Ammunition & Hand Loading > Cartridge and Shotshell reloading
Bullet casting improvements
bkoenig:
--- Quote from: 66bigblock on April 15, 2013, 09:03:21 PM ---Not to hijack here, but why do you need lead free solder?
66bigblock
--- End quote ---
It's made mostly of tin. Tin gives you a little hardness and helps with mold fillout.
66bigblock:
I have a bunch of 1 lb solder rolls I would sell, but not sure any are lead free.
66bigblock
unfy:
As bkoenig said.... when using pure or scrap lead, adding tin helps with a bit of hardness and mold fill out. Sharper shoulders / lube grooves, that kind of thing.
Tin can be had in various forms for various prices (hardyharhar) .... but antimony is harder to come by.
Mixing lead with solder (ie: 50/50 lead/tin solder etc) can get a bunch of tin into your alloy. Antimony is much harder to work with.
Soooo... you typically buy an alloy that already has antimony in it from some metal shop / foundary. Some folks sell stuff you're supposed to purposefully dilute, others you can take a very hard alloy and mix it with your normal lead to soften the source alloy or harden up your own.
BK's mention of superhard is an example of something that is quite proper for diluting in lead. Others will mix linotype into their lead to harden up stuff, etc.
Lead free soldier is 95% tin, 5% antimony typically (some are tin/copper, others have silver, etc). If ya mix 19lbs of lead with a pound of this solder, ya get something that's 95% lead, 4.75% tin, and 0.25% antimony.
Superhard is 70% lead, 30% antimony. Casting pure is superhard is out of the question, the bullet would prolly just shatter whatever it hit (or shatter in the barrel). But, if ya mix 15lbs/3lbs, ya end up with close to 95% lead 5% antimony. Lacks the tin, but ya get the brittleness of the antimony. Superhard is designed to mixed by the caster to formulate their own antimony content in their own alloys.
At the $100 price break for free shipping, gotta buy 5 bars of superhard right now... which puts ya at ~25lbs of superhard and $115. $4.60 per pound, which is far cheaper than trying to buy solder :P.
Granted, tin is $18-$20/lb in pureish forms.
bkoenig:
The Superhard alloy is so brittle that I just whack the bar with a hammer to break off a chunk. I do mix a little lead free solder into the pot to help with fillout, but I don't know if it's really needed.
unfy:
As mentioned in the hollowpointmold.com purchase thread, I got an email back from Erik about a question involving the newer cast method I've lifted from other folks...
--- Quote ---I say cast as fast as possible and only slow down to keep from getting smears on top! Seriously, you can cast at a pretty good clip and just wait about a 5 count to break the sprue and just slow it down enough so you don't get smears or overheat. Sounds like you have it figured out already. The different metals shouldn't give any problems just make sure to lube the sprue pivot and sliding parts sparingly once
in a while.
Skip the setting the mold down, no need to keep it warmer than the actual casting provides after initial warm up. Erik
--- End quote ---
Sooo... I dunno if the heatsink step is necessary (setting the mold on the base of the lee pot or something similar) ... but it seems to be working for me so dunno if I'll change my routine or not.
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