Lead Casting

[Bible Totin Gun Slinger]

Any other ball casters here?

Anybody know if Johnny Ring is good lead?

[hanshi]

I cast everything I shoot and soft lead form most sources is fine.  Not familiar with the composition of "johnny ring" lead but if it scratches easily with a finger nail it should be okay.

[necchi]

There's a gazzilion guys that cast.
Who's Johnny Ring?

[jamesthomas]

Any other ball casters here?

Anybody know if Johnny Ring is good lead?

 I have about 200lbs. of lead in ingots myself. I've never heard of Johnny Ring Lead. I get mine from the Tire shops. And before anyone says it, I get the weights that are the pure lead stick-on, glue-on type.

[mark esterly]

doesn't everyone?

[bob in the woods]

I use the harder lead stuff to cast balls for my 10 bore smoothbore.  Works really well for large game.

[Bible Totin Gun Slinger]

A Johnny Ring is the seal used under yur toilet, years ago. I got a few. I will do what Hanshi said.

[SCLoyalist]

Any plumber's lead - pipe, flashing, johnny ring - should pass the thumbnail test for softness.

You can use harder lead, too, but the same roundball mold will cast a slightly different diameter ball with hard lead than it will with soft lead due to differences in how the metals expand (or is it contract?) as the ball cools after being dropped from the mold.  I have two lead pots, one for pure lead  and one for casting harder lead.    Anyway, once you find roundballs that work for you, it's probably prudent to measure and record the actual diameter with calipers along with what mold and metal you used to cast.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Your Johnny Ring will cast great balls - the ring is pure lead!
I read that folks have hordes or lead acquired from tire shops etc.  This lead is good for shooting in smoothbored guns, but very poor for rifles.  I have a feeling, when I read that guys have trouble getting a .010" undersized ball down their bores without a mallet, that they are using this alloy of lead rather than pure lead.  
As an extreme example, imagine trying to load a ball bearing with your usual patch and lube, in your fouled rifle barrel.  If you were able to get it down without breaking your hickory rod, it is likely that your patch is already destroyed and your accuracy will be horrible.
To continue with this extreme example, now load a ball made from something ridiculously soft - plasticsene perhaps.  The soft material will flow to conform to the nuances of the rifling, and to allow it to pass the obstruction of the fouling, and the patch with adequate lubrication, will remove all of the fouling, pushing it down onto the charge of powder, and thus leaving a virtually clean bore.  
The same thing occurs when using a hard lead alloy, such as wheel weight 'lead', or using pure lead.  The finger nail test is ok, but you have to have a test piece of pure lead either in you hand or at least in your experience, to be able to tell the difference.  Anyone who has cast a lot of muzzle loading balls from both materials, can tell immediately, just from the appearance of the castings.  New cast pure lead balls should shine like a mirror while alloyed balls will have a less shiny appearance - even frosty looking. And balls that have been around for a while will also look different.  Prue lead balls will be dark grey, while alloyed balls will still retain their new look much longer.  In the bag, pure lead balls oxidize very quickly, turning dark grey almost immediately.  Another test is to drop them onto a steel plate.  The pure lead has a dull thud while the harder alloyed balls have a metallic clink, or even a ring.
I would have to be desperate to cast balls for my muzzle loaders out of wheel weight lead.   But pure lead is not easy to find, and a lot of merchants will tell you they are selling pure lead, when it is definitely not.  If you can find lead sheeting of practically any kind, it is almost always pure lead.  But be careful - the joint where the lead sheet is joined is soldered with alloyed lead, and must be removed before you melt the sheet, or you will harden your entire pot of lead if you include it.
Good luck.

[jamesthomas]

 The lead I have from my tire shop is easily marked by my finger nails, This is as pure of lead as you can get. I shoot a .395 with a .015 patch in my .40 and a .490 with a .024 patch in my .50 cal. all go down smooth with either a Hoppe's patch lube or Tracks Mink Oil.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

That's outstanding James!  Your tire shops apparently are using a different product than what's available here.  The wheel weights here are suitable for center fire pistol bullets, but look out for weights marked with a "Z".  They are ZINC, and will ruin your complete pot of lead, probably including the pot, as the zinc is nearly impossible to remove.

[Daryl]

We-too have the stick on weights.  They are used about exclusively on Aluminum mag-wheels that lack the crimping edge (for the harder alloy weight's clip) of  normal steel wheels.  The foam/glue pad burns off in the pot (outside) and one carries on casting.

[Habu]

You really don't need pure lead for round balls.  I'm not saying you can use any old plumbous-type material, but the "pure lead" sources that are often recommended aren't really pure.  Over the years I've had a lot of lead assayed, and I've never seen plumbers lead that is "pure" lead.  

