Ringing ingots...

[Lee W]

I made three large (50lbs+) ingots out of range scrap and some unknown lead. The range scrap ingot (1) rings nicely with a high pitch. The ingot made with mostly unknown lead (2) has a dull thud sound with little ring. The third ingot is mostly range scrap, and has a slightly lower ring than the first.
The ingots were made the same day and all were cooled the same way. (I turned off the heat)
I am wondering what the second ingot in made of. The dull thud has me thinking it has something else in it like tin, I am hoping tin. If anyone has large ingot of tin, linotype or other known material, please smack it with a hammer and describe the sound. I am sure this test is subjective, but any info will help.

[45 2.1]

A thud indicates almost pure lead. The more it rings, the harder it is.

[Lee W]

45 2.1
That's what I thought too, but the range scrap is from an indoor range and the primary projectiles are 22 and jacketed centerfire. Very few people shoot cast there, certainly not enough to out weight the tens of thousands of 22 rounds shot there every year.

[Buckshot]

...........The brighter the sound, the harder it is. If you have a ball bearing place it between the (seemingly ) harder lead, and the ingot making the dull clunk. Stand on the top one a second or two. Flop the top ingot over and check the impressions. Dull clunk should have a deeper-wider impression then the 'clinkier' sounding one. Sorry about all the scientific terms :D !

Or if you have a drill press, put a bathroom scale on the bed. Place each ingot on the scale in turn and zero the scale to 50lbs or some weight for each in turn. Place a ball bearing on the ingot and run the quill down onto the ball and apply enough pressure to indicate maybe 150lbs. Count to ten and retract the quill. Measure the indent for each. Regardless of clink, clank or clunk, the one with the widest deepest impression is the softer of the 3.

Your impressions are only going to be valid between those 3 ingots as to which is softer or harder and not a determination of any hardness value.

..........Buckshot

[Lee W]

I just started to re-melt the clunking ingot. I plan on checking the melting temp and casting a few boolits. Some boolits will be air cooled and some will be water dropped. I have a hardness tester on loan and I will check there hardness.
When it cools again, I will do the ball bearing test.

[Lee W]

Well, I melted it and the bullets would not register on the tester and it re-solidified at 620 degrees. Sounds like pure lead to me.
Time to check the ones that ring. It did not make sense because the range scrap "should" be almost pure :???: ... We will see.

[waksupi]

I have come up with the solution for ringing the ingots. Find alloys, ranging from pure, to straight lino. Make sure you have at least eight samples. Get two 1X2" boards, long enough for them all to lay on. Drill through the ingots at the ends, and attach them with screws to the boards, using some felt between the ingot and the board, to make the sound more clear. Get wo small hammers, like engraving chasers, so you can sample more than one ingot at a time, to check the tones.

There you have it. The ultimate cast bullets xylophone. And with a full octave of notes!

[Lee W]

I re-melted the one that rings and cast a few boolits, air cooled and water dropped. The air cooled measured 5 bhn and the water dropped measured 8 bhn. I guess even a small amount of antimony makes a huge difference.

[Buckshot]

I have come up with the solution for ringing the ingots. Find alloys, ranging from pure, to straight lino. Make sure you have at least eight samples. Get two 1X2" boards, long enough for them all to lay on. Drill through the ingots at the ends, and attach them with screws to the boards, using some felt between the ingot and the board, to make the sound more clear. Get wo small hammers, like engraving chasers, so you can sample more than one ingot at a time, to check the tones.

There you have it. The ultimate cast bullets xylophone. And with a full octave of notes!

................You hermits up in the wilds have too much spare time on your hands!

............Buckshot