Weird

[wheelgunner]

My Lee pot set on between 5 and 6 gives a pretty consistent 650-700 degrees. If I set it between 7 and 8 which I sometimes do to get a melt started and then forget to turn it back down, gets the mix over 800 degrees (lyman casting thermometer) I assume setting it at 9 may get the temp over 900 (really don't want to experiment with temps this high). Would 900 degrees coupled with a high tin content cause the thin copper gas check to disolve into the alloy?

[docone31]

Maybe, my only thought on that is the oxide development as the copper gets hot.
My experience in working with copper in silver jewelery, you can keep on silversoldering sterling, and fine silver when copper is completely firescaled, preventing solder flow.
I am suspecting something acted as a flux, which allowed the apparently high tin content to digest the copper into an alloy. Not neccesarily the heat index.
I do know, the castings came out great! I usually have some imperfections. This time, only one, and it was flash that stuck to the ogive. It came off easily.
Sizing is another issue. These guys are tough! I had to down size four steps.
I am preparing to wrap tonite. That will give at least 48hrs for the patches to dry so I can size.
I have high hopes on this one.
I know how the .3135 shot in comparison to factory loads. Paper shot better.

[Linstrum]

Cadmium will dissolve copper rapidly like mercury, it is in the same family of elements as zinc and mercury. Cadmium/tin alloy was once common in solders used for aluminum and it looks just like tin/lead solder, so you may have added a high-cadmium content solder to your melt.

Cadmium is quite toxic, just like mercury, although its vapor pressure is substantially lower than mercury. I wouldn't worry about it, though, unless you shoot at an indoor range, just use it up.


rl454

[Tom W.]

Bullets that are hard to size ( for me, anyway ) were cast using Nickle Babbitt. I used it on a daily basis for years until the sawmill shut down. The bullets that I cast with it were super hard, Very sharp, and lighter than advertised, and recovered bullets were barely deformed, unless they hit a rock or something in the backstop.


The Nickle Babbitt had an amount of copper in it, and no lead, mostly tin, so the OSHA people would leave us alone, and as I keep my Lee pot wide open, didn't have any trouble with it melting. At the mill I kept my pot around 650*. It was a huge one, that held about 500 pounds. I could throw in a new penny at that temp and it would melt, but the older pennies would not, nor would any bullet jackets that we retrieved from logs.

I gotta go visit the supplier and see if I can beg another ingot......

[madsenshooter]

Mercury boils at 674F, so that wasn't what ate your gaschecks. I wonder if having a babbitt that already contains copper would perhaps draw the gaschecks into the alloy. Hornady gaschecks appear to me to be gilding metal, that's 95% copper 5% zinc. Now if the alloy you added also contained zinc, there is a reaction used to produce a reagent known as zinc-copper couple. The early method for synthesis of this reagent was treatment of zinc and copper oxide with hydrogen gas at 932F.

[TAWILDCATT]

my suggestion is to get a ladle with holes,kitchen section and all metal except handle.thats what I use as ladle to get the slag and clips out when melting WW.
it will strain the slag.

[cajun shooter]

Do you have any of those expenisive Lymans left? It would be nice to see if they are all copper. Thats why I buy the H brand for $22 a box.