The lead ingots sold for caulking, as well as lead shower pans, lead pipe (NOT the lead sheathing used on electrical wiring), flashing used on roofs, etc, are typically about 97.75-98.25% lead.  I've never seen any go over 98.5% lead.  There is typically about .20% antimony and .10% tin, with various trace elements (cadmium, calcium, copper, silver, tin, etc) making up the remainder.  The samples include lead produced/used/purchased from about 1855-2012.

Adhesive wheel weights like they use on mag wheels are almost always 98% lead, .25% antimony, and 1.75 trace elements (arsenic, cadmium, calcium, copper, silver, tin).  

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

That's very informative Habu.  What I refer to as 'pure lead' then, is dead soft lead.  This is not to be confused with tire shop wheel weights with the cast in place metal clip, 50/50 solder bars, diver's weights, or battery terminals.  Balls cast from this stuff don't even load well in smooth bored guns unless they are so undersized that the patch is not compressed.

[Daryl]

There may be pure lead and there is dead soft lead, but there is no PURE lead.  I agree - all lead has some 'impurities' in it. As Taylor noted, we are looking for DEAD soft lead. When you smash 2 pieces together, they go 'thud' - with no ringing or clink/tink sounds.
A 1/4"X2" strip can easily be bent into a pretzel or twisted into a drill's shape with your bare hands. A piece the size of a clip-on wheel weight can be squeezed into a U shape with 2 fingers. That is the dead soft lead that WE use for round balls- or clip-on WW alloys for smoothbores and undersized in rifles like my 14 bore.
I would NEVER use such a hard ball in my small bores due to the undersized ball reducing accuracy.

[Bible Totin Gun Slinger]

If I could make a voting poll I would, but I don't, So I will just ask yall:
Which type of ball mould do you prefer, Iron mould or Aluminium?
I have both and each has better reasons.

[jamesthomas]

 Aluminum Lee Molds all the way, makes a very good roundball. I have a .490 and a .395. if it makes a bad ball its my fault.

[Leatherbark]

There may be pure lead and there is dead soft lead, but there is no PURE lead.  I agree - all lead has some 'impurities' in it. As Taylor noted, we are looking for DEAD soft lead. When you smash 2 pieces together, they go 'thud' - with no ringing or clink/tink sounds.
A 1/4"X2" strip can easily be bent into a pretzel or twisted into a drill's shape with your bare hands. A piece the size of a clip-on wheel weight can be squeezed into a U shape with 2 fingers. That is the dead soft lead that WE use for round balls- or clip-on WW alloys for smoothbores and undersized in rifles like my 14 bore.
I would NEVER use such a hard ball in my small bores due to the undersized ball reducing accuracy.

A friend of mine gave me some lead window weights from a church that was built in the 1800's.  They weren't the big long cylindrical ones  but were smaller and square and looked home made.

When I cast balls from this lead they had a blueish tint to them. Someone said that it was pure and had never been alloyed with anything when it looks like this. 

Bob

[Pete G.]

If I could make a voting poll I would, but I don't, So I will just ask yall:
Which type of ball mould do you prefer, Iron mould or Aluminium?
I have both and each has better reasons.

I prefer to cast with an iron mold, but if I am buying a new mold I much prefer the price of the aluminum. I can remember when a single cavity Lyman mold was less than $20, but those days are long gone.

[bob in the woods]

For a quick casting session, aluminum is faster to come to temp. and cast decent balls. That said, I much prefer to work with my Lyman iron moulds. They seem to hold an even heat better for me.  I have aluminum, iron, brass, ...even soapstone and wood moulds . Yes..wood. I made a couple from dense maple for my smoothbore.  For the purpose they worked fine.

[Daryl]

I'm with Bob and others - I prefer the case iron moulds.  I probably have over 30 iron moulds, but only about 15 Lee moulds. I prefer iron, from Lyman, RCBS and Saeco.

[LH]

I shoot my .40 more than anything else, so when I'm casting .395 balls,  I use two iron double cavity moulds.  That way I cant outrun the temperature and my cyclic rate of casting stays up at a good rate.  Aluminum moulds heat up faster than iron so unless you're using three or four at a time,  you'll have to stop and let them cool down. Besides from killing time, the different temperature will have an effect on the size and weight of the balls. If you're just going to cast 40 or 50 at a time and don't get too constipated about consistency,  aluminum is good and cheaper too.  And as for soft lead,  I use a Cabine Creek hardness tester to categorize scrap lead.  Its been a handy thing for me.   

[jamesthomas]

 I also cast .395's and I've never had to slow down with my Lee Molds and I usually cast a couple of hundred when I do cast. This goes for my .490 Lee mold also. If I do my part they will cast as good a round ball as you can get. There is no way I'm going to pay 70.00+ dollars for a mold I can get for 20.00.

[oldways]

After reading the post and all the replies, is it best not to use old wheel weights for casting roundballs?

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

You can cast them from any alloy of lead, but the BEST:  easiest loading, and most accurate, balls should be cast from dead soft lead, what we refer to as 'pure' lead.  Wheel weights, at least those with a metal clip, are too hard for round balls, IMHO.