A couple of shooting friends know I'm into bullet casting, and in the last month or so have given me at least 150 pounds of lead, some scrap lead flashing, scuba diving weights, round ingots that weigh at least 20 pounds, even a piece of lead that ballasted a Civil War blockade runner, destined to make Minie Balls for the Confederacy.

To date I have been using wheel weights, this has worked good for pistol and rifle bullets up to 1300 FPS, 1900FPS with a gas check. I'm sure the majority of this stuff is pure lead, where can I find the tin or other metals to make it harder?

Can you cut larger ingots with a circular saw or chop saw without damaging the blade?

Are scuba diving weights pure lead?

Is 70% lead/30% tin a good alloy, close to wheel weights?

I have been using a Coleman Stove and cast iron frying pan to melt wheel weights into one pound ingots, so the the lead and other metals will have to be small enough to fit in a frying pan.

I've got enough lead to last me a long time if I can work it into a usable alloy....

Thnaks for any advice,

Canoeguy

Search the web for Lyman #2 alloy. They have instructions for mixes and tin sources. It used to be easy to mix lead and 50/50 (lead/tin) bar solder; but solder in hardware stores is now lead free.

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Revolver luvin' Mountaineer

If you're interested in casting, this is the place to be:
Cast Boolits - Dedicated To The World Of Cast Bullets!

Alloy calculators here:
Lead alloy calculators - Cast Boolits

I've yet to cast my first bullet, but I've been getting my gear together, and smelted about 100# of scrap. Got about 500# total scrounged up, including ww and monotype. Inching my way closer, but I have to reorganize the mess, and that's a major job. But, I'm getting there.

Sounds like you've got some good buddies to be giving you bullet makings, count yourself lucky!

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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

1lb of tin to 10lbs of pure lead used to be a hard bullet! Elmer said so himself!
Read down in the lower right of the article located here:
BBHFarm Gallery :: Reloading Manuals :: aat

You have to get it into ingots. To do that, you CAN cut it first BUT get really coarse teeth saws and cut real slow. You can clean out the teeth because they will plug.

Your alloy can be mixed with wheel weights, 50/50 or so and for most applications, if they are sized right and not driven over 1100fps, you will have no problems. Mono or Linotype can be gotten from online sources as well as local junk yards. Lead free solder is just that, lead free but it is pure tin! (almost) It is a good source for tin that will make the bullets fill out better.

That will be the biggest problem, fill out. You will need some tin to get it to do so. There is another source of GREAT information on the web, here: From Ingot to Target: A Cast Bullet Guide For Handgunners, Table of Contents - Fryxell/Applegate

Check it out. If you can, get a Dutch oven for this job. It will hold bigger pieces.

Oh, if you saw it, make sure you save the shavings, they will melt too!

Canoeguy--2hawk has some excellent advice. Go to the first or second link he shows and you will find all you need to know about cast boolit alloys.

Whoa there buddy
while its fairly easy to alloy pure soft lead ... its a rather toxic process to purify it.
pure lead IS a shootable alloy and the black powder guys can use it.
might be better to trade off your pure lead for an alloy

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it just needs more voltage

I've been working with lead since '79, I started as a cable splicer in the AF, we used lead tubes to seal telephone cable splices. At that time and afterwards we used a 'lead saw', basically a small 9" or so bladed course toothed crosscut type saw. A small hand saw such as they sell at Lowe's or HD will work nicely and be safer than an electric saw, remember your going to be trying to hold a smallish piece of work while using it.
The 70/30 alloy you mention is really a waste of tin, oringinal Linotype, which is very hard was about 86% lead, 10% antimony and 4% tin (there are various formulas for this tho') the antimony is really the hardening agent, the tin, while it does harden lead, mainly makes it 'flow' better.
According to old notes I have 10lb WW contains, or used to, 9.55lb lead, .05lb tin and .40 antimony. Again, there are many formulas for it.
These notes came from an old man who cast Linotype 'pigs', 90lb chunks for type setting, so I'm putting faith in what he told me, things may have changed in the 30 years since I've known him)
Given those figures you can do some calculating and come up with a suitable hard bullet.
Of course the old 1:16 Tin/lead mix is good for lower velocity rounds. Rotometals sells 50/50 tin/lead bar solder, use 2 bars and 14lb lead and you'll have 1:16.
Others have different formulas I'm sure, it's like baking a cake, everyone does it differently, main thing is at the current price of tin you want to use it sparingly.
RD

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Got a Phd from Hard Knocks U

You can get tin and antimony form Rotometals. Welcome to RotoMetals, Inc - Non Ferrous Metals and Custom Alloys Call Toll Free 1-800-779-1102

This will give you a few alloy recipes. Cast bullet reference on lead alloy's, min / max pressure, lube, shrinkage,

Going much beyond 10-1 lead/tin alloy is just wasting tin. My cast LHP allo is 25-1, casts beautiful bullets & can run to 1200fps properly sized & lubed. Rotometals alloys are a pricey way to alloy, but their super hard or lino mixed 3-1 makes a good alloy close to clip ww.

