Need help! Bought pure lead need help mixing for 9mm. ???

[Ironmike340]

It’s 98 pure. Don’t know what or how much to add to it to get a hardness suitable for 9mm? I’ve seen Linotype new and old. Lyman #2 . I have a ten pound pot so looking for help on what cheapest and best way. Looking for a b12 to 16 I’m guessing. I’m new so may need some explaining lol. Thanks

[Cargo]

I'm following this one because I'm literally in the same spot.

[AndyC]

You don't need that hard for 9mm - and size is king.

10 lbs pure lead + 5 lbs Lyman #2 will give you around 10.6 Bhn (1.67% each of tin and antimony, so it should cast nicely) - and I shoot bullets of around 9.5 Bhn in my 9mms all the time.

As for Linotype - be wary of the term, especially if buying offa eBay. What most people sell as lino is actually electrotype:

Electrotype: 2.50% tin, 2.50% antimony, 95.0% lead
Linotype: 4.00% tin, 12.00% antimony, 84.0% lead.

Get a copy of bumpo's Alloy Calculator: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...oy-calculators

It's a spreadsheet where you can mess around adding pounds of this and pounds of that in the yellow column and see what the results are at the bottom.

[zarrinvz24]

Welcome to the forum! Don’t stress too much about the hardness, you need to focus on the fit of the boolit to the barrel size. If you don’t have a good micrometer, you need one. Elmer Keith was a big fan of 14-1 tin for hot loads in a magnum revolver, but recommended hard bullets for auto loaders. Since you’ve already purchased 98% lead, what is the other 2%?

[ryanmattes]

Worst case, buy a couple bars of plumbers solder on amazon, and use the spreadsheet linked above to bring it up to around BHN 9 or so.

Start there, it's not a high velocity round, and if you need more hardness, just water drop.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[Dusty Bannister]

Ryan, the 9MM is a high pressure round. And he has pure lead and if adding only tin, you will not gain any hardness by Heat Treating and Quenching. There is NO ANTIMONY in pure lead.

[Mmacro]

Ryan recommended adding plumbers solder to the pure lead... which is a viable option if the correct alloy is available.

At least one company makes a ti-antimony alloy for plumbing use...
“ Available in tin-silver, tin-antimony and tin-copper alloy construction and different chemical compositions with 14200 psi average tensile strength and maximum working temperatures from 428 degrees F to 500 degrees F. Solder is made from lead-free alloys and available in rod and wire form. Solder bars are available in 1/8 in. dia. and solder wire in 1 lb. spool packaging. Meet ASTM standards.”

Tin-Antimony Soft Solder Sn 95%, Sb 5%

https://www.gasflux.com/index.html

Ryan, the 9MM is a high pressure round. And he has pure lead and if adding only tin, you will not gain any hardness by Heat Treating and Quenching. There is NO ANTIMONY in pure lead.

[Green Frog]

Where are you located, Ironmike340? There's probably somebody on this forum close enough to help you out getting started. I'm in Central VA, as my header shows, and I keep a fair amount of monotype and even linotype plus (extra antimony and tin) to harden up pure lead on the rare occasions I need to do so.

Froggie

[Mmacro]

Rotometals also sells a 5 lbs bar of 30%-Antimony, 70%-Lead for $27... so “salvaging” an accidental purchase is very easy?
I also have pure leas, because I cast for BP also. But I need to allot some for my smokeless pew pews... So I will need to get a bar of this.
https://www.rotometals.com/super-har...imony-70-lead/

[robg]

just add some lead free plumbers solder

[Ironmike340]

I live in central Michigan. I am powder coating these. I don’t shoot max, but load for target.
As for the lead all it says is pure lead fluxed twice. I bought 25 lbs at 1.90 a pound. I’m looking at Toto metal and Lyman is 27 dollars per 5lbs. And if I added 2part pure to 2 part Lyman I would need at least 10lbs. At $27 for 5lbs that’s $80 shipped? That puts me at $130 to load. Not sure if that’s gonna be worth it?
Also plumbers solder is that really gonna make it hard enough to shoot? If so how much would I need if I wanted to make a ten pound pot? Thanks . Sorry I have so many questions. Just wanna see if I should sell it and buy something else or figure a good way to salvage it.
Is there something else I should have bought? Ebay is flooded so never know what your getting.
I see root metal has Linotype bar but do know how much I need of any

[Ironmike340]

Also I shoot all auto loader

[Ironmike340]

Central michigan

[Ironmike340]

What about Toto metal super bar? Would that take less per pound?

[gwpercle]

From "Sixgun Cartridges & Loads" by Elmer Keith

Tin / lead Bullet Alloy :

1/15 ratio for automatic pistols and magnum loads in revolvers ( good for over 1000 fps )

1 pound tin + 15 pounds Lead .

Gary

[toallmy]

A very helpful thread you might want to check out is ( setting up for boolits in a new 9mm ) you can find it in the - forum ( classics & stickes ) .
It has a lot of very helpful information on loading the 9mm with cast boolits .
As far as alloy I use half pure lead & half clip on wheel weights a lot , but I think size and loading to maintain the size is more important .
Adding very little antimony will harden your alloy considerably .

[AndyC]

Everything costs money, unless you're going to do as many of us do and either scrounge it or dig it out of the berms and smelt it down yourself - even then we usually have to add metals to get a little extra tin (to fill the cavities completely) and perhaps antimony if additional hardness is needed.

I've bought additional hardball, Lyman#2 and tin from Rotometals so I can blend it with the range-scrap I already have and make the alloys I want - you have to figure out how badly you want your bullets, and it'll still be cheaper than buying commercial bullets.

I've already shown you where to get the alloy calculator and how to use it - I posted that for a reason, specifically so you can play with the numbers and play "what-if", in an effort to help you be self-sufficient.

[Ironmike340]

Yeah I understand that. But do you understand I’m new and I got different answers.
One says just add tin. Another says won’t be hard enough. Another talks about wheel weight.
If I understood all the hardness stuff the calculator would be a piece of cake. But it just doesn’t seem to mention about Tin helping flow or different kinds of Linotype?
And I am trying to figure out how to do it or how bad I want it.
I asked about a couple metals to add. I didn’t ask about wheel weights or antimony. Don’t even know what hardball is? That’s why I was asking to learn more about it. I’ve reloaded for years, casting is new

[NY_Treeguy]

Mike, lots of good info here, but also lots of opinions. Not saying any of them are wrong, just different solutions to same problem.

I was in your shoes a few years back and have learned all I needed to know (so far)about casting from this group. Be patient, read some of the old posts and don’t sweat it. Do some homework and then try some of the solutions you come up with. See what results you get and then ask some more questions.

[oley55]

Ironmike340, I feel your pain and confusion. So much information and so much conflicting.

I got lucky a short while ago when I was in your situation. Fortunately, pretty much out of no where, a local on this forum posted asking about other casters in my town/area. We got together, I visited his place, asked a gazillion questions and he set me up with some alloy and I'm on my way. Perhaps a similar post simply asking, are there any casters on here in or around JoeBobville? Get a couple responses, exchange some private messages to see if getting together is right for you.

I am pretty much a loner, do it myself, I'll finger it out kinda guy and accepting the offer of actual physical help was a bit outside my box. Now my biggest issue is figuring out how I can adequately repay the kindness afforded me.