Ingotizing Linotype?

[odinohi]

I have a 5 gallon bucket with 100lbs of Lino in it. I would like to ingotize this to save some space. Can one melt this stuff in a Mag 20 bottom pour unit? I'm waiting on my CastBoolit small ingot mold to make ingots of my Lino, Tin, 50/50 solder, and pewter. Waiting to get my new smelting bottom pour pot and angle iron ingot molds to melt about 10 buckets of WW's. Cant wait to take a pic for you guys. This will give me more room in my little shop to find more WW's. Thanks all, Tom

[Lloyd Smale]

there can be alot of crap in linotype. Ink dirt ect. I would melt it in a seperate pot or your going to be running alot of crud through your casting pot.

[odinohi]

Thats what I wanted to know. Thanks Lloyd. Appreciate the quick reply, Tom
there can be alot of crap in linotype. Ink dirt ect. I would melt it in a seperate pot or your going to be running alot of crud through your casting pot.

[Echo]

I choose to leave my lino as is - that way, not only do I know what it is (as opposed to nondescript ingots), but it allows me to weigh and apportion more accurately.
Nor will I buy ingotized lino off eBay. Just because they say it's lino doesn't mean it really is.

[XWrench3]

Nor will I buy ingotized lino off eBay. Just because they say it's lino doesn't mean it really is.
+1 on that! AMEN brother! when i buy linotype, i want to see what it is before i buy it. if i had access to a metalurgy lab, it might be a different story, but 99.9% of us do not.

[odinohi]

You guys have a good point, if I would ever want to sell it. Thanks, Tom

[BIG GUN]

I bought my lino from a printing company. It showed very little if any signs of ink. I converted most of it to 1 lb. ingots in my RCBS furnace. That way I knew what my blends were.

[10x]

I use a cast iron pot that holds about 70 lbs. of lead to clean and make ingots.
Cleaning lead in your casting pot will eventually give you trouble as there are inclusions in the lead that will plate onto the casting pot walls, then go into your melt when you are casting.
As for identifying lead in ingots. I have 1/4 inch stamps and stamp pure lead with a P, Linotype with a L and wheel weights with WW.
Once it is clean and in 1 lb ingots you can make blends in your pot.
I use 8 WW, 2 P, and 1/8 oz of tin (yup I have ingots of tin too - don't ask how much it cost) to make up an alloy that casts nicely and shoots accurately up to 1900 feet per second in a 30/06

[imashooter2]

The printer had to have the lead very clean to cast usable type. As long as the stuff was stored covered and isn't full of dust and dirt, I see no point in smelting it.

[largecaliberman]

I would smelt the largest batch possible to get a uniform mix and for every 100 lbs of linotype, I would throw in about 10 lbs of refined wheelweights. It was noted that wheelweights contains arsenic and arsenic would further harden the linotype as it ages, after water dropping the boolits into water. Linotype BHN runs around 22 most of my boolits are "bumped up" to a BHN of 27.

[fredj338]

I choose to leave my lino as is - that way, not only do I know what it is (as opposed to nondescript ingots), but it allows me to weigh and apportion more accurately.
Nor will I buy ingotized lino off eBay. Just because they say it's lino doesn't mean it really is.

This is what I do as well. It's easy to weigh & add to a pot, no reason to smelt it into ingots.