Ran across 13#...

[CWLONGSHOT]

I was smelting yesterday. But last three times I forgot a bucket of junk mostly sheet lead but some pipe and stick on ww. When all was done... I STILL FORGOT the bucket of stick ons!! GRRR

Anyhow. In that bucket was a plate someone made. It was very flat, 4.5" wide and 1" thick and nearly 16" long. One end was jagged as if cracked off. This shoulda spoken to me but I didnt look twice.

I to the pot it went. After a good thirty minutes the sheet lead was molten the piles too. Some big chunks mostly melted but this plate was standing tall.... It was pretty heavily oxodised and looked like the rest of that soft lead. It was not!! I pulled it and set it aside. As I started next pot I had time and figured I would bend that plate and get more of its surface into the pot. On a angle my buddy whacked it with a 5# hammer and second strike it cracked but did not bend at all!!!! I side was very crystalline!!!



A dozen more sharp strikes and it was into chunks small enough for my 10# LEE specialty pot. I cast one bullet to test and have read. Two hours outta the pot it was a BHN11. FAR FAR from soft/pure lead!!!
As comparison the range scrap read a 6BHN two hours out. (I know it will harden up)

I know its impossible to know Contents based upon a picture. But can anyone speculate?
CW

 

[Ian]

What was the melt point in the Lee pot?

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

What was the melt point in the Lee pot?

I was doing a few things at once... I didnt have a thermo in or pay attention. It was on 6/7 I think. It seemed to melt in time expected. I mean some didnt make it completely to bottom. (10# is small) but more of a almost wedge fit.

 

[Dusty Bannister]

The part that perplexes me is the difference between the edges and the main body of the ingot. It is a bit too dull for linotype. Too fine a grain structure and not reflective enough for Antimony. Not quite like zinc that I have messed with. No mention of a test with a drip of acid to see if it reacts vigerously. No mention of light or heavy for expected size. There is a fellow that does inexpensive XRF scans on another forum.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Thats what throws me!! Outside is different. Its as iff someone took a hard block and covered it in soft stuff!!

The color is how it got in the "soft" bucket! It looks like pure the way its grey and tarnished.
Ill test it later, 24 hours after a d see. Ill bet its a but harder.

CW

 

[JWFilips]

If It were me, I would not mix it with my known lead Send it to scrapers

 

[RicinYakima]

I had six bars of something similar. It was "HIGH SPEED" Babbitt at 90% antimony, 4% tin, 4% copper and 2% lead. Almost broke the lube/sizer on the first bullet. End use was 5% with scrap lead for 45 ACP bullets. Hard enough to feed will in the 1911 soft-ball gun.

 

[Mitty38]

I concure with the Babbitt theory.We used to have Babbitt on the farm for repouring bearings. Re building ball joints and pouring into areas to rub points. It would break off and look exactly like that.
Fixing tractor ball joints and such. Remember " Super Tuff Babbitt " would soften up to a slurry with a rose bud torch, but would not go full water like, liquid, till we put the oxygen to the flame. So at least 850 degrees to go to a full liquid state, but would start releasing the tin at 500 degrees, if you played the flame at that temp too long.
Bet if it did not melt completely all you did was draw off some of the tin.

 

[Mitty38]

If it is Babbitt it will whittle with a knife. Or you can chunk off with a chisel. The chisel mark will look smooth but the break will look exactly like what you are showing.
I am getting ready to order some to refab the king pin joints, hitch assembly bearings, and tie rods on The 32 Silver King tractor.
You don't want it I will take it off you hands, and will not charge you a dime. No hazmat disposal fee, or nothin'. Cause I am such a nice guy.LOL

 

[RicinYakima]

If he doesn't, I may have a bar or two left. Yours for the postage.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

I have some super hard babbit. Was 40 BHN on my tester.
I just tested it again and its up to 13.5 28 hours after casting.

CW

 

[fiver]

antimony chunks will have a very black with silver colored specks/streaks in it appearance.

the melt point is stupid high [like 11-1200-F AIRC] but you can get it to mix in with a lead alloy [at lower 600-625 type temps] if you go slow and keep a wet surface to help it flow into the alloy.
a decent amount of tin in the alloy also helps.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Yes I have some raw antimony. Yes I know I cannot get my stuff hot enough to utilize it.

Tested again this AM.... 20 BHN!!!

Looking like its at least lino!!

 

[mike]

Yes I have some raw antimony. Yes I know I cannot get my stuff hot enough to utilize it.

I posted this on the other site
antimony is dangerous wear rubber gloves respirator and face shield

that said adding antimony is not that hard
I did this on a larger scale than you need to I made ton of alloy at a time

It should work better to add the tin first but I didn't want the tin separating during the process
you need to build a small weighted basket to submerge the antimony I have deep fryer baskets
with steel pipe welded on with steel bars inside the pipe for weight
I break it up into around 1/2 to 1inch chunks

you could use fine wire mesh and wire it to a steel bar
when I was testing fluxes that's what I did

The most important thing is to coat the chunks with a flux
I dissolve citric acid in warm water as much as it will take
once dissolved I have mixed with alcohol to dry faster
put in spray bottle spray chunks until wet
you could use all alcohol it just takes a lot longer to dissolve the citric acid

Instead of spraying them you could just dip them in the flux with the amount you are doing

put the fines and real small pieces in a small pan I used a ingot mold and get them wet
the flux is sticky when dry and will hold them together make sure these are dry
I put them in my big coating oven for a hour or so at 150f

I coat them a few days ahead to let dry and for the acid flux to eat on the antimony
if they don't seem too sticky I will spray them again

submerge basket in lead I will agitate /move the basket around in the lead it will bubble fairly strongly at first
this helps the antimony dissolve and the bubbles help lift trapped solids out of the lead
if you pull the basket up you will see the lead had "tinned" the antimony that's what makes it work
each basket has about 15lbs in it takes 10-20 min to dissolve at 650-700 deg

this was about a 2000lb pour with range lead that I added 4% antimony and some tin

XRF testing per BNE
First Sample - Range Lead
Pb = 98.3%
Sb = 1.6%
Sn = 0.0 - Trace%

Range Lead with Sn and Sb added:
Pb = 93.12%
Sb = 5.65%
Sn = 1.2%
Cu = 0.03% (This is believable and consistent with other samples from range scrap.)

had to mix a few hundred lbs from a different batch of range lead that's where the Cu came from

mike

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Tested again last night and its STILL RAISING!! It was 22 BHN!!
CW