Seasoned Casters.. HELP! ***UPDATED***

[chango17]

*New found info*

Okay so I took a #2 pencil to the ingots I had

... soft lead was easily scratched..*
RL4 was a little harder to scratch*
RL3 was a little harder than that*
some range scrap that I have that was said to have tested and had a BHN of 14 was a little bit harder
and the lead ingots i have made from #7.5 shot taken out of federal shotgun game load shells did not scratch.

The ingot I made out of the unknown stuff ended being scratched. And id put it at or around the same level of the RL4 lead I have. Does this mean it is good to go? Or is the hardness of it not enough to give it the green light?

Ive got some type of cut up ingot that was included in a trade I did for about 90lbs of lead a few months back.


The other lead that i got was a few bars of federated 60/40 and 50/50 castomatic solder and 3 coffee cans full of cupcake ingots and is labeled RL4, RL3, and soft lead.
Im not sure what the labels mean exactly but i do know the "soft lead" is softest, so higher lead content, and RL4 is harder than RL3.. Ive already molded a bunch of 12ga slugs using Lee's slug mold with the 3 and 4 and the cast and shoot great.
I would ask the gentleman i got it from but he didnt know. It was given to him by the family of a retired LE neighbor of his who used to cast and reload before he passed. so asking the original owner is out of the question.


But what im interested in finding out, is the 4th coffee can full of stuff that I was given.
It looks like it was molded into some type of pan then cut into squares.
The marks on the edges shows obvious signs of being cut.
I scratched a smooth surface with my nail (shown in one of the pictures).
It may look deep but when I rub my nail over the indentation I can barley feel the scratch.


Although ive been reloading for about 2 years now I recently got into casting about 4 months ago so I'm fresh out of the gate.

Anyone have an idea of what it might be or how to find out?
If it is something I can use, I don't want it to just sit there collecting dust.



I uploaded the pics so i can keep the high resolution without disrupting the format of the post

[Whiterabbit]

once ingotized, you are done. You can figure out if its lead vs zinc or other metal pretty easy (bulk metal), but alloy content less so. You'll need an electronic scanner.

[fguffey]

When in a bind I drop the unknown ingots on a concrete floor, soft lead will make a dead sound, hard lead will have make a ringing sound when dropped. Then there is the ball peen hammer test, practice your swing, once you have a consistent swing you can compare the dent made in a known piece of lead with the dent in an unknown /lead content.

Then there is melting and temperature.

F. Guffey

[chango17]

Can you elaborate more on figuring out if it is lead or zinc? or are you saying it only works if i have bulk, as in 100 lbs or so?

[Whiterabbit]

weigh it. you know the volume, you measure the weight, you have density. That tells you the bulk, assuming bulk is truly bulk (not a 50/50 mix).

Doesn't tell you anything about alloy content. Thus, must have it metered.

[dhagerty]

a lead zinc alloy has 2 distinct signs.

one is that it has a very high melting point (over 800 degrees) and that the melt will have a very high dross buildup on the top.

I got hold of a 50lb ingot once that had a large amount of zinc in it. it was such a pain to cast bullets with, I ended up using it for fishing weights only.

[CalTeacher]

That may be zinc, as others have pointed out. Until you can definitively conclude what it is, leave it out of your melting pot. Zinc can ruin a pot of lead in a hurry.

[chango17]

CalTeacher, that is exactly why I have refrained from melting it down to see what it is. My pot is usually empty when im done casting its only a 10oz cast iron pot over a Coleman stove so its not hard to run out of molten lead. It serves my casting needs perfectly... for now.

[chango17]

However what i do not understand is, if this gentleman was a seasoned caster, why would he have so much zinc laying around. I understand some add it to their alloys for hardness but unless he was cooking huge pots of this stuff and adding one square into a pot, 25lbs is a bit excessive. I know high percentages of zinc are and molds do not mix.

[CalTeacher]

Right on. I've read on the cast boolits forum where some folks have successfully cast bullets with zinc alloyed with lead, but I have not tried it. When I got some zinc wheel weights in my pot it turned the melt into a oatmeal like lumpy mess. I can't say definitively if that was the cause of the ruined lead I experienced, but that was the only other type of wheel weight I found in my mix. I'm tempted to try pure zinc in a separate pot to see if the claims of it being castable (new word I just made up) are true.

[chango17]

Well I would imagine that the lead would get clumpy because of the zinc due to its higher melting temp. I read on castboolits also that to fix that you make sure the temp of the melting pot stays just above the melt temp of lead and it may take a little longer to melt down but its worth it if you are doing ww that might have zinc in it.

[Germz]

I wouldn't risk it and that doesn't look like any lead I've ever come across.

[chango17]

It looks as if it were molded into a large baking of sone sort and then cut into small cubes. The small scale looking parts on the edges look like its from some type of serrated blade like a hacksaw or bandsaw

[Capt.Dunsel]

Hard to tell exactly from just pictures but have you thought about bismuth?

I have been casting with it and it looks similar to what you have.

Some folks that make their own shot have used it. Ah I remember the day when you could hunt with lead shot.

Smack it with a hammer and post up a pick , that may help.

You got any potassium iodide handy ? a drop will confirm bismuth.( Oh No back to my chemistry days)

[CGT80]

Drip some pool acid on the metal. If you get nice bubbles, it is zinc or has zinc. Lead might bubble if the outside is dirty. If that happens, wash the acid off and then reapply the acid to the clean spot on the lead and see if it bubbles. The best bet is to keep a zinc wheel weight handy so you can see exactly what a reaction with known zinc looks like.

Temperature will tell you a lot. Also, try to cut the metal with side cutters. Lead will cut pretty easily. Zinc will be nearly impossible to cut. It will feel more like trying to cut thick aluminum or even steel.

A search on castboolits will tell you all you need to know about figuring out if you have zinc.

I had some lead that had zinc in it. It was a pain to use, but I was able to make some 45 cal round nose boolits. My more intricate molds would not fill out well with that mix. A little zinc may not be real noticeable when casting. More than a little will give you problems. If you cast boolits with the metal and they are very light, then it is probably zinc.