lyman#2/coww half and half

[Oklahoma Rebel]

has anyone ever mixed these two 50/50? I was thinking about doing it to stretch my alloy (#2) to make it last longer. I know it will be hard enough if I heat treat it, but will it be hard enough if I let it air cool. I am using it in an SKS and a Mosin Nagant. if someone could find out its bhn I would appreciate it, I never was able to understand how to use those calculaters, and do they also tell you how hard it will heat treat to? thanks to anyone who replies, I appreciate it. Travis

[runfiverun]

travis just add your numbers together and divide by the amount.
so take your 5% antimony and your clip on ww's which are probably 3% [or maybe 2% now days]
add the 5 and the 3 together to get 8 and divide by 2 [for 1 lb each] to get 4% antimony.
do the same for your tin content.
it works the same if you add 14 lbs or 29 lbs.

[RogerDat]

Alloy calculator will give you the alloy content and calculate approx. BHN download from the sticky post at the top of this lead and alloys forum. Is spread sheet like Excel but if you don't have Microsoft Office you can download Apache Open Office which is free and it's Calc program works the alloy calculator just fine. http://www.openoffice.org/ Runs on Mac or Windows, or Linux for those that swing that way.

Great way to fiddle with alloys to generate a recipe for what you need.

[Yodogsandman]

If you want to save the Lyman #2, just use straight COWWs. COWW composition should be close to 1/2% tin (Sn) 3% antimony (Sb) and 96 1/2 % lead (Pb). It should water drop right from the mold to 16-18 BHN and oven heat treated/quenched to 28-30 BHN. Water dropped will work fine for the SKS except in the most extreme uses. Almost all velocities with all boolits will be under 2000 FPS.

The amount of tin in your Lyman #2 (5%) will work against you for heat treating or water dropping anyway. The more tin, the less the alloy can harden up and the sooner the boolits will revert back to the original BHN hardness.

[swheeler]

has anyone ever mixed these two 50/50? I was thinking about doing it to stretch my alloy (#2) to make it last longer. I know it will be hard enough if I heat treat it, but will it be hard enough if I let it air cool. I am using it in an SKS and a Mosin Nagant. if someone could find out its bhn I would appreciate it, I never was able to understand how to use those calculaters, and do they also tell you how hard it will heat treat to? thanks to anyone who replies, I appreciate it. Travis

Your alloy will air cool to a 12 bhn +-, OHT I would guess a 20? should be plenty arsenic in the COWW portion of the mix

[Oklahoma Rebel]

thanks a lot guys! I forgot about the high tin content speeding up the age softening, and also hindering the hardening process to begin with. mixing the two alloys 50-50 might just be better then one or the other by itself! alright well it looks like I have some mixing to do, will keep the batches to 50-60lbs though, last time I did a big melt to make an alloy, the last batch of #2 I think, I did too much, and it was a pain, literally, mainly in my back, but also my backside. thanks! Travis

[Oklahoma Rebel]

I was mainly wanting to kknow about the bhn of the combined alloy, I know how to multiply and divide,lol but thanks for trying to help me run five![smilie=s: its been so long since you helped mee out and we talked on the phone, I forgot that was you, till I saw in a post or something brassmagnet call you jamal, then I remembered. so how have you been, you retired from the comm. casting right? that would be a lot of hard and hot work. talk to ya soon!