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Anyone mix their own alloy?
- Thread starter plumber
- Start date
Solder comes in various ratios of lead & tin. Lyman posts various mixes, but your best bet would be to get a brinnell hardnes tester to confirm a mix. I use a Saeco. You can go quite soft for 38 spcl. & 45 target loads but the mags. will require the addition of antimony in order to prevent leading.
Get the latest Lyman reloading manual to start your education.
Casting is a lot of fun and can save you serious $$$.
Get the latest Lyman reloading manual to start your education.
Casting is a lot of fun and can save you serious $$$.
gerrycaruso
NES Member
casting your own
I melt my scrap wheelweights,clean the alloy and pour it into ingot moulds. I do the same with my solder and pure lead. It's more time consuming but I can then add to the pot and know exactly what I'm adding without weighing. This makes it easier for me to maintain a consistant alloy. I have heard of dropping the bullets from the mould into a bucket of water to temper them. This is supposed to produce much harder bullets.I have no experience with it but maybe others have tried this technique and would care to comment. Good luck.
I melt my scrap wheelweights,clean the alloy and pour it into ingot moulds. I do the same with my solder and pure lead. It's more time consuming but I can then add to the pot and know exactly what I'm adding without weighing. This makes it easier for me to maintain a consistant alloy. I have heard of dropping the bullets from the mould into a bucket of water to temper them. This is supposed to produce much harder bullets.I have no experience with it but maybe others have tried this technique and would care to comment. Good luck.
I just scored 1000 lbs of wheelweights 
. Not really sure what to do with them now, got to get them off my truck. Unfortunatly they can't come off the same way they went on, I don't have a forklift! I was thinking of melting them down on a turkey fryer, scooping off the slag and ladleing them into muffin pans. PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong.
. Not really sure what to do with them now, got to get them off my truck. Unfortunatly they can't come off the same way they went on, I don't have a forklift! I was thinking of melting them down on a turkey fryer, scooping off the slag and ladleing them into muffin pans. PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong.You are a lucky guy to get all those wheel weights! You should be able to melt in a deep cooker or plumbers melting pot, but make sure that you flux the melt before pouring into muffiin pans or you will lose all the antimony & tin that will float to the top. This is critical to keeping the proper alloy mix.
Candle wax will work, light it as soon as it starts smoking and stir like crazy!
Then skim of the residue.
Candle wax will work, light it as soon as it starts smoking and stir like crazy!
Then skim of the residue.
Thanks a lot for the tips, I just finished making wheel weight muffins. I was going to smelt on the basement, glad I took it outside. That smell will be with me for days! Now to get some molds and make boolits
A friend of mine has a small pan of water that the bullets go into after being knocked out of the mold. Does seem to make them pretty hard. He uses wheel weights with the junk filtered out, smelts all that into ingots.
-Mike
wow! Nice ingots! (not really warped cracked etc... )
But dang dont mattah! those puppies are getting melted for boolits!
![[smile]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/001.gif "Smile [smile]")
![[laugh]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/012.gif "Laugh [laugh]")
thats awesome EPIC pile! Very very jealous I am going to need to make my own sometime soon!!! wow. Well First reloading right? dang..... Should prolly get my own house to do this stuff in I bet... Haha great reasoning for buying a house... I needed a place for a reloading room, and casting some bullets. HAHAHA!!
I got a buddy who shoots hardcast 140gr 6.5mm Saeco bullets out of his 6.5Grendel AR15 to 2402fps!! He drops them in water to harden them, which is why I posted this. He uses a blend on WW and pure lead then the water drop for hardening. No leading at all in the whole system. I do not suggest this to anyone but the experienced though.
I was looking at starting to cast for 5.56mm. What size bullet mold is it? I thought it was 224 but Midway at least starts with 225 and up. . And does anyone have experience with the "Lee Pro 4 20 Lb Furnace 220 Volt"?
You will size to .224 and install a gas check. Doing small calibers is tedious work and the mold must be kept hot. I use Lyman molds in this caliber and pure Lino. You will have to keep the velocity down so if your planning to load for an A/R, you may not cycle the action.
I shoot these in bolt & single shot actions in 22K Hornet, 221 Fireball, & 222 Mag. up to around 1800fps.
I use an RCBS furnace. I had a Lee furnace and gave it away because you couldn't stir the alloy. I had three Lymans over the years but they burned out.
My RCBS is now around 25 years old.
pot
I have a LEE 20 lb bottom pour,in 120v.but a 220 would be very good as the load would be less on the wires.I also have a Saeco.why cant you stir I do.i use a metal drain spoon.works for me for 40 yrs.
You have to have arsinic in the mix to harden the antimony.no need to harden in pistols.and I dont in my 03.
I have a LEE 20 lb bottom pour,in 120v.but a 220 would be very good as the load would be less on the wires.I also have a Saeco.why cant you stir I do.i use a metal drain spoon.works for me for 40 yrs.
You have to have arsinic in the mix to harden the antimony.no need to harden in pistols.and I dont in my 03.
Be very careful shooting cast in a AR. I know two people that did and within 20 to 30 rounds the gas tube was plugged up so bad the had to take it apart and clean it.
You can also mix in a little of the pure with the WW's if you want. I have only used WW's so far since I have two places I get them from for free. If you know how to weld you can make your own ingot molds. These were made from 3" channel cut 6" long and then angle welded on the ends. They make around a 8 pound ingot. The muffin pans my wife bought me.
I haven't weighed them but the muffins feel like they are around 3 pounds.
Rusty
Fixxah
NES Member
Nice setup Rusty. Did I see that at castboolits? I bought some of those aluminum food pans to throw the clips and crap into. They are cheap and I can roll them into a ball and toss into the trash.
Thanks, yes you probably saw those pic's on cast boolits. Thanks for the foil pan idea, great idea. I use the one gallon bean cans I got from the cafe at work but then I dump them into a garbage bag when cool and then into the trash.
Rusty
