Question about linotype from a casting noobie

[bmac1949]

I recently got hold of about 200lbs of linotype. I'm calling it linotype because most of it single letters resembling the letters found in an old typewritter. There are also some solid bars of lead mixed in with some lead strips. The bars and letters shine a bit more that the duller looking strips. As soon as I got it I started melting it down into ingots and even cast some 45's out of it. I started to wonder about it's hardness as it compares to WW's. When I started reading some of the posts on this form I found that it not nearly as soft as WW's. What I'm gathering is that linotype is added to WW's to make a harder alloy. So, here are my questions. What exactly is this stuff used for? I'm assuming that it is too hard for boolits that are travling below 1000 fps. I didn't seperate the linotype from the lead bars and strips so have I changed the hardness of the ingots to any degree. I had melted down about 100lbs of this stuff into ingots before I realized I needed to do a little research. This stuff is 80 to 90 percent linotype as I described above. Should I seperate before smelting? What is the proceedure for using linotype to harden WW's? I'd appreciate a little help before I got any further into this project. Thanks and excuse any dumb questions I might have asked.

[Ole]

I wouldn't smelt your linotype at all. It's normally clean enough that you can add it straight to your pot when you want to harden an alloy.

That way, if you ever decide to sell it, there will be no doubts as to what you have. Making ingots out of lino doesn't change what you know is in the alloy, but it might change a potential buyer as to what's in it.

[Hardcast416taylor]

If the pieces are single letters and not in a strip of words, this could be mono-type that is harder than linotype. This was used by print shops and small printing offices of a large business. Linotype is most often a thin strip of about 4 - 5" long with an individual line of an article for print. Other pieces may be plain blank for a space in the printed article.Robert

[bmac1949]

Hardcast, I think your right about the monotype. I've melted down about half of it and am going to save the rest as suggested above. I've got about 150lb of wheel weights melted down into ingots and will experiment an little by putting a pound of the monotype in with 7 lbs of WW and see how that does for casting some 30-30 boolits. Thanks for the input.

[jsizemore]

If your casting for a 45 you can use straight ww air-cooled or half stick-on ww/half clip-on ww air cooled for 800-900fps 45acp loads.

[bmac1949]

Next time I go through some WW I'll seperate the stick-on from the clip-on. I smelted 3 buckets awhile back and didn't pull out the clip-on. What's the difference in hardness? I just came in from the shop after casting about 8lb of 30 cal. for my 30-30. They came out pretty good it took me a little bit before I had the pot set to the right temp and get the mold to the right temp. 750 degrees seemed to work best for me. I was using a lyman 2 cavity mold and was probably averaging one and a half bullets per cast but towards the end I was rolling along pretty good. .45 is what I'll be casting most and I'm going to start with just WW as you suggested. I already threw the ones I cast the other day back into the monotype bucket. I just got my casting gear this week. I'm like a kid in a candy store and my back is sore from lugging around buckets of lead but I'm not complaining :)

[canyon-ghost]

Clip-on is hard wheelweight, stick-ons are soft, pure lead. Linotype and Monotype are hardened antimonial lead. Antimony is the metal used for hardness. It takes only a small percentage of antimony to harden lead so, most of us save linotype in small amounts unless shooting a lot of rifle bullets.

Good Luck,
Ron

[stubshaft]

You can mix you lino 50/50 with pure to make "hardball" alloy or in even smaller percentages to make a softer alloy.

[Echo]

I use monotype w/WW's or range scrap at a ratio of 7/1, and add 1% Sn. Makes danged good alloy. (7WW, 1mono)

[skimmerhead]

all my lino comes from a print shop that stopped useing the print machine and switched to mordern tech. i have gotten many pounds from them and there is still plenty i have not gone and pickup yet. there were many different letter sizes and shapes, i just melted them all together and they tested 21bhn on my lbt tester. ww's test around 12-13 bhn. soft lead test around 6-7bhn. i have tested many stickon ww's and have found that not all stickon's are soft, many that i have tested were the same as clip on's, thus screwing up many batch's i mixed to achive a particular bhn according to the lead alloy calculator until i found the problem was the stickon ww's i was useing as soft lead wasn't allways soft. now mono type is harder than lino. so if your concerned about the mixing of your lead i strongly suggest investing in a good bhn tester, there are plenty on the market and sell about a $100.00 bucks. if i can remember where to find the bullet alloy calculator web site i will post it. i hope this helps you out.

skimmerhead:lovebooli

[bumpo628]

I recently got hold of about 200lbs of linotype. I'm calling it linotype because most of it single letters resembling the letters found in an old typewritter. There are also some solid bars of lead mixed in with some lead strips. The bars and letters shine a bit more that the duller looking strips.

Post a picture so we can see what you have there.
Lino is 4% tin, 12% antimony
Mono is 9% tin, 19% antimony

[sag]

thought i would ask... whats a good hardness or alloy ratio for a rifle aplication under 2000fps?

[Moonman]

I cast the small thin strips that are really spacers into small ingots to be used first. The LINO with type on it I left as is for recognition.:guntootsmiley:

[fredj338]

I use my lino to alloy pure lead. Clip ww are fine for 90% of my shooting as cast or water dropped. the type is already in measureable form, I don't see any benefit in casting it into ingots. Just weigh out what you need & add it to the pot.

[Defcon-One]

This is Linotype.....

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/178454e3b599384c3a.jpg

I am guessing from your description that it is Monotype. The filler strips may be a different, softer, alloy. I always keep things separated. You can not separate it once it is mixed. You can often save it if you figure out what it is, though.

You could do as Bumpo suggested and post a pic!