How to soften Wheel Weight alloy?

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

OK, it seems like I'm swimming up stream here with everybody else trying to heat-treat their Wheel Weight alloys to make them harder, adding lynotype, cast bullets with huge meplats so they don't have to worry about expansion, etc.

But me?  I'm finding air cooled wheel weights are too hard for my purposes!  I cast a lot of .38 spl, mild .357 Mag, and if I go hotter, I paper-patch or use a jacketed bullet.  I LIKE to see a bullet expand well.  In fact I would prefer to use pure lead, except that it's just too difficult to find - as opposed to wheel weights.

So how soft CAN you make wheel weights?

I've got a little toaster oven from a garage sale to anneal them.  I start 'em out at 400 let 'em bake for an hour, turn it down to 300 for 1/2 hour, then 200 for 1/2 hour, then off 'til cool.  They don't really seem all that much softer. 

Can the way you cast them affect their hardness?

For example, I think I run my molds a little hot.  When I cut the sprue it breaks off giving a jagged mark at the base rather than the smooth shear-mark.  I sometimes notice a smooth shear-mark with the first few when the mold is warming up still, but those also tend to have wrinkles.  After dropping the bullets, they look shiny, but then they take on a frosty look, almost like galvanized sheet metal - they're still smooth though.  Again, if I run things a little cooler, they stay shiny. 

If I do anneal them, how long will that last?

I cast when I have time to cast and I shoot when I have time to shoot.  It won't work if I have to shoot a bullet within X number of days of casting it.  I'm looking for something practical.  Pure lead isn't practical, and neither is a "best when used by" date on my bullets. 

And finally, will annealing them make up for any differences in casting methods?

I cast in an unheated garage in all sorts of weather.  So when I air cool, that air might be 20 degrees or it might be 80 degrees.  Plus there's the differences in mold temperature when I start a casting session, til when the mold heats up. 

[Lloyd Smale]

your fighting an uphill battle. I dont really think your going to get much for results using any of those methods. You might soften them up a tad by anealing them but i doubt if it will be as much as your looking for. About the only thing to do is cut it with pure. If you get wws seperate the tape on ones as there pure. I wish you lived closer as ive got a couple hundred lbs of pure id surely swap for wws and the mail is just to much hastle. My mail lady allready hates me!

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

I wish you lived closer as ive got a couple hundred lbs of pure id surely swap for wws and the mail is just to much hastle. My mail lady allready hates me!

No kidding!

I cringe every time I read some guy adding stuff to pure lead because they need something harder.  OH man!  If we could just swap we'd both be happy.

Is there any way to improve the cohesiveness of WW alloy?

I guess that's my biggest beef.  Air cooled WW will certainly expand readily, but I don't like that they fragment so easily.  My plumbers lead bullets stick together like silly putty.

[Lloyd Smale]

tin will somwhat make your bullets less likely to fracture. Have you thought about a 2 piece mold that has a seperate nose. You could save alot of your pure by just casting the nose with pure and leaving the body ww. Veral  does them and does them on a custom basis i beleive so you could possibly take one of your favorite bullets and have him make a nose mold for it. You can actually do it with your existing mold if you find a dipper the right size to just fill the nose of the mold cosistantly and make your own pure noses. Then place them in a hot mold and pour the ww in on top of it.

[wncchester]

Black, the "galanized/frosted" surfaces you are getting comes from the fact that the harder metal, antimony, crystals harden before the lead, leaving the harder particles trapped in a soft lead matrix; it is not a true solid "alloy" so that can happen.  But adding a bit of tin helps keep the antimony in alloy.  That reduces the frosty look and bore leading too. 

With any bullet alloy, having the metal or mold too hot will also result in surface frosting.  It does no harm.

We cannot "anneal" lead nor harden it as we can steel, it just won't work.  Got to change the mix and adding lead (and tin) is the best way to soften high antimony content wheel weights.  I use the sorry modern "lead free" solder to get tin at a reasonable price and availability.

[w30wcf]

Black Jaque Janaviac,

Unfortunately, the only way to soften air cooled w.w. bullets is to add plain lead to the mix. 50/50  w.w./lead makes a nice alloy.

w30wcf

[BABore]

I use a mix of 50% WW's and 50% Pb almost exclusively. It's a couple Bhn softer than straight WW's when air cooled and can be water dropped or oven heat treated to 18-22 Bhn. When heat treated, I find it works much better than HTWW's for high velocity or high pressure rifle and pistol loads. I've tested them side by side. I do sort all of the soft, stick-on WW's from the normal ones.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Sigh.

I suppose.  That's the facts of life.  I guess diluting pure lead with 50% WW is a way to stetch the pure lead.

The local scrap guy wanted $0.70/lb for plumbers lead.  He would only sell me a tiny bit of what he had, cuz another guy wants it.  That thing that grinds me up is the guy buying it will probably use it for casting fishing jigs.  I told the scrap dealer if that's the case have the guy call me because I'd be willing to trade him for wheel weights.  Plumbers lead for jigs - ugh!

[masek77]

Look on ebay. Sometimes you can get pure lead for about 60 cents per pound shipped.