Making #2

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Mixing Your Own #2 Alloy


Making your own bullet alloy is easy. Mixture that compares very favorably to Lyman #2 alloy may be concocted by melting down a few items which are readily available. Some of these items contain small traces of other metals , but from the stand point of making bullets may be considered pure.


5 ½ Lbs. wheel weights
1 Lb. 50/50 bar solder
3 ½ Lbs. of pure lead
YIELDS 10 Lbs. of #2 Alloy
This may need extra tin as wheel weight have changed alloy over the
years.


4 Lbs. linotype
1 Lb. 50/50 bar solder
5 Lbs. of pure lead
YIELDS 10 Lbs. of #2 Alloy

Wheel weights contain about 9% antimony and they are available from many sources, including right here in our own swapping and selling. Bar solder contains 50% lead and 50% tin and is available at plumbing supply stores and various websites. Linotype which contains 12% antimony, 4% tin and 84% lead can be found locally from old print shops and on the internet. Pure lead can be found at local junk yards in the form of pipe or roofing jacks, it also can be found on the internet.
This is just a brief rundown of making #2 lead alloy.


Andy

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I would like this to remain a recipe post for #2 alloy please. If you have a recipe please add it here.

Andy

[jmort]

50 lbs of Eagle Magnum Shot $98.98 delivered from Zip Metals
2.5 lbs tin RotoMetals Approx $45.00 delivered

This would be clean foundry grade #2 for $2.88 per pound delivered. Not saying it is a great deal, but it would be clean alloy for less than RotoMetals #2 which is $3.19 per pound (plus tax for me here in California of an additional $.29 per pound for total of $3.48 per pound) and should have some arsenic to boot. I like it.

[Nocturnal Stumblebutt]

I believe mine was 6 lbs Foundry type, 23 lbs of pure and 1 lb of 50/50, but I'll have to double check.

[Dusty Bannister]

Wheel weights contain about 9% antimony and they are available from many sources, including right here in our own swapping and selling.
Andy[/QUOTE]

This is not correct. The Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, 4th edition as well as the older 3rd edition show WW to be .5%tin, 4% antimony and 95.5 lead.
Dusty

[Ajax]

This info was taken from a older manual so if it is not please let me know.

Andy

[detox]

According to my Saeco boolit hardness tester instructions...1 part Linotype to 1 part Pure Soft Lead will have same hardness of #2 (14 -15 bhn). This tested true with my Saeco BHN gauge.

[Defcon-One]

Andy:

Wheel weights contain about 2-3% antimony, not 9%! That is Clip-on Wheel Weights! There are also Stick-on Wheel Weights which are almost Pure Lead with a bit of Tin.

I'm sorry to say that your first recipe would make an alloy with 5.16% Tin, 1.65% Antimony and 93.22 % Lead. Way light of the 5% Antimony required for Lyman's #2 Alloy. That is a bad balance as well. You never want more Tin than Antimony in a tertiary alloy.

Your second recipe would yield an alloy with 6.60% Tin, 4.80% Antimony and 88.60 % Lead, closer but still high on Tin and a bit light on Antimony.

I'd try this:

7 lbs. Clip-on Wheel Weight
2.56 lbs. Linotype
0.79 lbs. 50/50 Solder

You'll get 10.35 lbs. of 5.00% Tin, 5.00% Antimony and 89.91% Lead with insignificant traces of Arsenic and Copper.

[Defcon-One]

According to my Saeco boolit hardness tester instructions...1 part Linotype to 1 part Pure Soft Lead will have same hardness of #2 (14 -15 bhn). This tested true with my Saeco BHN gauge.

...1 part Linotype to 1 part Pure Soft Lead.... is Hardball Alloy. It should have a BHN of 16, 1 point higher than Lyman #2.

It was developed as a cheaper alternative to Lyman #2 back in the days when Linotype was being sold off by printers who were switching to electronic printing methods and photo offset lithography.

It is used now by most of the larger commercial bullet casting companies.

[lwknight]

Even today , priced/valued at its constituent elements hardball is $2.12 per pound vs #2 at $2.50 per pound.
The hardest thing about a recipe is that materials can be hard to find for most so we are forced to use computers and alloy calculators to figure out what to do with what we can get.

[jmort]

"Even today , priced/valued at its constituent elements hardball is $2.12 per pound vs #2 at $2.50 per pound.
The hardest thing about a recipe is that materials can be hard to find for most so we are forced to use computers and alloy calculators to figure out what to do with what we can get."

No "computer or alloy calculator" necessary if you use my recipe, post #3. Simple and for $2.88 per pound delivered not a bad deal at all.

[Ajax]

Those recipes i posted were from a old Lyman 44th edition. I am sure the composition has changed over the years. I am trying to help the new guys out who are trying to figure out alloying. Your posts have been exactly what i was after thank you all very much and please keep adding to this.

Andy