Lead to hard?

[cowboy777]

I work around industrial batteries like the ones used in forklifts. These batteries have exposed intercell connectors between each cell which can be drilled off and replaced along with the cable connecters when we melt them back on we also use lead sticks to add to the fill out of the posts. I found the msds sheet and the lead sticks and posts are 95% animonial lead. I've probably gotten 100lbs in the last month. Living in CA my ww supply is quickly running out. I not found a source of pure lead to add to this. The only casting I do is .45acp and .357 and there just target loads so I can shoot often and cheap. Do you think casting this 95% and air cooling will still be to hard for the boolits I make. If I can get away with this it would be great not to have to buy pure lead but I've read to hard an alloy can also cause leading and make a boolit less accurate. What do you guys think, any suggestions?

[bumpo628]

I'm sure what you have there is 5% Antimony and 95% Lead.
You'll be fine casting it straight, but I think you'll need to add a small amount of Tin to get it to fill out the mold.

Hardball alloy has 2% Tin, 6% Antimony. Clip-on WW has 0.5% Tin, 2% Antimony. So, you just need to add enough Tin to get somewhere in between these two alloys.

If you add 1 oz of 50/50 solder for every 6.5 lbs of your Antimonial Lead, you'll get:
0.48% Tin, 4.95% Antimony

If you do get some Pure Lead, add 2 oz of 50/50 solder for every 6.5 lbs of Antimonial Lead and 6.5 lbs of Pure Lead for an alloy pretty close to clip on WW lead:
0.48% Tin, 2.48% Antimony

If you want a copy of my alloy calculator, let me know.

[cowboy777]

Thanks bumpo I wil definitely add some tin solder. Yes can I get a copy of your lead calculator

[bumpo628]

Thanks bumpo I wil definitely add some tin solder. Yes can I get a copy of your lead calculator

I always post the latest version (2/14/11 - as of today) in this thread:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=105952