that range or do I have to do something to them to get there?
And yes I am using the search feature. I am trying my best to know everything I can before I fire up the smelt the first time and either mess something up or have to do it all over again.
Many thanks
Mark