What is the right way?.....

[Rick]

I have about 500 pounds of very carefully sorted CWW in 5 pound ingots and about 400 pounds of very carefully sorted SWW also in 5 pound ingots. All the ingots are marked CWW or SWW. My Magma pot has the CWW in it and when I add ingots I weigh them on a digital postal scale and weigh out 2% pure bar tin. My RCBS pot has the SWW in it and it's the same drill, when I add ingots I weigh them and add 2% Sn. I also have a fair supply of Roto Metals Super hard should I want to experiment with various alloys and Sb percentages but I don't seem to get into much of that anymore. The two WW alloys cover about everything I do these days.

 

[RicinYakima]

Kevin, I empty my pot into ingots at the end of every session. Usually I can remember what they are the next day rolleyes when they are cooled and mark them with a Sharpie. Usually they are stacked in sections; linotype, WW's, 1/40 and pistol. The pistol is a constant evolving mix of dabs of this and that, but mostly 1990's WW's/tin and rejected other bullets. Each ingot goes to the Cabin Tree and is marked with Bhn, almost always 14 or 15.

 

[fiver]

I use a little different tact.
it took a lot of work but all of my ww/tin and soft alloy mix [about 3,000 lbs of it] has been blended and re-blended into one big batch of alloy.
I will mix that batch to suit various needs into smaller batches as needed.[like 8 to1 for 9mm bullets]
I pre mix the 4/6 alloy and keep it separate in buckets with a slip of paper inside.
those both get used in separate pots.
I have a third and fourth pot for other things, one see's a different alloy for muzzle loader and swaging core alloy.
I almost never empty a pot or even lower it down much.

 

[Rally Hess]

I have all my lead in ingots. All are marked with a lg marker. I have mono,coww, and soww. I keep any bar solder, solder, or Lino separate. I blend my alloys in my pots as I cast. Most everything I cast is blended to be a hunting bullet. Other than for load development, I rarely shoot targets once i’ve Developed a load for a certain rifle, pistol, or shotgun. Practice for me is usually offhand in a gravel pit at various ranges, or various wood scraps in a slash.
For pistol with dp’s i’m Using 50/50 coww/soww with 2% tin added. My rifle alloy is 75% coww, 25% mono. With enough tin added to get to 2%. Seems to work pretty well for what I do. Always interested in what works for other folks, and how they got there

 

[Rick]

I use a little different tact.
it took a lot of work but all of my ww/tin and soft alloy mix [about 3,000 lbs of it] has been blended and re-blended into one big batch of alloy.
I will mix that batch to suit various needs into smaller batches as needed.[like 8 to1 for 9mm bullets]
I pre mix the 4/6 alloy and keep it separate in buckets with a slip of paper inside.
those both get used in separate pots.
I have a third and fourth pot for other things, one see's a different alloy for muzzle loader and swaging core alloy.
I almost never empty a pot or even lower it down much.

Not really all that different. I started out with about 800 pounds of CWW all blended and re-blended into one consistent batch. Did the same with the SWW. All of my ingots are labeled with a Sharpie and none are blended or mixed with anything until they go in the pot. My base alloy's stay my base alloy until I alloy for a particular use. If I turned all of my base alloy into what I happen to be using at the moment and down the road ya need something else all of your eggs are in one basket. Can't even remember the last time I emptied either pot, I either refill at the end of a casting session or at the beginning of the next.

 

[Ian]

Part of this hobby is scrounging. I don't typically buy foundry metal or precisely measure stuff. Like a good powder charge weight, a well-suited gun, bullet design, and load has a good bit of acceptable alloy tolerance and I seek to find ways to make what I have available work.

Some words I read recently apply: Buy your way around the problem or think your way around it. Mass-blending for uniformity like Rick and Fiver do is a great idea and something I do periodically to unify all my scrounged bits of random scrap alloy. I play with the big batches until I figure out how to make it do what I need.

 

[Brad]

Someone say scrounging?

My base alloy for years has been range scrap. The club keeps supplying it so I keep gathering it. I have 5 full 5 gallon buckets to melt down.

Melted down 3/4 of a bucket today to empty the propane tank. Not a bunch but probably 75 pounds in ingots.

 

[Ian]

You're getting the idea of "not a bunch" when 75 lbs won't even fill your casting furnace twice.

 

[Brad]

I have about 4-500 pounds of range scrap in ingots, another 200 of pure n ingots, roughly 100 pounds of roughly 3/1 in ingots, and 125 pounds of pure in lead bricks.

And I still won't stop gathering more. I figure that if I bring home more each year than I shot then I can't run out.

Yep, not much.

 

[waco]

You guys are making me feel lead poor....

 

[Rick]

You guys are making me feel lead poor....

Now Walter do you really think you are gonna make us feel guilty just because you failed to do your scrounging duties? Really?

 

[Brad]

Damn kids these days, wanting us to feel guilty for our wisdom and forward thinking.

 

[waco]

LOL! Pretty sure I would get no love here whining about being lead poor.

 

[Brad]

Or powder poor. Or primer poor. Or brass poor. Gun and rifle poor? Tough, figure it out.

Yep, not much sympathy here.

 

[KeithB]

I have well over a ton total in lead alloys. Most of it is in ingot form, either from the manufacturer (linotype materials) or my own reclaimed alloys. Nice to have that stash. Now we will have to move it in a few months. I think I'll hire a couple of high school/college kids to help out. Was planning to get a skid and building a crate on top of it. The kids could put the lead in the crate and when the equipment movers show up with the forklift they can move that also.

 

[Brad]

Good idea Keith. There is a place for strong, young backs.

 

[waco]

I have about 1100-1200 pounds of alloy in the shop. Not hurting but not as flush as some of you fellas. Powder? 200-250lbs?
Primers? Only 40-50K
Guns? I lost count of that number. I need another 48 rifle safe, I know that.

 

[waco]

 

[Brad]

You have your own line of safes? Impressive.

 

[waco]

LMFAO! You are a %@&!
Well played.......