Milsurp After Hours

I had some luck yesterday when I found a local supplier of tin in 1Kg bars and chips. I went to them seeking to buy bar solder (60:40 lead/tin) but it just came up in the conversation that they had pure tin in stock. 1Kg of tin cost just over £12 including VAT.

As the Martini Henry bullet was made from an alloy of 12 parts lead to 1 part tin I set about casting some ingots of this alloy ready for the arrival of my Coyoté mould.

All went well but I couldn't help wondering afterwards if I was right to measure the metals by weight rather than by volume?

Brian

Brian,

I have always mixed my alloy by weight. If you are wrong, so am I.

aj

is more art than science - I always start with wheelweights, and add 25% lead, then some tin to improve flow. I don't use a lead/tin alloy - I'm cheap...

Also, when you go further than 20:1 lead/tin, there won't be any appreciable increase in bullet hardness - and tin is expensive! Hasn't hurt my shooting up to now.

Aye, you don't need that much tin to get the desired fillout and hardening effect.

Maybe in the days when things were "cheap and tinny" tin was used more.

What a higher tin ration will give you is a slightly lighter bullet.

If AJ recommends that you measure by weight then the proper way is bound to be by volume.

Seriously though, I always measure my alloys by weight.