Bullet Casting & Coating MegaThread

TZCHRIS said:
Today was "pew pew pewder" day!
Got a boat load of pewter, $20 at auction. Was in the middle of melting when my wife catches me and starts googling the pewter pieces. She says you just melted a $400 set of candlestick holders! :)
Got about 150 small ingots.
View attachment 520657View attachment 520658View attachment 520659View attachment 520660
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Nice haul for $20!
I have a nice old lady who has a junk shop that I bring any questionable pewter to. Over the past 8 years I have sold here a few pieces. I have had nothing worth anything close to $400
I did get $60 for a large plate. Shes getting tough to deal with if I want to buy shes real close to virgin alloy prices.
Thinking back I might have sold her -$250 worth of pewter over the years.
My oldest piece which she showed me in a book was 200 years old. She basically said anything made in the past 100 years is generally worthless , the big problem is the sets are usually incomplete and or damaged.
 
mac1911 said:
Nice haul for $20!
I have a nice old lady who has a junk shop that I bring any questionable pewter to. Over the past 8 years I have sold here a few pieces. I have had nothing worth anything close to $400
I did get $60 for a large plate. Shes getting tough to deal with if I want to buy shes real close to virgin alloy prices.
Thinking back I might have sold her -$250 worth of pewter over the years.
My oldest piece which she showed me in a book was 200 years old. She basically said anything made in the past 100 years is generally worthless , the big problem is the sets are usually incomplete and or damaged.
Click to expand...
How do you date the stuff?
These are the candlestick holders I melted. I told her find me a buyer before I believe they are worth what someone is asking.

Savo Tinn Pewter Candleholders, Pair | Vintique

Pair of pewter candleholders from Savo Tinn of Norway. Makers mark as shown in photo.
www.vintique.com www.vintique.com
 
TZCHRIS said:
How do you date the stuff?
These are the candlestick holders I melted. I told her find me a buyer before I believe they are worth what someone is asking.

Savo Tinn Pewter Candleholders, Pair | Vintique

Pair of pewter candleholders from Savo Tinn of Norway. Makers mark as shown in photo.
www.vintique.com www.vintique.com
Click to expand...
I bring it to a local antique place, lady had tons of books. “The BlueBook of Antique values “ type books
I think it helps shes a Pewter Collector
Sometimes you get lucky on the internet with the marks on the items
 
So today I hit the jackpot, getting a half full bucket of sorted stick on, pure lead! Will need some advice mixing to get the proper hardness for 9mm pistol?

I have a Lee hardness tester coming in this week, any advice will be awsome? I assume I will be adding pewter/tin to my pure ingots, maybe 5% tin?
 
TZCHRIS said:
So today I hit the jackpot, getting a half full bucket of sorted stick on, pure lead! Will need some advice mixing to get the proper hardness for 9mm pistol?

I have a Lee hardness tester coming in this week, any advice will be awsome? I assume I will be adding pewter/tin to my pure ingots, maybe 5% tin?
Click to expand...
Are you water dropping them?
I run about 2%-3% antimony and about 1% tin is all you need for good fill out.
That will water drop and harden up fine.
 
TZCHRIS said:
So today I hit the jackpot, getting a half full bucket of sorted stick on, pure lead! Will need some advice mixing to get the proper hardness for 9mm pistol?

I have a Lee hardness tester coming in this week, any advice will be awsome? I assume I will be adding pewter/tin to my pure ingots, maybe 5% tin?
Click to expand...
Hardness is less important than fit, coating/lube and powder choice (pretty much in that order)
Get some linotype to add antinomy - increases hardness much faster than tin (but you still need 1-2% tin). RotoMetals superhard can be used also.

You might be able to swap some of the soft lead to someone who loads muzzle loaders and get something already hard enough for use in 9mm
 
TZCHRIS said:
I'll take GPZ for 1100 Alex? :)
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No, but I'll trade you my GPz1100 for $5000 ;)
TZCHRIS said:
So today I hit the jackpot, getting a half full bucket of sorted stick on, pure lead! Will need some advice mixing to get the proper hardness for 9mm pistol?

