Melting monotype

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I melted down some monotype today.(60 lbs.). They were individual letters and numbers. I did it outside my garage and the temperature was 6 deg. It took awhile to get it to melt and once melted, seemed to try to seperate faster than WW. I deciced to put sawdust on top of the pot and worked some sawdust down into the letters. The rest I put on top and lit the fire. I went into the garage and watched the pot through a window. (It was dang cold!) The sawdust naturally dried out and eventually caught fire and burned up. I went out and fluxed it in and it seemed to work quite well. I use sawdust for fluxing all the time but putting it in with unmelted material was a new thing. I may do it that way from now on. Absolutely no chance for the Tinsel Fairy to show up because of moist sawdust. I poured the mono into the small sized muffin tins. They still took awhile to cool off enough to dump, even at 6 deg. temperatures. I imagine it would take quite awhile in the summer. Monotype acts very different from WW lead.

[lwknight]

Antimony is a very poor heat conductor. Momotype IIRC is 5-15-80.
You should have a glasst finish on top and yes they take a good long while to cool in the core. Cold weather has a lot less affect on high SB alloys than it would pure lead.

[ammohead]

5-15-80 Is that 5% antimony 15% tin 80% lead?

[imashooter2]

The numbers from LASC are 9 Sn, 19 Sb, 72 Pb

[Thecyberguy]

Per http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm


Monotype 9% tin, 19% antimony, 72% lead

Have a good 'un,TCG

[lwknight]

5-15-80 Is that 5% antimony 15% tin 80% lead?
I got the wrong percentages from a metal supply that I had been looking at.
My bad. Anyway it seems to to a majority of standard that the numbers are
Sn - Sb - Pb most expensive to cheapest.

Of course the nice thing about standards is that thee are many to choose from.

[ANeat]

There is actually quite a variety in all the type metals.

I wouldnt go by any one percentage estimate but just figure on a rough average. The good thing is its pretty much all good stuff

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=152&pictureid=1660

[madsenshooter]

Oh my, I'd like to have some of that foundry type to play with, I'm sure that added Cu really adds to the toughness.

[fredj338]

I'm not sure why you bothered to smelt them down. When I have lino in type form, I just weigh out the number of type sets & drop them into the pot. Seems like monotype would be the same thing?

[lwknight]

Fred , you are practical.
I ingotized everything because its easier to stack and ( god forbid) move if I ned to.
I do mostly 25 pound ingots of most stuff but the lino and such is 10 pounders.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I melted down the type because when I tried to do a hardness test, the various pieces would produce varying BHN for me. I figured that if I melted the whole batch together, the ingots would be the same.

[madsenshooter]

Sounds like the way to do it, to me.