This process is called obturation, and is critical to accuracy. Can't tell you the Brinell hardness, but I used a mixture of one pound of Lino to two pounds of WW for many years for my high velocity magnum pistol loads, Up to 1500 FPS. Learn from CBA members that have been casting their entire life. Made some bullets from them but the consistency wasnt good. It is the presence of thezinc that adversely affects the casting quality of the alloy. I don't use it in my BPC rifles preferring instead a 25-1, lead/tin alloy. I thought wheel weights were generally a little harder than lino? I am beginning to think that if a bullet caster does not understand a little about the metallurgy of his materials he is going to be out of the hobby as sources and availability of materials either drys up or becomes restricted. Of course the only result is that you'll get damn hard bullets which is OK. Why Choose Us? The amount of rebound is different for different metals, and needs to be taken into account when building the molds and dies. Tapping them on a hard object gave a tinny sound compared to lead. It does nothing useful for bullets and is not needed. But the problem with that is, weak solutions form easily (up to about 4%) As you work toward strongersolutions,it takes a lot longer for this to occur. I'd go down to the local salvage yard and buy wheelweights if it was me. Dicko wrote: billwnr wrote: I would think this is a waste of good linotype and pure lead. Friction (air resistance) eats away at that energy, slowing the bullet as it goes down range. That is not helpful, unless we're talking money not bullets. Wheelweights are still available locally for free at local gas stations. Should I buy a hardness tester or just mix it? I have been working with antimony ingots and find that they will disolve into soft lead alloy given enough time and the proper conditions. JavaScript is disabled. But the best approach is to use it when you can get it but be prepared to use other forms of lead when you need to. You don't need to worry too much about the content of scrap. Cast 200 RCBS 35-200 FN, they weigh 202 gr.
harden tend freshly drop cast soft age then bullet As long as the bullet is sufficiently hard to handle the pressures, I care little about the excessive hardness of the alloy. For the sake of not boring you or others, I put the answer in bold. If a man has nothing greater to believe in than himself, he is a very lonely man. All that is required is a known temperature in the oven, a consistanttemperature in that oven and attention to the time. You can melt lead in an old soup can over a camp fire. Actually, in metallurgy, there are several possible definitions of hardness. That would have the benefit of consistent supply because, as far as I can gather, wheelweights are generally available in the US but linotype is scarce everywhere because of the demise of traditional typesetting. Lead is a very soft metal, and has a BHN of 5, silver is much harder, with a BHN of 24.5. Offhand I forget the antimony content but it is a lot more than linotype. puts you right about 1% tin and 3% antimony. A forum community dedicated to all firearm owners and enthusiasts. There is controversy over the BHN results it produces but it does basic math for you in calculating percentages of compounds perfectly and a lot faster that I can on paper. I personally shoot a 70/30 mix of lino/wheelweights as I use the same alloy I use for the 2000fps benchrest competition. When a metal is plasticly deformed (molded like play dough), it tends to "rebound" a bit. The " stick on, double sided tape on" wheel weights are darn near pure lead, adding some of them to the batch should soften your harder alloy. But generallyI don't disagree with anything you've said. Both have higher resale values than wheel weights. 12% Antimonial alloy therefore costs $1.19 a lb, more or less what you expect to pay for linotype. View Full Version : How to soften linotype lead. I learned on this forum that they are mostly free in the US. Now its plumbers lead and superhard alloy for me. In recent times the specs have gotten slack in my part of the world and my tests show that 2 - 3% antimony can be expected. I'm planning to make a 50/50 mixture. wes. Silver rebounds more than lead, in fact quite a bit more. When I use it down, I will put 1 ingot of linotype to 4 ingots of wheel weight lead. The Fora platform includes forum software by XenForo, Second Media Corp., 30800 Telegraph Rd, Suite 1921, Bingham Farms, MI 48025 USA. Good shooting' to y'all. That's good news, because it means that reloaders already have experience in loading and shooting hard materials. That's part of the enjoyment. There are a number of ways to measure hardness, but most reloaders use the Brinell Hardness Number (BHN). I have been working with antimony ingots and find that they will disolve into soft lead alloy given enough time and the proper conditions. I prefer not to work with the temperatures required to melt Antimony (1149 F) because of the toxic exposure to antimony and lead fumes. Okay, I ggogled it. Back about 45 years ago I used to work at a gas station that sold a lot of tires. 