Best lead for casting ball?

[Beaverman2]

So much misinformation regarding wheel weights and sailboat ballast.

I'll never understand the desire for people to steer others away from a free and highly usable material.

Soft lead is soft lead.

Whether it comes from Roto-Metals, a sailboat or the wheels of a '63 Beetle.

AMEN!

 

[steg49]

I just bought over 100 lbs. of lead for $10. I did the pencil test starting with the 6B and worked all the way to HB before it scratched the surface. the lead I purchased will work fine for casting cowboy action bullets for cartridge guns but is to hard for muzzleloaders. steg49

 

[45man]

Invest in a hardness tester. I think Lee has one reasonable. I have the LBT one and it is worth it's weight in gold. You can remove a lot of junk from lead if you heat it to just 600 degrees, no more, and skim it without fluxing.
I have scrounged lead all my life and have maybe a few tons of pure. I was given a pickup truck load of cable sheathing once when the phone company dug up lines.

 

[64Springer]

622...

650 is a good target.

Zinc melts at 787.

And why it's perfectly safe to have them in your pot of raw wheel weights.

 

[deerstalkert]

i am amazed at how protective people are of their ideas on such a simple subject as lead and its alloy's.

 

[BP Addict]

I've been fortunate enough to have acquired scrap lead sheeting from remodeled X-Ray rooms, TWICE! I probably have at least 150 pounds right now.

I would assume that diving, fishing, and wheel weights have something in them to make them harder and more durable.

Walt

 

[pwbsmokey]

Another pure lead is plumbers lead. I used to buy it for $20 for 50 lbs

Or reclaimed from poured cast iron pipe joints

 

[OldRust]

I should probably state the reason for my soft lead for ML’s only opinion-reason.
Nothing from a study or even printed data. Years ago I broke a loading lever on a 1858 Remington from too hard of a roundball. Ever since I only use soft lead for ML’s. Kinda like only peeing over the electric fence one time when your brothers dare you too. You only do it once. Well the smart kids only did it once

Thanks,
O.R.

 

[64Springer]

I should probably state the reason for my soft lead for ML’s only opinion-reason.
Nothing from a study or even printed data. Years ago I broke a loading lever on a 1858 Remington from too hard of a roundball. Ever since I only use soft lead for ML’s. Kinda like only peeing over the electric fence one time when your brothers dare you too. You only do it once. Well the smart kids only did it once

Thanks,
O.R.

And there are those of us who will continuously pee on an electric fence to find its weakness.

Every design has a chink in it somewhere.

 

[deerstalkert]

I should probably state the reason for my soft lead for ML’s only opinion-reason.
Nothing from a study or even printed data. Years ago I broke a loading lever on a 1858 Remington from too hard of a roundball. Ever since I only use soft lead for ML’s. Kinda like only peeing over the electric fence one time when your brothers dare you too. You only do it once. Well the smart kids only did it once

Thanks,
O.R.

 

[OldRust]

View attachment 232932

I would like to say I was one of the smart kids.

But I can’t

Thanks,
O.R.

 

[Lippy984]

Agreed. My collection is old but I got to the point where I use my smallest pot.

I got to the point where i would start with the roofing lead and then add a specific amount of pewter or just tin.

Now for muzzloaders, pure lead is the ticket best I can recon.

What do you use for pewter and tin? And how do you know how much to use?

 

[64Springer]

What do you use for pewter and tin? And how do you know how much to use?

Pewter is 96-98 percent tin. Melt it down and you have tin. Pour 2-3 ounces into muffin pans and you have little tin ingots.

You can buy pounds and pounds of pewter at thrifts stores for just a few bucks. Instead of 30/40 bucks for a pound of pure Tin delivered.

Tin is used for mold fill-out. To define bands, bottoms, etc. And regardless of what people say, it adds very little hardness to a lead mix. As Tin is about a 7 BHN. That's only 2 BHN above pure lead.

Up to 3% of the total lead in the pot is all you need.


Pewter ware that doesn't say Pewter on the bottom of the Pewter stays on the shelf.

No guessing when it comes to Pewter.

 

[Wheelman]

A friend gave me a spool of tin wire. Not sure what its original purpose was. I didn't use much of that.

Pewter was from mugs and plates that were sold as collectable items but were just decorations that people used on the wall or on a shelf.

Thrift shops or in my case, my moms basement. I still have some around here somewhere.

We used to drop the boolits in ice water to make them harder. Not sure that is called for will casting balls for these guns.

Regular bucket of water should be fine.

 

[64Springer]

Ummm.....It's bullets.

Not boolits.

The use of Boolits for Bullets is worse than Run for Use and Running for Using.

 

[Wheelman]

I had no idea.

 

[MSW]

my experience with wheel weight has be mixed at best ... if you can score some, remember that it may well be alloyed with aluminum, so watch that it's soft ... i have never been able to find dive weights, but i understand that they're usually pure lead or close to it.

i would avoid battery lead because it contains God-knows-what and if often full of dangerous other metals ... just one guy's opinion ...
i have used range lead, which is usually soft enough for roundball, although you will need to remelt it and get rid of the dirt and miscellaneous funk.

when you cast, do so out doors, and if there's a breeze, you want it blowing the fumes away from you. wear a long sleeved shirt, long pants and closed toed shoes or boots... get yourself some heavy leather gloves as well. You should also wear a hat or a bandana to keep any sweat from accidentally dripping into the melted lead ... it will splash over and splatter and you don't want molten lead on you.

best of luck!

 

[Capt. Kirk]

Slightly off topic, but I highly recommend building a bullet trap so you can recycle your lead as much as possible. Kinda handy not having to constantly scrounge. Just have different color catch buckets for pure and hard.

 

[deerstalkert]

Pewter is 96-98 percent tin. Melt it down and you have tin. Pour 2-3 ounces into muffin pans and you have little tin ingots.

You can buy pounds and pounds of pewter at thrifts stores for just a few bucks. Instead of 30/40 bucks for a pound of pure Tin delivered.

Tin is used for mold fill-out. To define bands, bottoms, etc. And regardless of what people say, it adds very little hardness to a lead mix. As Tin is about a 7 BHN. That's only 2 BHN above pure lead.

Up to 3% of the total lead in the pot is all you need.


Pewter ware that doesn't say Pewter on the bottom of the Pewter stays on the shelf.

No guessing when it comes to Pewter.

dag nab it springer! you told our secret!!! my poured nose caps etc. are all thrift store salvage!

 

[deerstalkert]

Ummm.....It's bullets.

Not boolits.

The use of Boolits for Bullets is worse than Run for Use and Running for Using.

took me a second or two to get that run for use. then my gorge started and i realized what it meant.
i detest those. only running i do is from house chores. i use my guns and run my car.