Making your own quality alloys

[Wolfdog91]

Ok so I have no desire to buy pre made alloys. Not really interested in just getting random Lead from where ever and hoping I mix it right every time. Maybe for pistol but not for my rifle casting.I wanna be able to buy pure lead tin antimony and make my own alloys. What's a guy need to do this accurately and repeatedly?

[bangerjim]

Buy Sb alloy already! Then mix it with Pb and Sn to what you want. Sb is too difficult to mess with on it's own. Buy it already alloy mixed with Pb from RotoMetals like Hardball.

That's what I do to make my own COWW and other alloys when needed. Have made hundreds of pounds of it that way until I ran into a mother-load of COWW alloy ingots! COWW's are nonexistent around me now. All Zn.


banger

[Mitch]

If you do not want to do any of the work involved buy your bullets.Other than that i do not know what you are looking to do if you do not want to buy any lead.

[wilecoyote]

serious doubts about finding straight Antimony...

[Gofaaast]

Buy alloys from Rotometals. If your insistence on doing some of the alloying yourself buy hardball, pure and tin. Reason being it’s difficult to alloy antimony as someone already mentioned.

[Wolfdog91]

If you do not want to do any of the work involved buy your bullets.Other than that i do not know what you are looking to do if you do not want to buy any lead.

No I wanna do all the work. Just have no desire to buy pre mixed alloy. I wanna buy pure lead ,tin and antimony and mix my own

[Wolfdog91]

Buy alloys from Rotometals. If your insistence on doing some of the alloying yourself buy hardball, pure and tin. Reason being it’s difficult to alloy antimony as someone already mentioned.

Why is is difficult to ally antimony exactly?

[Wolfdog91]

serious doubts about finding straight Antimony...

Not 100% but close enough

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[Wolfdog91]

Buy Sb alloy already! Then mix it with Pb and Sn to what you want. Sb is too difficult to mess with on it's own. Buy it already alloy mixed with Pb from RotoMetals like Hardball.

That's what I do to make my own COWW and other alloys when needed. Have made hundreds of pounds of it that way until I ran into a mother-load of COWW alloy ingots! COWW's are nonexistent around me now. All Zn.


banger

What exactly makes it so difficult?

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[Mitch]

the pure antimony is the problem. getting it into the alloy.I am sure some one here will have a better expination.It is not just toss the pure antimony in the pot. you would be better off getting some superhard.

[Wolfdog91]

And that's why I asked, very curious about what it takes to actually get it into the mix properly

[wilecoyote]

[QUOTE]

...here it is not that easy, however you have solved one of the four problems. you are left with pure lead and pure tin, and maybe rotometals can help you. then mix all three without the antimony tending to dissolve, and predicting how much will remain in the alloy. more than this I honestly do not know.
my best wishes

[Mal Paso]

Antimony Man who was around when I started casting used to sell the materials to alloy antimony with lead. The method was difficult and the man is long gone. Rotometals Superhard is much easier.

I bought a pallet of 3.5% antimony lead from Rotometals a while back when prices were good and add my own tin.

[Wolfdog91]

[QUOTE=wilecoyote;5394275]

...here it is not that easy, however you have solved one of the four problems. you are left with pure lead and pure tin, and maybe rotometals can help you. then mix all three without the antimony tending to dissolve, and predicting how much will remain in the alloy. more than this I honestly do not know.
my best wishes

3 outta 4 right now lol ? So what's the next part ?

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[wilecoyote]

[QUOTE=3 outta 4 right now lol ? So what's the next part ?
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...4 the mix but, as I said, ...more than this I honestly do not know.
here I'm still playing with scraps, soldering alloys. and leftovers of lyno&monotype_

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

sounds easy enough

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...-melt-antimony

[Bigslug]

The problem is that the melting point of antimony by itself is almost 1200F - or almost double that of lead, and almost three times that of tin. This is why we seek it pre-alloyed. What you buy and what you mix of course depends on what you're trying to do.

If you go with store bought Lyman #2 which is 90/5/5 and mix it 1-1 with pure lead, you get 95/2.5/2.5, which is DARN close to 94/3/3, also known as wheelweight+2% tin. 10 pounds of #2 to 8 or 9 pounds pure would get you there pretty much exactly. With those ingredients, you could have about 12-13 BHN for the WW+2% equivalent air cooled; water quench the same mix up to @20-24BHN; or just run air-cooled #2 at 15BHN. Of course, you can also keep adding pure lead to get as soft as you want.

Not much in this game you couldn't accomplish with those, and the science doesn't get that weird. A few tin nuggets on hand to toss in if you can't get good fillout, and your off and running.

[KYCaster]

Ok so I have no desire to buy pre made alloys. Not really interested in just getting random Lead from where ever and hoping I mix it right every time. Maybe for pistol but not for my rifle casting.I wanna be able to buy pure lead tin antimony and make my own alloys. What's a guy need to do this accurately and repeatedly?

No I wanna do all the work. Just have no desire to buy pre mixed alloy. I wanna buy pure lead ,tin and antimony and mix my own

Why is is difficult to ally antimony exactly?

What exactly makes it so difficult?

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What you want to do is not all that difficult.
Lots of negative comments about alloying Sb(Antimony), but it's not like rocket surgery. Bit of a learning curve, but nothing most of us can't handle.
Finding the metals isn't difficult; get the Sn and Pb from your local plumbing supply wholesaler (not Lowe's). 95/5 lead free solder is about $40.00 a pound. It's 95% Sn and the 5% may be Silver, Copper, Nickel or whatever, doesn't matter. Ask for MSDS data sheets, tells you exactly what's in it.
Ask for "caulking lead", comes in 5 pound pucks, 5 linked together for about $120. Usually 99.5% pure; as good as you're gonna find.
Rotometals is probably the best source for small amounts of Sb. I'd go for the 5lb. ingot for $70 rather than the shot. I've never dealt with the shot but I'm concerned about the amount of surface oxide vs the ingot. The oxide is toxic and is more difficult to dissolve in your alloy.

So for 100 lbs of 3-3-94 alloy you're looking at...
100 lbs of Pb.........$480
5 lbs of Sb..............$70
3 lbs of Sn............$120

$6.70 per pound with some Pb and Sb left for the next batch. Not too bad for a couple days work.

Let us know how it works out for you.

Jerry

[Lead pot]

If you want to mix an alloy with antimony I would find Linotype or look for some one pound rolls of no lead solder that is 95% tin 5% antimony. WW are rich in antimony and a mix of 50/50 WW/lead makes a good alloy that works well.
The photo is an example of alloy mixes and the far right is a mix of one roll of no lead solder with 18# Lead and that bullet was shot with a .45-90 with 82 gr of 2F black powder as well as the rest with the same powder loads.
One thing to keep in mind is you can end up with bullets that look like these .308 fired with the .30-30 at jacked velocity that might end up longer then it was before it was fired.
The second and far right are unfired.

[dverna]

Ask yourself why you want to formulate your alloys from scratch. IMO you will gain nothing in bullet performance over alloys you can purchase so that leaves trying to save a bit of money. Have you worked the numbers to determine the cost savings?