Up the antimoney

[JohnTCM]

I have a somewhat large quantity(500+/- lbs) of alloy that I have determined is 85-10-5. I derived this by using the formula by Rick Jamison found in Handloaders The Art Of Bullet Casting. I would like to increase the antimoney content to acheive a more usable bullet alloy. I have linotype and some babbit metal to use. I would appreciate any suggestions before I begin experimenting.

[PbHurler]

That's a pretty rich alloy as you have it. Linotype is 84%Pb, 12%Sb, 4%Sn BNH=22
Your alloy should be around BNH 19. (pretty hard stuff) I'm not sure why you'd want to increase the antimony content?

If you want to play with the possibilities; Check out this Alloy Calculator spreadsheet here: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?105952-Lead-alloy-calculators

[Larry Gibson]

Seems like it has enough antiomony to me also. If you want harder simply WQ ot HT the bullets. I would probably add lead and tin to get it down to 92-5-3 to 90-5-5. Something closer to 95-4-3 is my prefered alloy for most uses.

Larry Gibson

[JohnTCM]

PbHurler,
The breakdown of my metal is 85pb-10Sn-5Sb. Sorry for the confusion. What I actually want is to reduce the tin while increasing antimoney.

[R.M.]

Adding WW might be the way to go as they have low tin content.
Have you tried one of the alloy calculators listed here someplace? That might help a lot.

[popper]

Or antimony lead from rotometal.

[GLL]

As popper suggests get some "Superhard" from Rotometals.
It is 30% Sb + 70% Pb. This makes it easy to calculate alloy compositions.

Jerry

[badbob454]

superhard # seconds on that ...

[runfiverun]

tin is usually the first number in an alloy designation and antimony second.
then either copper or silver and trace elements [if known] then lead.
i made the op's alloy out as pewter.

[lwknight]

tin is usually the first number in an alloy designation and antimony second.
then either copper or silver and trace elements [if known] then lead.
i made the op's alloy out as pewter.

That's about what I was thinking. Not pewter because of the lead content but a babbit type anyway. The really old pewter may have had lead in it. Maybe that is why people used to die younger.

[runfiverun]

the old stuff did have some lead in it.
it made things taste sweeter.
stuff marked british metal was mandated to be high tin content and no lead content in the 50's airc.

the romans used to add lead to some of their food and their wine,and eat off lead plates.
they used it for water pipes,and to line their pools at their baths.
that may have lead to some of their issues. :lol:

[JohnTCM]

Looks like a call to Rotometals is in order. Thanks

[Bigslug]

PbHurler,
The breakdown of my metal is 85pb-10Sn-5Sb. Sorry for the confusion. What I actually want is to reduce the tin while increasing antimoney.

John,

I'm thinking you've probably got a very useable - or possibly too hard - alloy as-is. I can't find an exact match for those numbers, but I'd guess you've got a BHN number that's probably in the high teens / low 20's, which is plenty hard for rifle applications and might even be too hard for handgun work with guns short of the uber-magnums. Tin makes harder and tougher; antimony makes harder and brittle.

Have you hardness-tested this stuff, and what's the application going to be?

[lwknight]

John , what you have is a potent sweetener.
You can can mix 1 part (your stuff) to 3 pure leads and the 12.8 oz super hard to get very near 2-6-92 tin/sb/pb

[JohnTCM]

Right you are Mr. Knight. I was going about this batch of metal all wrong.I was looking for a way to make this batch more useable instead of using this stuff to make other metal more useable. 10lbs clip on WW to 3 lbs 85-10-5 produced the following-Lyman 410459 220 mould design dropped bullets weighing 215-216 Lyman 401638 180 mould design did 175-176. Casting temp was 650-700, fluxed with pine sawdust.Pretty bullets too that don't scratch easily with the fingernail. If they fly as good as they look I'm set for my next batch of wheel weights. Thanks to all that contributed ideas for me. Sometime it's too easy to overlook the obvious.

[Nose Dive]

Yup... They can be too hard.... Softner's, sweetner's, Alloying is fun for sure. And Rotometals stuff is dead on, albiet from time to time it they are a chore to do business with. BUT,,, I have always been 'happy' after dealing with CUSTOMER service.... I do business with them today.

Nose Dive

Cheap, Fast, Good. Kindly Pick two.

[JohnTCM]

Fast and Good are my picks Mr. Nose Dive

[bumpo628]

Easy solution.
Mix that stuff about 50/50 with magnum shot. The result will be very close to Lyman #2.

From there, you can alloy it to get whatever you want.

[303Guy]

It would be interesting to see what would happen if one were to try to dissolve some copper into the OP's alloy. It should reduce the hardness and increase the toughness i.e. make it more malleable. Dissolving copper into molten lead alloy is simple. First tin the copper with solder then submerge in the molten alloy. It takes quite some time. Might I interest you in testing a sample?:roll: