lead question

[spudnut]

I was casting up some some ingots,Melting in an iron pot over a charcoal fire today out of a bunch of junk lead,just to reduce it down to get it into my Lee hot pot later.
Most is stuff people have given me like homade anchors and blobs of lead.All can be scratched with a thumbnail,And I only shoot smoothbores so hard doesnt matter much to me.
The first batch all cam out kinda crystalized and the ingots snapped as I tapped them out of the mold..Too hot maybe?
The next batch came out nice and shiny silver.
Has anyone run into an alloy like lead soft and heavy or did I just get it too hot the first time.I guess once I run ball I'll know fer sure...Mark

 

[Rebel]

Ohh my god, are you feeling ok, no nausea, dizzyness, fever? Have you told anyone in the Government about this yet? What ever you do, don't listen to any of this. I am just joshin' ya. :grin: Sorry. :redface:

 

[ssettle]

I had the same thing happen once when I was molding bullets for my Sharps. I ended up starting over with new scraps stuff. I usually mold with dead soft lead.Ssettle

 

[Blizzard of '93]

doubt it was 'too hot', maybe the way it was poured or trash in the melt?

 

[spudnut]

Well it did boil a little at one point

 

[xxgrampa]

greetings spudnut,

have no fear. the lead just didn't harden up. not unusual at all..

the crystalized look is from, high temp lead. cast all my lead with the cry. look. don't get any air voids in the balls that way.

..ttfn..grampa..

 

[spudnut]

Very good, thanks all

 

[Hamourkiller]

Big dia bullets take a while to cool, especialy when you are running hot. sounds like you opened the mould just a tad too soon.

I always increased the heat until my big dia bullets had whiskers (air vent lines allowing the lead to flow) then backed off the temp a few degrees. This gave me the fewest air pockets in the finished bullets as determined by weighing.

Also watch for sprue tearing or lead smearing, all a sign of to fast a mould opening with your given temp.

Om large dia or long bullets high temps are required for even cooldown rates so that your bullets dont layer and or develope air pockets

Frosted look means some sort of alloy seperating out (antimony I think), but mine always shot good.

If you have any antimony in your mix and want a hard bullet, drop the hot bullet from the mould in a bucket of water, that baby will be hard.

(Place the bucket well away from the lead pot!)

Take care

 

[Bubba45]

From the crystaline appearence it sounds like some type of alloy.High temps will seperate the metals if you dont flux.It was most likely mostly wheel weight metal.When the mix cooled down some while you were pouring is why it went back to shiney.
I've done that while making ingots from scrap wheel weights.Tap the ingots out of the mold and have them break in pieces :hmm:

 

[TANSTAAFL]

When casting, wrinkled is too cool, shiny is best, frosty is still OK, crystallized is too hot.

 

[Bubba45]

:thumbsup:

 

[paulvallandigham]

The problem with wheel weights is there is too much antimony in the metal alloy, and it makes the lead brittle. That is probably what caused the ingot to break on you, after it was heated to hot, and some of the antimony separated from the lead. Turn the heat down on the mold, and re-think whether you really want to use wheelweights for bullets or round ball. There is a column in this month's isse of Muzzle Loader magazine where the Bevel Brothers test wheelweights out for accuracy, and found that if you take the time to sort them, by size, and by weight, and then use a small sized patch, they shoot okay.

 

[Bubba45]

I save the wheel weight metal for smokeless fodder.I was just referring to the first post :grin: Anything that I test at 7bhn or lower on my handy dandy LBT scale I use for round ball :thumbsup:

 

[paulvallandigham]

That works. MY brother bought a lead hardness tester and uses it to test all the lead he casts. He even it found to test for consistency when casting pistol bullets. He also began adding more lead to the mix when he found out how hard it is to size and lubricate pure wheel weight bullets in his lubri-sizer! :cursing:

Read the Bevel Brothers column and their tests with wheelweights for round ball, in this month's Muzzle Blasts. They were as delighted to find out how well they can shoot as I was. You just have to sort a bit more to get that accuracy.

 

[jmplsnt]

I have been casting a good deal for the past six or seven years and have had that happen, too. This only occurs to me when I am attempting to remove a large casting from a mold when pouring alloy lead (most often burned-down wheel weights) at high temperature. Just give it a little time to cool off (I give it 30 seconds personally) before attempting to tap it out of the mold. Hope this helps.