Johnw...ski
07-08-2008, 12:07 PM
I have been mixing my lead with some hard scrap I have around which is mostly
Cerrotru (58% Bismoth, 42% Tin). What I have been doing is melting 30 or 40 pounds of pure or nearly pure lead and adding some scrap until I get 535 gr boolits from my Lyman 457132 mold. This concoction has worked well for the
535 gr. boolits in my 45-70 and the 335 gr. boolits in my 38-55.
I started casting for my 35 Whelen and got leading so I changed lube and this helped but didn't stop the leading altogether. Careful checking is showing the boolits to have a hardness of around 9 BHN. Water dropping does nothing for hardness with this alloy. I have added more scrap to the mix and gotten a hardness of 13.5 BHN and after water dropping 15.4 BHN but the weight of the boolits drops from 246 to 225 gr. with this harder alloy.
My inventory is: hundreds of pounds of lead sinkers at less than 8.0 BHN, hundreds of pounds of range lead that is between 8.0and 9.0 BHN, and lots of that hard alloy that is bismoth and tin.
I guess I don't have the necessary ingredients like antimony to get the hardness.
Should I just give up on this hard alloy (cerrotru) and get some wheelweights?
Need Advice,
John
Cerrotru (58% Bismoth, 42% Tin). What I have been doing is melting 30 or 40 pounds of pure or nearly pure lead and adding some scrap until I get 535 gr boolits from my Lyman 457132 mold. This concoction has worked well for the
535 gr. boolits in my 45-70 and the 335 gr. boolits in my 38-55.
I started casting for my 35 Whelen and got leading so I changed lube and this helped but didn't stop the leading altogether. Careful checking is showing the boolits to have a hardness of around 9 BHN. Water dropping does nothing for hardness with this alloy. I have added more scrap to the mix and gotten a hardness of 13.5 BHN and after water dropping 15.4 BHN but the weight of the boolits drops from 246 to 225 gr. with this harder alloy.
My inventory is: hundreds of pounds of lead sinkers at less than 8.0 BHN, hundreds of pounds of range lead that is between 8.0and 9.0 BHN, and lots of that hard alloy that is bismoth and tin.
I guess I don't have the necessary ingredients like antimony to get the hardness.
Should I just give up on this hard alloy (cerrotru) and get some wheelweights?
Need Advice,
John