Making your own quality alloys

[bangerjim]

Banger,


I’m happy to have stumbled onto this forum and hope I can fit in.
Willie

If you like lively discussions, differing viewpoints on what works and doesn't, new and old techniques, and a bunch of "good ole' guys and gals, you will fit in just nicely! It's not Twitter (thank God!) and as long as you stay within the WIDE lanes established by the mods, you will be just fine.


Welcome to the madness!

[reddog81]

O I could honestly care less about cost saving and all that. I simply just wanna do it . I get bored really easy and just buy stuff dosent really appeal to me honestly. Seems more and more of an odd thought process now days but I wanna be able to say I made my own alloy from scratch and mean it. And the more people talk about it being hard just makes me wanna try it more
Same reason I started casting for a .223 instead of something else. Everyone kept saying how hard it would be and all I heard was " hayyyy ! That seems like it would be fun for a few months"

It doesn't really count unless you're out digging the various ores out of the ground

I'm glad I started 10 years ago when it was at least still possible to find some buckets of wheel weights that were half lead and had a nice mix of antimony and tin built in.

[kevin c]

I make trinary casting alloy (95-3-2, accurate to 0.1%) from antimonial lead (radioisotope containers) and tin (pewter), both processed into storage lots and XRF’d for exact content. The source for both is scrap, and much cheaper than buying certified pure from a foundry. The pewter has copper in it, but a couple percent of a couple percent in the final alloy is four parts per ten thousand and not significant for our purposes. Simple algebra gets me the ratios to mix, including any extra pure lead or antimony.

SuperHard for extra antimony is the most expensive component of my alloy by weight, but, needing very little, the final cost per pound is small. The extra step of mixing my own didn’t seem worthwhile.

Discounting my labor, my casting alloy cost, (raw materials, propane and the cost of equipment [molds, burners, pots, ladles, PPE, etc.]) is well under a dollar a pound. YMMV, but I get considerable satisfaction from the fact that at that price you can’t even buy pure foundry lead.

[Echo]

I have a patio full of stuff, and I make several alloys, but they are all copies of the old standby WW+2%Sn. Alloy 'Z' is 2/1 Lead/Lino +1% Sn. Alloy 'M' is 3/1 Lead/Monotype. Alloy 'F' is 4/1 Lead/Foundry type. All about 2+% Sn, 4+% Sb, remainder Pb. All about 14-15 BHN

[quilbilly]

I do mix my own alloys and get a lot of satisfaction from it when they produce accurate, properly expanding boolits. Having been manufacturing fishing jigs for both saltwater and freshwater from scrap lead for 40 years, I have an advantage of spotting the best lead by eye. I regularly walk up to huge bins with thousands of pounds of scrap then just walk away when I don't see what I want. I look real hard at roofing lead in large sheets or especially sheets of lead from the walls of Xray rooms. Both are usually pretty pure (99% and up). Linotype is harder to spot when it is in unmarked bars but you can with practice. Only a couple weeks ago I picked up 30# of pure (but a little dirty) roofing lead and 5# of unmarked Lino for one dollar a pound. Of that 20# of pure went to jigs and the rest saved for fine boolits.

[KYCaster]

Welllllll....this discussion is kinda goin off the rails.
The OP didn't ask for the easiest way to make his alloy. He didn't ask for the cheapest way to make his alloy. He didn't ask for the most convenient way to make his alloy. He asked for A way to make his alloy.
So far, most of the negative replies have come from people who have never tried to make an alloy from pure metals and are just repeating negative comments they've heard from others. Even those who have the experience, the knowledge, the material and the means to do this are trying to discourage him because it can be done "easier" or "cheaper". I have to disagree.

A few facts that may surprise you and you may not agree with....

100 lbs. of bullet casting alloy (92-6-2) from RotoMetals is $18.62 per lb. (shipped to central KY)
Pure Pb, pure Sn and Super Hard from RotoMetals to make 100 lbs. of 94-3-3 is about the same price.
All that pure Pb you scrounge is not pure. Most of it is 2 to 5% Sb.
A local wheel weight manufacturer uses scrap WW and doesn't separate the Pb from Zn, so all his product contains ever increasing amounts of Zn.
Nuclear medicine containers are not all created equal. I've had them from 5 BHN pure lead to 22 BHN. And the lids are not always the same.

Bottom line is, if you want to start with pure metals, you don't have many options and the only way to reduce the price per pound is to buy in larger quantities.

I'm sure many of you disagree with me, but I will be grateful if you can tell me where to get certified pure metals cheaper than the sources I posted earlier.

Jerry

[dverna]

Welllllll....this discussion is kinda goin off the rails.
The OP didn't ask for the easiest way to make his alloy. He didn't ask for the cheapest way to make his alloy. He didn't ask for the most convenient way to make his alloy. He asked for A way to make his alloy.
So far, most of the negative replies have come from people who have never tried to make an alloy from pure metals and are just repeating negative comments they've heard from others. Even those who have the experience, the knowledge, the material and the means to do this are trying to discourage him because it can be done "easier" or "cheaper". I have to disagree.

A few facts that may surprise you and you may not agree with....

100 lbs. of bullet casting alloy (92-6-2) from RotoMetals is $18.62 per lb. (shipped to central KY)
Pure Pb, pure Sn and Super Hard from RotoMetals to make 100 lbs. of 94-3-3 is about the same price.
All that pure Pb you scrounge is not pure. Most of it is 2 to 5% Sb.
A local wheel weight manufacturer uses scrap WW and doesn't separate the Pb from Zn, so all his product contains ever increasing amounts of Zn.
Nuclear medicine containers are not all created equal. I've had them from 5 BHN pure lead to 22 BHN. And the lids are not always the same.

Bottom line is, if you want to start with pure metals, you don't have many options and the only way to reduce the price per pound is to buy in larger quantities.

I'm sure many of you disagree with me, but I will be grateful if you can tell me where to get certified pure metals cheaper than the sources I posted earlier.

Jerry

100 lbs of 92-4-2 from Rotometals is $368.40 shipped to Northern Michigan. And there are other suppliers less than that.

Rotometals must not like doing business in Kentucky...lol.

If you enjoy making alloys....good for you and have at it. But be factual about the costs.

Think about it....you can buy 1000 commercial 158 gr bullets made from 92-4-2 for about $100 delivered. That is about 22 lbs of bullets....so less than $5/lb. How can alloy cost over $18/lb?

[charlie b]

I buy my alloy from Rotometals as well. Usually enough to qualify for free shipping (over $150). Just got 40lb of Lyman #2 a couple weeks ago for $176. That's $4.40/lb (which is up about $1 from last year).

https://www.rotometals.com/lyman-2-b...in-5-antimony/

If you order a lot at once then you will get into freight shipping, which can be expensive. If you want 100lb or more then break it down into three different orders that each meet the free shipping criteria.

PS your post office delivery person will get to know you well for this.

[Wolfdog91]

Well guess I'll just some of this super hard stuff for now.... Takes alot of the fun and mad scientist out if it but I guess for now

[farmbif]

if you do this make a video will be interested in seeing how you do it. wire cage method for antimony or whatever.

[Wolfdog91]

if you do this make a video will be interested in seeing how you do it. wire cage method for antimony or whatever.

Was planning on it lol. Need to double check my respirators filter though. I know it's supposed to more on trace lead . Not sure about the antimony though. I mean I cast and smelt out side with a fan but still

Sent from my motorola one 5G UW using Tapatalk