I just finished melting, skimming and pouring into one pound molds, fifty-eight pounds of lead that was given to me. It was mostly lead that had been wrapped around a pipe or something. It looked like insulation that you remove from a wire. There was a piece of a flat sheet of lead, and other pieces that looked suspiciously like Remington uses to make corelock bullets. Up until now I have just used wheel weights to make bullets for my .44 special and a .38 special. I don't know what to add, if anything for my purpose. If I go to powder coating can I use softer bullets? I still have quite a bit of wheel weight lead, so no hurry to use this new batch. Thanks for any help that you can give a relative newbie to bullet casting. miles
Good question. I have 260lbs of raw lead myself. Currently only casting for muzzleloader, but hope to change that in time. No idea on the needs of other bullets.
Miles, scrounge up some junk pewter and melt into the same size ingots. Then blend 15 of the soft with 1 of the pewter. That will give you a great alloy for even rifle to about 1800 fps. Yes you can get by with softer bullets powder coated. Most folks use boolits that are too hard and too small for their bores. Hard lube is not your friend either
Your plumbing lead is probably soft and powder coating will let you use softer alloys. Or you can mix the soft lead with your wheel weights anywhere from 3 to 1 to 50-50.
You can use softer alloy with powder coating, but too soft is still too soft, and best accuracy still happens around 10 Bhn in most cases for pistols. For example, none of my pistols shoot a 50/50 mix of pure and WW lead as well as straight WW (clip on), even though there is never any leading either way with the powder coating. It doesn't hurt to experiment though, you might try mixing some of that plumbing lead with your wheel weights and see how it does in your guns. If you're powder coating, judge the alloy by the accuracy, not just by the lack of leading.
I'd guess that plumbing lead is probably close to pure and very soft. The suggestion to mix it with pewter is a good one, or one of the type metals (mono, lino, etc) if you can find any. You could also mix it about 2-1 with commercial cast bullets (92-6-2 alloy) if you have some that aren't the size you want.
Your plumbing lead is basically pure lead, and will work for lighter loads, what most consider target loads, under 800fps, but is not ideal. For best results you would want to add some antimony and tin to what you have.
It doesn't have to be too hard...you can mix it 50/50 with wheel weights and be in the ballpark, or better 2 parts wheelweights to 1 part lead.
I powder coat, but that alloy won't lead if conventionally lubed as long as they are sized correctly for your firearm.
I keep some pure lead around for black powder, and various lead alloys in ingots and blend in the pot.
Having some pure lead around is handy for black powder or to alloy with lead that is too hard.
Wheelweights are not all created equal. Most made for use today are not even lead. There is also a big difference between stick-on wheel weights (near pure lead and therefore very soft) and clip-on lead weights which can, with the addition of about 1-2 percent tin, yield bullets with a BHN of 14-16 when bullets are air cooled and in the low 20's when water dropped. Veral Smith of LBT molds once told me to add about 10% hard shot when water dropping to get best results ... something about arsenic in the shot. It seems to work out well as a recent batch of 300 grain .45 Colt bullets I recently cast using a combination of 88% clip-on weights, 2% tin and 10% shot by weight results in a BHN of 22 when water dropped and 15 when air cooled. Adding tin does not add hardness so much as it contributes to much better fill-out into the nooks and crannies of your mold.
Remember bullet fit and lubricant is much more important than bullet hardness in avoiding leading and is critical to producing good accuracy.
This, add some super hard to the mix.
I've mixed clip on wheel weights to pure lead 50/50 and it makes a good alloy for handgun use for 38 sp, 9mm, 45 acp and milder loads in the magnums. 5 pounds of superhard and a pound of tin would make for a very nice casting and shooting alloy for your specials.
Miles,
Don't buy any pewter or tin, I have about 8# of pewter ingots. I'll bring you some when we get together.
Ed
My clip on wheel weights register about 11.5 Brn. Pure lead about 6 Brn. Pure lead works great for cowboy loads where velocity is kept to 600fps . Straight WW are good for up to about 1200 to 1400fps depending on your revolver/rifle & it's depth of rifling. Here is a formula for determining hardness needed foe a specific velocity. "1422 X Brn# = PSI." Example a Brn of 11.5 (WW) X 1422=16,353 PSI. So a bullet made from this alloy would be good for up to 16,353 PSI. Check your loading manual for psi. Other than that it is trial & error until you find a load that works in your firearm. Above about 1600fps a gas check helps. My straight clip on WW bullets when dropped from the hot mold directly into a bucket of cold water & allowed to finish harden over 8 or so days will end up Brn 21 to 22 . WW contain a trace of arsenic which allows this hardening to take place.It brings the antimony in the lead to the surface. Brn 22 is way to hard for your 38 loads but good for rifle loads in the 1800 to 2000fps range. Again depending on the rifling depth in your rifle. If you mix 50/50 clip on WW with pure lead you will come up with a Brn of about 8 to 9. This should be a good alloy for 38 Spl loads up to about 1000fps. If you decide to go deeper into bullet casting I highly recommend you purchase a hardness tester. I have two ,but the model I have from LBT ( Lead Bullet technology ) is my favorite as it allows you to test ingots or individual bullets.. Another helpful hint. When mixing your two alloys together they will need to be fluxed. . Using fat melted of your last big game animal or "UNSALTED" lard from the market works as good as any commercial flux you can buy. Also recommend LBT "SOFT" blue lube. .Hope this has been helpful.
*Bhn
Brinell Hardness Number