Ink covered Lino

[SwedeNelson]

Will ink color lino /mono?
Got 3 or 4 hundred pounds of type set letters all
covered with ink. Didn't think much about it and
melted it in to ingots.
Cast some straight lino bullets today to see how
hard it is.
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i80/swedenelson/Linobullets001.jpg
The ingots are a nice silver color, but the bullets
come out purple.
Harder than the back of my head too.

What do you think?

Swede Nelson

[runfiverun]

see no problems there.
purple seems to be a good color for shooting.

[lwknight]

Thats probably monotype , not linotype.
The ink matters nothing. Its just carbon and it will float out.
You cannot color the alloy without actually alloying something else into it.

[Hickory]

This is my opinion of linotype.
I feel that linotype is vastly over rated for using it straight for boolits.

Now, let me explain my position on my statement.

Linotype does cast up some very pretty boolits. It fills out the mold cavity nicely and to the eye is the perfect example of what we strive for when casting.
I think we can agree on that.

However, the one thing the a very hard cast boolit will not do, is expand when it comes in contact with flesh. It penetrates very well. But hard cast boolits are not desirable in most cases in North America. The only exception would be with moose/elk/grizzly bears. And even with them a little expansion would help to transfer a little more shock and tissue damage that a non-expanding boolit dose not often produce.

I have several hundred pound of linotype and am not willing to let go of it. It's a good to have around,(like money in the bank.) But, I can honestly say that in the last 30 years I have only found a need for about 25lbs of the stuff.

I might be spouting off for no reason and most of you may not agree with what I've said, but I feel 95% of shooters/hunters can do well with straight w-w or 50/50 w-w/ pure lead with a little tin added. Even in rifles.

This is not an attack on anyone just something I felt I had to say. :hijack: Sorry Swede, you ask what we thought.

[clodhopper]

They are pretty!

[frankenfab]

Lol! My daughter was just asking me last night if we could make colored boolits!

I pretty much agree with Hickory, but Linotype is great for target rifle boolits. It takes a LOT of pure lead to alloy with Linotype to make it soft enough to expand. That has been my biggest problem with it. Finding pure lead on the cheap is a little harder than getting cheap wheel weights.

[Three44s]

+1!

I am all over linotype ........ but for an alloy source to mix with other cheaper sources when necessary.

Three 44s

[SwedeNelson]

Hickory

Good friend I agree 100%.
Just starting to play with a (30 BR) bench rest rifle, So I'm
getting in to it. And the learning goes on.

Was just a little surprised to see purple bullets.

Swede Nelson

[geargnasher]

Swede, I don't care what they're made of or what color they are, they're just so freakin' BEAUTIFUL. It would be a shame to even shoot them!

I can't help you with the color, I don't think it's ink contamination if that's what you were wondering.

Gear

[*Paladin*]

Very nice looking bullets there Swede! I never noticed it before, but I see you're in Provo, UT. I grew up in Provo, graduated from Timpview HS. My mom and step-dad live in Spanish Fork, so I get down that way a few times a year...

[SwedeNelson]

geargnasher

Its about the color of the garbage I was skimming off
the pot when I smelted my ingots. I was surprised to see it.
You can scrape it off the surface of the bullet so it is
something coming out of the melt. like lwknight said
"Its just carbon and it will float out.", but purple!

Paladin
Stop in and see us when you come through.

Swede Nelson

[Hickory]

Swede, I just got on a rant and could not help myself.

[SwedeNelson]

Hickory

No problem.
I enjoy your input,

A friend
Swede Nelson

[stubshaft]

Back about 25 years ago I shot nothing but lino in my silly wett guns. The all had a purplish hue to them. My source eventually dried up and when I smelted some spacers and type a little later I was actually disappointed that they did not have the same color to them.

[fryboy]

it's gotta be contaminated ( i'd offer to dispose of it for ya but imagine the waiting list is pretty long ...[dratz] agreed great lookin' boolits !!! ( those HP's especially - i need sunglass to look at'em ) i was running two pots yesterday , one a 50/50 ww/pb mix and the other lyman's #2 made with lino , the lino alloy gives me some of my purtiest boolits and rarely anytime else do i get the shine ( without added manual labor ) i believe some ink residue could still be present , it wouldnt take much to cause a flash in color the ink dye is pretty tenacious , i've used a bit of lino and have never gotten that cool tinge but to be fair i fluxed the heck out of trying to make sure that i kept all the tin and antimony i possibly could ( including both sawdust and wax ) i'm not aware of anything that will make colored boolits in a easy fashion other than a dip after done in a dye or paint

lino does make some nice boolits , especially for 22's even cut 50/50 is still a pretty good hard alloy , when i'm running low on ww's i figure about 1/4 lino to 3/4 PB is basically a sweetened ww alloy or close enough to it for most practical purposes ( nice pic !! )

[grisy11]

would you sell one of them HP boolits thay are vary nice

[jhrosier]

Swede,

I cast some boolits of straight monotype just out of morbid curiosity.
They came out the same pretty shade and hard as you got.
I dropped one on the concrete and it broke clean in half. Next it grabbed one in the vise and tapped it with a screwdriver shank. This one shattered with very little impact.
Afterwards I got to thinking about what might happen if one broke inside the bore. It is also a terrible waste of antimony so I didn't cast any more from the straight monotype.
The ones that I shot from my 8x58RD weren't any more accurate than water dropped 4-4-92.
My Rolling Block has a sort of hog waller throat and doesn't do well with soft boolits.

Jack

[lwknight]

I think that those big block letters ARE monotype.

[SwedeNelson]

The 360 SWC HP above are cast from my standard wheel weight material.
The purple 311299 are mono type.
Will more than likely us a 50/50 mix of wheel weight and mono.
Just starting to play with them.

Swede Nelson

[leadman]

I have shot linotype boolits into jack rabbits and they (boolits & jacks) exploded!
Nice color on the boolits!

May take more than 50% WW to thin that alloy down.

[lwknight]

3 wheel weights to 1 monotype will still make hard boolits.

[bumpo628]

10 lbs of pure lead to 1 lb of monotype will make an alloy similar to WW.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I melted some letters down and mixed them 3 parts WW with 1 part melted down letters (MDL) and the end result was boolits with the BHN of 21. BHN seems to be an elusive thing. The WW I get from a truck repair shop test out at a BHN of 14. If I get them from a car dealer, they are around 11. The only way I can figure out how to mix a batch is to mix up 50 to 100 lbs in my smelting pot, cast a few and wait a week or so to see what I have.

[Alchemist]

Somewhat off topic, but I think you should clamp the "NOE" letter blocks together and use them to stamp your company name on top of your little white boxes.

If you use my idea, how 'bout a discount on my next mould? :kidding:

BTW...that new 311-165 RF RD sure makes some pretty boolits. Haven't used the others....yet.

[DukeInFlorida]

Don't forget that linotype melts at a much lower temperature than pure lead does. If you were heating linotype to 800 degrees, you were over heating it. It only needs something like 550 degrees or so.

It's one of the factors that made it a good metal for printing.

[tonyjones]

Swede,

What color lube are you going to use with those purple bullets? You might as well make a fashion statement while you're shooting those bugeye groups.

Regards,

Tony

[David2011]

The large type looks like Foundry Type, BHN of 29-33 and often contains copper. Monotype looks very different.

David