LEAD ALLOY QUESTION.......

[offhand35]

Ok, maybe I am confusing myself on this but....

I am planning to make up some 1:10 tin/lead alloy.

Does this ratio mean:

a.   1 lb of tin to 10 lbs of lead ?

or,


b.   1 lb of tin per 10 lbs of alloy, which is actually 1 lb of tin to 9 lbs lead......?

[jhalcott]

  1 in 10 is 1 in 10 like 20 to 1 lead /tin is 20 parts lead to 1 part tin. there fore 1 part tin to ten parts lead is 10 to 1.  This is why I use wheel weights for MOST shooting. No calculations needed!

[offhand35]

Well, I've continued to do a whole lot of reading since I 1st posted that question.  It all stems from my inability [so far] to obtain a new supply of  WW's. 
The 1:10, or 10% tin/lead is 1# tin per 10 #'s of alloy. That is 2# of 50/50 tin/lead solder to 8#'s pure lead. Expected BHN is around 10 after aging.

However, I have hit upon another solution that may yield something akin to Lyman #2, BHN approx 16
This is 8# lead, 1# 50/50 tin/lead solder, 1# magnum shot [4-6% antimony + some arsenic].
This will come out somewhere  around 90/5/5 of #2 alloy.
I have plenty of shot as I don't use magnum shot much, only for hunting loads.  The 50/50 tin-lead solder is still readily available [though it is $6.25/#].  22LR range lead I can get VERY cheap, and it yields approx 50% pure lead after cleaning it up.

When I get to make some of that alloy up, and test for BHN, I will post that.

[454PB]

Using tin to harden lead alloy is a waste of an expensive component. First of all it adds very little hardness percentage wise, and alloys only need 2% tin to cast well.  Maybe you have a lot of tin, and if you do you'd be better off to sell it for $5 a pound or more and buy linotype to harden your alloy.

[jhalcott]

  what are your plans for this alloy?  I pester the local garages for their old WW's and score a couple times a month. The local scrap yard has them once in a while. I HATE to pay for WW's !! I have some Linotype on hand and mix that with ww and pure lead to get a Lyman #2 alloy. I use this for 90 per cent of my rifle shooting. For the 45-70 i use a 1 pound of tin to 20 pounds of lead. Unless I'm going to shoot targets,then it's straight wheel weight alloy. I have used WW for hunting in 7mm and .30 caliber rifles with a lot of success. I have a large amount(maybe 50 pounds) of "mystery" metal that I make plinking bullets with. I have no idea what it is but it melts and makes decent bullets. I used it several years ago to win a club hand gun shoot! I think that was the Blind Squirrel Principle at work.

[Lloyd Smale]

I have to agree that a 1/10 mix is kind of a waste. But there is nothing wrong with a 1/20 alloy if you have a bunch of tin. Tin will harden bullets. 1/20 is very close in hardness to ww. Others are right to a point. Using tin to alloy to get hardness is not economical. If you have a bunch of tin your best bet is to sell some and buy alloy that is hardened with antimony to alloy with like lineotype. As to it being a waste to use more then 2 percent ill argue that. 2 percent will help  but i have casted enough to know that 5 percent tin alloys cast much nicer then 2 percent alloys. If you doubt that cast with some ww with 2 per. and then try casting the same  bullet with lineotype and see which is easier to get good bullets with. Another problem that has raised its ugly head lately is zinc contamintaion in wws. You wont find a full bucket of scrap wws anymore without at least a couple zinc wws in them. If your careful you can smelt them out but unlless you hand pick every one out your going to get a real slight contamination of your alloy. For the last couple years my smelted wws have been real tough to cast with as is and 2 percent tin doesnt do much to help. But if a guy mixes in 5 percent tin or alloys them with at least 1/4 lineotype it makes a much nicer casting alloy. If you doubt my thoughts cast some and wieght your bullets. Ive even experimented the other way and have taken wws and added about 1/4 pure to them and a little tin and will get better bullets like that then with straight wws. I cast way to much and deal with to much wws to sit and pick everyone out. If you pay attention to your melt when smelting and dont let the heat get to high the zinc wws will float to the top and can be skimmed out with the clips but a small amount is going to go into your melt and it will effect the castability of your lead. Another time more tin is good is casting with pure lead. a 20/1 mixture or even a 30/1 mixture will cast much better. If you look at black powder shooters that shoot competition most will use a 30/1 mix because it produce more consistant bullets. The old theroy that 2 percent tin was all you needed to add to wws came from a time that wws were alot more consistant in composistion. Now they vary alot and some have very little if any tin in them. Also in the future with recyling more and more zinc is going to make it into even the lead wws. Ive found batches of ww that cast with very little tin added and some that i had to add as much as 7-8 percent to get good bullets. The only way your going to know is to first have the experience to know when your dealing with a good alloy and then tweaking one that isnt. Ive remelted 200 lb batches because of this to add more tin and keep them consistant and dont even fool around with adding less then 5 percent right from the start anymore. I usually do it when i smelt but do keep some wws untreated for alloying with lineotype.