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novus collectus · April 3, 2005, 12:28 PM

I am now on a serious budget and I have to scrounge. ($8,000 to the dentist, $2000 trip to Europe, $300-$700 M1 garand soon hopefully......). When I was very short of money when I was young we used to collect lead tire weights from gas stations and take them to recycling yard. One of the last things I have ordered is a lee loader and a bullet mold. I was wondering about what I should add to the soft tire weight lead to make it hard? I know that I can remove some of the lead's impurities by skimming the top off of the molten lead but what amount of tin (or whatever else) to add to the molten metal after I do this?

Or, is there a place to buy lead that is cheap and already has been mixed to be a harder lead mixture? I have tried to do a search on TFL for this info but I didn't see enough info that was easy to find.

Also, what is chilled shot mean? Do they do what they do to steel to make it harder and heat it up to near molten and then quickly quench it? Would it be feasible to do this to my .45 acp bullets?

April 3, 2005, 12:28 PM	#1
novus collectus Junior member Join Date: March 15, 2005 Location: Maryland Posts: 940	How to make hard lead? I am now on a serious budget and I have to scrounge. ($8,000 to the dentist, $2000 trip to Europe, $300-$700 M1 garand soon hopefully......). When I was very short of money when I was young we used to collect lead tire weights from gas stations and take them to recycling yard. One of the last things I have ordered is a lee loader and a bullet mold. I was wondering about what I should add to the soft tire weight lead to make it hard? I know that I can remove some of the lead's impurities by skimming the top off of the molten lead but what amount of tin (or whatever else) to add to the molten metal after I do this? Or, is there a place to buy lead that is cheap and already has been mixed to be a harder lead mixture? I have tried to do a search on TFL for this info but I didn't see enough info that was easy to find. Also, what is chilled shot mean? Do they do what they do to steel to make it harder and heat it up to near molten and then quickly quench it? Would it be feasible to do this to my .45 acp bullets?