New Supplies

[braddock]

I visited an old school friend who I've known for about 68 years and he gave me a sack of lead, must have been 70 pounds of it. I have about 25 pounds of linotype left and am proposing to mix it up, it's actually pure lead from a building that was knocked down about 50 years ago and he's kept it in his shed since than.
What would be the recommendation for the best rate to mix the linotype in with it?
I cast for 357, 30/30 and now 308 win. I have gas checks for the 30 cals but none for the pistol boolits.
357 will be a mix of plinking loads and some full power loads, 30/30 will be 178 grn at around 2000 fps and the 308 150 grn at about the same speed.

[Recycled bullet]

I just ran the numbers through the lead alloy calculator and I think if you just mixed it all together in a big pot you'd have 95 lb of 38 special pistol bullets and if you powder coat at them I think 357 mag and some of the lighter reduced rifle plinking loads would be fine as well.

Or if you put 25 lb of one and 25 lb of the other you basically have 50 lb of Hardball alloy.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20240109/3a22000dc1ff51887d383f6054ae6fa5.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20240109/f21442e983ba78409fd5ef2ba89706b9.jpg

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Have you read this page ?

http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm

[braddock]

Recycled boolit Many thanks for that.
JonB that page doesn't load for me.
I'll just have to wait until the ambient temperature gets up a bit and get casting as I'm down to my last couple hundred 30 cals and just over 1000 357 boolits.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

JonB that page doesn't load for me.

well, that's a bummer, it has all the info for you to make the best decision on how you should mix your sack lead with your Lino.
.
I would mix it 3 parts sack lead to 1 part Lino.
That becomes about 96-3-1 which is a good all around boolit alloy and is very close to the popular COWW alloy in USA.

[braddock]

JonB Many thanks for that.

[centershot]

If you mix then all together in a big pot you'll end up with an alloy of 96-3-1 which is basically the same as today's COWW, if you can find lead COWW's today. Nix it, mold it, shoot it.

[braddock]

centreshot, that's what JonB said.

[braddock]

JonB finally got that page to load, mine of information, many thanks.

[dale2242]

I have the alloy page printed and tacked to the wall of my loading room.
Some great info here: http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm
There are several recipes for Lyman #2.

[braddock]

Cheers for that,Dale.

[braddock]

Been mixing up the alloys, started with 3 pound BHN 20, added 3 pounds of pure lead then 2 pounds lyman#2 then 2 pounds linotype.
Scratches easily with my thumbnail but there's just one thing wrong, I cast a few boolits and I've put an image hereabouts, they seem too shiny.
What do you all think?

324542

[Recycled bullet]

Cast with a hotter mold

[braddock]

Forgot to mention, reason why I used such awkward numbers was there was a third of a pot left in the Lee so I made it up to 10 pounds, the cast boolits are culls btw, they were the 2nd ones out the mold and got a few wrinkles.
I'll take one of my ingots (I used a cup cake mold for these btw) up to the Club as they have a BH tester there and get back with the results, eventually.

[braddock]

Cheers RB, I thought that too.

[Rickf1985]

What temp are you casting at? Your lead could also be too cold and that could be why they are wrinkled and shiny.

[braddock]

Rick, I don't know, the stat was set to #7 on the lee dial and the lead was in there for about 20 minutes after melting.
I'll put it up to 8 next time I use it but the instructions said #7. When I put the linotype in it melted virtually instantly.
I have a feeling that the mold was not hot enough even though I'd had a corner of it in the molten metal for about 5 minutes.

[mehavey]

Notwithstanding anything anyone say otherwise...
`Ya really need a lead thermometer . . .

700-ish degr for Lyman#2
800+ for pure and high-lead/tin alloys.

You get super-shiny/soft-edged/wrinkled bullets until the mould comes up to temp, (but...)
A hot plate dutch oven while the lead is melting will give you perfect bullets/1sr cast.
See https://thefiringline.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6814751&postcount=16

[dtknowles]

Notwithstanding anything anyone say otherwise...
`Ya really need a lead thermometer . . .


OR a PID

[braddock]

I've been raking through the tools I acquired over the years and I have an IR non contact thermometer. good for 600 C, about 1100 F, only thing is it measures surface temp. The other thermometers I found are digital multimeters with thermocouples and they both go to 500 C.
Which sort do you use?

[centershot]

I rely on my P.I.D. to control my melt temperature. It will hold the temp steady +/- 3* F. No thermometer can do that.

[Rickf1985]

IR temp guns will not read reflective surfaces. You will find it will tell you the lead is about 200 degrees. #8 on my Lee 20# pot will hit 1,000 degrees so be careful with that. I agree with the thermometer. You can get good ones from Lyman or Rotometals. Not all that expensive and I know with the two I have, Lyman and Roto, they are spot on with my PID temps.

[405grain]

A setting of 7 on a Lee pot sounds about right. If you dial up the heat on the pot too much it will start causing some oxidization of your alloy. Looking at the photo of your bullets I think that the problem might be your mold temperature. Casting at too low a temperature will cause wrinkles and poor mold fill out (like on your driving bands). Aluminum mold blocks loose heat faster than iron or brass. Your bullets look like a Lee design, so I'm guessing that you're using aluminum blocks. (and Lee blocks are smaller in size than most other molds, so that can also cause them to loose some heat) What most people have done successfully is to preheat the molds, run the pot a little hotter than normal, then cast at a faster pace to keep the molds hot. It's better to get a light frost on the bullets from the heat than it is to get wrinkles and rounded driving bands.

When trying to cast at a faster pace remember to let the sprue solidify, then watch for it to change color (it will go from a silvery to a dull grey color) before opening the sprue plate. If you're not waiting long enough for all the metals in the alloy to solidify before you open the sprue plate it can cause metal to smear on both the top of the mold blocks and the bottom of the sprue plate. I own some aluminum molds, but I prefer to use iron or brass because they are more forgiving when it comes to the pace that you can cast with them because they retain heat longer.

[braddock]

Thanks for the replies fellas. Weather looks good next week for some outside lead work.
BHN of my "new" alloy is 12, I'm going to try to powder coat the bullets once I've cast them and fit gas checks so hopefully shouldn't get any leading issues.
Next mix of alloy I'll do60/40 pure lead/linotype and hopefully that'll be spot on and I'll make some 358 boolits.

[braddock]

I ordered up a single hot plate, that'll let me put my molds on it to retain their temperature as I'm sure, with casting outside in temperatures about 18C (60F?), the molds cool off real quick.
I'll see when the plate gets here.

[Rickf1985]

A lot of guys build metal boxes that go around the stuff on the hotplate so wind does not cool them off and also helps to more evenly heat things up. I cast inside a garage so wind is not an issue but I am still going to build an enclosure.

[braddock]

That's a good idea, thanks.