i'm new to the casting world and have read a lot of forums. i've got 2 types of lead for casting, wheel weights and lead from lead core ropes. i smelted the rope and the lead ingots look good but the edges are rounded, i read in aother post that this means there is not enough tin, chances are it is pure lead. i have a lot of this lead 50-60 lbs. on hand. do i just add some lead free solder? or just mix it with the wheel weight lead? i'm going to be making 400 and 450gr bullets for my 45-70 browning 78 and keeping to the light side for shooting targets. i'd hate to waste it.

Smoke
See if you can find some linotype to add some tin and antimony to the pure lead.
It could be you didn't have the temp. high enough for pure lead.
Jim

Have never used lead rope ... but almost pure lead is fairly easy to spot. 1) Melting point is higher than WW or lino. 2) The material melts through kind of a crubbly or pasty stage. 3) Is pretty soft!

I'd either add lino or high percentage tin solder (60:40) to get it up to at least 20:1 (lead:tin).

Use a good bullet lube and that should be fine for the 45-70 if the velocities are reasonable.

ok, the lead was hot enough, it did go through a crumbly/crusty stage (that i scimmed off), it was a pure silver/shiney color when i poured it, and it is softer than the wheel weight ingots. Where would i get lino lead? where is lino lead used? i'm trying to make bullets cheap, so that the wife won't complain!!!

Smoke
Check your local scrap dealer, old print shops and news paper printers. Old pewter makes a good source for tin. If there's a rail yard close by check for babbit bearing, ship yards will have babbit bearings, truck repair shops will have mega sized wheel weights.
I've shot just about everything, if it would melt and fill out a mold it got sent down range.
Jim

Get Lyman's book on bullet casting.
Steal some of your wife's old candles for fluxing the scap alloy, then skim your melt.
Jim

#1). How hot do you plan to load? the common stages in .45/70 is i). Trapdoor, under 20K CUP;
ii). lever action, like .30/30, 35K to 40K CUP; and iii) full house for Ruger #1 (or 3), Browning... 50K CUP, normal full power smokelss of today... [At level 3 (iii) your case life will be almost "none..." And your shoulder will hurt... much...]

#2). For trapdoor loads, about anything will work O.K. LEE tumble lube should be plenty. Great, great grandpa, say Civil War US, used bees wax, animal fat, etc. Keep it down and a gas check won't be needed.
Above that, you are into the .30/30 -- .308 range and all the current rules apply.

#3). Wheel weights, per Lyman, today because of the high price of tin from a couple decades back on, are mainly lead and antimony. Of course lead isn't going down, not recently.

Tin used to be common. Today, much less. Toothpaste tubes and other cosmetics tubes were pure tin 'cause the FDA would not allow lead around something going into the mouth. Otherwise, you have to hit the scrap yards and see what they have or go buy pure tin or the tin sources mentioned. Turn of century, 1900, target shooters used a 1 in 20 tin lead mix. Some preferred 1 in 30. Per H. Donaldson who claimed he started competing in that game. .32/40 and .38/55...

At that percent, [NO antimony], the amount of tin is not a great expense. Your lead rope core sounds like a small amount of tin and you are in the 1900s days alloy..

Lyman also explains that in the cold lead/antimony alloy the antimony particles are separated by several lead particles and these uncombined lead particles melt, deposit easily... Todays lubes, much improved over bees wax, tallow, etc. can deal at low performance levels.

Yes, you could add lead free solder it that is pretty pure tin.

Linotype is a lead tin formula used by printers alot pre, say, 1970s. A worker sat at a large keyboard, similar to a typewriter but not alike, and composed the publication. This set up positive type faces into which molten lead was poured to make printing plates... [Beats the dickens our of "setting type."] The ink on the type after printing polluted it and after a number of uses it was scrapped. Today the printer uses light, like a film camera, to burn a plate, of aluminum, and this transfers the ink. POINT: You need to hunt, alot, to find typesetters who still have/use linotype. If you find a source... good for you. Lyman gives the formulas for adding a tiny amount of tin and you had the #2 alloy of the 1900s days.

If you can live with rainbow trajectory, and you weren't looking for .220 Swift performance when you bought a .45/70... the trapdoor loads can be pretty civilized, although I would lean toward the 350 grainers myself... luck.

You have everything you need to make 50/50 alloy. That is 1/2 wheelweights and 1/2 lead. This makes a fine alloy for a target velocity 45-70 load. If you want to drive it fast, they drop your bullets hot from the mold into a large bucket of water to water quench them, which will make they quite hard. They hit that full hardness stage after two weeks from water quenching them.

I've been shooting this alloy for years with excellent results. In fact that's what I use in my 1886 Browning carbine. For hunting I don't harden them and they expand beautifully.

i was just given another 100 or so lbs. of lead rope, i also have a good supply of wheel weights. i'm going to keep the velocity down.(36gr 3031 / 450gr lee mold flat base/flat nose) so i'll mix them 50/50 (wheelweight/lead rope). my moulds finally arrived so hopefully i can get out of the "honey-do" list and make up some bullets to try!!!!! i'll let you know what the actual weight is when i cast some and how they turn out.