Cannonball fishing sinker sizes

[rays89]

I know it is posted somewhere and I have it saved on my pc but I can seem to find it.  I need the Sizes of fishing cannonball sinkers. I know the 3 oz ones work great for the 1 inch bores. Just need to know the other sizes Thanx in advanced
                                                                                                                                                     Ray

[intoodeep]

16 oz size = 1.69
12 oz size = 1.54
10 oz size = 1.43
4 oz size  = 1.05
3  oz size = 0.96

 Hope this helps.

[armorer77]

Ray , I can get a 1.680 round ball mold to you for $92.00 Stainless . Armorer

[Double D]

How well does stainless work casting zinc?

[rays89]

Ed
  Thanx for the offer on the mold. I don't think I will be shooting many lead cannon balls the size of golf balls so I think a few sinkers would fit the bill, Besides I got dibs on that Golf ball Coehorn

[Rickk]

From the "Do-it" fishing sinker catalog:

Weight         1/2 oz    3/4 oz    1 oz      2 oz       3 oz      4 oz      5 oz      6 oz      8 oz      10 oz      12 oz     
Aprox. Dia.     0.55"     0.62"   0.66"    0.83"     0.96"    1.05"     1.14"    1.20"    1.35"      1.43"      1.54"      



Weight       16 oz        2lb        3lb        4lb       5lb
Aprox. Dia.  1.69"     2.11"    2.42"     2.67"    2.88"

[dynomike1]

Ed; How about one for a 2.35? Will zinc cast in it?

[dynomike1]

Ed; How about one for a 2.35" bore? will it cast zinc?

[Double D]

Mike, I belive most of the fishing sinker molds are Zinc.

[GGaskill]

I think the Do-It moulds are aluminum.  Definitely not to be used for zinc.

[dynomike1]

Looks like i am about 3 mo. into finishing my carrige anyway. I think i would like to go with brass, zinc is hard to come by around here, but i will keep looking. If the mold is stainless i guess it would do brass.

[GGaskill]

You are planning to cast brass shot???

[dynomike1]

Probably lead or brass. I dont know what the difference in the weight is yet. Does anyone know another name for brass

[Soot]

I would think brass projos would be extremely cost prohibitive.
I save every piece of brass and copper I can find to sell as scrap, It's worth a lot.

[GGaskill]

Does anyone know another name for brass?

Not a modern name.  Brass is a copper alloy which is yellow/gold colored or reddish yellow colored and weathers to a green color.  It is expensive and melts at a very high temperature, usually in excess of 2000° F.  It is used sometimes for cannon barrels, virtually never for shot.  Zinc is a fairly heavy silver metal; carburetors have been made from it, among other die casting type things.  It melts about 1000° F, a little less than the melting point of aluminum.  It is about as dense as cast iron which is one reason it makes a good substitute shot material.  Lead is even denser but melts at a lower temperature, low enough that the moulds can be made from aluminum.

[Terry C.]

FWIW: The Mexican army used copper cannonballs during the Mexican-American War.

[dynomike1]

Looks like lead is probably going to be my best choice unless i can find some zinc. But there will be a difference in barrel pressure.Anyone know what zinc is going for?
Brass= 534lbs. cu. ft.
Lead=  708-711lbs. cu. ft.
Zinc=   440lbs. cu. ft.

[Double D]

start scrounging, thats what I did. I have about 100 lbs right now.  Aslo wheel weights are now made of zinc.  The bullet casters hate them.

Got mine off ebay as surplus anodes and just asking people for it.

[dynomike1]

Does anyone remember the formula for sizing cannon balls? I had it but i cant find it.

[GGaskill]

Does the Spherical Shot Weight Calculator help?

Or are you asking what size shot to use for a given bore size (the forum standard is 97.5% [39/40])?

[dynomike1]

 Thanks My shot size is 2.293 w/2.352 bore right?

[Terry C.]

Thanks My shot size is 2.293 w/2.352 bore right?

Yep, that's right by my calculations.

Ball = 39/40 bore dia.

Bore = 40/39 ball dia.

Or using percentages...

Ball = 97.5% bore dia.

Bore = 102.56% ball dia.

