loose track of alloy

[lead chucker]

When you cast a pot of boolits and there is leftover in the pot you drain it out into ingots. And set aside. Well after doing this for a while and casting different alloys. I had 10to 12 pounds. So I melted them all together and have mystery alloy so I cast them all up into 200 gr 308 boolits. Now I have to wait a couple weeks to see what I have. Any one else get they alloy mixed up and not quite sure what to make out of them? Now I keep a magic marker with my casting equipment so I can keep every thing straight.

[Southern Son]

I have a bunch of ingots that have been out in the bottom of a pile in my shed, some are pure Pb (from a foundry), some are WW (clip ons, mainly), some are a complete mistery. I now have a permanent marker close by, as soon as the ingot cool, or if I leave in the pot the melt, I write on it straight away.

[btroj]

I don't drain the lead from the pot when done casting. I leave it I there to speed the melting process for next time I cast. Then I add whatever I need to get the hardness I am after.

I don't fret over an exact alloy. I don't think a gun can tell a difference of a few BHN.

[David2011]

I don't drain the lead from the pot when done casting. I leave it I there to speed the melting process for next time I cast. Then I add whatever I need to get the hardness I am after.

I don't fret over an exact alloy. I don't think a gun can tell a difference of a few BHN.

+1! A little in the bottom of the pot makes a great starter for the next batch. If you generally use the same alloy, go ahead and put your 10 or 20 punds in and startup time will be that much quicker next session.

David.

[leadman]

Leaving alloy in the pot is recommended by at least one pot maker I know of.

[jcameron996]

I have only been at this for a short time, but I use a metal scribe to mark my ingots. I figured that would last longer than the marker.

[MGySgt]

I use one alloy - I mix anywhere from 200 to 1000 pounds at a time. Never empty my pot.

[runfiverun]

i just use different pots
one for soft/pure.
one for ww alloy
one for my 4/6 alloy
and one for linotype.
if i can't do what i want with one of those alloys it don't need doin.

[lead chucker]

Now that would be convenient to have all those pots. If I had the money I would, and as long as I was at it I would have a reloading press for each caliber I own, now were talking. But I don't. Some day mabe. I know I could get my wife a couple and then borrow them from her. As a mater of fact I think she needs a new gun too. Doesn't hert to dream.

[Down South]

i just use different pots
one for soft/pure.
one for ww alloy
one for my 4/6 alloy
and one for linotype.
if i can't do what i want with one of those alloys it don't need doin.

I knew that I needed two more pots for something. Actually it's a good idea. I have three presses set up, why not three pots

[frankenfab]

Yes, I lose track of what is in a few leftovers from time to time. I just cast that alloy in to target boolits with gas checks for handgun only. I definitely want to know exactly what is in any rifle boolit.

I like the idea of more lead pots as well. I have 2, but that started out as a way of keeping plenty of alloy at casting temp at all times when casting very large boolits.

[357maximum]

A big smelting pot (400+lbs) to make large batches of known alloys along with casting pots for each alloy will make one a happier fella.

I have 1 - 40 lb casting pot for each;
-pure lead
-soft range/unkown aquired lead
-50/50 ww/pure- I use this most out of them all
-50/50+5%copper/nickle bearing babbit for my high intensity rifle alloy
-I also have one pot for experimental alloys, this is the only one that ever gets"empty"

.....and matched stacks of ingots to keep each one full without altering the alloy in the pot.

All collected and volunteer unkown, unknown alloys get sorted by hardness when aquired and made into bigger batches of known,unknown alloy for future use. Alot of my "soft" lead is damifiknow but it is soft and unless it screams 'tin rich" or odd acting it gets called soft lead and blended into 50/50 or cast into plinkers/frontstuffer fodder. Seperating the knownunknowns from the unkownunowns is pure science and art inand of itself.:mrgreen: Unless you are driving the ragged edges of cast performance it likely is not all that important to be utterly scientific about it.

[Silver Hand]

Markers and scratch marks can run away over time, I don't know where they go but there are plenty old ingots in my shop basement, I know permanent marker was used on. If you store lead behind the wood shed even scratch marks can be hard to find many years later. I do live close to the Ocean lots of salt in the rain.

I found a letter punch set works best for me, if it has a set of numbers better yet. When I smelt, each batch gets a number and a letter code. For two reasons I am orderly in some things#1 and #2 -If I do melt in some Zinc one day, I will know what lot it is in and can remove it from the lead, without doing it all over again.

[**oneshot**]

I use a chisel and a hammer to scribe what it is.

[runfiverun]

the press thing get's out of hand too.
i have some i push to the back of the bench and rotate as needed.
i found the dillon thing to work out pretty good.
two 550's and two shelves of die heads.
the 450 is sitting in a box with a lyman o press waiting for more bench space.
three rock chucker presses are hogging most of the open areas.
so much so that i have to take one off the bench to set up one of the ponsess warrens,
which may go out in the shop soon and replace the three mec and the pacific shotshell loader out there.
having stuff is cool and a pain at the same time.

[EdS]

I started casting when I got out of High School, 50 years ago. Cast for many years, but then job and family claimed more of my time and I set it aside. So, 25 years later (+/-) I started casting again. Dug out all of my "lead" including mystery ingots, WWs, monotype, and pure Pb. The only thing I could do was to assume that the ingots were from my old favorite alloy which was 20-1-1 or possibly 16-1 and begin casting for my revolvers. This worked out just fine, so I cast some for my 30-30. No problems there either. I guess I guessed right! -Ed