41mag
06-07-2011, 05:27 PM
Well I ran through my full pot of WW this past weekend, so figured I would try out some other stuff I had on hand. This is from an old friend how has passed away, and is mostly mixed plumbers lead.
So this being the case I consulted another friend who cast, and who also has some of this same lead and has been using it for his loads. He mentioned that since I was going to use this mostly for magnum calibers I might want to add in a bit of shot to stiffen it up a bit. Well while I was rooting up the lead shot, I noted sitting on the end of a shelf, a 1# spool of lead free solder. Well not knowing just what the end result was going to be of my mix, I figured that a couple oz of it surely wouldn't hurt anything.
So I pulled up 20 pounds of the ingots, and broke them up and loaded up my melting pot. While I was waiting I weighed up and poured in 1# of the chilled shot, which was the first to melt. As this was getting things going I added in 2oz of the solder, which immediately melted into the mix.
Well after heating up the ingots were melting away pretty well and I tossed in about a marble sized chunk of old candle to which promptly lit off as I stirred it in.
Here is the strange part however, as I stirred the molten lead I noted that when I stopped there was an immediate gathering of particulate in the middle portion of the molten lead. Not on top but down int eh middle portion.
Now I wasn't sure just what it was, so after stirring at it several times as the heat was increased, I decided it might not should be there so I scooped it up with my ladle and set it aside in another container. While I might not have got it all I got the majority of it and after fluxing two more times I poured the prettiest ingots I have ever done.
Now my questions are,
Could this possibly be some zinc as it did not seem to be fully melted?
Did I not wait for the temp to get high enough for the chilled shot and solder to mix in well enough?
Is there something else I should be aware of and to look for?
Any help would be appreciated as this mixing of stuff is way over my head. I wished I had decided to get involved with this sooner before everything became so scarce. It is hard to justify buying the alloy just to pour up bullets for one handgun, but it is also getting to the point that might be my only option.
So this being the case I consulted another friend who cast, and who also has some of this same lead and has been using it for his loads. He mentioned that since I was going to use this mostly for magnum calibers I might want to add in a bit of shot to stiffen it up a bit. Well while I was rooting up the lead shot, I noted sitting on the end of a shelf, a 1# spool of lead free solder. Well not knowing just what the end result was going to be of my mix, I figured that a couple oz of it surely wouldn't hurt anything.
So I pulled up 20 pounds of the ingots, and broke them up and loaded up my melting pot. While I was waiting I weighed up and poured in 1# of the chilled shot, which was the first to melt. As this was getting things going I added in 2oz of the solder, which immediately melted into the mix.
Well after heating up the ingots were melting away pretty well and I tossed in about a marble sized chunk of old candle to which promptly lit off as I stirred it in.
Here is the strange part however, as I stirred the molten lead I noted that when I stopped there was an immediate gathering of particulate in the middle portion of the molten lead. Not on top but down int eh middle portion.
Now I wasn't sure just what it was, so after stirring at it several times as the heat was increased, I decided it might not should be there so I scooped it up with my ladle and set it aside in another container. While I might not have got it all I got the majority of it and after fluxing two more times I poured the prettiest ingots I have ever done.
Now my questions are,
Could this possibly be some zinc as it did not seem to be fully melted?
Did I not wait for the temp to get high enough for the chilled shot and solder to mix in well enough?
Is there something else I should be aware of and to look for?
Any help would be appreciated as this mixing of stuff is way over my head. I wished I had decided to get involved with this sooner before everything became so scarce. It is hard to justify buying the alloy just to pour up bullets for one handgun, but it is also getting to the point that might be my only option.