Unless you are casting muzzleloading projectiles (which I do) you will find that pure lead brings a premium over wheelweight alloy. It's easy to find lead alloys, but not as easy to find pure lead.

I'd check with members of your club that cast- likely they'll trade you what you want or need- you'll be out a lot less fuel and work, and won't have to purchase much expensive tin.

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Lost it all in a boat accident

Thanks for the replies, a lot of good advice and reading to do....

I had thought about trading out the pure lead for some alloy, might be the way to go. It would take days to work down this pile of lead I've got.

30% Tin would be way too much and a waste of tin. Clip on wheel weights are generally:
~96.25% Lead + ~3% Antimony + ~0.50% Tin + ~0.25% Arsenic

While tin adds a bit of hardness to lead what makes lead hard is antimony, Tin is added to lead to make pour and fill out better for better bullets.

Do some research before you mix any alloys and also make sure of what you have first. I am willing to bet that you have very little 100% Lead. Most diving weights I've come across were made from wheel weights.

You can find lots of stuff locally to harden lead. Your best bets are going to be picking up stuff made of Pewter at garage and rummage sales. Pewter generally is 90%-98% Tin and 1%-8% Antimony and .25%-3% copper. The copper will add to the hardness also. When you are looking around for it make sure its stamped "Pewter" on the bottom or somewhere. Theres allot of stuff that looks like pewter but it isn't. General rule, if its not stamped "pewter" then its not pewter.

At the hardware and Hom Improvement stores look for rolls of Lead Free Solder that is 95% Tin and 5% Antimony. I've found them at Goodwill and Flea Markets cheap also.

If you are thinking about trading, I'm looking for some 100% pure dead soft lead to try out some .454 round ball .45 Colt loads. I'll trade range lead ingots for soft lead with you if you like.

remember if a bullet is to hard it will not grip the rifling correctly and will not be accurate, a bullet can be to hard. i use a 50/50 mix of WW and soft lead for up to around 2000 fps. in 30-30 ad 32 win. special with no leading to speak of. if you size and lube correctly and use a gas check over 1200 fps you will be fine. if a bullet is not sized right hot gas will cut around the bullet and it will melt and lead the barrel. i never can find enough soft lead i wish i had more.

Just mix your lead with your wheel weights, one to one and shoot it. Unless you're trying to push it beyond 2000 fps, it will be perfect for shooting. For faster shooting, you will need a harder bullet. Congrats on your windfall.

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Have .44, will travel

Proper cylinder throat and bore dimensions with the right amount of lube trumps the need for hard alloy use. I like to size the bullets at .001" or .002" as long as the throats don't swage them back down. And the more pressure then the harder the lube will need to be. You could cast piles of .38 special and .45 ACP bullets and tumble lube them and never see a bit of leading in the barrel. Last, you could drop them in water to add a bit of hardness to them. That and the right amount of correct lube could make them work in magnums. You will have to test the alloy in the loads you want to see if they work. Good luck fellow caster and may the molten flow be with you.

You can get all the information you need and supplies from The Antimony Man.

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

To make it even simpler, mix your mystery metal 50/50 with MAGNUM shot (not chilled), and add 2% tin for good measure. A good local source for tin is 95/5 leadfree solder from the big hardware stores. Make sure their 95/5 percentages are 95% tin & 5% antimony. It should say so on the label. The resulting alloy should be hard enough for anything you need, and will respond well to water drop tempering if desired. You could get a decent alloy with even 25% Magnum shot & 75% mystery metal, depending on what your mystery metal actually is, which you don't know for certain. Melt lead shot outdoors only, it contains arsenic, which help harden lead alloys, but is rough on the lungs.

You said a lot in a short note there! Most boolits these days are too hard, sized too small, and have too hard a lube on them. And people wonder why they don't have good results and get frustrated...

I'm of the school that you can never have too much lead (never know when the .gov types will just outlaw it completely...), so I'd keep it. I'd also decide that if I ever wanted to cast HPs or HBWCs or if I wanted some low-velocity/low-pressure cast boolit loads, it would be wise to have that soft lead to alloy down any harder base material you have. I cut my WWs 40/60 to 50/50 with pure lead to make slow/HP/HB boolits. Harder isn't always better...

