What alloy have I made and how can I fix it?

[vincewarde]

Last year I scored a bunch of lead roofing. I alloyed it with monotype and made up a bunch of ingots that should have been Hardball, if my assumption about the roofing lead being near pure is correct. However, I doubt that I have Hardball or anything close - because the melting point of this alloy is very low. In preparation of possibly using powder coat, I checked the melting point of the alloy. It gets soft and distorts at 400f and melts at 415f. Although it makes great bullets, powder coating obviously will not work. So, two questions:

1) Why is the melting point of this alloy so low? Too much Tin?

2) How can I raise the melt point? I have more pure lead, as well as wheel weight alloy.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[triggerhappy243]

contact bne on this forum and have your lead tested

[DerekP Houston]

You have made....mystery alloy. No telling what without getting it tested. I'd sacrifice a sample instead of just pouring more guesswork into it.

[runfiverun]

where did they melt at 415?
if it was in the oven you need to check it, mine will overshoot if empty or loaded light.
it will over shoot about 75-f.

pure soft lead melts at about 625-630f
ww's which supposedly have only .5% tin will melt at @ 575.
antimony will lower the melt point too.

[Grmps]

Your local scrap yard may XRF test it for you and let you know the alloys.
Did you test to see how hard it is? The cheapest way to get a close idea is with pencils.
expose 1/8th inch of pencil lead and sand the tip flat.
file a section of the lead your testing smooth
push the pencil tip across the lead like your trying to make curls.
If the pencil shaves a curl of lead then the lead is softer than the pencil
if it does not shave the lead then the lead is harder than the pencil
IE. if a B pencil shaves the lead and a 2B doesn't the lead is around 12-13 BHN

PENCIL HARDNESS VERSUS LEAD ALLOY HARDNESS


Pencil

BHN

Common Alloys



6B

4 – 5

Pure lead, lead wire, sheet lead, SOWW



5B

7 – 8

40:1 lead tin, plumbers lead



4B

9

25:1 lead tin



3B

10

20:1 lead- tin, COWW



2B

11– 12

Range scrap, air cooled COWW



B

13

Range scrap quenched, COWW+2% tin,



HB

14 – 15

Lyman #2 alloy, 1:1 linotype / lead



F #2 pencil

16 – I8

Commercial cast, Hardball, Lyman #2quenched



H

20 – 22

1:1 linotype COWW linotype



2H

26 – 28

Quenched COWW. Monotype

[vincewarde]

where did they melt at 415?
if it was in the oven you need to check it, mine will overshoot if empty or loaded light.
it will over shoot about 75-f.

pure soft lead melts at about 625-630f
ww's which supposedly have only .5% tin will melt at @ 575.
antimony will lower the melt point too.

Yeah, I would not trust my oven alone. I also have a laser thermometer, and they both agree.

Thanks!

[scottfire1957]

We really, really have no idea of your alloy, therefore, we have no idea of how to fix it.

Simple as that. You have no weights of your contents, or their composition.

The answer is testing, as has been stated. We can go from there.

[vincewarde]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to get a set of pencils and try testing the hardness. This stuff is really hard. I could try a small test batch alloying this stuff with some pure lead.

What is involved in getting this tested?

[triggerhappy243]

if you wanted to test it and know .................... and I mean really know whats in it, melt some of it, pour a splatter of it on a piece of steel, package it up with a pound of lead and send it to bne. he will shoot it with the XRF and tell you just exactly what the makeup is. I have 6000 pounds of lead I am processing. I am sending bne a sample of every batch I melt. So when it comes time to sell a batch to whoever wants to buy....... I can tell him just exactly what the makeup is, no guessing.

[scottfire1957]

if you wanted to test it and know .................... and I mean really know whats in it, melt some of it, pour a splatter of it on a piece of steel, package it up with a pound of lead and send it to bhn. he will shoot it with the XRF and tell you just exactly what the makeup is. I have 6000 pounds of lead I am processing. I am sending bhn a sample of every batch I melt. So when it comes time to sell a batch to whoever wants to buy....... I can tell him just exactly what the makeup is, no guessing.


BNE. Not bhn. BNE is his screen name. BNE. There is another guy, but I forget his screen name.

[triggerhappy243]

sorry, you are correct. bne, I just looked. I dont know where that came from. I stand corrected.

[triggerhappy243]

I corrected all my boo-boo's:veryconfu

[vincewarde]

OK, just wanted to thank everyone again and let you know the direction I have gone in. I decided to mix this very hard unknown alloy 2:1 with pure lead. I then checked the melt temp and confirmed with a thermometer. Melt point is now 475F and it's still plenty hard. I'm going to proceed to powder coat and will post results.

[TexasGrunt]

That's still really low. Roofing lead is normally pure lead. I'd suspect your monotype.