50/50 Linotype is not reliably available but you can blend it any time you like. Make sense? With lead, the old timers just started pouring and figured that the first few rounds of bullets would be junk, but they'd warm the mold up enough for it to work well. There is, however, a line, beyond which tolerance ceases to be a virtue, The Fora platform includes forum software by XenForo, http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?168373-simple-lube, Outdoor Hub, LLC (d/b/a Carbon Media Group), 30800 Telegraph Rd, Suite 1921, Bingham Farms, MI 48025 USA. They are supposed to be 0.50% tin 4% antimony. It is the presence of thezinc that adversely affects the casting quality of the alloy. Because there was enough linotype lead around me I always casted rifle bullets out of 100% pure lino, handgun bullets out of 50% lino and 50% pure lead. The comments so far are not far off but it depends what you think linotype is and what wheelweight alloy is. I just did some today. Prepping to get into casting bullets. Getting the mold up to 207F for lead isn't too tough, but the silver mold needs to be nearly 600F. I think I answered it accurately but let me comment further on wheelweights and linotype. I can't guarantee exact uniformity batch to batch but I get very close, within half a grain bullet weight, and I can get closer with some extra work. You can't beat simple lube for it's simplicity. For sure. I use 50/50 lino and pure to get 7.5% antimony shot. But I can. As a very rough rule of thumb, the mold should be at least a third of the molten material's temperature to perform well. That about the hardness I was hoping for. Can any of you guys give me a basic ratio for mixing linotype with straight lead to make something similar to ww lead? Forum, Outdoor Hub, LLC (d/b/a Carbon Media Group), 30800 Telegraph Rd, Suite 1921, Bingham Farms, MI 48025 USA. Its high melting point requires better furnaces and technique than is needed for lead. I would think this is a waste of good linotype and pure lead. If you mix 3 to 1 with pure lead you will get 1.33% tin 3% antimony. I have quite a bit of Linotype that a printer friend gave me and it is harder than the WW lead that I have. But the problem with that is, weak solutions form easily (up to about 4%) As you work toward strongersolutions,it takes a lot longer for this to occur. Any ideas. Silver shrinks quite a bit more than lead.
Those items are built from alloys engineered to make the silver harder and more durable, with typical BHN values between 100 and 150. I suggest 50/50 which will give you 6%. When I first got into casting a couple years ago I tried wheel weights and found a lot of them were zinc. A standard bullet mold will cast a dramatically undersized bullet in silver, so a custom mold is needed. I am beginning to think that if a bullet caster does not understand a little about the metallurgy of his materials he is going to be out of the hobby as sources and availability of materials either drys up or becomes restricted. as cast, hardness tested 18 BHN. Check here for other mixes. I am fortunate to have collected various lead and alloys over the years. Everyone who's ever used a thermometer knows that things expand when heated and shrink when cooled. I use 7 ingots of WW and 3 ingots of LT.. Works well for me.
I don't know the exact ratio you should use, I can tell you what I do and it might not be the proper mixture. You can blend any mix you want from any type of scrap. And that's for good wheel weights.
I have run into softer ones. Whatever they make (used to make) wheel weights out of. That can safely be ignored and in any case if ignored it will simply increase bullet hardness slightly which can only be good. More accurately, fire up a muffler furnace to pre-heat the mold, and handle it with tongs. Linotype is sought after by bullet casters. And for a long time blended one part linotype with 3 parts WW which was fine for my revolver shooting, and light to moderate loads in center fire rifles like the 30-06. I still have three or four hundred pounds of the ingots I made out of the wheel weights I got from there. The NRA's otherwise excellent book Cast Bullets contains a number of falsehoods, one of which is that you need a high temp furnace to melt antimony because of its high melting temp. At that point you have a hot bullet in the mold, which is going to shrink a little bit as it cools down to room temperature. What we think of as linotype is 4% tin 12% antimony. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools" The Apostle Paul in Romans 1:22. Won't know until it warms up this spring since all the work will be done in an unheated garage. Density is critical to bullet performance. I had long wondered about the apparent love affair with wheelweights. Yes Lino is lighter and it throws a bigger bullet. vBulletin v3.8.7, Copyright 2000-2022, vBulletin Solutions, Inc. Handloading, Reloading, and Bullet Casting. Some of the shooters believe a softer bullet is better for that disciplin than one with lino added. For WW equivilent, 3-to-1 lead to lino should be about right. I am perfectly happy to keep using WW type alloys and then when a harder alloy is required, I can heat treat to reach max hardness and anneal to bring that hardness back down to whatever is needed. I am fortunate to have collected various lead and alloys over the years. Knowledge is power.
