2.5% Ag anyone?

[BNE]

Hi, I am a total newbie to casting. I have reloaded since 1999, but I have just started casting. THIS IS SOOOOOO fun!! I'm hunting for lead everywhere I can scrounge it. I have a small supply of 97.5% Pb and 2.5% Ag. I only have 1.5#s now, and I expect to collect ~10#s a year. Obviously not a huge supply, but it is FREE and I'm not willing to pass it by.

Should I just treat it as "soft"?

[runfiverun]

it won't be soft, silver is a hardening agent in lead.
that is what lazer cast uses.

[khmer6]

For a moment there I thought it was a typo on how much lead lol. Good score, but free lead is always good lead. Possibly cut it with something softer to stretch your supply?

[BNE]

Thanks folks. I will just hold on to it until I can get a hardness tester. I get the alloy in the form of ~.100" wire. It "feels" very soft, but I know this is relative. Again, thanks for the input. This forum has saved me tons of mistakes.

[williamwaco]

Hi, I am a total newbie to casting. I have reloaded since 1999, but I have just started casting. THIS IS SOOOOOO fun!! I'm hunting for lead everywhere I can scrounge it. I have a small supply of 97.5% Pb and 2.5% Ag. I only have 1.5#s now, and I expect to collect ~10#s a year. Obviously not a huge supply, but it is FREE and I'm not willing to pass it by.

Should I just treat it as "soft"?

If this stuff is 2.5% silver and you can collect 10 pounds of it, that would be around $100 worth of silver.
I don't know if you can sell it that way but I would sure try before I make bullets from it.

[bjeffv]

2.5% silver is a lot, especially if you are getting it for free. Are you sure its 2.5% silver? As mentioned in a pound that would be about .4 ounces, worth around 12 bucks.

That said laser-cast bullets are some of the best in my opinion, and give me no leading what so ever. IDK what the alloy is though, but I doubt its as high as 2.5% simply because 1000 200 grain bullets is roughly 25 lbs, and you get 1000 shipped for 127.50 from laser cast. so that obviously isn't economically feasible.

You could use it to create your own silver allow, I would probably mix it down to get the silver % to .25-.5% but that's a total guess.

[KYCaster]

Are you sure that isn't lead free solder?......97.5%Sn/2.5%Ag?

Jerry

[BNE]

Guys, thanks for the comments, I am 100% sure it is 2.5% silver. The company I work for uses this to braze some very old designs that require this alloy. To be honest, I had not considered the price of the silver itself. Most of the designs we make use a silver-copper eutectic alloy or just pure silver or pure copper. Some use a mix of gold - copper. The scrap from these alloys are kept and eventually recycled. (We don't get what they are worth when we do this.) Now I will have to see what the value would be to have it recycled. If it is as high as you think, then I will lose this source! ( I did verify with my boss before I took it home, but neither of us considered the possible value of the silver. I like my job!)

[Grump]

If'n you could do a quick small melt and cast 2-4 boolits that are reasonably filled front and back (ugly is okay, just want the surfaces) and have a good-size meplat (no pointy stuff please), and mail 'em out to me, I'll tell you what the SAECO tester says. I'm quite curious.

Your business sounds almost more like device fabrication than jewelry "designs". I imagine jewelers are keenly aware of all salvage values. The one I know collects the grindings from everything and recycles it into his artistic casting work.

My Dad's theory on Oregon Trail/Laser-Cast is that Flexible Mining or whatever the parent company is has high silver content lead ore (or super-high lead content silver ore, regardless of "half-empty"/"half full" perspectives) and refining the two away from each other just isn't economical. Or they don't want to buy the stuff or spend the time even if it is economical. Fabricated goods almost always fetch more $$$ than the component commodities (until you're in the used market for some items).

The lead calculator spreadsheet linked to on the Alloys page includes two lines for custom alloy, with a column for silver, IIRC.

[rockrat]

So how much silver is needed to harden? I was getting ready today to make some alloy with .04% silver and .28% copper, 5.06% tin, .11%arsenic and 5.14% antimony, then 89.4% lead. I know the Cu will help harden the alloy, but wondering about this silver. I have a few 1 lb. bars of 96.5%sn,3%Ag,.5%Cu I was going to use in the melt. There's $11 worth of silver in each bar, not to mention the tin value!!