Weirdest thing you have cast with
- Thread starter bruce381
- Start date
JonB
Halcyon member
I got into casting at the tail end of the easy WW scrounging. I did get a bunch, maybe a ton. Most of them I had to buy using cash money, 25¢ to 50¢ a lb. But I did get some for free or swap for ammo. One friend swapped two handmade coffee can boat anchors (60 lbs each) that his neighbor poured in the 1960s with COWW, swapped for 500 cast/lubed/sized SWC 41cal (btw, that old alloy hardness was 12, same as WWs I scrounged in 2010.) I quit collecting WWs when the percentage of zinkers grew to over 10% and the price in creased to over 50¢ (both happened at same time).
Then I made some purchases of ingotized WW by some trustworthy local casters for $1 lb.
Most of the alloy I get now is range scrap or near pure from random sources.
Rockydoc
Well-Known Member
I got started into casting bullets at the tail end of Linotype printing and the beginning of offset printing.
I got Linotype cheap. I didn't realize the blessing I had. Linotype forgives a lot of casting ignorance and errors. I cast everything in Linotype.
That didn't last, If I had only known. I was self taught, so not so very well. I wasn't aware of sites like this, they probably didn't exist back then. I didn't know of any other person who cast their own bullets back then.
I got Linotype cheap. I didn't realize the blessing I had. Linotype forgives a lot of casting ignorance and errors. I cast everything in Linotype.
That didn't last, If I had only known. I was self taught, so not so very well. I wasn't aware of sites like this, they probably didn't exist back then. I didn't know of any other person who cast their own bullets back then.
L Ross
Well-Known Member
I also got into casting as the print industry was changing. I was walking a beat at the time and as the beat cop I got to know business people. I have hardly used any of my stash over the decades but it is a comforting feeling to know it is there.
Mitty38
Well-Known Member
I Give my contaminated lead to a fellow who makes and sells large sinkers.
Gave him some diving weights I had found in a junk car.
They just looked and sounded wrong when clanked, after I got them home, tried to melt one into smaller lee 1/2 lb ingots, they were all wrinkly and it took about 700 degrees and a half hour to get them to melt. Plus they were full of dirt.
He resold them as diving weights. The nasty looking ingots made, are still around somewhere, If I have not given them to the sinker guy.
Gave him some diving weights I had found in a junk car.
They just looked and sounded wrong when clanked, after I got them home, tried to melt one into smaller lee 1/2 lb ingots, they were all wrinkly and it took about 700 degrees and a half hour to get them to melt. Plus they were full of dirt.
He resold them as diving weights. The nasty looking ingots made, are still around somewhere, If I have not given them to the sinker guy.
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fiver
Well-Known Member
my biggest competitior for ww's back in the day was a guy making diving weights somewhere in oregon.
he was driving up and down I-15 hitting any shop near the freeway.
i learned to not bother with the fight, it was easy enough for me to drive on the east and west sides of the valley.
eventually the FIL would go once a month hitting the places i had locked in plus a few he had worked up.
i remember one day him telling me he gave a place 5$ for a bucket full, and i was pretty upset about it.
he was driving up and down I-15 hitting any shop near the freeway.
i learned to not bother with the fight, it was easy enough for me to drive on the east and west sides of the valley.
eventually the FIL would go once a month hitting the places i had locked in plus a few he had worked up.
i remember one day him telling me he gave a place 5$ for a bucket full, and i was pretty upset about it.
Ian
Notorious member
I have grabbed two different batches, one from an animal shelter fundraiser and one small bucket full from a garage sale. They all had some zink in them according to the acid test and clinked wrong like Emmett said. I used them here and there for weights and ballast, even ratchet-strapped several to the housing of one of our AC units to keep the panel from vibrating. A pair of two-pounders keeps the wind from banging my casting vent flap that exhausts through the wall under an eave.
Before retiring I fixed forklifts for 40 years. Many were battery powered. Industrial batteries have intercell connectors on top that are very similar to WW's. They are good lead, not immersed in aid, no cadmium. I gave one of our battery vendors $75 once for 2500 lbs of them. He wanted beer money. After 25 years I still have some left.
Still scrounged WW's and other lead as I found it.
Went to our radiator repair shop one day and they were cleaning the bottom of the tanks of used solder. Got 75 lbs of 50/50 just for hauling it away.
Don
Still scrounged WW's and other lead as I found it.
Went to our radiator repair shop one day and they were cleaning the bottom of the tanks of used solder. Got 75 lbs of 50/50 just for hauling it away.
Don
richhodg66
Well-Known Member
I have not melted them down yet, but many years ago, on Fort Sill and later on a part of Fort Riley, I found a bunch of lead balls about a half inch in diameter which were from a canister round they used to have for the 155s which was designed for last ditch battery defense (it isn't in the inventory now, I was an artilleryman for 24 years) Dad told me they had them when he was in.
They're obviously some kind of lead alloy, but very, very hard. Been meaning to send a sample off to BNE on castboolits for an analysis of what they are, just haven't done it yet.
They're obviously some kind of lead alloy, but very, very hard. Been meaning to send a sample off to BNE on castboolits for an analysis of what they are, just haven't done it yet.
richhodg66
Well-Known Member
Another story, Youngest son when he was about 19 went camping with some buddies over at Kanapolis and, of course, the old junker Ford Taurus he was driving died. Just far enough away to be a major inconvenience for his folks, and, of course, on a Sunday afternoon when I had to be it at work early the next morning.
Nearest shop was in Salina and the only one who'd answer the phone and two it happenned to be a radiator repair shop. All the symptoms #2 son told me about what was happening indicated a blown head gasket or worse and the shop guy agreed, so I decided pretty fast it wasn't worth paying to fix and he made a salvage offer to me for the car. I said I'll take it along with any solder drippings he had around. He seemed kinda puzzled, so I explained. We went to pick up the last odds and ends from the car and he gave me the cash and a box of solder drippings I still have, should be pretty tin rich, but I have a lot of tin already.
Nearest shop was in Salina and the only one who'd answer the phone and two it happenned to be a radiator repair shop. All the symptoms #2 son told me about what was happening indicated a blown head gasket or worse and the shop guy agreed, so I decided pretty fast it wasn't worth paying to fix and he made a salvage offer to me for the car. I said I'll take it along with any solder drippings he had around. He seemed kinda puzzled, so I explained. We went to pick up the last odds and ends from the car and he gave me the cash and a box of solder drippings I still have, should be pretty tin rich, but I have a lot of tin already.
richhodg66
Well-Known Member
Wouldn't dive weights be worth more to a diver than they would be as scrap lead? That's an expensive hobby and I would think one could get more than the lead value for them.
Dusty Bannister
Well-Known Member
Yes, dive weights can be a bit expensive. Last time I checked, Maui, HI, it was about $4.00 a pound. I have not bothered to check lately. I have two of the open molds and that is where the contaminated metal is used. I send a box of weights to extended family there every year or so. The hope is, when a diver gets in trouble, they drop the belt and come up. Dropping $50.00 bucks on the ocean floor is not want what to do. This makes the decision easy, dump the weights, I can make more.