The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Hi I am rapidly running out of wheel weights for casting.
Can any body tell me how to mix a Lyman no2 type alloy using pure lead and plumbers solder.

I,m no expert here but if you want recipes etc. try looking at the cast boolits site.

The type "D" solder I have I looked up and it is 30/70 tin lead but what amount antimony?? the maths doesn't work out but it says it's in there.

I find that the old linotype I have if melted on its own has lots of crud that floats to the top. How can you follow a recipe up when you can't establish what element proportions you have because they are already mixed? I bet Dromia knows!

Yes Im sure Adam does know and perhaps he will shed some light on the subject. In the mean time I am checkiing out the cast boolit forums.

I doubt that you will make Lyman No2 from plumbers solder and pure lead as neither contain the antimony required for No2.

Personally I find No2 too hard for most of my sub 2000 fps applications, 20-1 lead to tin hardness is more than sufficient in my experience BHN of around 10, that you can get from solder and lead especially as most plumber solders seems to be all tin nowadays.

Grab range scrap whenever you can as an alloy sweetener, that will usually give some antimony if that is your desire.

I wouldn't get too hung up on exact recipes for most of our shooting, so long as your alloy isn't too hard, you can scratch it with a finger nail, an ingot dropped on a concrete floor with have more of a thump than a ring to it.

Get good bullet fit first, this is the key to all cast bullet loading and shooting, then alloy hardness is less critical soft is better than hard, then a good lube that also isn't hard. With White Label lubes being available at friendly prices obtaining good lube should not be a barrier to cast bullet shooting.

for what its worth, any solder in green plastic spools is lead free, and has been for at least 20 years, maybe longer (memory not what it used to be )

I found a lead alloy calculater on cast boolits that will do for now. What got me thinking about alloys was a chat I had with some one about casting. He said he stopped using a lube sizer because it was squashing the lead bullets because they were so soft. He uses pure lead for casting .38 special. Now he just tumble lubes with liquid allox. I have all ways just used wheel weights but Im rapidly running out now I am regulary shooting my .38 special under lever. So I am going to have to start using lead and 50/50 bar solder I guess as I dont have any thing else.

Alpha1 wrote:He said he stopped using a lube sizer because it was squashing the lead bullets because they were so soft.

Hells teeth he must have been sizing them down quiet a few thou for that to happen, I happily size lead only bullets a couple of thou without that happening.

My .357 Marlins is microgroove and the .44 Ballard. The Ballard is the fussy one! As Dromia says fit is crucial.

I lubricise the .357 bullets but they are just as good tumbled but not as pretty. The .44 sizer is .429 so as the barrel was slugged and came out .432 I don't use the resizer.

It took me a while to come round to Dromias lead recipes but I saw the light. I now have loads of tin and linotype. Luckily I have unlimited access to range scrap, which most shooters should have depending on their club.

I have a lubrisizer but I only use it for 44-40 bullets. The cases are thin and oversize bullets restrict feeding in my 92 Winchester. I also size after reloading. Everything else for smokeless is tumble lubed with excellent results. Black powder bullets are left unsized and dipped in liquid Wonderlube heated in the microwave.
Fred

I have looked at the lead calculators on the cast boolits forum I'm not sure I understand them. Up to now no one has given me a recipe for cast bullets using pure lead and plumbers solder. So I am going to work on a 20-1 Lead to tin mix aiming for a BHN 10 as Adam suggested. I have pure lead and 50/50 plumbers solder so I just need to do the maths.
I can usually acquire pure lead in enough quantity to keep me going and 50/50 plumbers solder is readily available. So I will go from there Ill experiment with the lead and plumbers solder until my ingots of wheel weights run out. All though I'm not sure as I posted previously which of the ingots are wheel weights and which are pure lead and I have a fair few of them. I also have a large bucket full of wheel weights but they need melting down and sorting out before I can use them. I also have a quantity of Linotype no idea what I should do with that.