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The Lyman book must have been written before the common use of lead-free solder, which is usually 95% tin and 5% antimony, and costs about $13 a pound at plumber's supply store, bar or wire form.
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Hey Grump, thanks for the info - I don't have that manual. I'll probably use that .25% figure when calculating for my own use. So new to this, I haven't even used tin in with my WW yet.

Next...

Talked to a scrap guy the other day who said he was getting $8 each for old car batteries. I know that means they probably offer the average Joe $3 for them, but its something to maybe keep in mind...

Read where someone said to use a stone to *slightly* knock the edges off the top inner (mating surfaces) of the mold blocks so as to create a small vent under the plate.

Good idea or bad?
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When considering the (precious) tin already in the WW, I'm getting an answer of using the solder (if its exactly 4 oz) with 8 pounds of smelted WW metal to make an alloy with exactly 2% tin.

Of...

I've ordered from PV several times. Yes you can get a big box o'stuff on one hazmat fee - maybe like 4 jugs powder, or 3 jugs powder and 5k primers, or similar - call them, they are good on the...

Thanks for taking the time to tell that story - I'm more than a few years older than you but for all practical purposes was raised in later times...

If every one of us gun enthusiasts could...

Yeah, I eyeballed my wife's kitchen thermo for about 2 seconds before I knew I'd better break down and spend the $39. Can't wait to try the new thermo in some of this next batch of WW as I think I...

So, add some Sn & Sb to Pb to a common alloy, cast and water-quench, and that would work pretty good. But if I add WW until they are maybe 1/3 of the alloy and that should provide significant traces...

According to LASC the 1/4% arsenic in WW alloy is very important to the heat hardening process:

"…and arsenic is even better for heat treating than is antimony…"

Does water-quenching somehow...

The scrapyards in my area won't sell me anything - they only buy. I have to drive 45 minutes to a yard that will sell - prices about what you mentioned but he said 100# limit on lead without EPA...

You might eventually find it useful to point out to him that to get that 37c (price is usually for "clean" WW) he has to sort all the trash out of it, tote it down to the scrap yard and then often...

One question regarding your question... I'd cast inside except the fluxing operation, using candle wax, causes smoke and flames I wouldn't want inside. Does some of the "smoke-free" flux lend...

My daughter and her husband have lived up there for some years. After being in a union (him) and working as an engineer (her), they have each come to realize (with many hints and pointers from us)...

Its a sad decline that brings a tear to my eye sometimes:

"The police state that politicians are building isn't some cartoony reproduction of Nazi Germany; it's an America of the future that looks...

Yeah, that's about what it costs at the big box stores here, too. Got a roll of 95/5 today at a plumber's supply store for $11.40 to use in WW alloy. If the LASC site is correct WW already have...

Seems to me that if I traded for wheel weights I'd want the unsmelted ones. Even an honest person might accidentally melt the zincs in with the lead, and who knows what a dishonest person might sell...

Found some 90/10 (tin/lead) for sale in the Sell & Swap section - 20# for $150 delivered.

Lead-free solder is often 95% tin and 5% antimony. I saw an 18# spool on ebay for ~$8 per pound.

If...

No, but I have used the Lee 312-155 GC boolits in my Romak and they work fine. I think I read the 185s might be a little heavy for the twist at those velocities and have stability issues, but I'm...

If I have some pure lead, and I like water-quenched WW alloy for my rifle bullets, should I try to find, buy and alloy in the antimony, tin and arsenic to make my own alloy, or just try to trade the...

I got a lead on some lead and I'm going to check it out this afternoon. Oh, goody! Now I need to know how to tell if it’s the good stuff - I mean, I can tell lead, but I can't tell it much...
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That's what they said in the 50s about real estate investment when the average American house jumped way up in price to $7000.:-D

I wish I had been buying tons of scrap lead when it was pennies...

Many of the used parts dealers I've been to for parts in recent decades don't allow customers near the junk cars - but about thirty years ago my hired helper and I had driven about an hour to a parts...

Lead available to me now:

From local tire stores, large and small: None available to have or to buy - offered 50 cents per pound at most places.

Ad in local ad paper offering 40 cents a pound. ...

This thread is just full of great stuff a novice like myself needs to know.

Any idea of the hardness of WW boolits that are dropped into water from the mold?