Don't Have a Hardness Tester

[ncbearman]

I got about 200# of "free" lead this morning. I need some help identifying it. Obviously I know the one pile is wheel weights, but the other I am not sure. I would guess it is pure lead or close to it. If so at what ratio should I add to the ww to get a good handgun boolit? .45acp, .38sp, 9mm, .32acp, .25acp. I will save some for my rifle loading and deal with that later as I am not loading for them yet. Please advise (best you can anyway). As always thanks in advance for your help.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_2384050704b5481463.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=6932) http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_2384050704b551f9ba.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=6933) :lovebooli

[btroj]

Those smaller round pieces, does the hole go clean thru? Those sure look like some sorrow a bearing which means Babbitt metal, not even close to pure.

The big ingots could be pure, hard to say.

Try the drop test. Real soft lead makes a thunk when dropped, harder lead has a clink to it. Not scientific but it does help.

[ncbearman]

Yes the hole does go all the way through. You were correct, big ones and round bars "clunk" the "babbit" clinks. Is the babbit hard enough to load handgun loads by itself or do I need to mix it with ww's?

[btroj]

Ummm, tha Babbitt is hard enough to make the pure useful for handguns!

You could easily mix a pound of the babbit to 3 or 4 pounds of pure and be good, probably could go softer than that.

Babbit is a great sweetener for soft alloys.

[runfiverun]

babbit can also be problematic,not all babbits are just tin and antimony.
some have nickel and tons of other additives in them.
you'll also wanna be very careful mellting that stuff i can see quite a bit of lead oxide on them which indicates the presence of water.
i would melt the hard stuff together and do a specific gravity test on it.
note the melt temp.
weigh a sample against a known sample of the same size.
and try to make a somewhat educated guess at the tin/antimony content.

also the pipe looking pieces might go thud right now but after you melt and cast them it could change, extruded pipe stuff like that can contain 3-5% antimony which will not show up as hardness when swaged,but will when cast.

i'd melt the similar stuff together in batches and keep things separate then blend as i figure each pile out. even if it's just kinda hard, pretty soft, real hard, type piles.

[ncbearman]

Thanks gents. I knew enough to separate just didn't know why I was :o plus I have been separating soft, kinda hard, lino. I guess I will mix some babbit with the soft to make more "kinda hard" until I get a hardness tester.

[Pepe Ray]

Hi;
Can you handle another $0.02 worth?
I've never seen babbit in the configuration as mentioned previously.
Good fortune for you IF it is so.
My concern is that when I first saw your picture I thought that they were
lag screw anchors for attaching items to concrete. IF SO, be very wary of the ZINK content.
I sure hope my guess is wrong.
Pepe Ray

[41mag]

Those short pipe looking pieces are looking exactly like some concrete anchors I have used in the past. I didn't use them for casting boolits but for anchor bolts.

The outer pieces are usually almost dead soft lead, but the inserts which go through the middle and have the threads are MUCH harder, so that the bolt or lag screw doesn't strip out when tightened down.

If I had them I would simply use the outer portions less the inserts and blend them in small batches mixed with about half or more WW's.