[dynomike1]

I am undecided about zinc or lead. I can get a double aluminum 2 1/4" pretty cheap. Rickk cloest size is 2.11 i think. Then again lead might be easier to find. I am going to the scrap yard to see what i can get. I have some steel i can trade.

[Double D]

So you are going to build a cannon to fit the mould, is that right.  Or, are you looking for a mould to fit a cannon?

Maybe I can help you, I have moulds for  6 pdr round ball, beer can round ball, and golf ball round ball.  These are steel moulds for casting zinc.

If you cast lead in these diameters you will have to load down to reduce pressure, that may not be all that bad.  The other down side to lead round balls in the moulds you are looking at, the balls may not come out round. In fact the hotter you get these mould the more oblong they become.

The steel round ball molds once they are used for zinc can't be used for lead...they just won't come out right.

If you shoot right you can go down range and find your round balls and recover them.  Most of the time you won't have to recast the zinc balls, you can resuse them.  The lead balls will have to be recast everytime.

If you shoot heavy loads, loads that go boom, make a big cloud of smoke and the balls just disappear, well that dangerous; it stresses the gun and you loose the balls as they land, you know not where.  Remember always know your backstop.  If you don't know exactly where you ball is landing that is dangerous.

[dan610324]

Im sure that if you listen to your local tireshops there is no problems to collect one ton of balancing weights and similar scrap as air valves .
in this mixed scrap you will have 4 different metals , lead , zink , brass and steel .

no panic , you dont need to sort it .

just fill up an crucible with the mixed scrap

heat it to 350 - 375 degrees celsius , then most of all dirt paper and oil have burnt away and you have the liquid lead in the bottom of the crucible ( lead have an melting point of approximately 330 degrees celsius )
pour the lead out to ingot molds

put the crucible back to the owen and heat it to 600 degrees celsius , zink have an melting point of approximately 430 degrees celsius . but when you heat it to 600 degrees celsius most of the remaining lead can be skimmed off from the surface as lead oxide .
all steel and brass parts will sink to the bottom of the crucible as it have an higher density then zink .
just pour the zink in ingot molds .

then you suddenly have perfect lead and zink alloys in ingot form instead of lots of scrap .

if you dont care if your zink have 1 - 2 % of lead in the alloy you stop heating when all zink are liquid ,
approximately 450 degrees celsius .

hope any of you guys here can help me to translate this celsius to fahreheit .

if I melt such an mix here in sweden I end up with approximately 80 - 85 weight % "new" metal ingots .
in an 60/40 relation lead/zink . but it will be more and more zink and less lead for each time I do it .

[dynomike1]

Looking for a mold to fit my cannon. 2.25-2.29.

[GGaskill]

Fahrenheit = 1.8 * Celsius +32      32° F = 1.8 * 0° C +32  (freezing point of water)
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212° F = 1.8 * 100° C +32   (boiling point of water)
Celsius = (Fahrenheit - 32) * .55555555    0° C = (32° F - 32) * .55555555
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100° C = (212° F - 32) * .555555555

The .555555555 is exactly 5/9.

[dynomike1]

450c=842f
430c=806f
600c=1112f
330c=842f
No free wheel waits around here anymore. Scrap prices have cleaned everything up.

[dan610324]

sorry to hear , here they still are available for free .
but Im sure you can buy them real cheap because the scrap dealers dont pay almost anything for mixed scrap , it still will be an very cheap source for the metal .

[Double D]

I added a hotlink to Rickk post on the cannon ball sinker dimensions.  I also put the hotlink in the references post stuck toi the top of t he forum.

When is the last time you looked at that post.  There  is some neat stuff in there.  A link to George's round ball calculator is there.   Probablhy one of the neatest is http://www.joshmadison.com/software/convert/  I have this residing on my desk top and use it a lot.

Dan there is a better way to get the zinc and trash out of the lead bucket.  Heat the lead untill it just melts.  Those items that have a higher melting point and less  density will float to the top unmelted.  Skim this off and set it aside to melt later. Flux you lead and skim the dirt off. Pour your ingots and mark them Wheelweight. 

If you try to pour of the lead with the zinc still in you will end up with a lead contamination of the zinc when you raise the temeprature to melt the zinc.

You also do not want to use the same pot to melt zinc that you melted lead in, because you will contaminate the lead pot  and lead melted in won't cast right.