Allowing Antimony In

[RedRiver]

Question....has anyone been able to alloy pure antimony in with lead?

I ask because I'm deciding on buying super hard, which I know will melt in easily. Or going with pure antimony as it's cheaper than super hard.

If so, will pure antimony will melt easily into lead in my smelting pot over a turkey fryer?

[DerekP Houston]

From my reading a few years back I recall the difficulty with "pure" antimony is the melting point. Once it is alloyed with lead the melting point is brought down to something our little 20lb pots can handle. A quick google shows the melting point "1,167°F"

[maxreloader]

I sure do miss the "Antimony Man" and his words of wisdom.

[LAH]

It's my understanding to mix antimony into lead takes a flux is EXTREMELY toxic.

[dragon813gt]

Save yourself the trouble and buy antimonal lead. It's not worth dealing w/ pure antimony to save money. You don't need a high percentage so a little goes a long way.

[hutch18414]

Pure antimony is pretty brittle in a crystalline metallic structure. If you put tin in your lead and pretty much powder the antimony you can dissolve it into the lead without ever reaching the melting point. The tin just increases the ability of the lead to be able to dissolve it. With this being said, antimony in powdered form is pretty toxic, better wear some good PPE. And make sure you are going to have several hours available to sit and stir the pot, it doesn't dissolve fast. If your time is of any value the super hard is actually cheaper. And when you figure in the hazmat factor, much safer. I have done it one time making Lyman #2. And I said then the next time I would just buy super hard or if I found some other high antimony lead I might use that. I think the LASC book has some good data. Not really sure where I read everything any more, seems my hard drive is getting crusty, LOL

[runfiverun]

you actually use low temperature to mix it in.
600-625 is all you need.
tin in the alloy is helpful and a lot of stirring time is required.
you also need a reductant on the surface to help it go into solution.

[RedRiver]

Too much work. I will just get super hard. Thanks to all.

[DerekP Houston]

you actually use low temperature to mix it in.
600-625 is all you need.
tin in the alloy is helpful and a lot of stirring time is required.
you also need a reductant on the surface to help it go into solution.

well I was wrong, thanks for the info!

[Grmps]

you actually use low temperature to mix it in.
600-625 is all you need.
tin in the alloy is helpful and a lot of stirring time is required.
you also need a reductant on the surface to help it go into solution.

You are talking about powdered antimony?

[KYCaster]

Adding pure Sb to your Pb is not nearly as hard as removing Zn from your Pb.

....and not as hard as adding Cu...

....and about the same difficulty as getting your range scrap cleaned and cast into ingots.

It doesn't need to be pulverized to a fine powder. It doesn't need to be heated to its melting temp. It doesn't need any exotic flux.

Jerry

[LAH]

Guess I had the wrong information also.

[sparkeyu]

KYCaster is right just add your tin and small chunks of antimony and stir, worked for me, it will disvolve in

[runfiverun]

powdered and chunks of ore.
it needs a lot of stirring and a reductant.

the antimony man.
Bill Ferguson taught me how to do it and I have added a lot of antimony over the years.
I'd buy the superhard and dunk in the amount I wanted now days.
back then the ore was easier for me to get,

[hunter74]

I'm also curious about trying alloying lead with pure sb myself.

Would it be smart to make small ingots with a very high sb/sn content, and use this to alloy pure at a later time?

Could someone suggest a recepie to make a suitable alloy equal to super hard or even harder? How much sn to sb would be smart to have in the alloy to make mixing easier? And how big batches would be easily made on a turky frier with an output of approximately 8000 W? My pot holds about 40 kg/80 lbs

Many questions......