Thinking of casting my own round balls

[tenngun]

I prefer using pure lead even if it cost more, which it does. Always used a cast iron pot over a propane grill. Finally bought a Lee electric pot. I’m getting fancy now.

Me too, just bought a Leman pot last year
Getting old and lazy

 

[64Springer]

Me too, just bought a Leman pot last year
Getting old and lazy

Does that mean you have to cast for 24 hours straight...

 

[necchi]

Funny how that weight adds up.

My local auto repair shop owner had a sailboat and a zillion pounds of lead ballast.

I had roto metals test a few 50 pound chunks. Some ingots were pure lead. Another ingot was 95.5 lead and 4.5 antimony.

Adding in 5% tin gave me Lyman #2. An excellent alloy for many modern applications.

You honestly go from asking about lead contamination too giving advice (?)
AND say that RotoMetals made tests FOR you?
In the same thread?

 

[BackDraft]

Does that mean you have to cast for 24 hours straight...

I guess not enough auto racing fans here to get that pun.

 

[BackDraft]

Does that mean you have to cast for 24 hours straight...

You would have to have at least 2, then it would be 24 hours of Lemans.

 

[64Springer]

Forged In Fire episode with Lead and Molds.

 

[user 34300]

Keep the zinc below the zinc melting temperature and the zinc won't be a problem.

650 degrees melts lead and nothing else.

Then the zinc and the steel and the clips all float to the surface to be skimmed off.

This is not a difficult concept to understand.

I cast pure lead balls at about 800+*F. Zinc melts at 781*F.

 

[4keith.k]

Super good price on the lead! I wish I could get some at that price!

 

[64Springer]

Grown men saying Super all the time has to end.

America's men are starting to sound like Valley Girls.

Or Big Gay Al from Southpark.

 

[Nemo Vir]

round ball casting is super duper…

 

[tom_in_vt]

Good price to get started!

 

[Spillikins]

Keep the zinc below the zinc melting temperature and the zinc won't be a problem.

650 degrees melts lead and nothing else.

Then the zinc and the steel and the clips all float to the surface to be skimmed off.

This is not a difficult concept to understand.

Are you saying that if you melt a lead/zinc alloy then the zinc will float to the top?

 

[Old Grunt]

I'm not 64springer but I don't think that's what he's saying,he's saying lead melts at lower temperature then zink so if temp kept below zink melting temperature the solid zink floats, I've always been careful and sorted before casting so as of yet I haven't melted any zink,I do believe once zink melted into lead that batch is ruined

 

[Dwight Dutton]

I'm not 64springer but I don't think that's what he's saying,he's saying lead melts at lower temperature then zinc so if temp kept below zink melting temperature the solid zink floats, I've always been careful and sorted before casting so as of yet I haven't melted any zink,I do believe once zink melted into lead that batch is ruined

If you are melting wheel weights you have to keep your pot/stove below the Zinc melting point so the Zinc weights remain solid and you can pick them out. If it melts into the lead and you have an alloy Thats when you start making fishing sinkers. Here in California lead wheel weights are almost gone and there's not even a reason to try using them anymore. But when I can buy lead on Ebay for less then $2 / Lb I don't bother.

 

[Spillikins]

I'm not 64springer but I don't think that's what he's saying,he's saying lead melts at lower temperature then zink so if temp kept below zink melting temperature the solid zink floats, I've always been careful and sorted before casting so as of yet I haven't melted any zink,I do believe once zink melted into lead that batch is ruined

Yes that makes perfect sense. Thank you.

 

[Dwight Dutton]

Here in California lead is now considered hazmat.

Most of the lead I buy on Ebay comes in the form rcbs/lee/lyman ingots so I think its coming from shooters in other states that collect more lead than they need. I could get an even better deal if I had some way to process 30-40 pound chunks.

Ebay will let you list lead, and the people selling it will happily ship to California, I have about a hundred pounds I got that way. And it all comes in flat rate USPS boxes that weight about 50 Lb each. Post office hates me.

 

[Uncle Miltie]

Not everyone agrees with that. Most serious ml'ers go with soft lead all the time. All

Hey all,
Looking for a little bit of feedback. Looking into casting my own round balls. I can get scrap lead from my local scrapyard for $.75 a pound. I can buy as much or as little as I like. I’ve been looking into trying to find it for free, but hasn’t panned out.
They had lead roofing boots and other miscellaneous scrap lead. They also had some ingots. Most of it when dropped on concrete had just a dull thunk with no ring. At $.75 for scrap lead is that reasonable?

If you want to cast round ball I suggest the following:

Buy a Lee 20 lb pot (not a bottom pour). You can plug it in and not have to worry about fires, coals, bottles of gas or the chance of contaminating metal kitchen ware. Bottom pour pots suck and a larger pot leaves all the lead you need for your casting session. My Lee pot is currently over 20 years old and still works great.

Buy a good Lyman lead dipper: save the kitchen spoons for cereal and soup.

Buy the softest lead you can find: nothing else should be used for round ball. The best target shooters use soft lead; the rest use something else.

Once tin and other metals are alloyed with lead they can not be separated without industrial-level equipment. What is floating to the top is not separated metal it is nothing more than lead oxides forming.

Once you get the hang of casting you can make better round ball than you can buy, including swaged balls. With higher costs of powder, caps, fuel and the time to get to your shooting place it doesn't make sense to cheap out and use junk round ball.

 

[stikshooter]

Yep , price sounds good . Get ya a bullet mold and a little flux and your good to go. Always like making round ball ..If you cast some from wheel weight just keep them separated but it all has a purpose . Good luck . Wear gloves ... And eye protection ... The first 2-3 ball throw back into the pot . This heats up the mold and then the rest of the balls will run good ....use a stick of wood or a wood handle to smack open the sprue cutter on tip of the mold ...I dont like aluminum molds but some folks do . Love my steel Lyman Round ball mold .

Get a hot plate for molds /ladle and don't throw any back ,and if you need a break (back on the hot plate) and start back where you left off. And if your running multiples (molds) a hot plate is a must and their cheap ! Ed

 

[Kansas Jake]

Uncle Miltie, you are right and my current setup is close to what you recommend except my pot is a Lyman I got years ago in the bargain room at Cabelas before they became a joke. I like the way the Lyman dipper works. Having said that, if you are just starting out, you can try casting for not much more than the cost of a mold and what you pay for lead. I started with the camp stove sauce pan setup.

 

[buckleymarka56]

Hey all,
Looking for a little bit of feedback. Looking into casting my own round balls. I can get scrap lead from my local scrapyard for $.75 a pound. I can buy as much or as little as I like. I’ve been looking into trying to find it for free, but hasn’t panned out.
They had lead roofing boots and other miscellaneous scrap lead. They also had some ingots. Most of it when dropped on concrete had just a dull thunk with no ring. At $.75 for scrap lead is that reasonable?

Here's what I do.
I bought a lead casting furnace from amazon.
The molds I buy are always 2 pre-mold.
I get the lead from my scrapyard for a dollar a pound.
It may have some organic material like pieces of roof tile because it's from vents from commercial buildings. I cut it up with tin snips and melt it down. The organic material will float to the surface.
Scoop it out, and "flash the lead with parrifin wax. About pea size.
DO NOT DO THIS IN THE HOUSE.
Or you wife will have you but on a plate.
Because sometimes it doesn't flash fire it just smokes like h***.
But it brings all the impurities out of the lead.
Wear leather gloves and a respiratory mask..
The round ones are about 2 pounds each.
Easier to store than 1 pound bars.