Linotype to buy or not

[brokeasajoke]

Found some linotype locally for $3 a pound. As I am very new to this whole casting thing I thought I'd ask. Should I get it or hold off? Rotometal has bullet casting bars for $2.19 plus shipping right now so that's kinda how I'm gaging it but I understand it's not the same alloy.
315552

[Half Dog]

Do you have other lead to mix with it?
Linotype is used to make the lead that you have, harder.

[kungfustyle]

Hello Borkeasajoke, I just went on Rotometals and from what I've seen they are having a sale and still $3+ shipping for "hardball" or linotype. It getting to be not so much the cost but the availability. Linotype can use it straight up or mix it with lead to get the hardness you desire. I would get all I could afford. You can always sell what you don't need in the future. And you don't have to pay tax or shipping :)

[brokeasajoke]

Most what I have is a mix of COWW and SOWW lead.

[ascast]

++++ kungfustyle buy all you can afford.

[GhostHawk]

If it was me I would buy that. Lino is handy stuff to have around.

Pure tin will often be double or triple that price, seems fairly reasonable to me.

Normally I mix roughly 50% Clip on Wheel Weights, 50% soft range scrap and I may add a little Pewter or Lino for rifle to harden it up a touch.
But for most of my shooting that mix works fine.

[JimB..]

Price seems fair.

BTW, you want the lines of type and not so much the spacers, or better to say the lines or type are more valuable. The type is cast hard because it’s used to print, but the spacers are just spacers and could be anything from the same hard alloy down to soft lead.

[Teddy (punchie)]

I get dirty Lino Mix floor sweepings for just under half that. Take few hours to go through it and place in cans of 20 lb. Dirty stuff get added to the pot and placed in the Lino stack of ingots.

Pure lead is harder for me to find.

[mrbill2]

If it's harder bullets you want drop them in water right from the mold. It's cheaper than Lino.

[brokeasajoke]

44 mag velocity from a Taurus M44 would be max velocity so they wouldn't be thermonuclear pressures. Been using SNS casting coated bullets for it. Most of my cast has went through 38special but may very well end up in a 357 mag and all coated with Smoke's PC.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Lino is my favorite alloy to blend with pure [near pure] to get the alloy I prefer.
years ago, when Lino was much cheaper, but still more than other alloys, I bought a bunch...and I don't regret it.

[waksupi]

I only found it useful for small diameter bullets, to help with fill out.

[dverna]

Fair price but not oustanding. Current price at Rotometals for 1000 lbs is $3500 and you know what you are getting. Like another poster cautioned, if the spacers are softer lead, it will affect the economics.

My preference for general use (not hunting) is "hardball" (92-2-6). Currently at $2400 at Rotometals for 1000 lbs. Range lead is going for $1.20/lb. If you mix it 1:1 with Linotype it comes out to $2.35/lb. I will not waste my time to make my own blend to save $.05/lb and it may not save anything after paying for propane. But I am lazy and cheap.

Unless you are getting your softer alloy at a very good price, blending with Linotype does not make sense. I used to get "free" range lead and would mix in Linotype.

Work the numbers based on your local situation and factor in the value of your time and your motivation.

[rintinglen]

I'd buy 50-100 lbs at that price and smile. I get range lead at very low cost, but it needs hardening for best results in a rifle. 2-1, range lead to lino works great in my 30-30 and 303 savage rifles.

[Bird]

Started casting a few years ago and collected up buckets of older clip on wheel weights, some lino, and a few lbs of pure lead and tin. Did a bit of initial experimenting with mixes, but found out that the clip on wheel weights did everything I needed for rifle, pistol, revolver, without adding anything to the mix.
Clip on WW, is the most affordable and cost effective.

[243winxb]

Put your $ into Rotometals. When linotype is used over & over, the tin gets depleated.

I add Rotometals linotype to WW & pure lead.

