lead question

[Catsmith]

I ended up with some 50-50 rods in a deal I made. 50 tin and 50 lead. I am trying to figure out how I would use them.

We melted and poured about 85 lbs of ww (ingit weight), 8 lbs of super soft lead from duck decoy weights, about 3 lbs of fishing weights and 3 lbs of bullets that came in the same deal as above.

Been reading alot and think I am getting the jist of the process.0

I guess my question is how would I use the 50-50?

I will be starting out casting heavy hunting loads for 357 and probably 44.

[I'll Make Mine]

I ended up with some 50-50 rods in a deal I made. 50 tin and 50 lead. I am trying to figure out how I would use them.

Use them as a tin source. When you want to add 1% tin to your wheel weights to improve mold fill out, just add 2% of that 50/50 alloy instead.

[bumpo628]

I ended up with some 50-50 rods in a deal I made. 50 tin and 50 lead. I am trying to figure out how I would use them.

We melted and poured about 85 lbs of ww (ingit weight), 8 lbs of super soft lead from duck decoy weights, about 3 lbs of fishing weights and 3 lbs of bullets that came in the same deal as above.

Been reading alot and think I am getting the jist of the process.0

I guess my question is how would I use the 50-50?

I will be starting out casting heavy hunting loads for 357 and probably 44.


Take a look at my alloy calculator (link below).

You can mix and match your ingredients to make what you need.
- Clip on WW lead (I assume they are from clip on ww's - stick on ww's are soft)
- Pure lead from the decoy weights and possibly the sinkers
- 50/50 solder
- Bullets (3 lbs) could be Hardball if they are commercial cast = 2% tin, 6% antimony

With these ingredients, you can control the tin % easily, but not the antimony % very well. That's not a big deal since the WW lead should have some antimony in there already. You can try adding 1 to 2% to the WW lead for your 357 and 44 and see how that works in your guns. If you can get some linotype, then you'll be able to make just about anything.

[Catsmith]

Thank you both and I am trying to learn enough to try and use the spreadsheet. lol

[375RUGER]

bumpo's spread sheet is great.

since it is set up for you to enter values in pounds, if you need to add ounces you will enter 0.0625, this is 1 oz.

1.1 is approximately 1# 1 5/8 oz

.0625 = 1oz
.0313 = 1/2 oz
.0156 = 1/4 oz
.0078 = 1/8 oz
.125 = 2 oz
and so on and so forth

Copy the whole sheet and paste it in the next tab, rename that tab what ever alloy you are trying to make. I probably have 12 tabs with diffferent recipes myself.

[bumpo628]

I'll try to work two columns (lb & oz) in there next time I update the calculator. It will be hard to fit, but obviously it will make it easier to use.

[375RUGER]

I actually misspoke, the unit column is not really specific to a unit of measure but I don't think very many people measure out 1 of lead and alloy it so they can make 3 boolits and try. The cost caluculator uses lb but the alloy mixer is just a unit so it can be grams or anything, just don't confuse the units in the cost calc. My point was it is a decimal value of whatever units you care to measure.

Bumpo, that would be a lot of work to change all those formulas, but I'm sure many would appreciate the efforts.
Sending you a PM now.