Author Topic: Another Alloy Question (Read 1087 times)

unclenick · « **on:** January 13, 2005, 10:03:47 AM »

Veral,

I started looking at different solders and found, in addition to silver bearing and tin/antimony solders there are some odd alloys in the lead-free solder world. Locally I've obtained one with copper and selenium in it and one with nickel in it. I know zinc is a bad thing to get into a mix, but what about some of these others?

Nick

Veral · « **Reply #1 on:** January 16, 2005, 12:39:16 PM »

Copper and Nickel are benificial if in adaquate quantities, which the alloys you saw probably are not. I'm content that selenium doesn't hurt anything, or it wouldn't be in a marketed product, as it would ruin it, but I have no idea of any benificial aspects. I wouldn't reccomend that you spend any money on them to find out.

unclenick · « **Reply #2 on:** January 22, 2005, 04:00:24 PM »

Veral,

Thanks again. What I am looking to do is make up some alloy for special occassions, such as a hunting trip, where I don't want anything to go wrong.

I have some lead, I have some shot, I have some 95:5 tin:antimony lead-free plumbing solder, and I have some Kesterl flux core solder that is 5.5% silver (that I got at an electronics surplus place). My thinking is to make a 20 lb batch that is 16 lb lead, 2 lb shot, 2 lb 95:5, and maybe 1.2 ounces of the silver bearing solder. That will give me about 9.5% tin, 1% antimony, 0.2% arsenic, and .02% Silver. This is a lot of tin, which might help the casting, but from your book I recall that if the tin exceeds the antimony content it will re-soften more quickly after water hardening. How much faster does the high tin cause softening to occur? If I drop to 1% tin, will the castability be compromised too much?

Thanks,
Nick

Veral · « **Reply #3 on:** January 23, 2005, 07:48:52 PM »

Hardness will drop to very low in about 2 weeks, I believe. But all the goodines may slow hardness loss, and your alloy will be very ductile with the low antimony content. Since you have the ingredients, make a batch, cast and water drop or heat treat a few bullets. If you lay them in a sunny window where the temperature fluctuates widely and gets quite a bit warmer than room temp, the age softening process will be accelerated dramatically. If hardness holds well for a month or two, you'll have an excellent hunting alloy. Run a batch of bullets and store them, loaded or not, in a deep freeze so the hardness remains most stable. Otherwise, spread your tin a lot thinner. 1% give excellent castability and will give optimum hardness with your 1% antimony content.