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358156hp
Guest
I think this alloy has run it's course. It's time for damage control now. BTW, this alloy is only running about 12 bhn when tested as soon as they're cool enough to test. I cast a handful of 45s and tested them. Tomorrows a busy day, so I may not get anything done until evening.
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358156hp
Guest
There's a guy on Auction Arms who has a single ingot of lead, cast in a Lyman ingot mould he has listed for $20.00 as a "Vintage" bar of Lyman bullet casting alloy. I'm hoping he only has it listed for laughs. it's been listed for ages.
fiver
Well-Known Member
I remember something called 'white metal' it melts at a fairly low temperature and is used to make that trinket jewelry you see at the county fairs and such. [and other items too]
it acts like tin when you melt it on it's own but is a weird substance when mixed with lead.
and it don't take much to really mess with things.
it escapes my memory as to what it really is though.
it acts like tin when you melt it on it's own but is a weird substance when mixed with lead.
and it don't take much to really mess with things.
it escapes my memory as to what it really is though.
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358156hp
Guest
I've changed my mind, and am going to try a couple more experiments with this alloy before pulling the plug. I do know it gets fragile at higher temps, so I'm going to run it to 750 again, and cast some non hollowpoint bullets, so the mould heats more evenly. The hollowpoint pins of course throw a bit of a wild card into play under certain circumstances. Anyway, I'll change the pins and water drop some samples when I'm satisfied that the mould is evenly heated. This will likely involved cooling the sprues before cutting, no big deal. At that point I'll water drop, and test for hardness after 24 hours. Then I'll test them with my patented hand-held bullet impact integrity testing tool (big hammer), and see if the alloy is fragile after making the changes. If it fractures or fragments, it's over.
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3
358156hp
Guest
Although I haven't been able to eliminate the alloy shrinkage, I can minimize it enough to make the alloy usable. I dropped the heat and cast really fast, cooling the sprue with my trusty wet sponge. Resulting bullets are a little harder with this method, but not brittle so it should be okay. We're now at 15 bhn for 357 mag bullets, which will have to work. I'm baffled by the hardness change too, since all I did was jack with the temps and flux the dickens out of it.
3
358156hp
Guest
I cast some SAECO 382s out of this alloy, after I got it fluxed enough to settle down a bit. It is coming out at 15 bhn, and after getting used to it, I have to say that it is likely tin precipitation. I did cast up a mess of nice bullets, but it's a terrible waste of tin, so I now return to my original plan of cutting it 50/50 with soft lead. This would make a really great hollowpoint alloy if I soften it up a few points. As is, it's just another adequate general purpose alloy. It water dropped to BHN 22 (sounds familiar), but I hate wasting what seems obviously to be a surplus of tin. It did pass the patented hand-held bullet impact integrity testing with flying colors.
I feel that 15 bhn is perhaps a little hard for 357 mag hollowpoints at about 1300 fps for deer. what do you think? Opinions are welcomed.
I feel that 15 bhn is perhaps a little hard for 357 mag hollowpoints at about 1300 fps for deer. what do you think? Opinions are welcomed.
3
358156hp
Guest
I cast about 15 lbs of SAECO 382s, then looked at everything as couldn't help but think it was such a waste of tin.
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358156hp
Guest
The bright, almost white hue of the alloy should have tipped me off, but I was looking for contamination, not overindulgence. Reduced 50/50 with soft lead, much of the shrinkage has disappeared, the hardened alloy still appears a bit grainy, and it's still not actually silver again. I'm going to cast a few test bullets and test the hardness as air cooled, and water cooled. I'll impact test a few to be thorough, but I do not expect any issues with brittleness.
If anything needs to be added, it'll likely need a bit more soft lead.
If anything needs to be added, it'll likely need a bit more soft lead.
3
358156hp
Guest
Yes you did. My lesdyxia kicked in and I did it backwards. Well. Anyway, the resulting alloy cut 50/50 with soft lead resulted in some nicely formed 358156 Lymans that are averaging around 11.5 to 12.0 air cooled. I started water dropping bullets as soon as I got uniform frosting of the casts. I won't know how receptive they are to heat-treating until Thursday afternoon. I tested one straight out of the water and it was at 13.5, so I'm encouraged. This would have been about an hour after casting. I'll probably do a formal oven heat-treating after that.
3
358156hp
Guest
18 bhn average for the ten waterdropped samples I tested. Really, this is probably everything I need. Mistakes and all, this has been a really interesting project.
So as to not repeat earlier mistakes, I reviewed Ricks article on heat-treatment to make sure I wasn't missing anything, and I sure enough was. I won't be heat-treating this batch in the oven, simply because the only oven I have immediate access to is the main house oven. Upon review of Ricks article, I don't believe that my oven will retain constant levels of heat, at least not enough to get me repeatable results, so I'll wait until I can use a smaller convection oven, and I will control that with my PID. Then I feel I'll have the accurate, repeatable results I need.
So as to not repeat earlier mistakes, I reviewed Ricks article on heat-treatment to make sure I wasn't missing anything, and I sure enough was. I won't be heat-treating this batch in the oven, simply because the only oven I have immediate access to is the main house oven. Upon review of Ricks article, I don't believe that my oven will retain constant levels of heat, at least not enough to get me repeatable results, so I'll wait until I can use a smaller convection oven, and I will control that with my PID. Then I feel I'll have the accurate, repeatable results I need.
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