[Gobeyond]

Get a little to make a few batches of 94-3-3 or 96-2-2. Just to have around to harden and make flow. Go easy on yourself.

[brokeasajoke]

Thanks for all the responses and helpful info.

[dankathytc]

Rotometals Superhard is a gift to bullet casters. It can be alloyed with COWW or STOWW to male alloys from BHN 10 to 20 and up. The L.A.S.C. Website Carrie’s articles by Fryxell and Riddel,on tyhis subject. It is on sale at this time.

[35 Rem]

Considering how lead alloys are getting more scarce with time, I'd buy it. It's local so there is no shipping plus if it's just that one bucket we aren't talking about a lot of money in the big scheme of things. That's how you build up a stock of lead over time. Whatever you pay for it now will seem a lot cheaper not that many years in the future.

[Bigslug]

If you're confident of its composition, take the local scores where you can. If it's some of the harder "type" alloys (see our forum lead alloy calculator), better still.

I bulked up my own inventory with a lot of range scrap, which I segregate into (1.) jacketed, (2.) shotgun slugs, and (3.) other people's cast.

1 and 2 are very soft of 1% antimony or less, so the "sweetener" mixes are very good to have around to turn that into something more versatile. 3 tends to end up in the vicinity of clip-on wheel weight, but you never really know until you slag each batch down and put it on a hardness tester. A bucket of lino or other "type" will go a long way in improving the soft stuff.

[uscra112]

Never pass up Linotype.

[brokeasajoke]

There has been some good info in all this an stand up members that have PM'd me. Lots of good people here.

[Rickf1985]

I am seeing a lot of soft lead spacing in that bucket. They are bent and twisted which you cannot do with linotype, it will snap off.

[indian joe]

There has been some good info in all this an stand up members that have PM'd me. Lots of good people here.

a little bit of linotype goes a long way but it wont rot in storage either ....never let a chance go by with soft lead - grab that every opportunity you get, its scarcer all the time.

[rockrat]

In 5 years, that $3500 for 1000 lbs of lino will probably seem cheap, if prices go like they have been. 5 years ago, that same 1000 lbs of lino was less than half of todays price.

[Soundguy]

If it was me I would buy that. Lino is handy stuff to have around.

Pure tin will often be double or triple that price, seems fairly reasonable to me.

Normally I mix roughly 50% Clip on Wheel Weights, 50% soft range scrap and I may add a little Pewter or Lino for rifle to harden it up a touch.
But for most of my shooting that mix works fine.

yup.. tin is crazy.. I tend to stock up on lino and use it because of that..

[brokeasajoke]

I offered $2 and they said no I may offer 2.50 or see if they will sell spacers and linotype separate at separate price. Should I take a bathroom scale to weigh?

[Dusty Bannister]

A bathroom scale might be off a little bit, either way, but better than lifting a bucket and guessing by how it feels. Sorting the spacer strips from the lines of type would be a good plan. And if there are individual small pieces with a single character on the end, consider that the same price as the lino. But sort it out later as that is likely Monotype and a stronger alloy of tin and antimony. Good luck on your negotiations.

[fredj338]

I would buy the alloy from Roto at that price, better than getting it in type form IMO. The alloy in the spacers can vary quite a bit from the type. At $2 per, sure, buy all of it. Back in the day I used to get lino in 22# pigs for 50c a pound. Wish I had bought 2000#.

[Rickf1985]

I just looked at Roto's prices and WOW!!!!! 2.60 for pure lead, 2.35 if you buy a half pig and 1.85 if you buy 1,000 lb. pallet. Crazy!! I figured that once it was outlawed for all uses the prices would drop some since demand would drop drastically. Face it, us bullet casters are not much of a demand in the big scheme of things.

Lyman #2 is 3.60 lb.. When you figure a 170 gr. rifle bullet will get you 41 bullets per lb. that works out to $.088 per bullet.

[Kent Fowler]

Never pass up Linotype.
Yes, 10 years from now $3.50 will be a bargain