38ExtraSpecial
NES Member
Hmmm I wonder what the diameter of that 9mm expander is?
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One guys exploration into casting bullets...
- Thread starter NewBeige
- Start date
So here is my custom alloy presented in latest spreadsheet available from the original designer.
What difference am I going to see by adding my “stamps” and “Pew bar” to my W3 base? I feel like I was being told to just stick w the W3 base by itself or just keep shooting w the r age scrap I have. I will keep shooting the range scrap but I also want to prepare other alloy batches that will be ready for winter casting. My pot holds 90lbs comfortably so batches between 70-90lbs of a know set of alloys was my plan. The I can have the mixes tested w XRF and not have to smelt in the snow and be ready to roll.
And I cold water drop on the last run of Hi Tek coating.
What difference am I going to see by adding my “stamps” and “Pew bar” to my W3 base? I feel like I was being told to just stick w the W3 base by itself or just keep shooting w the r age scrap I have. I will keep shooting the range scrap but I also want to prepare other alloy batches that will be ready for winter casting. My pot holds 90lbs comfortably so batches between 70-90lbs of a know set of alloys was my plan. The I can have the mixes tested w XRF and not have to smelt in the snow and be ready to roll.
And I cold water drop on the last run of Hi Tek coating.
pastera
NES Member
Custom expanders for Lee powder through dies are pretty easy for the calibers that I have.
I would make a few up but work and covid issues have me chasing my tail lately - wife tested positive two weeks ago and now my son tested positive Friday.
Once things clear up here, I need to pickup some 5/8 stock to make some.
If you aren't having issues with range scrap in 9mm then don't change anything - otherwise go harder on the lead or slower on the powder (assuming bullets are not swaging in the case)
Save your hard stuff for rifle or +p loads (although Silhouette will push some very respectful speeds with just range scrap)
I would make a few up but work and covid issues have me chasing my tail lately - wife tested positive two weeks ago and now my son tested positive Friday.
Once things clear up here, I need to pickup some 5/8 stock to make some.
If you aren't having issues with range scrap in 9mm then don't change anything - otherwise go harder on the lead or slower on the powder (assuming bullets are not swaging in the case)
Save your hard stuff for rifle or +p loads (although Silhouette will push some very respectful speeds with just range scrap)
If you just wont a good stock of decent alloy your mix will work ,
My thoughts are that you can keep the the stamps in reserve for later use. High antimony alloy is a little harder to come by. The 2 scrap yards i go to have not seen any "type" alloy in many years. Roof sheathing, occasional small keel and wheel weights are the norm now.
Once in a great while they might have solder scraps.
If it where not for covid I would have never had gotten my alloy sorted out and blended up.
I usually blend tin into my alloy in the casting pot. I feel like I loose less tin through oxidizing.
I also had no idea my alloy was what I was hoping for.
So I went with the calculator and its values and plug in data until I see what I like.
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Ok, I’ll come back to this alloy calculating in a few days when I’m ready to bust out the turkey fryer.
In the meantime, I stopped by my local friendly tire shop today. The guy who was helping me before, Jimmy, seems to have been let go but Dan was more than willing to step upto the plate and like magic, into the back of my car (Shoulda brought the truck):
this is probably 150lbs of wheel weights. I think 50% so far is lead. When asked what they do with them : “we get pennies for the buckets at the scrap yard, you are saving us a hassle of going over there”.
38ExtraSpecial
NES Member
Nice score!! I’m jealous!
I have a tire shop I deal with but haven’t been there in a year. I need to get back out there. My supply is dwindling. Probably only have 100 pounds of straight WW left. Only 750 pound of mixed and another 500 between pure and mystery.
Hey, if you can't get primers right now, get all the other stuff so when primers come back, and brass and lead are hard to come by. I remember in 2011-2013 people were crazy stealing anything made of any metal and straight risking their lives for brass and copper. Crackheads blew up a house a block from mine while cutting pipes in the basement. The city I lived in then had a dealer that was dumb enough to buy a box of City Water Dept shutoff covers from a undercover fire dept cadet. That place is still shuttered 5+ years later. Just sitting there just like the day they lost their license.
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Thats how you do it, I think 50% is a hopeful estimate.
Takes me a while to fill a 3 gallon bucket. I emptied the one at work in april its only about 1/3 full and maybe 20% lead.
Take your time sorting
hes right scrap yards give you lowest scrap price or about .05-.07 cents pound. For mixed dirty scrap
Time sorting? Ha! Im done w three of the four buckets in the photo. I have a method. I use a strong magnet thats on a strip about 12in long. Its from a 12 in wide nail sweeper and I took the pole off. I lay it in the bucket to make contact w the top layer. Then I flip it over and bring it up to eye level and use my other hand to grab all the lead WW's off and toss it in the lead bucket. I then grab the ones that are zincs and put it in the zinc bucket (20 cents a lb). Then I purge the magnet by sliding iron the edge of the bucket I'm collecting the steel in. If there are any plastic ones they usually don't stick to the magnet, the zinc sticks and the lead stick ons accumulate in the supply bucket. Every once in a while I pull out the lead stick ons and put them in a separate pile and the zinc stick ons all are the same rectangular shape so those are easy to spot and purge from the bucket. the magnet allow me to get and hold a handful of target weights close enough to ID them every time and then I am able to slide the magnet on the edge of the steel bucket to empty the magnet of the steel weights without ever touching them. If I wasn't camera shy id do a video.
