Whata u do when u don't no whata do?

[Nose Dive]

OK...Like 5K other smelters... took a load... 250LBs of 'lead'? Yea...OK? but... no assay..no history... and no money... FREE Stuff... so ...here we go....

Stuff is off an old 'rope oil' remover form the 80's. Was counter balance stuff for an arm that reached out over oil poluted pounds and the rope picked up the oil and was scarped off in a bucket and the rope went back out in the pound to do it all over again... So, I go about 20 of the counter weights from a 'person' who wanted to get rid of them.

Smelted fine..melt at 550 to 600F... Fluxed OK with saw dust and wax. Seemed to crust up abid, and was eaisly scrapped away in the dross. Seems cool so far.

How about alloys now? Later? No brinnels...too bad... need that... but.. not cash from the stash to buy a tester... no assays either... to much cash need here....

So Amigos? Do we dump some Tin in? Cast a few and see? Dump in some WW's...(reserve is running dangerously low)... Stuff looks ok... and Price is sweet... so...suggestions on path forward...cast and go? Alloy now and see? Tin Up and flux?

thanks for your feed back fellas.

Nose Dive.

Cheap, Fast, Good. Kindly pick two.

[I'll Make Mine]

Treat it like clip-on wheel weights. Cast some boolits and see what you get; add tin if needed, but don't spend your money on tin if you don't. Counterweights tend to be like boat keels: "whatever is dense and will melt readily". As such, they're probably alloyed much the same way wheel weights are: "that pot's casting too soft, add some hardener" or "the spout's freezing, add some tin."

[runfiverun]

550-650 sounds like good metal to me.
put the heat on 725 and make some boolits,you have 250 lbs of alloy.
i'm sure you can figure out something that likes it.
if you have some ww's make a 50-50 or 75/25 mix.

[Jon]

Worst case they would make good handgun bullets. You can get away with almost anything for those.

Have you tried the pencil test? How about comparing with wheel weights with a bearing in a vise? At least you'll get a relative ballpark on how hard it is.

[2wheelDuke]

You can use a spring loaded center punch and compare to ingots of a known alloy.

[badgeredd]

You can use a spring loaded center punch and compare to ingots of a known alloy.

An excellent idea...granted it won't tell you definitively the hardness, but it'll give you a ball park to work from.

Adding tin may or may not be needed...try casting a bit of the alloy as it is and water drop a few boolis and a/c a few more. IF the water dropped boolit are significantly harder you're pretty much guaranteed it has some antimony and possibly some arsenic. A lot harder indicates it may have some bismuth as well or it has higher antimony content. If you are using fairly slow loads in a rifle, you probably can get into the 1800 fps range with a checked boolit and 1500 without IF fit and lube are decent. Handgun boolits, especially in revolvers are not super alloy sensitive if you have good fit. Since you say WW supply is low, you likely can get by with a 25% WW/75% Mystery metal mix. Don't be afraid to try things that outside of the norm.

Another poor man's hardness tester is to take a ball bearing and squeeze it between an ingot of known metal (say WW lead) and an ingot of unknown alloy. Compare impressions for a relative guesstimate.

Edd

[John Boy]

Home made hardness testers ...
#1 - http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,9451.0.html
#2 - http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?45220-Homemade-hardness-tester
#3 - Brinell Hardness Chart - http://www.texas-mac.com/Evaluations_and_Recommendations_for_Lead-Alloy_Hardness_Testers.html

50 Bucks won't put you in the poor house - Lee Tester ... http://www.midwayusa.com/product/731364/lee-lead-hardness-testing-kit

[Nose Dive]

Thanks gents... will pour a few this week end and see.... I have a small, and really dirty, stash of WW..say about 20 lbs and it really needs smelting, so,, may clean that up a bit, smelt it, cast a few of pure WW's ( is there really such a thing?) and to a side by side comparsion of weight, home made "PING" test and see what gives. Really is a lot of metal and will find a why to use it. We will see. Thanks again...

Nose Dive

Cheap, Fast, good. Kindly pick two.