Buying bullet alloy??

[Mitty38]

As long as it works for you. Just use what you got. That was the point of making my video.
Not sure how much you are blending but.
If you only have 20 lb capacity then melt 15 or 20 lb at a time. Mark them batch a, b, c. Or pipe, sheet, lino. Whatever.
Then use the ingots to blend yourself a nice consistent 20 lb batch. Ingot per ingot.
Then another. Batch the same.
Then blend the two resulting batches 1 lb ingot to 1 lb ingot,together. Till you get a nice 40 lb batch.
40 lb, like some one else said will make a lot of bullets especially for 1 rifle.
And it will be repeatable with the leftover lead that you still have marked Lino, pipe, plate ect.
Plus you get a lot of fluxing and so forth going on and end up with a very clean alloy.
Any how. What I am trying to get across, is don't stress so much, use what you got.
However you are able to do it. Then see what you got and work from there. Enjoy the process. It's only metal. It can be blended or changed over and over. Added to subtracted from, blended down etc.
It won't spoil. You can't ruin it, only change it's properties, which can easily be changed again.
Have fun with it .

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

I gt range scrap locally. I pick up pure locally as well. My issue is hard stuff. Ill buy lino @ lino costs if in pigs I recognize. But anything else not from trusted supplier I wont pay top coin. So my choice is super hard from rotometals. 5# bars usually 10/12 @ a time.

Im getting low. I secured some pigs some time back and am down to my last. I broke it into three and melted it down in my 20# Lyman pot and made 1# ingots today. Then my last three 5# bars of super hard was melted and made into 1/2# lee bars.

So 32 1/2# bars of SH and 19 1# bars of lino made today.

When Im able and can get a hand. I have 4 pails of RS and a pile of scrap dead soft to smelt down.

CW

 

[johnnyjr]

Interesting. I don't need that much for what I cast for. It's to damn go to do any shooting anyway. Must be 40 mph wind and 28 degrees out there.

 

[fiver]

i worked enough alloy to make about 250-K 200gr bullets into one big all the same batch by simply putting one of these one of those one of them into the pot and working it out the other side. [some in,, some out]
once i got it run through i took half the front and half the back and run them through again, then piled everything in a big pile.
i didn't do it all at once, but it got me where i wanted to be.

 

[Mitty38]

Interesting. I don't need that much for what I cast for. It's to damn go to do any shooting anyway. Must be 40 mph wind and 28 degrees out there.

How much do you think you need.
A fellow might just be willing to come off of 20 or so of close to Hardball, home made mix. 3%tin/5%antimony/92%lead.
Passing it forward.

 

[johnnyjr]

I've got enough for now. Probably close to a hundred lbs. Maybe a little more. There are no wheels weights available in this heck town. And the local scrap man refuses to sell anything. I have access to range scrap if I wanted to dig it out. But not until it gets warmer..

 

[JonB]

Biggest I have is 20 lb cast iron pot. I use a small propane burner.

You can get most any size stainless steel soup pot at a thrift store for a couple bucks, I just I mentioned what I do to give you an idea.

 

[johnnyjr]

It is a great idea. I might check it out tomorrow. Thanks th

 

[Mitty38]

We have went almost all zinc wheel weights around here.
Lead COWW are about as rare as hens teeth.
However I have acquired a bit of a stash,melted down, fluxed and in ingot.
Enough for what I need. Having only one bullet I cast with it. For the next 15years or so.
Pistol is pretty much range scrap. Mixed with 20/1.And I only load for 2 rifles now.

 

[KeithB]

Awhile back I was selling some aluminum scrap to a local dealer and noticed several large boxes on skids filled with sheet lead. Over 2000 pounds of roof sheathing and guttering from an old building. Almost pure lead. I got it for $0.75/pound. They didn't want to sell it to me, It was just about the time they were taking lead out of wheel weights and starting to focus attention on lead in general. Luckily I had a pocketful of business cards, I explained I wasn't a private citizen but a licensed Indiana business that worked with metal, that clinched the deal, I got it all for wholesale +$0.10/lb more.

I traded 50 pounds of it for 50 pounds of linotype from a guy on the other site that shot muzzle loaders and needed the pure, I needed something to harden up my alloy, win/win.

Might want to spend a few dollars for some simple business cards,` make sure they say "Artisans in metal" or have some similar phrase on it.

 

[Mitty38]

One of my local scrapers will not part with it. But another local scraper will sell it for cash, at scrap +25%.
Last time I got plate from him, it cost me a buck a pound.
As long as he making more money then he paid, he does not care who buys it. Or how much.
Especially if it's bought In cash.
Never hurts to ask, and always good to ask in person, while you are doing other business with them.