another dumb noob question

[jeff100]

Smelted up my first batch of pewter today. I've been smelting a lot of scrap lead lately, casting ingots. Today is the first time I've ever melted pewter. Amazed at how fast it melts compared to lead. Guess it's the lower melting point. After fluxing the melt with sawdust I hand ladled the clean melted material into my Lee 200 grain bullet mold, casting 200 grain pewter/tin bullets to add to my casting pot as needed. Inspecting these bullets I was surprised how light the bullets were compared to lead, certainly not 200 grain in weight as they would be if cast from lead. This prompted me to wonder. One standard alloy recipe I see is 49/49/2 meaning 49% COWW, 49% pure lead, 2% tin. My question is what are these percentages related to? I assumed weight, but after looking at those light weight tin bullets, would the percentage be volume? Which is it, by weight or by volume? I'd estimated using one bullet to 15 lbs of alloy, now I'm thinking that is way too little.

[mozeppa]

49% COWW = 10 pounds
49% pure = 10 pounds
2% tin = 2 pounds

over simplified ...relate all %'s of materials by the pound.

[jeff100]

Seems like a heck of a lot of tin.

[turtlezx]

too much tin !!! 2lbs to 98lbs or less for 2%

[jeff100]

That makes more sense. Assuming I'm figuring this right, 15 lbs of alloy should get approx 210 grains of tin = 2%. Thanks!

[triggerhappy243]

easy equation = 100 pounds of ..........lead/ wheelweights x 2% of tin equals 2 pounds.

[LAGS]

I think that 2% of 15 lbs is 2100 grains of tin
15 lb X 7000 grains per pounds = 105000 grains.
105000grains X .02 = 2100 grains
Devide the 2100 gr by 437.5 (grains per ounce).
or by 7000 gr to get pounds that equals .3 pounds
that is 4.8 Oz of tin to be 2% of 15 lb

[triggerhappy243]

another way to figure it..... 15 pounds of your base metal X 7000 (gr.per pound) =105'000 gr. x 2%= 2100 grains of tin.

[Tripplebeards]

When I did 16 to 1...16 lbs of lead and 1 lb of pewter. Which only hardened to a BH of 7! I just use it in 2% quantities to my mixes. I did 2, 10 lb batches yesterday and 2% equaled 3.2 oz per 10 lbs.

[RogerDat]

Lead Alloy Calculator, download from the sticky in this forum. :-)

You enter the weight of your different alloys and it provides the final alloy mix and approx. BHN it is an Excel worksheet application but if you don't have Microsoft Excel it works fine with Open Office https://www.openoffice.org/ Free open source software from Apache, same people that make the free open source Apache webserver software that 1/2 the web sites on the internet run on.

You can even enter a bullet weight you are going to cast and it will tell you how many (and at what cost) bullets it will cast.

[mozeppa]

oops!

i meant to say .02 of a pound of tin!

[Smoke4320]

49% COWW = 10 pounds
49% pure = 10 pounds
2% tin = 2 pounds

over simplified ...relate all %'s of materials by the pound.

wrong the above tin amount would be 6.4 OZ not 2 LBS

[slim1836]

I hate math, that's why most of my boolits are powder coated wheelweights. Good enough for plinking. :drinks:

Slim

[runfiverun]

the numbers are percentages of the total.
a 2/6/92 alloy Is 2 lbs of tin 6 lbs of antimony and 92 lbs of lead.

when it's a ratio of say 20 to 1 those are actual numbers, so you would end up with 105 lbs of alloy.

[LAGS]

Smoke is correct about the 6.4 is 2% of the 20 pounds of other material.
BUT.
Everyone forgets that WW's have .5% of tin in them.
That would raise your Tin Percentage by .8 ounces.
It aint much, and I too disregard the tin percentage in the WW's

[jeff100]

Smoke is correct about the 6.4 is 2% of the 20 pounds of other material.
BUT.
Everyone forgets that WW's have .5% of tin in them.
That would raise your Tin Percentage by .8 ounces.
It aint much, and I too disregard the tin percentage in the WW's

The price of tin being what it is, I'm not disregarding nuthin! I downloaded a alloy calculator (again) and it's the bee's knee's for this stuff.

JJ

[LAGS]

The reason I desregard the Tin in WW is because tests have shown that it is not a constant Percentage between Brands, Year of Manufacture or Size.
I would rather be a tad over on the tin and get a good mold fill out.
But I dont factor in the extra Tin percentage for my hardness.
And I factor in the Percentage of Antimony in WW's as 3% not the standard 4%
Better to stay on the low side when working with Unknown material or Inconsistant Material.
Same with lead Range Scrap that people give me.
I treat it as Pure Lead , then add the Antimony and tin in to make my specific alloys that I want like Lino.
IF there was any antimony or tin in the range scrap it only will make my alloy on the Harder side of what I intended on smelting Up.
But for the Specific Alloys that I Want to be consistant, I start with only Pure, Known Materials.
I buy Raw Antimony and Tin in Bulk like 20 or 50 lbs or more for those blends, and the only variable factor is the lead, unless I want to spring for a bunch of Certified pure.
Most of my Lead is roof jacks and flashings that I get off the construction projects I run, for Free.
( I stay friends with our Roofer and Plumbers on my jobs )
And that is pretty close to Pure for all intents.