Should I re-melt all my lead in one pot for a single alloy?

[Oreo]

I have about 200 lbs of lead total, all of it in clean ingots. 145lb is recovered bullets from a local range mixed with a tiny bit of tin scrap I had laying around (<1lb). The rest is some WW ingots, some pure Pb ingots, & some WW-pure Pb mix ingots & I'm not sure which ingots are what. I'm thinking of just melting it all together on my next smelt so that I've got a single consistent alloy for bullet making.

I'll only be casting for .40s&w and 10mm for the foreseeable future. The lead was all free so $20 in propane to do it doesn't bother me much if it simplifies making good boolits later. I'm a total newb to casting. Probably won't get around to making bullets for another year or so.

Yay or nay? Should I mix it all into a single batch or not?

[stubshaft]

The advantage of a single alloy is that it gives you a baseline to add other components to as needed. The again it should be entirely usuable as a plinking alloy. My vote is YEA!

[mac1911]

Is it all tossed in one bucket already ? If so melt away
I lost track of some ignots that I did not mark. Un official hardness test(thumb nail) at least culled out the very soft lead.
If its sorted but un known what is what it maybe worth more of your effort to have each batch hardness tested before melting all down again.
I have since aquired different shape ignot molds for my different alloys-

[XWrench3]

Ok, you messed up. We all have. This is my trick to keep everything straight. I use different shaped molds for different types of lead. I use corn bread mold for linotype, i use mini-muffin tins for pure lead, standard lyman ingot mold and large cupcake molds for wheel weights, and i have one more, that i really do not know what it was supposed to be used for that i use for lino-w.w. Mix alloys. Those alloys get marked before i put them away as to what they are (70%ww/30%lino,etc.). For me, finding pure lead is as difficult and expensive as finding real linotype. So i want to maximize all of it. The only way to do that is keeping it straight. When i realized i had mixed up the lead i had, i used an automatic center punch and an eye loupe to sort it out. The soft lead would leave a much larger and deeper "dent" in the lead than linotype. And anything in between i figured and used as wheel weights until it was gone. Since then, i have been good at keeping it separated.

[Hardcast416taylor]

My low-tech way of marking my ingots after they are cooled from the smelting/alloying step is to mark them with a permanent Sharpie marker. My system of marks is quite simple to understand. "S" is for pure soft lead. "W" stands for straight wheel weight. "L" is linotype. "MO" is for monotype. For alloys I put the alloy such as 50/50.Robert

[gvanzeggelaar]

My low-tech way of marking my ingots after they are cooled from the smelting/alloying step is to mark them with a permanent Sharpie marker. My system of marks is quite simple to understand. "S" is for pure soft lead. "W" stands for straight wheel weight. "L" is linotype. "MO" is for monotype. For alloys I put the alloy such as 50/50.Robert

I do the same thing. I just write it right on the ingot.

[Defcon-One]

YES, I would re-melt all your lead in one pot for a single consistant alloy!

I do it all the time. As stated above, marking each lot makes life easier, too!

[imashooter2]

Mixing all but the pure sounds right to me. Always nice to have some soft stuff on hand for slugging and such.

[para45lda]

I agree, melt everything together except the pure. And mark everything. I actually bought a set of metal stamps. PB, WW, HnH (half n half for 50/50). Stamp em before they even cool off good. Only takes about a 10ounce hammer.

Wes

[cbrick]

I wouldn't blend it into one alloy. I've cast for 30 years and have made that mistake in the past. No matter how sure you are right now that you don't cast for anything that this alloy wouldn't work for, the day is coming when you'll need to alloy for something different and all your alloy is the same.

Keep the stick-on weights, the clip-on weight, the range lead and for sure the pure lead all seperate and label the ingots. I also use a sharpie for this. The day is coming when you'll be glad you did.

Rick

[bumpo628]

In general, I would say no. I like to keep everything separate so that I have the ability to make whatever alloy I might need. Label everything with a sharpie and you'll be in good shape from now on.

However, you're only talking about 200 pounds here. So, it won't be too much trouble to mix it up and make it more consistent. If you need to adjust it later, then it will be easy enough to repeat the results. If you don't know what it is then it won't do you much good to keep it separate. Another approach would be to just mix up all the unknowns. However, if your only known alloy is range lead then you don't really know what that is either. I say mix it up.

[Sonnypie]

Far be it from me to offer any advice, for I am a raw beginner at boolit casting.
But I don't think I would.
The idea of having a mass of one consistent alloy sounds appealing.
But then what?
Say you want something different? Your baseline is already a mixture.
So your "science" becomes tainted by what you start with.
Which isn't a bad thing. Until you run out and want to duplicate.....

I think I would, and will try, and keep at least some of my alloys separated so I have some variety to pick from.
YMMV, and that's fine.

[Oreo]

I think, if I can find a suitable pot for that big of a smelt, I will mix them all next time around. Truth is, I have a very slow but steady supply of pure lead if I need to slug a barrel or something. I have no interest what-so-ever in black powder so that's out. If I really need bullets for something new in the future I can buy them if I have to. ~200lb is not a huge supply of lead so it's not like it would be trashing the mother-load on the off chance I do change my interests drastically 5-10yrs in the future.

I appreciate everyone's comments. They have all been helpful to me.

[MGySgt]

I have 3 different aloys - Pure lead, WW, 35/1. All stick on WW go into the pure. Everything else I have is WW.

I do mix/blend at times only to come up with a large supply of consistant aloy for my 45/70 and 45/90 and now 30/30 (go figure the lowly 30/30).

WW normaly casts just fine without tin added for all my uses, just sometimes I do want a consitant batch for hunting. Make up the batch and cast a LOT of Boolits, use them until they are gone and then make a new batch and start over. Sometimes a variance in the batch CAN cause you some accuracy issues at the longer ranges.