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Thread: How I alloyed pure antimony to pure lead

  1. #21
    Boolit Mold
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    Oct 2019
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    Quote Originally Posted by LAGS View Post
    The white smoke from Antimony and the white dust is Toxic and should not be inhaled or ingested.
    I found that if you put chunks of Antimony into melted lead and just kept it melted , the Antimony will dissolve over a long time.
    But if you put a torch to the Antimony Chunks or try to heat the Antimony with a torch to melt it to add to the melted lead , you will end up with massive amounts of toxic smoke and white soot.
    Just let the Antimony disolve and don't add direct heat to try and speed up the melting of the Antimony.
    Also.
    If you overheat the Lead , you cause more lead vapor that you can breath in.
    It takes less than 7 minutes to dissolve the antimony if you put tin in first and then submerge the antimony. No visible fumes. I timed it on my third repeat (last night). Not sure of exactly how long since I sat down and forgot to check it for a few minutes. Might be only 5 minutes but definitely completely dissolved within 7.

  2. #22
    Boolit Mold
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    Quote Originally Posted by dondiego View Post
    Linotype sure seems like a good deal.
    LOL, might be! Linotype is double to triple what I'm paying for my alloy, and it takes less than 10 minutes and no fumes (not visible anyway!) with my method. Of course, this is completely dependent on how lucky/resourceful/patient you are in scrounging source metals and what kind of volume you're trying to do. I'm lucky. I have access to pure lead very cheap, and a FREE source of ~30-40 pounds of pure tin per year. As the years have passed, options have gotten slimmer and more expensive...
    Last edited by lign; 09-08-2021 at 11:42 PM.

  3. #23
    Boolit Mold
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Steven View Post
    lign,
    In reply to your question, I was trying to melt lead lumps and antimony lumps at the same time in a stainless cooking pot. when the antimony got to a hot (lead was already melted) temperature, LARGE clouds of white smoke evolved, I shut down the torch immediately and rethought what I was doing. It seemed to me oxygen in the air was reacting with the hot antimony, if I could keep the air from the antimony I could stop the white smoke from evolving, thus the tight fitting insulation plug (I used 1200deg steam pipe insulation, a white, fiber reinforced product) which worked well. The resulting liquid I poured into a angle mold, I broke up the resulting string into pieces to add when necessary. Note the white smoke deposited all around the area, I don't know if it is dangerous.

    Steve
    Thanks Steve, that does relieve my worry a bit. My temp is under 700 and there are no visible fumes. The EPA safety document on antimony gives specific concentration levels that I think (hope) I am not exceeding when weighing the dry chunks. I wear a mask and gloves and do it quickly and close the bag fast. Not sure if that is sufficient but I suspect the dry dust may be more dangerous than my dissolving process.

  4. #24
    Boolit Master

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    thanks 'lign' and others, an excellent thread.

    This thread seems to dispel the often repeated internet consensus, "the science is settled, it can't be done or it's not worth the effort." I have often read about the horrors of trying to add pure antimony to lead, which usually included at least one guy saying it was not all that difficult. Those lone voices were mostly drown out by the chorus of naysayers and the successful processes were rarely explained in detail.

    From what has been posted here I would not be at all hesitant to try lign's method. Thanks new guy and welcome to the forum.
    Last edited by oley55; 09-09-2021 at 09:45 AM.
    “Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem.” Ronald Reagan


  5. #25
    Boolit Mold
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    Quote Originally Posted by oley55 View Post
    thanks 'lign' and others, an excellent thread.

    This thread seems to dispel the often repeated internet consensus, "the science is settled, it can't be done or it's not worth the effort." I have often read about the horrors of trying to add pure antimony to lead, which usually included at least one guy saying it was not all that difficult. Those lone voices were mostly drown out by the chorus of naysayers and the successful processes were rarely explained in detail.

    From what has been posted here I would not be at all hesitant to try lign's method. Thanks new guy and welcome to the forum.
    Thank you sir, I hope it helps someone that was in my situation. I wish I had just tried it before I spent so much time and energy trying to find affordable options to harden my pure lead since I have so much of it. I did a LOT of reading about the process online over the course of months, and I just didn't see much that was encouraging. I also got some good education from many hours of reading The Cast Bullet Handbook, Fryxel's free online book, and also the out-of-print NRA book. I see you're in Jax, which is next door to me in St Augustine! Pretty cool!

  6. #26
    Boolit Master bruce381's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by M-Tecs View Post
    What type of problems are you having? Something is amiss. Pure Lead melts at 621 degrees and melts LinoType 462 degrees. If the LinoType is not melting it's not LinoType.
    yeah some info is missing here

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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
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