Testing ingots

[the_buckshot_kid]

I got ahold of a lot of ingots. Most were marked lino,mono, etc and with dates going back 20-30 years. I’m going to re-melt them all into 1lb and 1/2 lb ingots. My question is, how long should they cool before being tested accurately with an LBT tester?

[Dusty Bannister]

The only reason I would consider melting ingots is if they are too large to fit in the casting furnace. If they are already marked, age hardening is not really necessary is it? After 2-3 weeks they are probably as hard as they are going to get, but they will not test the same as a cast bullet of the same alloy. Ingots have a different cooling rate.

[dbosman]

Can you define "a lot". If you're talking enough to have some analyzed there is a member who can do that. If less than a few hundred pounds, it might not be worth the effort.

[sqlbullet]

I agree with Dusty...If they are already marked and in a manageable size, leave them be.

As far as time...They will stabilize within about 10% of their final BHN in 2-3 weeks, but they will continue to drift for a long time.

[the_buckshot_kid]

When I say “a lot”, I mean roughly 800lbs. I gave a few that were marked mono ‘87 to a friend of mine. He was saying they didn’t feel that hard to him just doing the fingernail test. He cast some using his 280gr LBT mold (they came out at 293gr) and when I tested them they were about a 15-16bhn.

[Dusty Bannister]

When I say “a lot”, I mean roughly 800lbs. I gave a few that were marked mono ‘87 to a friend of mine. He was saying they didn’t feel that hard to him just doing the fingernail test. He cast some using his 280gr LBT mold (they came out at 293gr) and when I tested them they were about a 15-16bhn.

And what is the time element involved in your test? Bullets age harden.

[Conditor22]

mono should be in the 30 bhn range.

I'd test them first seeing they've reached their peak hardness separating them by BHN.

[the_buckshot_kid]

I usually let bullets sit about a week before testing whether they’re air cooled or water quenched.

[the_buckshot_kid]

I know mono is around 30bhn. I can’t test any of these ingots as they’re too large to fit in the LBT tester. I wanted to re-melt them and pour into my Lee ingot molds so I could test them.

[bangerjim]

Why waste your time and fuel/energy re-melting stuff that is already (probably) fluxed, ingotized, marked, and VERY WELL aged?????????

Does not make sense to me. You would be best off it you bought a cheap-o Lee (or other) hardness tester for your press. With that many ingots to test, it would well worth it. I use a certified Cabin-style tester for all my hardness verification.

I let boolits sit at least 2 weeks before testing them. Most of my casting is in the 10-12 range + PCing for NO LUBE shooting!!!!

[kevin c]

If you bought the LBT tester from Veral, there should be a instruction sheet. Mine says (as Dusty did above) that ingots (of any size, I think) cool differently from bullets of the same alloy so the numbers won't match each other. He recommends testing bullets only.

Are you saying you don't trust the markings, or that there might be not just mislabeled but actually bad alloy ingots? If so, that implies that every individual ingot is suspect, and that melting them together risks messing up the whole batch from just a few bad ones. I'm pretty OC, but would balk at testing 800# worth of small ingots individually.

If you must test, batching by label and testing bullets cast from the batch will give you the info you want at the risk of a few unidentified bad alloy ingots getting into some but not all the batches.

If the amount of ingots of each type is more than a casting pot's worth, then I think the least risk comes from adding the ingots one at a time to the pot and seeing how that pot of alloy casts. IOW, going with the markings but being on the lookout for problems.

[oley55]

If you bought the LBT tester from Veral, there should be a instruction sheet. Mine says (as Dusty did above) that ingots (of any size, I think) cool differently from bullets of the same alloy so the numbers won't match each other. He recommends testing bullets only.

Having watched this video it seems doubtful an ingot of "ANY" size could possibly fit under the thumb screw.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TrGxT7kcVI

[Conditor22]

this will get you close enough http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?378866-Lead-hardness-pencil-testing-trick