Casting question

[Pablo5959]

Almost ready to take the plunge with my first smelt and have a question for the guys that have been there.
I have about 50# of pure roofing sheets, 10# soft plumber's lead, 20# of indoor range lead and 5# of wheel weights.
I also have 10# of Linotype to alloy.
Would you suggest I ingot all separated and then try to alloy in the pot?
Or smelt it all together and see what comes out then work from there?
I know, do the research.
Been doing that, just wanted some opinions.
Thanks.

[bohoki]

if you are loading for something like 45 acp and 9mm sure mix it all up and go for it

in my experience tin helps the mold fill out so go easy on the pure

check out castboolits.com they have some smarter people that will give you a consensus depending on your end goal

pure lead is great for black powder balls

[koehn,jim]

I prefer to smelt each separate so I can than mix up different alloys for different uses. The roofing lead will be pretty soft so it works great for black powder you might be able to do a trade. Make sure that the wheel weights have no zinc or you will contaminate the mix. Do it in a well ventilated area and wear a mask and glasses as well as gloves. What are you going to use for molds. Old muffin trays work as do corn bread pans and corn on the cob holders.

[BACKTOSHOOTING]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=45784&d=1341560870

Try this for your mix
I would recomend useing only half of your Pure Lead with every thing else and adding a pound of tin to help fill out.
The biggest thing you can do is slug your barell for fit. Needs to be .001-.0015 over.
You could also Water drop for a little harder drpending on what gun your casting for.

OH AND THIS......castboolits.com

[Pablo5959]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/atta...4&d=1341560870
Try this for your mix
I would recomend useing only half of your Pure Lead with every thing else and adding a pound of tin to help fill out.
The biggest thing you can do is slug your barell for fit. Needs to be .001-.0015 over.
You could also Water drop for a little harder drpending on what gun your casting for.

OH AND THIS......castboolits.com

The link didn't work but I am a member over at CB's
Forgot to mention I found a pewter water pitcher, 1.25# for adding tin.
Already slugged my barrels before I ordered molds.

[Germz]

is this for plinking or what? what is the desired BHN you are looking for?

[stilly]

Almost ready to take the plunge with my first smelt and have a question for the guys that have been there.
I have about 50# of pure roofing sheets, 10# soft plumber's lead, 20# of indoor range lead and 5# of wheel weights.
I also have 10# of Linotype to alloy.
Would you suggest I ingot all separated and then try to alloy in the pot?
Or smelt it all together and see what comes out then work from there?
I know, do the research.
Been doing that, just wanted some opinions.
Thanks.

YES!
NO!

Does a baker throw all the **** in the kitchen into a big pot, mix it up and toss it in the oven and wait to see what comes of it?

NO!

Ingotize your lead, melt all the PURE lead and make PURE ingots. Those are worth something. Then melt all similar lead (all linotype and all that) and ingotize them. Keep range lead seperate. The idea is to INGOT things that are similar, also as you melt your roofing lead and plumber's lead, I think those are both pure lead, so they should be fine together, just to be safe, keep them apart...

Then, flux and clean it out before you pour your ingots. Once you decide on a recipe to make for swaging or casting, mix up what you need THEN and save the leftovers.

When you make bullets you should go from ingot to mold quickly. But when you have to stop and clean thigns out and flux and clean more, it is a PITA.

IMO anyways...

THEN, when you want to make some bullets, you can use the lino ingots

[anyracoon]

Just a FYI. If you blend WWs, Lino, range lead & plumbers lead you should get a brinell hardness of around 12.2 which would work fine in a pistol if your not pushing it to fast.

[Parker2020]

Lots of info here http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletAlloy.htm

[Pablo5959]

I prefer to smelt each separate so I can than mix up different alloys for different uses. The roofing lead will be pretty soft so it works great for black powder you might be able to do a trade. Make sure that the wheel weights have no zinc or you will contaminate the mix. Do it in a well ventilated area and wear a mask and glasses as well as gloves. What are you going to use for molds. Old muffin trays work as do corn bread pans and corn on the cob holders.

I know about the zinc.
1, as long as I keep the temp below 750, any zinc will just float along with the clips.
2, I had to go through a half a 5gl bucket to get a handful of lead, the zinc WW's have a ZN stamp.

[Pablo5959]

is this for plinking or what? what is the desired BHN you are looking for?

Sorry about that missing info.
This will be for just hand gun plinking. Just looking for a BHN of around 12
I found out through some trolling, the reason why my Bulletman911 hard cast ammo is leading up my barrel along the rifling is because the alloy is to hard.
The back end of the bullet isn't deforming enough for a good seal.
The thought of pulling all those projectiles seems a little daunting.
Thanks