Casting alloy bullets

[ardoctor]

Every year I get 2 or 3 5 gallon buckets of range scrap from my gunn club indoor range. I sort through it and seperate the larger chunks with no jacket material on it and put it in a box. I take the pieces with jacket through it and put it in another box. and finally tale the small tuff and remove as much of the foreign debris as possible. I LEAVE IN THE WOOD FIBER AND SAWDUST THIS IS MY FLUX. The material with jacket will be the softest and mostly lead and tin. I mix one part from box 1 (no jacket) 2 parts box 2 (jacketed) and 2 parts the "junk" with the wood fiber. I cook it in an air tight wood burner with coal and wood as fuel. I let it cok until all the wood fiber is burnt off. (if smokes when removed it is not done). I scrape off the top, jacket material and most of the tin. I pour it in the ingot mold this is my base. 93-95% lead 1-2% tin 4-6% anatomy. This is a hard alloy and takes heat treat and quench well.
For shotgun #1 buck I use as is. Pistol I cook in some lead #8 shot, let film up and scrape the tin off this is my #1 alloy. Water quench for pistol, for rifle i heat treat. Let cool in air, preheat oven you dont use for food to 475, let treat for 3-5 hours then IMMEDATLY quench in ice cold water.
Hope this helps

 

[ardoctor]

In order for your casting alloy to take quench or heat treat well it can have no more than 2-3% tin in it. there has to be some tin for the alloy to fill out the mold (1% seems to be the least). Wheel weights are almost Lyman #2 which is a good alloy. Lead shotgun shot is 95% lead 5% antamony no tin. This is used as a hardening agent. You can get pure antamony, but it is hard to work with. 1300deg is the melting point, most pots won't get this hot. When i have used it I just hold it in some foundry tongs and melt it directly with a toarch.

There are several ways to find aprox which alloy you have. The melting point test is the way I use. You point an infered non contact thermometer into the material and watch for it to melt noteing the temp. I don't convert temp into exact allloy rather use past experiance to tell me what I am dealing with. Most casters use a thermometer religeously. There is nothing wrong with this, and is the standard practice. I learned without the luxury of a casting thermometer. I can tell when the alloy is too hot or too cool by using sight and smell. It will come with experiance. When the tin starts to cook out and rise, it is time to back down the temp. Put in a chumk of wax and stir in the tin and use some solid alloy to cool down the pot.
I have several differant alloys for mixing in my base to get it just right for my application. I save the tin I scrape off for times I need more tin. I have pure plumbers lead for adding just lead. For bringing up anatmony I have made a few lead ant alloys. 90/10, 75/25 if you go more than 25% it will be hard to melt in the pot and you will for sure get it too hot and have to add tin.

 

[Titegroups]

Sounds like plenty of hands on experience. There's more to it than what one would think between mixing the alloys and lubes and sizing, mold and pot temps etc. I use range scrap so I bought a hardness tester to give me some idea where I'm at as far as hardness goes. I also use a thermometer for the pot. I use an infrared to check mold temps. Got to be careful using one on the lead itself due to the reflectivity of the lead causing bad readings. Have you been to the "cast boolits" forum?

 

[ardoctor]

No I havent been to the CBF. I am new arround here. I go to a few other forums. I was in on the development of the 5.7x28 round back in the early 2000s. Last 6 years I have been building my machine tool shop. I am looking into a manufactures FFL, and will be loading custom ammunition and components in the near future. i am looking into some production equipment for future endevors. I may also thke the route of manufacturing my own presses and dies. I will bring a quality product at a price that is fair. I think I can build a casting setup for a few grand. Production ammunition manufacturing is a whole other animal than handloading. OSHA, insurance, permits and the such. Most of startup cost are the aforementioned, tooling is secondary. Everything produced inhouse is an old concept not used today. Most producers of shooting supplies are run by businessmen not shooters and that is a problem in my eyes. I want to produce firearms, ammunition, reloading components, and other items used in the sport/industry.

 

[smithnframe]

I use a lead hardness tester. The WW's I get are not even close to Lyman # 2 but it is hard enough to use by itself. I also use linotype alot for pistol and milsurp rifle bullets with good results. And it casts beautifully!

 

[ardoctor]

What kind of wheel weights, car or big truck? I don't use a tester so I cant tell exactly. I whish I had a source for some free or atleast cheap linotype. I have never had an oppertunity to try it. Antamony is expensive and hard to melt at least a pain in the ... you dont need too much though. Do you ever water quench or heattreat. I like to get the most out of the alloy. I cant remember off hand what is teh pb, Sn, antamony percentage in l-type?
It is intersting to hear how others use what they can get to cast bullets. The only element I have had to buy in the 7 years I have been casting is some antamony a few years back. I have been able to scrounge mostly range scrap for all my casting needs. I have made literly 10s of thousands of 9mm (for 357 SIG) 45, 311 buck, for less than $75 in materials, and I have several hundred ingots in diferant alloys. I use steel letter and number punches to mark cast numbers i assign to each batch and alloy numbers I have assigned them. I eep records of this, and all my cast bullets. This helps me know what is what. Example A= ALLOY# 001 CAST # STARTS WITH MONTH AND YEAR AND HAS 4 DIGITS i STARTED WITH 0001,i AM AT 0250 OR SO. My bullets are labeled similar alloy, date casted, cast number poured from, heat treat or quench, quantity.

 

[smithnframe]

The WW's I have access to are mixed, truck and car. I get them from a local small town tire shop. The linotype I also got from a local newspaper for a very good price. I use a Lee hardness tester that is difficult to use but is getting easier to use.