mono Type

[stillwell]

Hello
Im new to casting. I have been reloading for a few years and have started casting with some luck, but my materals are slim.
I have around 300lb of what i think is monotype and 40lbs of lead flashing. I am looking for a recipie for #2 alloy for 357 and 45acp. I have tried to keep cost down and have not bought a hardness tester, but plan to soon.

Thanks
Stillwell

[jdgabbard]

You could mix it 1 lbs Monotype + 3 lbs of pure lead + 700 grains of Tin. That should put you right on the money. For tin you could use lead free solder or regular 60/40, 50/50, ect. Just make sure you add 700 grains, ie: 1/10 of a lb.

Edit: Just remember that while #2 is very pleasing to cast with, it is also somewhat wasteful of tin. Mixing just 1 part Mono to 3 parts Pure lead (your flashing) should give you something that is about the equivalent of WW + 2% tin. Which is what I and many, many, many others here use as a standard all purpose alloy. Mix just a little up and see if you like it. I'm sure you will.

[stillwell]

Thanks
The lyman casting book shows #2 for most loads so that is what i was going to start with. But this will save me a lot of tin.

[Recluse]

What boolits and what loads are you wanting/planning to shoot?

That can have a bearing on how you decide to mix your alloy, too.

:coffee:

[Slow Elk 45/70]

90% of cast boolits do very well cast of WW or the equivalent there of , as stated lyman #2 is a waste of tin, if you want a harder boolit, water drop it and it should be fine for all but over 2100FPS loads, this is tried and true for many a year...Have fun[smilie=1:

[stillwell]

I have never tried to water drop any cast boolits. from my understanding h20 + PB= danger so i have not messed with it. it seams that alot of you guys do so it cant be to bad.

[w30wcf]

stillwell,
Monotype is single letters/numbers.
Linotype is a row of letters/numbers.

w30wcf

[jdgabbard]

Water dropping will in fact harden the boolit from anywhere around 14-16 BHN in most cases, of Wheel Weight alloy of course. With Lino or Mono, it'd be much higher. To give you a idea of how hard this is, pure lead has a BHN of about 5-6. So with WW alone that is a pretty significant increase in hardness with just water dropping. You shouldn't need anything harder then that for the most part.

As to #2 being the standard alloy for most molds, the reason for this is the superior fillout characteristics of #2. And that is due to the high amounts of tin in the mix. Tin helps fillout, and fillout helps as cast diameter in my experience. You COULD play with it a little if you'd like. But until you decide to go ahead and use any alloy, I would only mix in small batches for testing. That is until you decide that is what you want, then you could make slightly larger batches. Just remember, its a whole lot harder to seperate the two then it is just not to mix them up.

[IHMSA]

h20 + PB= danger so i have not messed with it.

Stillwell,

Very True, H2O + molten Pb = Big Trouble.

Please be sure your boolits have solidified before mixing. :mrgreen: