Learned something today...

[Mmacro]

I am new to mixing lead alloy. In the past I poured fishing jigs, sinkers and the odd pure lead balls for BP shooting.

Today I dove into the deep end and decided to fire up the Lee Pro 4-20 to mix up some #2 alloy.

I had enough material to do 20 pounds, so I doubled the 10 pound recipe from the Lyman cast bullet manual. And that’s when I had my epiphany... apparently 20 pounds of #2 isn’t the same volume as 20 pounds of pure lead...

I had put all my lead in first and then started to add the Linotype and tin only to discover I couldn’t fit all the Lino and tin in the pot. So I spent the next few hours pouring Lee .5 and 1 pound mini ingots, rebel ting the first and last several ingots to balance the mix, and repeating several time to make sure the mix is even for future pouring.

Beside the valuable lesson of sticking to 10 pound batches of fresh alloy... I got lots of practice dialing in the temperature for the alloy and pouring nice, neat ingots.

[Mal Paso]

It's been discussed before but the Lee 4-20 won't hold 20 lbs when it's on. It's like a 400 cubic inch engine, you are lucky if it's really 390.

[Mmacro]

I got that real quick... but I had also just broke down a bunch of pure lead into the same smaller ingots. It seems that it held noticeably more lead than alloy.

It’s got me thinking that it would be interesting to do a water displacement test to see if there is any difference in the volume of 20 pounds of each material.


It's been discussed before but the Lee 4-20 won't hold 20 lbs when it's on. It's like a 400 cubic inch engine, you are lucky if it's really 390.

[onelight]

It's been discussed before but the Lee 4-20 won't hold 20 lbs when it's on. It's like a 400 cubic inch engine, you are lucky if it's really 390.
Or like us poor 44 guys that the 41 guys like to remind us , we are really 43 guys :) but hey its still bigger !

[Mk42gunner]

My opinion is that life is too short to be mixing alloys in a small (relative) casting pot. I use my smelting pot that is slightly more than a gallon in capacity, and am thinking of cutting one of the old propane tanks in half for more room.

Larger quantities melted at one time means more alloy of equal composition.

Robert

[Budzilla 19]

Mk42, i have one of those helium tanks cut in half and it makes a fine melting pot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!i cut it at the weld seam, then cut a 3" wide band from the top half and used that band for a stabilizer ring on the bottom! Heats up quickly, works great.

i agree with the larger quantity statement.

[44Blam]

With the alloy I typically use I can get about 14lbs of metal in my lee 4-20. I typically leave about 2-3lbs in it and then I tend to cast in 10lb batches.

The other day I only had about 2lb in the pot from the previous session (my 40 mold was just non-stop) and I put in 12lbs of metal for a nearly full pot. I then proceeded to cast 13 lbs of the now famous 225 grain 30 cal tacos because I FINALLY figured out the mold...

[dondiego]

Any volume of pure lead is going to weigh more than that same volume of alloy.