New Caster Question

[LDHD]

Greetings Casters,

I've been lurking here for a couple weeks while I scrounge lead and collect supplies. I think I have about 30lbs of lead. Here is a list of the other stuff I have picked up.

Cast iron pot
Turkey cooker
#1 Rowell bottom pour ladle from Rotometals
1 pound tin
1 pound antimony
Stir spoon
ingot mold

I still need a thermometer, hardness tester, bullet mold (backordered)

I am going to cast 148gr. Wadcutters for my 38sp and 200gr. semiWC for my 1911 45acp. Both under 1000fps. Since ordering the antimony I have read that it's hard to mix with lead cause of the melt point. Does anybody know a way to do it with the stuff I've got? My next thought was to get some linotype. Does anybody know how much to mix with the lead to give me the right BH for these loads? Does the Lee hardness tester work as advertised? Have I missed anything? Any info would be appreciated.

BTW Rotometals sent me the wrong Ladle. I emailed them on Sunday they replied the same Sunday that they would put the right ladle in the mail that Monday. Good people!!

LDHD

[RayinNH]

LDHD, a couple web sites you can visit.

http://www.bulletmetals.net/

It appears Bill Ferguson has a flux that will allow you to blend the lead/ antimony. A call to him may answer some of your questions.

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

Scroll down about 2/3 of the page for various alloy recipes.
Lots of other good stuff there as well...Ray

[southpaw]

+1 The only thing that I can add is that the lee hardness tester does work, well atleast for me it has. As with any of them use it as a guide to get you back to a certain hardness that your gun likes.

Welcome aboard!!!

[geargnasher]

Ditto on the Lee hardness tester. Like many will say it takes good eyes to use it but it seems very reliable and is at least something consistent (more important to me than exactness).

+2 on READ GLEN FRYXELL'S ARTICLES. I learned more from reading his stuff on lasc.com during the course of a rainy Saturday than I did in all my personal experience. Take my word for it, if you are a noob read his stuff on alloys, casting, and especially his article on fluxing before you even fire up the turkey burner, much less the pot. Also check out the Lyman cast bullet manual for step-by-step stuff, forgive them for not knowing how to spell "boolit".:wink:

Good luck and keep posting!

Gear

[Buckshot]

...............Welcome to the board, and thanks for joining! The humble ole WW will do for either cartridge to about the limit's of thier (velocity) ability. If the WC's are to be used for target ty pe loads you dont' even need an alloy as hard as WW. I shoot lots of target level WC's from a K38, Victory model, and M67 S&W revolvers, plus a Ruger BH 357 mag and I use pure or soft junk scrap for them.

................Buckshot

[Bret4207]

As has been said, welcome. From what I see you need a source of lead. 30 lbs won;t last long, that's one pot full for me. You can alloy your own stuff, but I'd really be looking for the lowly wheel weight, lots of them. Let me repeat- lots and lots and lots of WW. If you have a few hundred lbs of WW and a pound or two of tin and some magnum shot or enrichment alloy or Sb you're good for a long time. Start hitting the garages and junkyards and lay in several 5 gallons buckets of WW.

A thermometer is handy, but not a "must have", even more so is the hardness tester. If I had a choice between those two items and an equal amount of $$$ in WW, I'd take the WW.

A 1 lb Rowell ladle is great for ingots and large moulds like Lee 6 bangers or large bore 4 bangers. IMO it's way too big for 1 and 2 cavity moulds, way too big. A Lyman or RCBS ladle works better for that.

From reading your opening post I would advise you to be far more concerned about boolit fit than hardness. It seems every new caster we run into buys into the "hardcast" idea as a result of the misinformation and sales hype out there. For target loads in 38 and 45 you don;t need anything over WW hardness in 99.9% of the guns out there. You can use a hard alloy if you want, but it's more trouble and expense that way. Most guns respond nicely to target level loadings in alloys in 7-9 Bhn range, which is softer than a lot of WW out there.

My advice, based on 30+ years of casting, is to learn to cast good boolits before jumping on the "hard" or "fast" bandwagon. Get to where you can throw well filled boolits with perfect bases before worrying about production numbers or velocity.

Most of all, have some fun doing this. If it's work...it's not fun.

[LDHD]

Thanks for the info. I have been to the websites listed. Yes very good.

My son runs a tire store in California. When he comes to Washington State this summer he is going to bring me as much WW as he can carry.

This weekend I'll just work on melting down what I have to get a consistent mix and make ingots. Do I need a release agent in a cup cake pan or can I use wood smoke?

LDHD

[Wayne Smith]

Thanks for the info. I have been to the websites listed. Yes very good.

My son runs a tire store in California. When he comes to Washington State this summer he is going to bring me as much WW as he can carry.

This weekend I'll just work on melting down what I have to get a consistent mix and make ingots. Do I need a release agent in a cup cake pan or can I use wood smoke?

LDHD

Have him rent a truck!

[geargnasher]

I hear he won't be bringing lead for much longer after some new legislation there, in the next couple of years all the existing lead WW in California is going to be gone (hopefully a good chance to get the "polluting stuff" out of there. Btw, I have a "registered" lead disposal site here and am very concerned with cleaning up California's roadsides and bar ditches from these aweful little contaminants.:kidding:

Gear

[fredj338]

Thanks for the info. I have been to the websites listed. Yes very good.

My son runs a tire store in California. When he comes to Washington State this summer he is going to bring me as much WW as he can carry.

This weekend I'll just work on melting down what I have to get a consistent mix and make ingots. Do I need a release agent in a cup cake pan or can I use wood smoke?

LDHD
If he is in So.Cal, I would love to pay him a visit & buy 400#-500# from him. They are just getting harder to come buy in Kommiefornia.
As the others have said, melting straight antimnoy is tuff, buying Lino is a better way to go. For the bullets you are talking about, mixing the 1# of tin w/ the 30# of lead is about right for low vel. stuff. When you get the WW, separate the clipons from the stickons. The stickons are almost pure lead.