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Offline c_latrans

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Linotype question??
« on: March 21, 2005, 02:34:26 PM »
What is linotype and what is it used for other than bullets?
What is it worth?
Ad in the local paper lists 425 pounds of linotype for sale at $1 per pound.
All I've cast with so far is wheelweights.
Thanks Dale
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Offline jhalcott

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Linotype question??
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2005, 03:08:59 PM »
linotype is 84% lead, 4% TIN, 12% antimony when new!It was /is used in the printing industry.$1 a pound is a little high for this area but linotype is getting scarce due to changes in the print industry.Wheel weights SHOULD be 95.5 lead,0.5 tin,4 antimony but are anything that can be melted. Lino has a Brinnel hardness of 22,wheelweights are softer at around 9. Lino makes some really hard bullets Wheel weights can be heat treated to above 25 BHN. You can mix 4# lino,1#50/50 solder and 5# pure lead to get 10 # lyman number 2 alloy that has a BHN of about 15
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Offline calvon

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Linotype question??
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2005, 02:04:31 AM »
Linotype is a eutectic alloy. What is eutectic? Well, pure lead has a melting point. Tin also has one. Ditto antimony. Each is different. But when the three are mixed together in exactly the amounts used in Linotype, the resulting mixture (alloy) has a single melting point. It also means that it freezes at one temperature. This one-point-melt-and-freeze feature makes it desirable for casting into precise shapes such as the letters that are used to print things. And for bullets.
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Offline Kenneth L. Walters

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Eutectic
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2005, 02:36:31 PM »
Linotype being a eutectic has one other important feature.  If you heat a furnace full of what you think is linotype and pull the plug, if it is linotype it will change from a liquid to a solid at ONE temperature.  So if you get a batch of linotype that you have some doubt about, you can confirm that it is linotype.  Once had a guy sell me several hundred pounds of what he claimed was linotype.  It wasn't.
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Offline buck1

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Re: Eutectic
« Reply #4 on: March 26, 2005, 05:53:50 PM »
Quote from: Kenneth L. Walters
Linotype being a eutectic has one other important feature.  If you heat a furnace full of what you think is linotype and pull the plug, if it is linotype it will change from a liquid to a solid at ONE temperature.  So if you get a batch of linotype that you have some doubt about, you can confirm that it is linotype.  Once had a guy sell me several hundred pounds of what he claimed was linotype.  It wasn't.


Thats something I didnt know ! thanks. ....buck
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Offline Kenneth L. Walters

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Linotype
« Reply #5 on: March 26, 2005, 06:02:20 PM »
Decades ago I got an article in the Loading Bench of the American Rifleman based on that idea.  Alas it was edited so extensively that I didn't even recognize it when it was printed.
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Offline Cat Whisperer

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Linotype question??
« Reply #6 on: March 27, 2005, 03:13:14 PM »
Quote from: calvon
Linotype is a eutectic alloy. What is eutectic? Well, pure lead has a melting point. Tin also has one. Ditto antimony. Each is different. But when the three are mixed together in exactly the amounts used in Linotype, the resulting mixture (alloy) has a single melting point. It also means that it freezes at one temperature. This one-point-melt-and-freeze feature makes it desirable for casting into precise shapes such as the letters that are used to print things. And for bullets.


ALSO:  LOOK AT THE DEFINITION OF THE WORD EUTECTIC:

Main Entry: eu·tec·tic
Pronunciation: yu-'tek-tik
Function: adjective
Etymology: Greek eutEktos easily melted, from eu- + tEktos melted, from tEkein to melt -- more at THAW
1 of an alloy or solution : having the lowest melting point possible
2 : of or relating to a eutectic alloy or solution or its melting or freezing point
- eutectic noun
- eu·tec·toid  /-"toid/ adjective or noun
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Offline sundogg1911

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Linotype question??
« Reply #7 on: June 16, 2005, 10:30:28 AM »
a fishing shop traded me 400 lbs. of lino for 100 lbs. of plumers lead! :-D
He was happy with the trade. (not as happy as me i'm thinkin') He had too much trouble makin' jigheads with the linotype. I'm here to help! :-D
i've used it with some wheel weight alloy to make some fine 30 - 30 hunting bullets.
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Offline Mikey

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Linotype question??
« Reply #8 on: June 16, 2005, 12:02:59 PM »
sundogg - you sure got the better part of that deal.  Care to introduce me to that feller (lol)???  

A number of yers ago I was developing a wildcat 40 cal pistol cartridge and happened upon a print shop nearby that was selling off (giving away) its old linotype print.  I think I picked up three 5 gallon buckets worth and gave them to a fella who was casting out some 40 cal bullets for me.

He gave me 2k hardcast slugs from a RCBS 40170 (?) mold that dropped proper #2 alloy at 170 gn (proper weight for that swc slug).  Wheelweight dropped them at 180-185 gn, but the lino dropped them at 165 grains and they were hard, lemme tellya.

I used those slugs for metallic silhouette and they were very accurate.  I also used them to take a number of whitetail and two black bear over the years and was never able to recover a one.  Square hole in and square hole out.  They perfromed just as well on those critters as some hardcast Beartooth Bullets performed on Elk and Russian Boar - square hole in and a square hole out.  

I sure hope you get a lot of good years of successful hunting with those lino-flavored slugs outta your 30-30.  Mikey.
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