How much Linotype do I need ?

[spokeshave]

I'm fairly new to lead hoarding and so far have only collected about 400# of coww. A freind of mine was buying some car parts from a guy and found out he also had "quite a stash of printer's lead" and yes he'd sell it. We went to see him yesterday he has +- 2000 # of linotype. He'd like $1.50 a pound for it if I only want a little of it but I can have it for $1 a pound if I take 1000 # or more. Will I need more than 1000# ?

Jim

[imashooter2]

Used at a ratio of 3:1, that would be enough to make 4,000 pounds of alloy. 4,000 pounds sounds like lot, but how old are you, how much do you shoot and when do you plan to stop?

4,000 .45 ACP a year is over 130 pounds. If that's all you shoot, the stash would be gone in 30 years.

Worst case, you can sell what you don't want easily for that $1.50 and lower your cost basis in the metal you keep.

[captaint]

spokeshave - You'd - I should say I would be a long, long time using us 1000# of lino. If you're mixing it with clip on WW's, you don't need that much. If you're loading pistol ammo, you don't need any. It is, of course, for you to decide. It is nice to have some around just in case. I think I have 200 # of lino. I don't load hardly any rifle ammo. Very little. I haven't used any of mine. Just my .02. Mike

[lwknight]

Linotype at $1.00 per pound is a good investment. If you can swing it, take at least 1000 of it.
Linotype has $3.25 worth of constituent elements per pound and $2.25 of that is the tin and antimony

[el34]

Don't lose track of the tin value, as well as the antimony.

Assuming COWW = 9.5BHN with no tin, and lino = 20BHN with 4% tin,
1lb COWW plus 0.3lb lino = 12BHN with 1% tin. The classic tin recommendation is 1-2%.
This lines up with imashooter's recommendation.

[Defcon-One]

$1.50 per pound is a fair price and $1.00 per pound is a deal for Linotype. Just be sure that it is really Linotype, especially if it is in large ingots. The strips are easier to trust since they had to come out of a Linotype machine!

I have over 1,200 pounds in ingots and strips (Average price I paid was $1.60 per pound). It is good stuff to have for the following reasons:

1.) It is getting harder to find! Scarce items tend to go up in value over time and with very few printers still using it, it will likely be worth more later. You can sell some off to pay for what you keep! At $1.00 per pound you can likely double your money by selling small lots at $2.00 a pound here. They sell at that price here pretty often. $1.50 a pound is what I have paid for large volumes. $2.00 per pound plus shipping is reasonable on smaller lots like a USPS Small FRB of it.

2.) It is a really good source of Tin and especially, Antimony! If you come across a large stash of Pure Lead it will allow you to make anything from a duplicate of COWW alloy to Lyman #2 out of the softer alloy. It can be used to upgrade other alloys so, it gives you a lot of flexibility.

3.) It makes really nice cast rifle bullets on its own. Casting pure Linotype is a pleasure and the bullets are absolutely beautiful. For higher velocity , target loads it is hard to beat. Only warning is that if you use it this way, it will only last about half as long. I think it is too valuable a commodity to cast bullets with pure Linotype. But it is always nice to have the option!

I'd buy it all at $1.00 per pound! Even if he had 2,000 pounds. You can use what you want and sell the rest at a profit over time to pay for powder, primers and brass! Add some Solder, COWWs and Pure Lead to your stash and you can make any bullet alloy that you'll ever need or want!

DC-1

[Sensai]

Short answer is, all you can get. If you can afford the lot, get it. If you don't use it yourself it's excellent trading and bartering fodder. The sad truth is that none of the big three metals that we use, lead, antimony and tin, are likely to go down in cost. It's a lot more stabile in value than those Federal Reserve Notes that you're paying for it with.

[Larry Gibson]

Concur with "get all you can get". However, I've not found that just adding COWWs to linotype is the best bet as both the lino and the COWWs are antimony rich. Granted the combination will work but you'll be wasting a lot of antimony to get some tin in the COWWs. Best to use the alloy calculator and determine how much of each + some lead + some tin will give you a good general purpose alloy with 3 - 3.5 % antimony, 2 - 3% tin and the rest lead.

I do not mix COWWs with lino anymore preferring to add lead and tin to make excellent alloys of various BHNs from 14 - 22. I also prefer to just add tin (2% to the COWWs) which generally gives an excellent alloy very similar in performance to Lyman's #2 alloy. I will buy, scrounge or salvage good COWWs and lino any time I can.

Larry Gibson

[spokeshave]

OK, Thanks everyone for the compelling reasons to get as much as I can, You've helped talk me into it. I suppose I'd better get it all while the getting is good. It could be the last chance I ever have to get any at that price. I'll be picking it up this evening,plan to weigh 100 pounds in 5 gallon buckets as we load it. From what I've seen its all linotype slugs and some spacers. The spacers bend but break before the ends touch.
I intend to cast 30 06 and .223 mostly so the alloys in it should come in handy.

Thanks again, guys I sure learn alot on this site but trying to save
money by casting boolits sure is getting expensive.

Jim

[dbosman]

If you make up some Small Flat Rate boxes you can get a fair return on your investment, until you get down to what you feel is a comfortable stash.