Never saw that chart before. Saved that one in my files, Thanks.
Never saw that chart before. Saved that one in my files, Thanks.
Good find. Around here the all available lead is snatched up quickly and resold in ingots for 2 to 3 bucks a pound. I'm glad I have enough for now as I'm not willing to pay that for unknown alloy...
Tony
Hi, my name is Tony and I'm addicted to gunpowder.
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Tony, I am a stickler for accuracy in everything I do so I have ordered a Cabine Tree tester and once it comes in I am going to separate out all the different types of lead by hardness into groups. dead soft is obvious and has already been smelted down into Cast Boolits ingots and marked. Then I will group lead that is say 10-12BHN and smelt that all together and so on throughout the pile. The ones I suspect as tin or high tin will be sent out for testing. The smelted groups will be marked for BHN and also then be sent out for testing so I have an exact composition on that group of ingots. I would not do this for 20 lbs. but considering I am going to have 3-400lbs. of each group I need to know what I have. Also, when I am gone or if I decide to sell then it is documented exactly what is what. This way there is no "buying an unknown alloy".
ditto on unknown allow.
A pawn shop down the road bough a bunch of relaod gear from an estate.. he has a pile of ingots that feel pretty hard and some of them ring. 2-3 different molds. one ingot is broken.. grain structure is odd.. looks like zinc.. it was a good price.. but is unknown. Heck.. could be bismuth.. there are plenty of shotgun reloaders in that area of town.. lots of ranges...
Got the tester is yesterday and went to work checking some of the questionable lead I had. I was looking for all soft lead in this purchase since I already have a ton of wheel weights and half again that of linotype but I am not going to complain about what I got. It looks like I am going to end up with about 400 lbs. of soft and the rest from 12 up to 30 plus BHN. Some of the bigger pieces like the one with all the percentages on it tested all over the place depending on where you tried it, a lot of that probably has to do with position and shape. I will melt them down as one batch into one pound ingots and check again. Same with a couple of the other large and inconsistent pieces.
I have noticed that the pics do not always show on the page in the right orientation, if you click on each one it comes up right.
Nice Score! Looks like a lot of unknown but good stuff in there!
I tested a lot of the stuff as you see there and then the really hard stuff and some of the medium stuff I also tested with my Lee tester. It was interesting that the softer stuff tracked just about dead even on both testers but on the hard stuff the Lee showed substantially lower numbers. Still in the 20-22 range but certainly not above 30 as the Cabine was showing. And the Cabine was very inconsistent on all those sample where the Lee was dead even on 4 tests of every sample. But this gives me a baseline for where most of this stuff falls into groups so now it gets smelted together with all the hard stuff going in one pot since it is all showing between 20 and 24. Close enough for me to blend it all together and then send in a sample to BNE. I noticed that the last 120 lbs of soft that I smelted into ingots had a little ring to it so I checked on of them and it came back as 10 BHN so I guess those two big chunks I tossed in were harder than I thought. I will simply pull that group out and box it in ammo cans and that will be marked for my 45 and 38 bullets as is. The rest is going to become ballast for the tractor for winter since my old ballast box rotted out. Now I can just weld up a quickie box and back the tractor up to the garage and start stacking ingots in the box. Throw a cover on the box and ready for snow. They are out of the garage, I don't have to carry them a hundred yards and come spring I can back the tractor right up to where they will be stored. MULTITASKING!
Ok, My OCD got the best of me. I am one that likes to be accurate in what I do and when I have two lead hardness testers and they do not agree with each other on readings I feel like I am right back at square one. So I built my own tester. I have found it to be dead on with the Lee tester on just about every sample I have tested. So now I have two that agree and when I get the sample cleaner I will try them again with the Cabine tree tester but so far I am not real happy with that tester.
In the pics you will see I have a drill bit in the chuck, this was replaced by an upside down 5/32s drill filed to a ball end. The scale was only used to calibrate my weight pail for the exact 60lb. load. I will have to get a couple pics of it in action.
Not one pic loaded in the right orientation, please click on each one to see it correctly.
Last edited by Rickf1985; 10-22-2022 at 07:08 PM. Reason: Added pics
LOL! “A man with a watch always knows what time it is. A man with 2 is never sure.”
”We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, yet they are still lying.” –Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
My Straight Shooters thread:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...raight-shooter
The Pewter Pictures and Hallmarks thread:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-and-hallmarks
Until you actually verify the accuracy by testing certified pure lead, Lyman #2 and linotype, you only have two measuring devises that agree, and one that does not. I do not recall the cabin tree unit requiring a dwell time before taking the reading on the indent. Setting the indent correctly is also critical for an accurate reading. As an example, Lyman #2 has an indent reading of .084-.086". Linotype has an indent reading of .086-.090". If you do not have clean samples, you could create an error in reading.
Both the Lee and the equipment you created require visual inspection to measure with a caliper or a micrometer to get the indent reading. Age and vision issues might influence the ability to get a clear reading on the measuring tool. You really do need to calibrate with known samples and not try to calibrate between two divices.
I think those imperial bars are what they used to refresh Linotype. High antinomy and tin. I can't seem to find the info I found on it long ago when I found a couple bars of it.
I do have a couple of known new (at one time new but never used) linotype pigs. I will test one of those with mine but I am not cutting the pigs up to test them with the others. As long as I know mine is accurate doing it the way I am that is good enough for what I am doing right now. I ordered some ball bearings before I even started on this because I originally planned to braze a 5/32 bearing to the bit to have the exact size called out. I also needed the bearing kit I ordered to repair a hydraulic valve on my tractor so I didn't buy a bunch of bearings just for this. But I will make up that bearing on another bit and compare them. I know what I have is dead on to the Lee so I am keeping that. I never expect to get lab quality specs from any of this equipment, mine or the stuff purchased. From the testing I have seen the Lee tester is right up at the top for accuracy but the downfall is the ease of use. IF, Big if here, IF you follow the directions the Lee tester is accurate.
That entire rig took me 20 minutes to build so I have little into it. Cost was three zip ties and scrap I had laying around. Setting it up was a bit of a pain because the string is to light and kept stretching and spinning. The first scale I tried to use was too touchy and would not settle down to get the 60 lb. calibration weight. But eventually I will need my drill press back so this is just a quick tester build. I will probably leave the wheel on there, it will actually make the press easier to use I think. Next time I set it up I will use paracord for the weight cord and I will record the amount of weight I am using so I can duplicate it the next time.
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 |