I have a Lee hardness tester coming in this week, any advice will be awsome? I assume I will be adding pewter/tin to my pure ingots, maybe 5% tin?
Click to expand...
I've read that the clip on LWW's are about perfect for handgun as is but the stick-on's might be a bit soft. Pastera is spot on, fit is critical, hardness not so much. If you mail me a sample I can use my Cabin Tree hardness tester and give you a BHN .
 
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TZCHRIS said:
So today I hit the jackpot, getting a half full bucket of sorted stick on, pure lead! Will need some advice mixing to get the proper hardness for 9mm pistol?

I have a Lee hardness tester coming in this week, any advice will be awsome? I assume I will be adding pewter/tin to my pure ingots, maybe 5% tin?
Click to expand...
God awful waste of tin.
If your coating you really dont need them “harder”
With out knowing your lead alloy
You could mix 50/50 stick on/clip on and that should be more thsn hard enough

the art pencil hardness test is pretty darn close enough
 
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mac1911 said:
God awful waste of tin.
If your coating you really dont need them “harder”
With out knowing your lead alloy
You could mix 50/50 stick on/clip on and that should be more thsn hard enough

the art pencil hardness test is pretty darn close enough
Click to expand...
This is true. You don’t need hard.
The only reason I go with harder for 9mm is because with my Dillon die set and expander there’s a lot of neck tension. If the bullet is soft this can squish it down and make it undersized. Then they can tumble.

So I either invest in a $30 expander that’s .001” larger than what I have not or I use the harder lead that I already own to counter the neck tensions.
 
Michael J. Spangler said:
This is true. You don’t need hard.
The only reason I go with harder for 9mm is because with my Dillon die set and expander there’s a lot of neck tension. If the bullet is soft this can squish it down and make it undersized. Then they can tumble.

So I either invest in a $30 expander that’s .001” larger than what I have not or I use the harder lead that I already own to counter the neck tensions.
Click to expand...
The only issue I have had with pure lead
Is dropping on the small side from the mold.
Problem is we dont know the alloy of the wheel weights
For pistol I have been lucky and 50/50 SOWW/COWW have never let me down.

i only add tin to alloy I plan on casting rifle
Bullets.
 
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mac1911 said:
God awful waste of tin.
If your coating you really dont need them “harder”
With out knowing your lead alloy
You could mix 50/50 stick on/clip on and that should be more thsn hard enough

the art pencil hardness test is pretty darn close enough
Click to expand...
That is exactly what I do - 50/50 soft lead and WW with 1% tin added for flow.
Coated with HighTec and sized to .356-.357
Had issues with a SW M&P9c with faster powders - no issues at all with Silhouette.

I've run straight Range lead (~10-11 BHN) in 9mm with no issues - I haven't pushed that soft to the limit with Silhouette but pretty certain it would be fine out to 1100fps
 
TZCHRIS said:
So today I hit the jackpot, getting a half full bucket of sorted stick on, pure lead! Will need some advice mixing to get the proper hardness for 9mm pistol?

I have a Lee hardness tester coming in this week, any advice will be awsome? I assume I will be adding pewter/tin to my pure ingots, maybe 5% tin?
Click to expand...
Here is a lead alloy calculator from castboolits.com for your reference.

Lead alloy calculators

I made a spreadsheet that will let you calculate the properties you get when mixing two or more types of lead. Let me know if there is anything that is incorrect or needs improvement. EDIT (2/6/11): Added Brinell hardness estimate. EDIT (2/14/11): Expanded calculator to mix up to 10 alloys...
castboolits.gunloads.com
 

Attachments

  • Lead Alloy Calculators 070612 (with 17 custom alloys).xls
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Michael J. Spangler said:
This is true. You don’t need hard.
The only reason I go with harder for 9mm is because with my Dillon die set and expander there’s a lot of neck tension. If the bullet is soft this can squish it down and make it undersized. Then they can tumble.

So I either invest in a $30 expander that’s .001” larger than what I have not or I use the harder lead that I already own to counter the neck tensions.
Click to expand...
Give me a drawing or a good pic with a scale - turning up a custom expander is pretty easy.
 

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