casting noob

[dudley2112]

Ok ive decided to finally take the plunge and try casting, ive got someone giving me bags of bird shot and i was wondering if it would be ok to use to cast up some bullets for my 9mm. Ive heard mixed things either too hard/ to soft.? Also if i were to use it im assuming i could throw it right in the pot and flux it with no need to cast into ingots and stuff first?

thanks

[Bullshop]

Casting boolits from straight shot may give great difficulty in getting castings to fill out well.
Shot has arsenic added to increase surface tension so that when it is dropping it will make the shot more perfectly round. The high surface tension pulling in all directions at once.
When we cast boolits we try hard to reduce surface tension by adding tin and fluxing.
This so the alloy will flow more freely and get good fill in the mold cavity.

[dudley2112]

ok another question then, ive got 5 lbs of bullets i pulled from some crappy 45-70 reloads my dad bought at a gun show (hes like child cant leave him unattended :p) I think they are pretty soft so could i add some of the shot i have to these to make a bit harder of an alloy that would be more pourable and easy to cast then straight shot?

thanks

again

[Bullshop]

I think that may work better than straight shot.
One other thing I forgot to mention about melting shot. By itself it is very hard to melt.
Something about a coating or something that makes it very buoyant and hard to submerge in the melt. That ans so many small spheres just does not seem to transfer the heat very well. I always end up having to squish them against the side of the pot before they will break down and melt.
Like for instance if I have 20 pounds of alloy already melted and add 2 or 3 pounds to the melt if left alone it wont melt no matter how long you wait. It will just float on top until agitated and squished against the side of the hot pot to smoosh them enough to melt. That at least has been my experiance in melting shot.

[onondaga]

The blackish coating on some birdshot is Graphite. Graphite is a serious anti-flux! that is why it acts like that when you try to melt it.

Gary

[dudley2112]

damn, haha guess ill have to find a way to do a swap for some WW or ingots then... thanks for the tips guys saved me some headaches by the sounds of it

[jsizemore]

You should have no trouble finding somebody with ww ingots to trade for your bags of birdshot.

[bumpo628]

If you can get some solder, tin, or pewter then you can use that shot to make a nice alloy.

10 lbs shot
2 oz of 50/50 solder
= alloy with 0.62% tin, 3.95% antimony
That is basically WW alloy (0.5% tin, 3% antimony). So it would only take 1 lb of solder to handle 80 lbs of shot.

Other ways to do it:

10 lbs shot
1 oz of pure tin
= alloy with 0.62% tin, 3.98% antimony

10 lbs shot
1 oz of pewter (92.5% tin, 6% antimony)
= alloy with 0.57% tin, 4.01% antimony

By the way, how much shot have you got on hand?

[dudley2112]

If you can get some solder, tin, or pewter then you can use that shot to make a nice alloy.

10 lbs shot
2 oz of 50/50 solder
= alloy with 0.62% tin, 3.95% antimony
That is basically WW alloy (0.5% tin, 3% antimony). So it would only take 1 lb of solder to handle 80 lbs of shot.

Other ways to do it:

10 lbs shot
1 oz of pure tin
= alloy with 0.62% tin, 3.98% antimony

10 lbs shot
1 oz of pewter (92.5% tin, 6% antimony)
= alloy with 0.57% tin, 4.01% antimony

By the way, how much shot have you got on hand?

well i got a 25lbs bag of #5 shot today, so if i were to do 20lbs of that with 2oz of the leadless 97% tin solder that would work?

[bumpo628]

well i got a 25lbs bag of #5 shot today, so if i were to do 20lbs of that with 2oz of the leadless 97% tin solder that would work?

Yep, that'll work.
You'll end up with 0.60% tin & 3.98% antimony. Try casting with that as-is and it you get good mold fill-out then keep going.

If not, another ounce of the solder will bump you up to 0.90% tin & 3.96% antimony.

The first one should work fine since it is basically the same as WW.