Rotometal foundry metal. Reasonable?

[243winxb]

Lyman #2 for all. 15 bhn.

[mkj4him]

It’s been a long long time in the making. I just want to shoot them all a lot cheaper these days but still wasn’t good performance. Target and hunting.

[BIGOX]

Well since you have a lot of pure lead and depending on how much and what type of tin you have you can make up a fair amount of alloy. So try the 1 to 10 or 11 method listed earlier for everything up to 45acp and make up a small amount of Lyman #2 Alloy for large high pressure/ velocity needs or when you won't be PC large caliber boolits.
Here's a recipe for that foundery type for an alloy very close to Lyman #2.
1 pound foundry type 4 pounds pure lead and 0.25 pound 60/40 solder.
So at 11 to 1 puls tin you can make up over 750 pounds of alloy and at 4 to 1 plus tin you can only make 275 pounds.

[mkj4him]

Well I don’t have any 60/40. Can I get close to lyman #2 with what I have? I’ll be powder coating MOST of my bullets.

[Rickf1985]

Powder coating is nice but it is not a miracle cure for soft lead. If you are trying to push soft bullets too hard they will mushroom ( Obturate) in the barrel and I am pretty sure they will lead the barrel PC or not. Like 243 said, Lyman #2 for all would be a real good start but the foundry type and pure are not going to get you there without addition of tin in some form. Have you ever used the alloy calculator? It is quite the handy tool to get you close to where you want to be. There is a bit of a learning curve, at least for those of us that do not have Excel skills, but once you get it figured out it is easy.

[mkj4him]

Powder coating is nice but it is not a miracle cure for soft lead. If you are trying to push soft bullets too hard they will mushroom ( Obturate) in the barrel and I am pretty sure they will lead the barrel PC or not. Like 243 said, Lyman #2 for all would be a real good start but the foundry type and pure are not going to get you there without addition of tin in some form. Have you ever used the alloy calculator? It is quite the handy tool to get you close to where you want to be. There is a bit of a learning curve, at least for those of us that do not have Excel skills, but once you get it figured out it is easy.

It sounds like the missing component to achieve Lyman #2 is tin. I have a small supply of tin I can add. So am I correct that adding a certain amount of tin to my foundry/ soft Keel lead would make Lyman %2? How much tin do I need to add to the mix, in place of 60/40, to achieve the #2 alloy?
Where can I find the alloy calculator? My wife is an excel expert.

[BIGOX]

Yes, to get a correct balance for Lyman #2 you would need to add some kind of tin. How much will depend on its purity. What kind of tin do you have? Pure tin, pewter or some kind of solder? The lead alloy calculator is a sticky here in this section (Lead and lead alloys) on the form.
https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...oy-calculators

[mkj4him]

I purchase a large batch of lead ingot from an estate sale years ago. Not until recently did I go through them and found basically four different types. I don’t know the exact composition of each since I haven’t had them tested. One is a soft (pure?) lead. One is light weight, silvery in color and has TIN stamped into it. Another is similar but just has a T stamped into it. The last is also lighter in weight, not as much as the “TIN,” same silvery color with stripes of pale blue purple here and there depending on the lighting and angle viewed at and these are not stamped with anything.
I will assume the ones marked with TIN are mostly if not all tin. Maybe even the “T” marked ones as well. The other unmarked shiny ones I assume are a high tin alloy of some kind. I need to send all of these off for testing. But for now I will go with my gut. ��

[super6]

I melted a bunch of mono type down and the ingots had a purple sheen, It is the ink.

[popper]

All but 9mm will do fine with 1-2% Sb. 4% Sb for the rifles, heat treated. Adding Cu will help with the higher fps and fast twist. I've gotten alox to work OK up to 1800 (BLL), past that, little iify. PC works OK to 2700 in my 308. A quick tumble in BLL over the PC seemed to leave a cleaner barrel. I just get the high Sb alloy without tin, much less $. haven't used tin in years.

[mkj4him]

Hmmm. Makes me wonder what these ingot are. They came from an old man’s estate who loaded and shot competition with 30-06 and 308. I need to get this stuff tested. Eventually.

[BIGOX]

All but 9mm will do fine with 1-2% Sb. 4% Sb for the rifles, heat treated. Adding Cu will help with the higher fps and fast twist. I've gotten alox to work OK up to 1800 (BLL), past that, little iify. PC works OK to 2700 in my 308. A quick tumble in BLL over the PC seemed to leave a cleaner barrel. I just get the high Sb alloy without tin, much less $. haven't used tin in years.

I agree with everything said here. I would definitely get the tin tested asap. Until then the 1 to 4 recipe listed above not included extra tin will net you a result of 2.4% (SN) 5.2% (SB) and 92.4% (PB) with a BNH of 14 this should be work for most applications. Later you can simply add a little more tin to your alloy to harden it up a bit more if needed.

[mkj4him]

I will play around with the calculator. But for now, can someone tell me what type of alloy I would get (suitable or not for high velocity rifle; 6.5 swede or Creed) if I mix pure lead, WW, Foundry type and tin (if more tin is even necessary)?

Looking specifically for a mix + PC and GC for the rifles between 2500 and 2700 if possible. This type of alloying is a new step for me so want to try and get it right without wasting components.

[mkj4him]

All but 9mm will do fine with 1-2% Sb. 4% Sb for the rifles, heat treated. Adding Cu will help with the higher fps and fast twist. I've gotten alox to work OK up to 1800 (BLL), past that, little iify. PC works OK to 2700 in my 308. A quick tumble in BLL over the PC seemed to leave a cleaner barrel. I just get the high Sb alloy without tin, much less $. haven't used tin in years.

How are you adding Cu to the mix?

[popper]

With either tin or zinc (cheaper) in the alloy, put copper sulfate on top, wait for it to turn white. Then mush carefully into the liquid till it stops bubbling. Stir it in and remove the 'dusty' junk on top. There is a sticky thread on it. Cu replaces Sn or Zn.

[justindad]

post #499: https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...=1#post3790727