I found that straight linotype would splatter on a metal target using my rcbs kieth 250gr GC. There are a number of problems that can occur when pouring hot metal into a cold mold. The energy of a bullet after it leaves the barrel is directly related to its mass. I have linotype and plumbers lead laying around for a rainy day.
I use linotype in my match bullets and pay over $1 per pound. One has to hunt for lino and pure lead and when found it's not free. First, when the bullet is being loaded, it's run through a sizing die, which insures the bullet is no larger in diameter than it should be. Come join the discussion about optics, makes, models, gunsmithing, styles, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more! Still haven't decided on the lube, will probably try some of each from other casters and see how they work. BTW, Tamarack lube worked well for me, but it's smoky. I can do that anytime. Wheelweights are a good and convenient material but it is not a good idea to rely on them or their content. Like wheel weights with an extra pinch of tin. billwnr wrote: I would think this is a waste of good linotype and pure lead. It gets cheaper with freewheelweights. Dicko wrote: Wheelweights are a good and convenient material but it is not a good idea to rely on them or their content. Lead does not give off fumes below 900F, but above 900 it does, and the fumes are odourless and colourless.I am perfectly happy to keep using WW type alloys and then when a harder alloy is required, I can heat treat to reach max hardness and anneal to bring that hardness back down to whatever is needed. But it depends on the availability of both materials and leads me to wonder yet again why there is so much reluctance to take control over accurate alloy blending so that any and all available sources can be used as and when available.
Edit: This kind of stuff interests me, so I kinda yammered on a bit more than you probably wanted. I see that one reply mentions monotype. Will try that mix and look at the results and go from there. Old wheel weights were fairly hard, not much different than linotype. A silver bullet is going to take a lot more force, which may break the reloading press. Search on the CBA alloy calculator. During the last several years, the available linotype seems to be getting harder to find. WW is .5% tin, 2% antimony, 97.5% lead. The riflings also etch into the bullet, and begin rotating it. Duane Mellenbruch Topeka, KS What ever you are casting for make sure that you need to use Lino or you are wasting good alloy. Also, remember that chemical reactions (like oxidation) happen faster at higher temperatures. I have a twenty pound Lee pot which started out full of lead from wheel weights. I have ~100# of linotype that came out of an old printing plant. Dicko, when we shoot military rifles the velocity usually doesn't exceed 1600 fps and wheelweights are satisfactory for that. Here's what we learned from looking at the physical properties of silver: Casting silver bullets won't be as easy as I'd hoped, but I haven't found any reason why it can't work. The Fora platform includes forum software by XenForo, http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forum.php, http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?43011-BHN-of-lead-tin-antimony, The Ask the Pros & What's It Worth? Only leading problems I have is in a couple of the old rifles with pitted bores. Us cheapos try to get lino for no more than $1.25 per pound, preferrably $1. Enter Our Dog Days of Summer BBQ Giveaway Now! Before you can pour metal in a mold, you have to melt it. I would also use them if I could get them for nothing but they are not free in South Africa, they cost the same as all scrap lead, about 50 US cents a pound. Silver probably won't make a great choice for small-caliber pistols with lower chamber pressures, but for large-caliber hunting rifles this pressure is easily obtainable.
What you need to watch is that your linotype is not something else. The ideal bullet, therefore, packs a lot of mass in a small volume -- which is the definition of density. And they are not available except in small quantities and sporadically at that. I fully understand the appeal of a material that is readily available and free. Hence we have gotten used to working with all kinds of lead scrap. A silver bullet might not be so accomodating, so we need to absolutely sure they don't exceed the bore diameter. I mixed equal portions of pure lead and monotype. Nothing wrong with that, its 5 or 6%. By the way, these hardness numbers do dispell one common silver bullet myth. In South Africa scrap lead costs 50 cents/lb. JavaScript is disabled. If I manage to overcome the casting difficulties, it should be possible to get ballistic performance on par with hard lead bullets. Basically, if a silver is fairly 'long' it's cross-sectional density (mass per unit of frontal surface area) should be high enough to give very good ballistic performance. Lyman lists linotype as having a BHN of 22, and wheel weights (not hardened) as having a BHN of 9. Hard lead ships better, and is better able to handle things like being loaded into a tubular magazine with a stiff spring. Look for your answers in our Forum and in our bi-monthly publication the Fouling Shot. I prefer not to work with the temperatures required to melt Antimony (1149 F) because of the toxic exposure to antimony and lead fumes. I can calculate that I need to add about 2.4 thousands of an inch to compensate for the lead shrinking when it cools. Antimony costs $6.25 a lb. With a silver bullet, the riflings are going to be a little harder to engrave, and the bullet isn't going to deform as easiy.
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