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Very Hot Topic (More than 25 Replies) Lead Alloy Calculator (Read 10158 times)
westerner
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Re: Lead Alloy Calculator
Reply #30 - Feb 5th, 2020 at 7:29pm
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If I add one pound tin to twenty pounds lead, do I now have twenty one pounds of 1-20 tin lead alloy?

Is my lead tin alloy calculator calibrated correctly?
  

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Schuetzenmiester
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Re: Lead Alloy Calculator
Reply #31 - Feb 5th, 2020 at 10:05pm
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yup
  

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Re: Lead Alloy Calculator
Reply #32 - Feb 6th, 2020 at 12:20am
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uscra112 wrote on Feb 5th, 2020 at 6:47pm:
He could sort out what is pure lead by measuring hardness.  That puts him well ahead of where he is now.  He doesn't need NIST traceable accuracy, just needs enough precision to tell dead soft from not-dead-soft.  I can certainly do that with the rather crude Cabine Tree tool that I have.  
Only better tool would be one of those test gadgets that scrapyards are said to have. 


I certainly agree with you that using even our rough hardness measuring devices would distinguish pure lead from harder lead alloys, but even much better hardness measuring devices would not identify the additive that resulted in the increased hardness.  For that the processes used in chemistry and metallography labs would be required.

BTW, if an alloy is known to only contain lead and tin, a somewhat simple technique can determine the specific gravity of the alloy, hence the concentrations of lead and tin in the alloy.  If anyone is interested in reading about the process, I wrote an article on it some time ago.  The article link is
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uscra112
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Re: Lead Alloy Calculator
Reply #33 - Feb 6th, 2020 at 3:59am
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OK.  I thought the objective was to sort the lot out, not to analyze each piece for antimony content.
  

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texasmac
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Re: Lead Alloy Calculator
Reply #34 - Feb 6th, 2020 at 11:53am
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uscra112 wrote on Feb 6th, 2020 at 3:59am:
OK.  I thought the objective was to sort the lot out, not to analyze each piece for antimony content.


uscra112,

Due to all the questions and responses, including mine, I'm not sure what the objective of this thread is anymore.  Huh

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JLouis
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Re: Lead Alloy Calculator
Reply #35 - Feb 6th, 2020 at 1:18pm
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Basic Rules for Hardening Lead- 

For every 1% additional tin, Brinell hardness increases 0.3.
For every 1% additional antimony, Brinell hardness increases 0.9.
For a simple equation,
Brinell = 8.60 (Antimonial Lead) + ( 0.29 * Tin ) + ( 0.92 * Antimony )
  

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JLouis
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Re: Lead Alloy Calculator
Reply #36 - Feb 6th, 2020 at 2:23pm
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Vall if you have some pure lead and an extra casting pot blend it 1 to 1 with Linotype and give it a try. Out of the various alloys containing antimony this shot the best in my 32-40 breech seated. It would fall somewhere between Lyman #2 and 1-20 RotoMetals now sells it as Hardball. Lyman#2 is 5% tin 5% antimony 90% lead. 1-1 lead and linotype is 2% tin 6% antimony 92% lead. 1-20 is 5% tin 95% lead. As you may know I use 1-16 and 1-10 also shoots extremely good. So I now wanted to get beyond 1-10 in hardness and that is where antimony comes in to play. That is what prompted my year plus of testing. I was hoping straight linotype would work but at the time my choice of bullets were a bit to much over groove size and I could not seat them. My hope of having straight linotype work was based on the extreme success the CBA Heavy and Production Class competitors were having at the time. I had planned on having a bullet of the correct size made but two things took place. Linotype became damn near impossible to get and if found the price was more than I could afford it more than doubled at that time.
« Last Edit: Feb 6th, 2020 at 3:02pm by JLouis »  

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JS47
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Re: Lead Alloy Calculator
Reply #37 - Feb 7th, 2020 at 9:05pm
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Water drop some bullets out of the alloy you suspect might contain antimony. After a few hours they will be much harder than bullets out of the same alloy that are air cooled. 

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