Its almost turkey fryer day!
Cool, hope you get 50%, been a while since I hit 50%.
Last few years its been more like
20% Lead , 30% zinc , 40% steel/iron 10% other
the painted steel stick ons are really dominating.
Zinc are slowly decreasing also.
Why I wont pay for buckets of weights , i will "tip" the shop if the buckets are full. Locally for me its not worth going around anymore. Almost was not then. Either theres a insider taking the weights or its so little lead not to bother.
Nice if your scrap yard will give you .20/lb for the zinc wheel weights.
i dont mind sorting, i just do a quick sweep and ditch all the bad stuff and cherry pick the good stuff. Anything remotely questionable gets tossed.
i do sort the bigger zinc and save for later use.
also when I do find lead stick ons those go to the "black powder" bucket.
already got the call, "do you got anymore of that soft lead" some offer me extra if I smelt it down some like the strips , one guy cast his rounds over open fire and says 5 chunks in the diper is perfect.
Not him but this is what he does, he also cast some fat 45/70s
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng7hArHEiVM
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Rocky Mosasaurus
NES Member
Might have grabbed the muddy end of the stick going to the Mechanics today. Some of it is lead but some of the wheel weights are lead free, and there’s also random stuff in there too. I’ve got the number of their scrapyard that’s in Walpole. I’m going to contact them soon.
38ExtraSpecial
NES Member
I see some good stuff in there
thats typical of most buckets.
I kept the wheel weights off of 16 tires I did between yesterday and today. 12 new tires and 4 rebalance. Was going to do a little "average" showing of the turn out.
well it was not very good for the lead.
If there is any good knews its that im not seeing as much zinc anymore. mostly steel now and some weird plastic rubbery shit. with today's manufacturing producing over all better rims and tired the amount of weight needed now is so much less than even 10 years ago. Not to mention the new machines can do run outs and plot the match of the tire to the rim for the high and low spots.
Rocky Mosasaurus
NES Member
Yeah some of the stuff has potential but for a group cast I need to come with a little more weight so I can feel like I contributed enough to the pot. The place in Walpole is called Goldies Used Auto Parts and from their website it looks like it will definitely have some serious bulk lead but I'm going to call McCracken to find out where their scrapyard is and then contact them directly.
38ExtraSpecial
NES Member
Screw it melt that up in a spoon with a torch lighter like the bullet junkie you are and get used to your new life
Rocky Mosasaurus
NES Member
West Roxbury/Dedham
Rocky Mosasaurus
NES Member
Nice! That’s most likely extremely close to me.
I was going to say try the BJs in plymouth or town fair in Hanover , i have snagged a few buckets from them over the years.
With scrap at a all time low finding wheel weights should not be to hard unless theres already some casters in the area. I have pretty much exhausted all the old timers around here who now just buy alloy. Im trying to get a group buy going on alloy. But as it always goes cant find 10 people who all want the same thing.
Jay77
NES Member
I finally found the time to load up these and take them to the range. I coated them, water dropped them on the final coating and let them sit for a month or two. I GC’d and tossed them with some Lee Alox. I loaded up a dozen with 25gr of IMR 4198 and took them to the range last weekend. I was shooting them through the cheap Ruger American 30.06 I picked up over the summer for 270. Didn’t do an accuracy test but they seemed to be good and they passed test number one....zero leading... in fact the barrel was really clean. I’m going to load some more and try to push them a bit to get a good load going. Been prepping some brass for the next round.
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38ExtraSpecial
NES Member
Nice work!! My accuracy testing is if I can hit the steel plate at 200. I hate shooting paper.
If they can plink then I’m happy because that’s all I really do with them.
Im trying to get something going, right now I have a handful of old timers with in 15 min of my work/house so distribution is really easy.
I have 3 maybes on the #2 but they only want 100lbs each.
Still poking around.
38ExtraSpecial
NES Member
I thought that rotometals had a good dea by the half ton?
17% off over 500 5# blocks =2500lbs $8k or so.
not a deal. Buffalo arms has a ok price but has less than 500# in stock and im waiting on a shipping quote. So far the few places I called are at $3.50+ lb and shipping has been expensive.
Nuclear lead in bridgwater 2000lbs $7800!
Roto has 1000# pallet of hardball 2.29lb
38ExtraSpecial
NES Member
What about the antimonial lead?
price is lower and most of us have a cheap source for plenty of pewter which is all we would need to get a great alloy. $1.80 per pound shipped.
price is lower and most of us have a cheap source for plenty of pewter which is all we would need to get a great alloy. $1.80 per pound shipped.
