Surprise Packages finally opened....what it this stuff?

[JWFilips]

Earlier This Spring I received a box of boolit casting metals from a guy who used to cast many years ago. When he found out I was new to casting he dug out the stuff from his garage, boxed it up and gave it to me. He said it was all the metals he used to use for making "good boolits". However he didn't remember what was all in there nor what he actually used to use.

Well I took them home & laid them aside for the summer & just recently opened up all the boxes.
Well, I got some dead soft lead ingots, got a pile of lead wheel weights un-smelted, a few ingots of what I feel are smelted wheel weights ( by using the pencil test bhn 11-12)
Some already cast up .38 cal pistol boolits that test about bhn 15-16,
a few ingots of what I think is that same alloy as the cast boolits (test about bhn 15-16)

but the real puzzler to me is three other squarish shaped ingots ( one looks to have been cut with a bandsaw),
From what I can tell maybe bhn 26-28. I'm thinking ( actually hoping) it may be some form of smelted down mono or foundry type.

My question is: without having that stuff analyzed, is there any way I may be able to find out what it is? Doesn't type set metal melt rather quickly at a lower temperature and goes straight to the liquidus state ? Is that a way of testing?

[Skunkworks]

If i look here

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?105952-Lead-alloy-calculators

a good guess would be Monotype 9% Tin, 19% Antimony BHN 26

[fryboy]

the specific gravity test , tho i'm far from versed in it would give you a lil better idea but a analysis is the only true way to know exactly what's in it , one easy test is to cast a boolit with it and a couple known alloys weigh and measure and compare , myself i go for hardness ( well dead soft, semi soft,hard,harder and hard as hades ) mono being the hardest/lightest/largest of course stepping down in alloys all the way to pure Pb ( softest and smallest yet also the heaviest per cast boolit )

[skeettx]

Please post a picture of the ingots in question
Mike

[Geppetto]

PM incoming JW, I can probably help you out.

[scb]

I had some 2" square, flat top pyramid ingots that were tin. Yours could be almost anything I guess.

[williamwaco]

You don't really care what the actual composition is. The only thing you really care about is that the hardness is in the range you want ( +/- 2 or 3 ) and that it has enough tin to fill out the mold and produce clean sharp bullets.

The hard stuff, If your measurement is correct is something harder than lino.

Use it to mix with lead that is too soft. I like bullets in the BNH range of 10 to 15.

It sounds to me like you are ready to go with a little hardner for use when you acquire some pure scrap lead.

[JWFilips]

Well I'm figuring since he said everything was in there! ( and he had already had cast boolits with some ingots of the same stuff which must have been the total mix) The dead soft + Wheel Weights and this "Hard " stuff = what his cast boolits were .
Actually the more I think of it his Finally alloy ( a few ingots plus a bunch of cast boolits look to be Lyman #2) so the secret wild card has to be in that "hard stuff"
Geppetto I may take you up on the offer Sure would like to know what the hard stuff is

[el34]

Have you considered getting a hardness tester? The Lee, regardless of the gripes, works and is around $55. It'll demystify a lot of that stuff and will help you formulate alloys in the future.

[runfiverun]

a hardness tester will only tell you hardness not what's in the ingot.
they could be a babbit /low tin [relative like 40%] metal too.

[BNE]

PM sent. I can help you out.

[JWFilips]

Well, thanks to a few members who ran some test of samples for me, it appears that these mystery ingots are 99% zinc! I guess the old gentleman who gave all of his old boolit making metal to me must have pulled all the zinc wheel weights and smelted them down separately for some reason ( possibly to make it easier to store away until he had enough to take to the recycler ) The only scary thing I noticed is that 1 of the ingots was cut on a band saw so I wonder it that went into one of his batches of boolit alloy. So now, outside of the real un-smelted wheel weights in the boxes, I'm not sure if any of of the other boolit alloy ingots have been compromised. I guess those will sit for awhile until I get desperate.