How to improve your casting success!!

[shredder]

Good day everyone! I had a real "A-HA" moment last night and thought I would share with the group.

I have been casting with a 50/50 mixture of ww/pure. I shoot rifle at 1500-1600fps. Now, I will be the first to admit I have no idea what the wheelweights are actually comprised of, I just bought a whack of ingots marked WW. Harder than the pure for sure though.

Down to business! I am used to having a pretty large reject pile as I get going with the casting. Wrinkled and partially filled out boolits for the first 20 or so drops coming out of the mould. Normal for me in my garage with my setup.

Now to last night, I just recieved a small shipment of linotype and also brought home a 1 lb roll of 95%tin 5% antimony solder. After much review of different alloy recipies I decided to try: 1 part linotype,3 parts WW and 2 parts Pure with the addition of 2 ounces of tin.

Result: After the customary dip the corner of the mould in the melt for 10 seconds, to my astonishment, the first cast dropped perfect boolits and that continued for the entire session. Shiny and beautiful, perfectly filled out and not a reject in the lot. You could have knocked me over with a feather!

Conclusion: If you really want success casting, start with correct proportions of lead/tin/ antimony and MAINTAIN THAT ALLOY! I have no idea of hardness yet but I intend to let them age a few weeks before anything else happens.

[fredj338]

Well, you learned what most casters learn, tin helps mold fill out substantially, especially as yo uget to smaller calibers. Well Done.

[williamwaco]

Excellent experiment.

You used WAY too much tin. It does not hurt anything but it is VERY expensive and 1 to 2 percent will give you all the fill out benefit you can get.

Next pot. Cut the tin in half and try it. I predict you will get the same result. AND if you don't you can always add more tin.

Tin is EXPENSIVE. You can always add more if you need it.

[cranedriver]

Shredder I was in the same boat as you just a week ago. Casting 50/50 and just as happy as could be then I came by a windfall about 500 9mm J-word bullets which I promptly put up for trade locally and was able to procure a little over 50 pounds of linotype. I melted the linotype into small ingots and have been adding them to my pot with my 50/50 and have been really happy with the results.

[MikeS]

Why does somebody always HAVE to come along and tell somebody else about how they used way too much tin, and how expensive it is? One man's expensive is another man's cheap. But then what would I know, I cast mostly with Lyman #2, and that has OMG 5% tin in it! It would be just as easy to say something along the lines "You can use even less tin than you did, next time try half as much tin and see how you like it?" I'm sorry, but calling 1oz of tin WAY to much just doesn't sound right.

[41mag]

I really don't thing that William was trying to be condesending in his statement. I'm pretty sure, just guessing, he was simply referring to the added tin as being possibly not needed with the addition of the linotype due to the tin content in it.

[shredder]

Interesting for sure. I did some more casting last night and had almost the same results except with this particular mould The good boolits took a little longer to start dropping. Every mould has it's own personality and I for sure can tell you the first mould I referred to is pretty easy casting.

As to the tin, if my melt is 10 pounds that is 160 ounces of alloy. The tin content of the lino is around 6% and by dilution should be at 1% in the melt and I am adding 2oz tin to that. Just over 1% for a total of 2%, so I respectfully disagree that it is too rich for the melt. Cost is not so bad as I own a hardware store and I get pretty good prices on the solder. I also like the convenience of having individual ounces of tin to add.

So far I am having a lot of fun casting and shooting boolits. I realize there are as many opinions as there are casters and some of the processes resemble the black arts. It's all good so keep it coming.

[shredder]

One other thought: So far my soft 50/50 boolits have shot quite well from my various rifles. Though my lino recipie alloy sure casts better, I do not know at this point if they will shoot. I understand small changes in alloy can have dramatic performance implications especially in the high pressure environment of rifle shooting. I will let you know when I launch some how it all works out.

[sw282]

lts your money shredder- so cast em how you please. l sometimes get negative responses at work when l mention the price l may consider paying for a nice S&W or Colt revolver. Then l view their tattoos and ask what those cost

[Any Cal.]

People say tin is expensive, but only if you are trying to buy it. No one pays much for it, so from that perspective there is no reason to save it. Antimony is supposed to be cheap, but the only way I can get it is through rotometals, so in my case, I could cast with 16-1 for significantly less than any other way. I put tin in the melt just to save lead, tempered only by the fact that I want my boolits to stay heavy...

[spfd1903]

Same experience a couple of days ago. Been casting a number of calibers with a 10:1 mix, BHN at 11. Reject rate is usually 10% until the mold heats up. Got lucky a year ago and was given 50 lbs. + of home cast ingots that a friends uncle had. According to my friend they were 50/50, pure lead/linotype. I had them analyzed at the recycle facility and they were 93/3.5/3.5, lead/tin/antimony. BHN 15. The pot of 10:1 was low, so i emptied it and decided to try the new stuff. Wow.Every single boolit was perfect from a six cavity Lee. First to last. Hallelujah!! All were within a few .1 grain in weight. Great experience.

[357shooter]

You might try a binary alloy of pure and tin. Just to see how you like it and how it shoots in your gun. Or just add the tin to the WW/pure mix.

The 2% that gets mentioned has to do with helping fillout. However additional tin increases the toughness and mallability (sp?) of the alloy, so it matters.

[williamwaco]

I really don't thing that William was trying to be condesending in his statement. I'm pretty sure, just guessing, he was simply referring to the added tin as being possibly not needed with the addition of the linotype due to the tin content in it.

Exactly.

[smokey496]

Would you mind sharing your cost of a 1 lb roll of 95%tin 5% antimony solder? Thanks

[Kraschenbirn]

One other thought: So far my soft 50/50 boolits have shot quite well from my various rifles. Though my lino recipie alloy sure casts better, I do not know at this point if they will shoot. I understand small changes in alloy can have dramatic performance implications especially in the high pressure environment of rifle shooting. I will let you know when I launch some how it all works out.

Been using that 3 parts WW/1 part Lino with a 'touch' of tin added mix in all my bottleneck rifle calibers - up to just over 2000 fps - for about 3 or 4 years. Casts really nice boolits that will match (or better) JB accuracy with proper load development and have yet to encounter any appreciable leading in any of my guns. Ran 50 rounds of Lee 200-grainers - loaded to a bit over 1900 fps - through my Krag sporter today and, afterward, the fourth patch dampened with Ed's Red came out with only some (very) light gray streaking from the grooves.

Bill

[mpmarty]

I have about fifty rolls of 95/5 tin solder bought at garage sales for less than a dollar a piece. I use it liberally and enjoy nice casting results.