Greetings from a newbie and his stick-on ww

[airborneshooter]

First original post! Greetings all. I was introduced to reloading and casting by someone over 10 years ago on their equipment, did it for a little while, but we had a falling out and I haven't reloaded since. I only had time to learn the basics. I did a little casting, but it was with previously cleaned/fluxed ingots. I pretty much did all the easy stuff. Given the current environment, I've decided to get back into it finally. I'd appreciate some help with a few newbie questions from time to time. Here's the first.

The only halfway decent ww connection I've made so far reuses a lot of his clip-ons and I get about 65% tape weight from him. I plan to cast 9mm and .45 in Lee tumblelube 6 cavity molulds. The 9mm is RN and the .45 is the 200gr SWC. I've looked on other threads, but can't find a really clear hold-your-hand-type answer. For the above applications, what should I do with all these tapeweights to make this work?

Thanks.

[JIMinPHX]

Welcome to the board airbornshooter.

By "tapeweights" I assume you mean the sticky backed weights that are usually pure or nearly pure soft lead. If you mix up stick on WW & clip on WW about 50/50, that should be a good mix for most moderate pistol loads. Just be careful to avoid zinc WW when you melt them down. 1 or 2 zinc weights can ruin a whole batch.

Also, the stick on WW can be traded to guys who shoot black powder for clip on WW. The black powder guys usually want dead soft for their front stuffers.

[geargnasher]

Jim, hope you don't mind if I add to your zinc comment for Airborneshooter's benefit by saying:

1) Sort the weights by hand to find the very hard or marked zinc ones.
2) Be cautious of the stick-on style because some are near-pure lead and some are near-pure zinc!
3) Keep smelting temps as low as possible (700*F or so) and the zinc weights can be skimmed off as they won't melt below about 780*F.
4) Trade your zinc scrap for lead or ww scrap at a recyler.

Gear

[WHITETAIL]

airbornshooter, Welcome to the forum!:cbpour:

[WHITETAIL]

If you start with a small steel pot.
And make a few batches at 700dg.
You can clean out all zinc, and steel
weights.:coffee:

[airborneshooter]

Also the stuff I got from this guy is quite dirty. Some say degrease them first. Suggestions?

[Bill*]

I wouldn't bother (free flux). Just a bit more dross to skim off but the "dirt" won't hurt anything as far as I'm concerned! (sure to be corrected but it works for me). Do them outside.

[geargnasher]

Also the stuff I got from this guy is quite dirty. Some say degrease them first. Suggestions?

Why degrease it? Grease/oil/wax are all fine fluxes which recuce oxides of tin and lead back to elemental form and burn off when smelting your ingots from the scrap, consider it free flux.

Gear

[fredj338]

Also the stuff I got from this guy is quite dirty. Some say degrease them first. Suggestions?
The only reason to degrease is if you live in close proximity to others, it does smoke & stink quite a bit. I don't degrease but no harm either. As the others said, several ways to avoid the zinc in your melt. I like to sort, once you start you'll quickly recognize zinc from lead. Then keep the pot below 700deg, yes a lead therm helps a lot. You can add lino, bar solder or tin to the tape wts to harden them a bit & makes the alloy cast better. 50/50 clip ons & tape WW makes a good 38sp/45acp bullet. Add the tin or lino to get a good bullet to 1200-1300fps w/ proper sizing & lube.

[Echo]

If you can find a supply of linotype, you can alloy 50/50 lino/stickyWW's and come up with an outstanding alloy. And lino is constantly available on Bay, but expect to pay about $1.50 (or thereabouts), maybe more, per pound delivered.
Otherwise, buy some lead-free solder at the HW store and mix in a tiny bit with your sticky stuff. It only takes maybe 2% to reduce the surface tension of the alloy so that it will fill the mold sharply. Ten pounds of stickies plus 3 oz. of lead-free works nicely.

[airborneshooter]

If you can find a supply of linotype, you can alloy 50/50 lino/stickyWW's and come up with an outstanding alloy. And lino is constantly available on Bay, but expect to pay about $1.50 (or thereabouts), maybe more, per pound delivered.
Otherwise, buy some lead-free solder at the HW store and mix in a tiny bit with your sticky stuff. It only takes maybe 2% to reduce the surface tension of the alloy so that it will fill the mold sharply. Ten pounds of stickies plus 3 oz. of lead-free works nicely.

So any lead-free solder will do the trick? I'm not familiar with it's composition and wikipedia says there are MANY different formulations, all with various alloys.

[303Guy]

Good to have you on board, airborneshooter. Do have fun!:drinks:

[wallenba]

Alloying tin is available from Midway if you can't find another source. Get the Lee manual, it has a wealth of old school info on alloying etc.. Establish a good rapport with your wheel weight sources, mine have been bought up by major tire franchises and have gone all "eco-friendly" on me, claiming "corporate" will only release it to legitimate recyclers....

[fredj338]

Alloying tin is available from Midway if you can't find another source. Get the Lee manual, it has a wealth of old school info on alloying etc.. Establish a good rapport with your wheel weight sources, mine have been bought up by major tire franchises and have gone all "eco-friendly" on me, claiming "corporate" will only release it to legitimate recyclers....
Midway is way too expensive, especially w/ shipping. Go to Rotometals for solder or tin. Free shipping & a disc. for more than $100 I think.

[JIMinPHX]

Most lead free solder is 95% tin & 5% antimony. Some has a touch of silver thrown in. Some has a touch of copper. The copper is not desirable, but in the small percentage that it would be present in that 95% tin solder, it's not going to cause too much trouble. I've had my best results from the stuff that has a touch of silver, but the 95/5 Tin Antimony is about a half a heartbeat away.

You can find lead free solder at Ace hardware, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. On occasion, I've found my best price at Grainger. 1 pound of lead free solder is going to carry you for 50-100 pounds of casting alloy, so don't sweat the price of it too much if you are looking to get going. Just bite the boolit, buy a pound & you will be set for several casting sessions. Scrounge for cheaper stuff later when you have time on your hands.

I usually cut up the 1/8" diameter lead free solder into 3" pieces. A single 3" piece to a pound of lead adds just about 1% tin. 2 pieces adds nearly 2%, etc.