Antimonly alone is far to diff to alloy w/ lead. You are better off using an an alloy that already hase antimony in it, like Linotype or Rotometals harball or super hard.
You guys are right, too many reloaders are using hardcast bullets for the wrong application. I can get by fine usine clip ww mixed 50/50 w/ pure lead for most of my handgun needs form 9m-44mag & even 45-70. The Lino I have often gets mixed in 3-1 w/ pure lead or 10-1 w/ clip ww if I want a bulelt a bit harder for high pressure loads.

I have aquired 200 lbs of soft roofing lead. My plan to harden for rifle bullets approching 2000fps is, 5lbs roto metals super hard, 2lbs tin, 10lbs lawrence magnum shot (for arsenic and some antimony), 83lbs lead. My thinking is, it gives me hard enough bullet for my 9mm as is @ 800~1000fps, and can be head treated and quenched to harden up for my 270win and 375mag. Totally new at this, any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks, new guy

This was discussed on another thread and you right it's a ghastly process that can probably only be done in a shop or factory specially set up with all kinds of thorough ventilation and chemical scrubbers. It is labor intensive too.

SLowroller, because the 9mm is a high pressure rd, and the bullet may be deformed while being jammed into the bbl a rifle alloy will probably shoot better than soft. I would use the same alloy for the cartridges mentioned.

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Front sight and squeeze

This was an old thread, THE ANTIMONY MAN mentioned in POST #16

now suffers from DEMENTIA and his business is NO LONGER FUNCTIONING.

He was a very knowledgeable fellow, such a shame.

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NRA Pistol/Rifle Inst. RSO

Too bad
Makes one wonder about the effects of handling arsenic, antimony, lead
and other toxic heavy metals for a living.
They say Issac Newton ended up that way as well from breathing the fumes.

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Nemo

Well, it's been almost two years since I first started this post about working down lead into a useable, shootable alloy. Some things I have done/learned...

I bought some Linotype lead to mix with my wheel weight/scrap lead to make harder bullets. For .30 caliber rifle projectiles, I put a small amount of linotype into my Lee pot, maybe 10%, then lube and install a gas check with a Lyman sizer. This alloys me to shoot .30 caliber bullets at 2000 FPS, and get accuracy of 1.5" at 100 yards with a CZ 527 carbine in 7.62 X 39 caliber.

I worked down all of that scrap lead (lead pipes, flashing) by melting it in a cast iron skillet on a Coleman stove. Took two days and a gallon of Coleman fuel. All done outdoors of course to alleviate lead vapors.

The scuba diving weights and 30 pound pie shaped ingots I cut up with a chop saw (Miter Box Saw), ruining the blade in the process. A replacement blade was only $8.00, so it was worth it, it would have taken forever to melt down those larger ingots in a skillet.

When I got done, I had three five gallon buckets full of lead ingots, ready to be made into bullets. Should be a lifetimes supply, as I have bean shooting my practice rounds into a bullet trap, a box full of old books that stop any .357, .44 Magnum and 9MM cast lead bullet. When the trap gets full, packed full of projectiles, I disassemble it and recover the lead, making new projectiles. the last time I disassembled my bullet trap I got enough lead to make 750 124 grain 9MM bullets...

My best results have been the 7.62 X 39 bullets, some 240 grain .44 Magnum bullets that will shoot one ragged hole at 50 yards from a Rossi Model 92 carbine, and 9MM bullets shot through a Glock 17 with a Lone Wolf barrel. Also, 180 grain 8 MM Mauser bullets, hard lead alloy with a gas check, loaded to 1800 FPS and shot through a Yugoslavian Mauser, very accurate and quiet...

Bullet casting is fun, I have learned a lot about it in the last few years, and I'll continue to search for that perfect bullet and rifle combination.

I recently came across a couple of diving belts at the scrap yard. The big weights were marked 7lb and 8lb look like wheel weight lead but not sure. The other weights are rubber coated. I cut off the rubber on one, very shiny looking. I melted it down and i think it might be zink. Does anyone have any idea what these weights are made of, and how can I tell.

Yes & no, it all depends on the rifling & pressures you are running.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

Dive wts can be anything. If you can dent it w/ hammer, it is castable IME. Zinc is hard, won't easily dent & has a bell like ring to it.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

Does anyone need an alloy analyzed?
I have a bunch of linotype, monotype and foundry type that I'm going to be selling. I have access to an Xray Fluorescence scanner. I've been able to get a few scans done as a friendly thing. I've told people at sites like castboolits that I have access to this scanner. I'm working out sort sort of arrangement where I can bring samples over for scanning. I'm hoping that $5 a sample will be ok. The scanner doesn't need a large sample; something the size of a coin should be fine. I'll post some images of the scanner readout at this link: mp XRF scan results

Richard Lee has a pretty good examination of bullet casting and loading in his reloading handbook including some calculations and results from calculating bullet alloy strength vs pressure. Good reading and food for thought, he brings up some good points.