Pure + WW ingots

[468]

A buddy was kind enough to give me a lead counter weight...about a 75 lbs peice. I have used WW's exclusively for my casting(.40/10mm,.45, .38/.357). How would I make best use of this, assuming its pure lead? 50/50 with WW ingot?

[lwknight]

You cant beat WWs for economy. To equal Ws you would have to buy 10 pounds of rotometals superhard and 1 pound of tin at a total cost of about 50 bucks. Then mix it all together and you would basically have 86 pounds of WW aloy.

[bumpo628]

I'm sure you can use the 50/50 WW/pure mix for 38 and 45. You might need to add a bit of solder or tin to get it to fill the mold out properly.
5 lbs pure lead + 5 lbs WW + 1 oz of 50-50 solder will give you:
0.56% tin, 1.49% antimony, hardness @ 10

If you want to make WW lead out of it, you could use the recipe posted by lwknight:
75 lbs pure lead + 10 lbs Superhard + 1 lb of Tin will give you:
1.16% tin, 3.49% antimony, hardness @ 12

Or here is a little cheaper way to make an alloy similar to WW:
15 lbs pure lead + 1.5 lbs Superhard + 3 oz of 50-50 solder will give you:
0.56% tin, 2.70% antimony, hardness @ 11-12

If you have some new or reclaimed lead shot, you can make an alloy close to 50/50:
15 lbs pure lead + 10 lbs Magnum Shot + 4 oz of 50-50 solder will give you:
0.50% tin, 1.58% antimony, hardness @ 10

[468]

Thanks guys...

[468]

lw and bumpo, what if I wanted to go a bit harder? I've got some 60/40 solder on the way...

Thanks in advance.

[SciFiJim]

A 50/50 mix works well for me in .45acp and .357. I air cool those. For rifle (8mm Mauser) I use the same alloy and water drop to cool.