A customer tells me he likes his mold but for some reason his bullets weigh 195 grains and the diameter is 0.453", whereas when I tested it with wheelweight the weight was 255+ grains, and the diameter was nudging 0.455". He's not complaining, because it fills out well and he's sizing to 0.453", but it doesn't sound right. I figure even pure linotype would weigh 235 grains in this mold, plus the diameter would be larger, not smaller.

The gentleman noted that the pot showed some blue-gold oxidation. The alloy was given to him in ingot form, so it's a bit of a mystery.

I'm thinking it has to be a zinc alloy. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Update: This alloy is very bright and shiny. It filled out perfectly even on the first cast. When he was melting down the ingots, he kept getting a gold/red colored scum. The guy who gave him the ingots said it was WW + tin.

And I mis-remembered on the diameter. It actually dropped 0.4526" with WW.

So now I am wondering if this stuff is tin. I figure it would need to be about 40% tin to give this density (about 2130 grains per cubic inch).

Mountaingun, any idea of the melting point? Zinc would be noticably higher than lead. A high tin alloy would be lower.

My guess is that he got hold of industrial scrap solder. A local telephone manufacturing company usta generate five gallon buckets full of the spatters from soldering assemblies. I've been trying to get one of those buckets off a fellow for 5-10 years now.

Hi Gents,

Im the gentleman in question that Dan is referring to. Im fairly new to casting, so bear with me.

Leftoverdj,

I did notice the melting point to definitely be lower than that of just straight wheelweight, about 450-500 deg, mayby even less than that. The alloy in question was given to me by a friend that owns a scap yard. The person that gave it to him said it was just wheelweight with "some" tin. Some ingots were from Lyman ingot moulds, the rest were about a foot long 6in wide and a little under a half inch thick. To try and get everything uniform, I melted about 100lbs of it. After it turned liquid, I immediately got a gold, brassy colored scum forming, if let alone long enough, it would turn reddish/gold. After I had fluxed it thoroughly, I poured a bunch of 1lb ingots. After they cooled they were real shiney. Normally, the ingots I cast out of wheelweight are a dull grey color. Also, they seemed to be plagued with alot of voids. Well I casted some of it today. As Dan said, they filled out beautifully, but weighed out at 195gr, when they should have been around 255gr. Basically, I dont know what to do with this stuff, does it contain any lead? or is all mostly tin? Sorry for the longwinded post!

Obviously, I am guessing from here since I can't examine anything. I think you got two different things. WW with maybe a little tin added from the Lyman ingots and some high tin alloy, maybe babbit metal in the strips. Dan ran the specific gravity checks which seem to show about 40% tin after you alloyed the two together.

I'm revising my guess to babbit metal from the shape and because babbit has a little copper in it which could be the gold color you noticed.

If I had that stuff, I'd cast it into ingots, scrounge some WWs, and add about 1 pound of what you have to 25 pounds of WW. That should give you good bullets. I don't think that stuff will make decent bullets as is, but if we are right, you have an excellent source of tin for alloying. I'd do the small batch of 25 pounds to start out just in case we are wrong about what it is.

Tin is going for about $6 a pound. Your hundred pounds of 40% tin is about a lifetime's supply for even an avid caster when mixed with dime a pound scrap WW.

[ 10-13-2003, 02:39: Message edited by: Leftoverdj ]

leftoverdj,

Im going back over to my shop tomorrow to smelt some more wheelweight, Ill take along the digital camera, just for the heck of it. I definitely think your right on the money, it may may be babbit, but whatever it is, has a high tin content. Mayby i'll even melt some more of that and take a pic. Thanks! Oh by the way, do you recomend alloying during the smelting process, or when casting?

I alloy at the end of the smelting process to assure a large supply of ingots of the same alloy. I want to have done most of the skimming I am going to do before I put my precious tin in there.

[ 10-16-2003, 17:39: Message edited by: Blueknight ]

I know I�m a little late on this thread. I�m just catching up due to medical keeping me offline. But it sounds to me like what you have is either hi tin contend babit or a commercial solder. I have a chart that shows several commercial solders and at what temps they melt , slug and harden at. If you would like to see thew chart I can scan it.

Can we post pics here?

Here's what I know about solder. Felix scored a load from a radiator shop, and I've been cleaning it up for about a year in prpepartion for making big runs of alloy in the MOAS. This stuff is a mix of 50-50 and 40-60 (or is it 60-40? - maybe Felix remembers). Anyway, after the trash is removed (and there was ALOT) it skins over the purdiest blue and orange you'd ever want to see. Even the ingots will get colored line in them. Same size ingots compared to range scrap or number 2 are NOTICEABLY lighter in weight. How much? Don't know, haven't bothered to weight them. Pick up one of each, and you can tell the difference. Doesn't tell us a bit about what your friend has, but I thought you'd like to hear about it. btw, if you decide to hit a radiator shop for tank droppings, plan on a lot of work. However, you can get a lot of tin. sundog