Help making casting alloy

[Hdcopper]

I got about 4 hundred pounds of pure lead ( at least I am pretty sure it is pure) from my father-in-law. He was a commercial fishermen and had some old net with lead line sill attached. What's the best way to mix it with antimony and tin to make something close to Lyman #2?

New to casting but not reloading. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Rob

[4719dave]

ide melt into ingots ,then find a junk yard that can run a test on the content in your lead first ..

[bdicki]

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

[tygar]

Or, you could send me a couple hundred #s & I could mix it with lino or foundry using the conversion tables found on this site & let you know how it worked out.

[MBTcustom]

The easiest thing to do, would be to secure 303lb of linotype, and 24.2lb of pure tin, and add them all together. That would make Lyman #2 right on the money.

Another option is to buy 85lb of Rotometals superhard alloy, and 25.5lb of pure tin and mix it with what you have. There's Lyman #2 also.

There's quite a few ways to do this, but unfortunately, lead is the cheap part. Adding antimony and tin (especially tin) get's expensive in a hurry.

That said, even though Lyman #2 is a wonderful and excellent casting alloy, it's not necessary for 99.9% of the applications you might need it for.
If you're mainly going to be shooting pistols and low speed rifles, then you don't need near so much precious metal in the mix.
For instance, if you just added 95lb of Lynotype and 7.5lb of pure tin, you would have 95.5/2.25/2.27 which is an exceedingly versatile alloy that will do absolutely anything you need it to do.
Or, you could just add 95lb of linotype to your 400lb of pure and essentially have COWW alloy which has accounted for probably 90% of the cast bullets produced in this country for the past 75 years.

[62chevy]

The easiest thing to do, would be to secure 303lb of linotype, and 24.2lb of pure tin, and add them all together. That would make Lyman #2 right on the money.

Another option is to buy 85lb of Rotometals superhard alloy, and 25.5lb of pure tin and mix it with what you have. There's Lyman #2 also.

There's quite a few ways to do this, but unfortunately, lead is the cheap part. Adding antimony and tin (especially tin) get's expensive in a hurry.

That said, even though Lyman #2 is a wonderful and excellent casting alloy, it's not necessary for 99.9% of the applications you might need it for.
If you're mainly going to be shooting pistols and low speed rifles, then you don't need near so much precious metal in the mix.
For instance, if you just added 95lb of Lynotype and 7.5lb of pure tin, you would have 95.5/2.25/2.27 which is an exceedingly versatile alloy that will do absolutely anything you need it to do.
Or, you could just add 95lb of linotype to your 400lb of pure and essentially have COWW alloy which has accounted for probably 90% of the cast bullets produced in this country for the past 75 years.


:goodpost:

That about sums it up but still get the Alloy Calculator.

[runfiverun]

goodsteel has good advice.
lyman#2 has it's uses, but 95% of what I do doesn't require anything even close.
I have about 3 applications where a similar [4/6/90] alloy gets used.
5/5 cut in half is a decent alloy but I don't like even that much tin in my alloys.

[MBTcustom]

After thinking about it, if I were in your position, I would smelt 50lb of #2, and make the rest of it into something that's about 96/2/2 and save some of the Lynotype for a rainy day and keep some of the pure lead as is. That would give you four alloys that would hold you down for a few years of casting and shooting and cover 100% of anything that's likely to strike your fancy.

This is pretty much what I have done. I've condensed my alloys into a fraction of what I used to have. The vast majority of my stash is what I call "House" alloy which is 95.6/2.2/2.2. I have about 600lb of COWW, 300lb of pure, 50lb of Lynotype, and 30lb of 63/37 solder.

For me, Lyman #2 and Lynotype have very narrow applications as target only alloys (duck to avoid flying objects). They are too tough/brittle to hunt with, they are too expensive to shoot a whole lot, and I can get almost the same results from lesser alloys by manipulating the hardness via quenching/ heat treating etc etc. They have the advantage of being excellent casting alloys (see my thread entitled "consistency applied") but so does House alloy.
The only place I have found an absolute need for such expensive alloys is when shooting extremely high velocity (3000FPS give or take. See the 30XCB threads.) If I need a bullet for anything 2700FPS or less, then it can usually be done with carefully constructed alloys of lesser cost.

There's a lot written about alloys here on the forum, and by far, the most common you are likely to read about is COWW + 2% tin. There's a reason for that. I used to think that it was just a compromise to obtain cheap alloy (and that's certainly why I was doing it) but after spending the last 4 years carefully constructing and testing various alloys no matter the cost, I have come to the realization that COWW with truly balanced tin and antimony (call it 2% of each) is not only a very solid alloy, but is far more versatile than the other two golden standards I have always held (being Lyman#2 and Lynotype).

An old man gave me some advice once, and it applies to all of life and insures happiness no matter what you are considering:
"Spend your money where you spend the most time."
He was speaking to household decor and tools, but I find it applies to firearms, and reloading components as well. In this case, I would apply it to your choice of alloy.

[bangerjim]

The FREE alloy calculator is "your little friend"........get it.

You can then figure out what you need to mix to get to the alloy you need.

You do NOT add pure Sb. Get it in a pre-made alloy.

COWW alloy will be very useful to you!

banger