Deep Six
04-20-2014, 09:21 PM
I recently used up my last ingot. With a new Mihec mold coming soon, I need more ingots! I'm getting ready to mix up the next batch and am trying to decide what alloy I want. My smelting pot holds 60 lbs of melt. I need a good general purpose alloy; it will be used air-cooled in 38, 44, and 45, and water quenched in gas-checked 8mm rifle loads of about 2200 fps. I can also water quench if needed for magnums in 357 and 44. I use Ben's Red lube for most stuff but am experimenting with powder coating and like it on the low pressure stuff so far. I have the following material on hand:
• 2-52 lb ingots of lead from a commercial recycler (it was sold to me as straight lead but I think it's probably closer to range lead alloy)
• 15 lbs clip-on WW
• 4 lbs of "mystery" lead ingots from my coworker (he found them cleaning out his father-in-laws garage - they are kind of rusty looking on the exterior but are good 'ole soft lead underneath)
Obviously I'll need to add some tin and something to harden it up. I was going to order some superhard alloy from Rotometals and then add a lb of 95/5 solder but I think the 5 lb ingot of superhard will be too much Sb. I got to looking around the Roto sight and found their Super Tough babbit alloy which is 84/8/8 Sn/Sb/Cu. This appears to be a more cost effective means of getting a good usable alloy and I've been wanted to experiment with copper. So what I was thinking was that I would fill my 60 lb pot with 43 lbs of pure (which I suspect is actually closer to range lead alloy), 15 lbs WW, and 2 lbs of the super tough. This would give me an alloy of about 95.2/3.1/1.4/0.27 Pb/Sn/Sb/Cu with a trace of arsenic from the WW. Per the alloy spreadsheet it would have a hardness of about 11.0 when air cooled.
I know it sounds a little soft but I'm hoping the copper and water quenching allows it to work in the higher pressure loads. Anyone have any experience with alloying with Super Tough? Good idea or should I just stick to the Super Hard?
• 2-52 lb ingots of lead from a commercial recycler (it was sold to me as straight lead but I think it's probably closer to range lead alloy)
• 15 lbs clip-on WW
• 4 lbs of "mystery" lead ingots from my coworker (he found them cleaning out his father-in-laws garage - they are kind of rusty looking on the exterior but are good 'ole soft lead underneath)
Obviously I'll need to add some tin and something to harden it up. I was going to order some superhard alloy from Rotometals and then add a lb of 95/5 solder but I think the 5 lb ingot of superhard will be too much Sb. I got to looking around the Roto sight and found their Super Tough babbit alloy which is 84/8/8 Sn/Sb/Cu. This appears to be a more cost effective means of getting a good usable alloy and I've been wanted to experiment with copper. So what I was thinking was that I would fill my 60 lb pot with 43 lbs of pure (which I suspect is actually closer to range lead alloy), 15 lbs WW, and 2 lbs of the super tough. This would give me an alloy of about 95.2/3.1/1.4/0.27 Pb/Sn/Sb/Cu with a trace of arsenic from the WW. Per the alloy spreadsheet it would have a hardness of about 11.0 when air cooled.
I know it sounds a little soft but I'm hoping the copper and water quenching allows it to work in the higher pressure loads. Anyone have any experience with alloying with Super Tough? Good idea or should I just stick to the Super Hard?