On Thu, 04 Mar 2004 17:25:38 -0600, mikee wrote:

Wheelweight alloy used to be mostly lead (93%+) with the rest antimony (5-6%)
and traces other junk thrown in.

When I was doing a lot of bullet casting using wheelweights (20+ years ago), it
was very easy to "heat treat" a cast bullet by dropping the bullets directly
into water and quenching them. This "hardened" the bullet to a significant
extent, and reduced leading in most loadings. The antimony matrix in suspension
in the lead was responsible for the hardness increase.

The hardness was temporary, and was reduced then finally disappeared after
several months at room temperature due to lead alloy re-crystallization.

I'm seriously out of date on wheelweight alloys now. I did cart around a lot of
wheelweight ingots for many years, tho. When I moved from Ohio to Tennessee in
1998, and paid for the move myself, I gave away about 800 lbs. of wheel weight
ingots to the local gun club in Ohio. Easy decision, the average freight rate
was $0.60/lb for the move.

Mike Eberlein

Its still easily done (heat treating) and while it does drop some in
the brinell scale over time..its a very long time. Casting directly
into a 5 gallon bucket will get wheel weights up to the 22-30 Brinell
scale, and over the next several years..they will drop down to around
18 or so. There are several phase changes in the first day or two both
up and down, then full hardness is reached in about 4 days.

This of course precludes sizing them after heat treating, and to be
shot unsized. To get them hard if sized..you must size first, then
put them in the oven, then lubed.

Gunner


Ed Huntress wrote:

"David A. Webb" wrote in message
...


I have a source for arsenic metal lumps, although it isn't cheap.
About $88 per pound. But I didn't think I'd be able to get it to mix
in with the lead.

Dave

I suppose you know already that arsenic has all but dropped out of sight as
an alloying ingredient for hardening lead. That's why most bullet casters
have taken to using tin (in the form of lead-tin solder; is lead-tin still
available in bars for wiping or for automobile bodywork? I don't know.).
Another thing that I've read about, although I've never tried it, is finding
a source of car wheel weights that run hard (some are quite hard), and then
running some tests with a bullet hardness tester to get a standard ratio to
use with pure lead.

When I used to cast bullets for muzzleloading I used any junk I could get my
hands on, so I'm not much of an authority on the subject. g

Good luck.

Ed Huntress

"Gun Control, the theory that a 110lb grandmother should
fist fight a 250lb 19yr old criminal"