Tried Alloying Tin into Stick on WW Lead: How’s this look?

[Z.F.Bowles]

Should be about 36.3636% tin according to my math. I had the lead hot already and dropped the 5lb pure tin bar in so I could have some high tin to add to a large melt so I got it to get rid of the wrinkles I’d had on my boolits.

Now that I’m looking at them I’m not sure it’s really “mixed”. Some areas of the ingots have really bright frosting, some areas look more like regular pure lead. Thoughts? I’ll try and upload pics.253246

BTW, can 16:1 alloy be used with a gas check in any rifles without leading?

[Z.F.Bowles]

253247253247

[jonp]

What type of ingot mold are you using? Looks more like uneven heating of the mold causing part of the pour to cool faster than the other part.

[lightman]

I think Jon may be right.

Back in the distant past I use molds like that for making ingots. One end of the "corn cob" was smaller than the other end and they cooled off at different rates. My wheel weight ingots came out looking that way.

[Z.F.Bowles]

Ah. I see. I was afraid it wasn’t mixed evenly and I’ve have to remelt it all.

t’s not really an ingot mold, supposed to be for baking cornbread but it is cast iron. They aren’t really consistent but I weight it all anyhow. My work has so really nice scales in QC and my buddy weighs them for me. I need to get my own but know it won’t be that accurate. It reads pounds down to the hundredth without me dealing with converting ounces.

[fredj338]

Only time I add tin is to pure lead for LHP. I cast at 20-1, works fine up to about 1250-fps. No I doubt 16-1 runs at rifle pressures, still pretty soft.

[jonp]

Ah. I see. I was afraid it wasn’t mixed evenly and I’ve have to remelt it all.

t’s not really an ingot mold, supposed to be for baking cornbread but it is cast iron. They aren’t really consistent but I weight it all anyhow. My work has so really nice scales in QC and my buddy weighs them for me. I need to get my own but know it won’t be that accurate. It reads pounds down to the hundredth without me dealing with converting ounces.

Yup! I just found an entire 50lb box of those I made with a cast iron corncob mold. They look just like yours. I wouldn't worry about them too much

[jonp]

Ah. I see. I was afraid it wasn’t mixed evenly and I’ve have to remelt it all.

t’s not really an ingot mold, supposed to be for baking cornbread but it is cast iron. They aren’t really consistent but I weight it all anyhow. My work has so really nice scales in QC and my buddy weighs them for me. I need to get my own but know it won’t be that accurate. It reads pounds down to the hundredth without me dealing with converting ounces.

I have a Gempro 250 and it is very accurate. A little pricey depending on what you want but it works quite well.

https://myweigh.com/product/gempro-series/

[Walks]

I made a really bad mistake when alloying some 20/1 once.
Put 60lbs of Pure Lead into my big cast iron pot, then added 3lbs of tin bars.
Really screwed it up. Foamy crud, wouldn't mix or flux properly. I poured it into ingots for later remelting. Should have put the tin on the bottom of the pot to start with.
Remelted it, adding the discarded crud first. Fluxed 3 times, it finally "settled down" and cast into clean ingots. Very little crud was skimmed off.
Later on I cast some perfect .38 & .44 bullets for plinking.

Remelt it and try again, flux well. That my do the trick.

[NyFirefighter357]

I used flat opened cast iron sinker molds to make my tin ingots

https://i.imgur.com/Br8Mxiu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/SAbkhJ3.jpg

[country gent]

If you want consistant weight in ingots you need to make a closed mould. open tray moulds are subject to how full they are filled. A big bullet mould multi cavity to cast your pewter tin antimony in will five constant weights

[Don1357]

Tin melts at a lower temperature than lead. if the lead melted, the tin got mixed in. In addition when the lead is in a liquid state there is a constant movement of eddies moving around, churning and evening out the alloy. There is also the fact that the tin molecules bind with the lead molecules, the is no separation once it is alloyed. Sort of like when salt mixes with water, the molecules do not precipitate out and become a stable solution. You would have to evaporate the water if you want to pull the salt out.