I don't use the muffin tin ingots anymore either. I converted all of mine to angle iron or lee/Lyman ingots. Easier to use.
I don't use the muffin tin ingots anymore either. I converted all of mine to angle iron or lee/Lyman ingots. Easier to use.
I still prefer diff molds for diff alloys. Its just easier for me.
1# rcbs or Lyman for pure
custom alum squares for range scrap & channel iron rectangles for clip ww.
Lino stays in type form. SImple.
EVERY GOOD SHOOTER NEEDS TO BE A HANDLOADER.
NRA Cert. Inst. Met. Reloading & Basic Pistol
If you're making angle iron moulds, make moulds of different lengths for different alloys. Or use your welder to write the alloy on the inside. Or use stamps for the same effect.
Cognitive Dissident
I feel inadequate after reading this thread—I just use a sharpie.
I have eight of Lakehouse's Cast Boolit molds, but I've got too much lead in too many varieties to do anything with most of it but cast big ten # storage ingots that get marked with the source and sometimes content. Then I make casting alloy with the CB molds, 120 ingots or so at a time. The content [95-3-2] gets stamped on each (no matching pre marked category except other, which the numbers cover better).
Probably the most efficient and effective way. Marking boxes and pails is okay IF every ingot gets put back in the right place.I just use a center punch and no marking = COWW, 1 strike = SOWW, 3 dots right next to eachother = Lino.
Black Sharpie here.
LoL! Coming from a "mainframe" machine with a 3.8K main memory and incoming mortar fire, I can sympathize. A single numeric stamp generally works for me, then I maintain an index in my "loads" spreadsheet (with LibreOffice on a 32GB nanosec-DRAM, 20GzH, 8-CPU, multi-threaded Linux box) on the "alloys" page that lists the components, BHN, and some speed spec's. E.g.:
LinoBall
Pb 85.50%
Sn 3.30%
Sb 9.04%
Ag.2.00%
Cu 0.16%
-------------
Alloy Number 4
LinoBall
Stamp 8
Air Aged BHN 19.8
$19.52
Uncle Sam gives away small flat rate boxes for free. I just pack them up and label the box. I figure once I'm gone my family can sell them and they are already ready to ship. Win win
I’ve got way too much to store that way, but for smaller quantities of special alloys, in ingots of the right size, that sounds eminently well suited.
LoL! Coming from a "mainframe" machine with a 3.8K main memory and incoming mortar fire, I can sympathize. A single numeric stamp generally works for me, then I maintain an index in my "loads" spreadsheet (with LibreOffice on a 32GB nanosec-DRAM, 20GzH, 8-CPU, multi-threaded Linux box) on the "alloys" page that lists the components, BHN, and some speed spec's. E.g.:
LinoBall
Pb 85.50%
Sn 3.30%
Sb 9.04%
Ag.2.00%
Cu 0.16%
-------------
Alloy Number 4
LinoBall
Stamp 8
Air Aged BHN 19.8
so by the time you figure out what you have you forgot what you were going to cast?
Shape a hose clamp to a square and failing that, weld them.
Totally agree that marking with stamps is a good way to go. Got the small HF set. WW, PB, 31 (3 parts lead, 1 part WW) and RS for range scrap.
I made some ingots 35 years ago. Some were lead, some were wheel weights. I knew the difference then. But as the decades went by and I got out of reloading and casting for a time, the ingots migrated to other uses, like holding stuff down or as counterweights.
Then a bunch ended up in a gallon paint can out back in the rain.
Then the paint can bottom rusted out. Then the ingots were in the dirt next to the wood pile.
I almost left them when we moved to Arizona. But I gathered them up and hauled them here.
Now I'm glad I did. Back into casting and those old ingots are still with me! A little worse for wear, but ready to melt.
In the olden days, I just scratched a "W" into the wheelweight ingot with an icepick before it fully hardened. Not the best, but I can still see it, sorta. Everything else was pure lead and unmarked.
Now I stamp them with letters. Much better.
Last edited by Liberty1776; 06-28-2021 at 03:15 AM.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |