I am glad you took the time to expand on your buying the lead. I learned a little each time you post...so, Professor, teach away and have fun doing it. I finally shot up some of the various .44's that I had loaded for 'sweet-spot' quality. I will PM you on details...
I have used Rotometals for many years ! Lino type /#2 Lyman / 30 to 1 / "Pure lead" in the last ten years or so I have only filled 1 and half soup cans with flux scraping & gone through 28 or so sticks of Thompsons hard bullet lube
AnonaThetan-Thanks for the comment. I've never casted a chamber - sounds like you have a great lead-in for doing a video...Always good hearing your comments...
Very informative video! I've been interested in ordering from these folks and you have shown me that they seem reputable and trustworthy when it comes down to who I want to do business with. God bless and keep up the good work!
Tommy Rad-Thanks for posting your comments. I'm going to put in another order with RM for linotype tomorrow. Going to fire up some more of my Lee molds and I need it to add to range scrap. Sorry to hear about your ebay experience. I'm told that ebay does their darndest to have legitimate selling and buying, but these things can still happen. Always great to hear from you…Best Regards...
I've used Rotometals to buy super hard alloy for cowboy shooting. I have had no issues. I have not purchased pure lead. Im not slamming anyone, but I can say I have had success with Rotometals, purchase after purchase in their hard alloy product. FC45LC taught me that what I thought was "slag" was really antimony and tin and that I should not be removing it but I should be mixing it into the alloy.
+Slingshot Silas - I've been a regular purchaser of RotoMetals SuperHard alloy. Really is a handy way to add antimony to alloys. Good castin' to ya..!! FC
+Slingshot Silas -- Glad you reminded me - I used the last of my own Superhard alloy in the last casting video - time to reorder myself...Continued good castin' to ya. Always good to hear from Slingshot Silas... FC
TheDAve570-Hats off to all you Martini shooters - The Gun of Empire!! There have been other casters complaining of the same thing. One or two can be a fluke - when more report, there is something going on - I intend to inquire also - But one thing I am picking up - it's always the pure lead in the complaints. I have never ordered pure lead from RotoMetals - all the linotype and SuperHard have been clean and good. Try dental lead foil for your pure lead - I get it free - slugs are good...
I've used RotoMetals for years and have found their alloys pure and very clean. I get Lyman #2 and Linotype. And if you buy enough (last time I checked it was $149), you get free shipping.
Hank-I just checked the RM site again - and yes, they sell by the bar and give the dimensions of the bar then saying that weight is approximately 5 pounds +/- .25 so bars weigh 4 3/4 - 5 1/4 pounds. Have a great day...
Those sorcerers at Rotometals are sure good at hiding that 30% dirt in those bars you showed! They did such a good job that you can't even see the 30% dirt, before OR after melting it! What a conspiracy.... Lol The whole "30% dirt and slag" claim seems a bit dubious. You'd know if there was that much flotsam in there!
HighlanderNorth1 - And we casters know from making our own ingots - if we had dirt or slag in our ingot pours, that dirt and slag would be easily seen in our finished ingots...They would be totally unacceptable from the get go... Best to ya, FC
I got some casting alloy from RotoMetals for chamber casting some older mausers I had...i was not sure if the rifles had been re-bored to a diff caliber...stuff works great
HammeringHank100 reply 2- weigh what they do depending on composition of the lead alloy. Harder alloys will weigh less than the softer alloys. They use same size molds for all their alloys so weights will vary a bit. Still, your point is well taken - remember how we always like Sierra bullets because they gave us an extra bullet or two in every box? We liked that - on top of the goodness of the bullets. I'm buying the bars-anything close to 5 pounds is OK with me. Best Regards...
I just bought 21 lbs of lead pipe for the local salvage yard. It's dirty and knew this when buying it. As It only cost $1.75 a lb if I end up with 17 0r 18 lb of lead after refining I'll be happy. Didn't have enough to get the free shipping from FM but as it turned out the guy at the salvage yard is a caster with as much know how as FortunCookie45LC. One more brain to pick so I'll keep buying from him for the time being.
I recently purchased some casting material from RotoMetals and was quite pleased with my purchase. The price was good and the material worked exactly as advertised; plus, I received it ahead of the scheduled delivery date. I normally don't do surveys, but I have no reservation in recommending this company and its products.
Not me. 30-35% of my 5 lb was red dirt. I think they passed on some bad lead but they are not going to admit it. I contacted Rotometal. Their answers were very short without reasoning. Now that Rotometal is junk, I buy junk locally at much cheaper price.
You can’t believe every review, there are those out there that purposely leave bad reviews. Just out of spite or to try and push people to buy from a different company. They are out there. Also you may have inexperienced casters who think oxidized lead on the surface is dirt/dross/slag and just keep skimming and skimming and reduce their overall material weight. Then go and leave a bad review saying they had dirt because they skimmed 1/3 of their material away.
Tommy Rad - Cast lead loadings expand the versatility and utility of our rifles. Like we can load 200+ grain 30 cal and shoot them just below sonic level - doggone things hit like piledrivers. Red Dot or Unique powder let's us do that (other powders also). We'll probably be sharing other recipes along the way…some we can eat, some we can shoot…Best Regards...
I picked up some 2-3% antimony lead from them recently. It came in small chunks. When I added some to my range scrap to cast, an oily residue appeared on the surface of the melted mix and my bottom spout completely clogged up. Had to disassemble and drill out the spout. This problem persisted until I used up their alloy. Wouldn’t buy from again.
Tommy Rad-Sounds like you are going for 308 or 30/06 loading. And I agree - great bullet molds for $20 - we smile as we cast, cast, cast. I got the 170 grainer FN for 30/30. We need to compare notes when we get to our shooting…The next range Bar-B-Que we do (Mark is already talking about the next one), I'm going to add some of the other ingredients you suggested and make the nacho sauce also - should be a hit at the range…Have a great day...
Old post, but worth seeing. Several years ago I got tired of not finding good soft lead for black powder and bought a 1000 pound pallet of certified pure lead from Rotometals. Wound up being 1.71$ delivered. 100 pound ingots are a pain to cut down, but overall I'm super glad I got it. I have bought tin from them as well and never had any issues with them.
I buy pewter ingots from them for my detailed castings and thier alloy of 98 pewter is the best for me. Roto metals is a good company for any metal casters!
chevy6299-Just think, in the old, old homes, lead pipe was used for water pipes. And that lead is still in some of those homes, but like dinosaurs, they are vanishing breeds. Lead wheel weights are a vanishing breed. Anything made of lead short of car batteries will be a vanishing breed. My advice to you is get the lead pipe while the getting is good (that's a good price). Lead pipe is oftentimes nearly pure lead and can be used for shotgun slugs, BP shooting, and low velocity target (see2)
I have a far off theory that might explain Mr. Reyes issue. If one does not weigh one's produced bullets, and actually know the weight of the bullets, and then uses the assumed weight of the bullets times the number of bullets cast ( BxW= total mass of ingot melted and cast into bullets with B being number of bullets and W being assumed weight), if one uses this formula wrong, their calculation of the total mass of the usable lead of the ingot will be wrong. Let's have ourselves the example of someone casting Lyman 452374 bullets, but instead of Lyman #2, he's using pure lead. Instead of 225 grain round nose bullets, his bullets drop at 235 grains. Now, let's assume our friend is using the formula I listed before, BxW= useable lead mass. If our casting is perfect, without waste or dross, we can assume 155 bullets of Lyman #2, and 148 bullets of pure lead. Now, let's assume that our user uses 148 and the 225 grains as advertised bullet weight, instead of his real pure lead bullet weight of 235 grains, and attempts to calculate his weight incorrectly: he might assume he has lost an entire quarter pound of lead, out of a 5 pound ingot, without being cheated a single grain! If one is casting in a mold which is bullet weight rated for an even harder alloy, the problem gets worse and worse. You will get more bullets out of a harder alloy per weight than pure lead, this is simple fact, and with poor calculations, one can easily be "cheated" out of lead. There are no substitutes for accurate scales and measurements. Formulas to determine things are only as accurate as the inputs. But I might be wrong and going on a tangent.
kingduckford - As a matter of personal experience, all my molds drop bullets heavier than they are advertised... the worse one being the Lee 429 240 RN that actually casts with my regular magnum alloy at 264 grains - a full 24 grains heavier than advertised. You would think that a harder alloy would cast lighter. Imagine how heavy that bullet would be if casted out of pure lead. So I would never get the number of bullets per pound or 5 that I would have expected. However, never a problem for me as I have lots of alloy...and am lucky enough to not be concerned with how much I'm using. That is not true for my pure lead shotgun slugs though, my sources of pure lead have been curtailed so I don't get as much as I used to be able to get. still no matter, I just cast with what I've got and if I don't get anymore pure lead, then I'll have to buy it from RotoMetals or other suppliers... Best Regards to ya, FC
Hank - Interesting, I just added a note on the video saying to RotoMetals that they should give casters 5+ pounds instead of 5-, just before I went to answer comments - and up pops yours. I think that RotoMetals says that the bars weigh approximately 5 pounds, not weigh at least 5 pounds. I talked to another shooter who bought from RotoMetals and he was disappointed that some of his bars weighed 4 3/4 pounds (even a bit less). My take is RotoMetals molds weigh what they do (see2)
dovani imamovic- reply 2- Thanks for the comment, but like I was urging - every shooter needs a continued source of lead - and even if I got you some lead - I cannot be that ongoing source for you. I pick up range scrap every visit to range, and I can't get enough for others. You need to find a source from local tire shops, junkyards, recycle yards, metal yards, roofers, dentists, or places like RotoMetals. Best Regards to ya...
FCLC45, I think its important to remember that Rotometals does use raw, virgin lead from out of the ground, which might explain some of the sand or dirt that some are experiencing.?. For me, I like to find a little evidence of their claim of using raw, clean, virgin lead. I got my first lead boolit casting ingot from Rotometals just the other day. I have not melted it down yet, but upon visual inspection and thumb-nail hardness test, I'm more than satisfied with this purchase. Thanks again for letting us know about Rotometals, AGW.:-)
AirGunWarriors - Thanks for posting - even when I put in a big chunk of their SH alloy into a pot of lead, before I stir, I can see a small amount of slag over the spot where the chunk settled in. There's always some slag even when we use our cleaned ingots - that's just the way it is - but with RM ingots, I've never seen a big problem. The reports of dirt are few, more complaints about the bars not quite weighing 5 pounds. I don't have any problems with it though, because I buy them by the bar and each bar is supposed to weight about 5 pounds - not exactly, or over, but about 5. Best to ya...and Good castin' to ya
chevy6299- reply 2- ammo for revolver shooting (low velocity and soft alloy not suitable for auto pistols), or for alloying with tin and antimony (the salvage guy may have some linotype or monotype - if so, get some of that too). Since he is a caster, you might ask him where he gets his tin and antimony for his harder lead needs (solder perhaps if not lino). And if he can't help you, RMs lino or SH will fill the bill. Best Regards...
Fortunecookie45LC, I'm going to be picking up a couple of bullet molds for making hunting bullets, in .44 and .454 calibers, and I was wondering if the 9% or 10% antimonial lead I'll be using them for would be too hard for hollow points to expand? If so I'll just go with the round nose flat point bullet molds.
jungblud59 - As you are well aware since you are asking this - we tread a narrow path trying to get cast bullets to expand - takes soft lead at as much velocity as we can get (casters have tried with some results by annealing to get bullet noses soft while the driving bands are hard) - Our cast bullets work best as big bore hard cast slugs crashing through and letting out the blood...and they excel at doing that... Elmer Keith was a big proponent of powerful big bore handguns driving hard cast bullets. For expansion, JHPs with pure lead cores are the way to go...Best Regards...
dovani imamovic - Goodness, it's just range scrap, nothing special. The good stuff I get from RotoMetals and then I mix my own to be shot at my chosen velocities in my guns - tuned for performance. If I sell you my lead, it might not be right for your needs. My range scrap is the same as RM antimonial lead (maybe that is their purified version of range scrap and scrap shot from clay target ranges) except that RM really cleans better than I do. Every shooter needs continued source of lead...
Long ago I figured out that scrounging scrap lead, wheel weights etc of unknown composition and making a usefull alloy out of it wasnt worth the time and labor involved, not when I can buy a known alloy with certs from Rotometals for $20 per 5 lbs. I've never had a problem with it.
Be careful banging on your cast iron. Cast iron is pretty brittle. It doesn't take too much shock to crack it, particularly if there's a flaw or square corner where a stress fracture can start.
_Suburban_ - That sure explains the one time I split my Lyman ingot mold - I still use that one to cast a couple of 1 pound ingots at a time. None of my other cast iron has failed though over 40 years of use...but I have newer cast iron that I have added to take some of the load off my old stuff. It's all good. I'll keep the banging down a bit, but if I crack any of my cast iron, it's really cheap now from Costco. Have a great 4th, FC Steve
I recently acquired 184 lbs. of lead alloy from a scrap yard , all in ingot form . I did the thumb nail test and it is about 18 bhn . They worked well for my 30-30 cast bullets. There was about 10 lbs of ingots that look like the super hard in your video . My thumb nail doesn't make a mark at all on these ingots . I don't know if they are super hard or maybe zinc alloy . Is there a way to tell for sure or should I just not use those ingots ?
James Pollard - Congrats on the 184 - Zinc alloy would be much lighter than your lead bars. Zinc is 7 gms/cm3 while lead is 11. Plus, when you drop a lead ingot on the sidewalk, it hits with a dull sound. Zinc will sound more of a metallic ring to it. If your hard ingots sound the same as your softer lead ingots, it should be OK. Another test is that when your lead ingots melt, your hard lead ingots should also melt at the same time, If your hard ingots refuse to melt into your freshly melted lead, it is probably zinc. If you continue to heat it past 787, the zinc will melt into your lead and ruin it. Best to ya, FC
Hank - I think that I accepted the concept of bars being sold by the dimensioned bar and not by weight so long ago, that I just don't have any problem with what I've been buying. I get the product that I want and need and it does exactly what it's supposed to do. I just get their bars and happily cast away. New customers at RMs are on the weight concept, and it's my fault for not pointing out that RM deals by the bar as alloy weights will vary. Best Regards to ya...
Great test. Getting into casting I'm probably going to have a plethera of questions about mixing alloys and leads. That is if I haven't seem a vid you've done on it first :-D
MadMetalManiac74- There is so much technical stuff out there on bullet casting, but when you get right down to it - the simple workings of casting can be done by anyone (even buffalo hunters on the frontier over campfires)...we don't need to take it to the microcrystalline level or to the level of lead alloy complexes formed by water quenching vs post - cast annealing, etc etc...Good castin' to ya...
Jerry Bradley - Sorry your comment was missed so the reply didn't happen till now - If I got 5-10% sand, I'd be a little perturbed as well. But when I mix my alloys as I cast bullets, I just melt the portion of RM bars right into my lead. So if there was any sand, it might get masked. What I did was clean up my skillet as well as I could, then take only a whole bar of RM linotype and melt it. Didn't seem to be any sand or dirt in there. There was a very small amount of slag that came up, but this always happens any time any lead is melted. Apparently, this sand/dirt thing is a bigger problem for bars of pure RM's lead. I have no explanation on this, as I did contact RMs and their answer was that 10%-50% dirt in the lead bars would be easily visible as it would float to the top before the bar cooled so that it would be seen - If the bars look like alloy, that is what it is. Yet I know that customers don't look to make complaints, so there has to be something there. And not all RM customers complain. It's mystifying….Best to ya...
Guys I’m absolutely new to all of this! I have just ordered a 9mm mold and I have been preping my work station to get ready, but I’d there Ingots out there that I can order/purchase that is already ready to be molded for 9mm bullets? I seen the Lyman #2 and hardball, from what I read about it, I took it that it was pretty versatile for 9mm, and other molds. Please help thank you
chevy6299-I'd phone some metal recyclers tomorrow to see if they have any lead pipe, but no need - I just keep picking up some range scrap for free each trip to the range. And I'll be lucky to be able to do that until some point when they say no...
+MrsRanMac - Lodge Cast Iron Products makes a number of nice cast iron scone and muffin molds that are fine ingot molds... I have their scone and muffin mold - and they are not expensive either... Best Regards to ya!! FC
Old video but it popped up on my feed. Interesting though, I recently got some Rotometals ingots and for the first time I got huge amounts of dross when I fluxed. Not 30% but more than I've ever seen in over 40 years of casting. I've bought from Rotometals for about 20 years and never had this happen before, makes me wonder of it was just this batch and that occasionally happens to an occasional batch in poor quality control
Quite a difference in material density; slag-dirt v. lead. This equates to a weight difference between the lead and non-metallic inclusions. This should have been noticeable and first compared to a known weight standard before melting the advertised weight ingot.
Fortunecookie45LC, I just ordered some super hard lead from roto metals with the 30% antimony alloy, a lady friend of mine came up with a mixture ratio of 4.5 parts of the 92/6/2 alloy to 1 part of the 70/'30 alloy to achieve 9% antimony in the lead for rifle bullets . I just wanted to touch base with you and see if her figures are correct.
jungblud59 - By my calculations, diluting 1 to 4.5 gives you a total of 5.5 call it 6. You are therefore adding 5 points of hardness to the total 6. Meanwhile, you are diluting the 6% antimony of the 92 alloy to roughly 5 by the dilution. So your final antimony is 10%. For all intents and purposes, your friend and I are calculating the same as there will be errors in the mixing anyway. Your alloy should make fine rifle bullets. I wouldn't go any softer. If your bullets are .001"-.0015" over groove diameter, you are going to be in business...Best to ya...
Yep, normally ebay's great. I got a bad one. It happens. Luckily I was able to find & remove the zinc prior to putting it in the smelter. Dirt's pretty easy to remove during the fluxing stages. On a more positive note, Midway was selling [and I bought one] a Lyman aluminum bullet mold, a .309 - 180g 2-bullet mold with handles for $20 !!! I love a good deal :) All the best to ya. Tried the salsa yet? :)
I have another question for you o great ruler of all things lead, bullets and reloading. What are your thoughts on Foundry lead? I have been searching ebay for linotype and monotype and have seen listings for Foundry Lead. What is this?
Greg Smith Foundry lead is used to produce extra hard printing type when alloyed with regular linotype. You would do this if you were running more copies of whatever it was you were printing. I've never found any of this as linotype is as hard an alloy as we would ever need. The closest to this is Superhard alloy (30% antimony). If you find any Foundry Lead, it will probably be on the expensive side. Also, bullets cast any harder than linotype would be too brittle in many shooting applications. Good castin' to ya
Thanks, I have found some and the intention is to mix it with some of my softer lead to achieve a desired hardness. Do you see any problem with doing this?
Greg Smith None whatsoever, casters do that all the time. One thing though is that if you have soft lead - that is fine as is for muzzleloading and shotgun slugs. Some casters really cherish the soft lead for that. Once you put your foundry lead in to harden it, you are in business for casting centerfire handgun bullets. Best to ya
Yes I have soft pure lead and other hardness' as well. I won't be mixing into the pure lead until I run out of the other. Thank you for your assistance once again. Happy shooting.
Thy probably let the lead oxidize while molten. I save my tin and lead slag and when I have a bunch of it, I remelt it and do get just a little more out of that slag.
You might add that dirt or slag would show up on top of the bar as dust or a crumbly slag that would rub or fall off in handling. Dirt will not "alloy" with lead.
dale meade - The RM foundry alloy would be very fine to use. I have enough tin in range scrap that Superhard gets me more antimony than the foundry. But you are right, the foundry alloy is intriguing. I will be getting that in the future. Best to ya, FC
+FortuneCookie45LC ok, my concern is too much antimony can cause brittleness in the bullet alloy. Range scrap or wheel weights have both tin and antimony but super hard adds only antimony. That can increase brittleness to a risky level at rifle bullet speeds. Plus the antimony tends to increase surface oxidation when tin decreases this tendency. I will be waiting with interest for your evaluation of foundry alloy as an alternative to super hard.
dale meade - That was the problem trying to get cast bullets hard enough to shoot to full rifle velocities - if pure Linotype was used (BHN 22) the bullets could be shot faster, but the brittleness on impact ruined the usefulness. My use of Superhard is to raise the BHN to the 15-18 range only. BHN 18 is a good alloy for magnum pistol and light rifle. For more than that, I'd just switch to jacketed bullets. With today's powder coating, many are taking cast bullets to higher velocities without leading, but at some point, the rifling will not hold whether powder coated or not..I am not doing more until powder coaters get the accuracy issues solved with high velocity... Best Regards, FC
Julio Cuevas - Plumber's lead is almost pure lead...You should add some linotype to it 1 to 1 mix and you will get what is called Hardball Alloy - same performance as Lyman #2 slloy. Best to ya, FC
I wish an experience caster would say why that happens. It happened to me. I bought a 5lb bar from Rotometal and about 2 lb was junk. I contacted Rotometal. They told me I am the only one with a complain in 70 years. I don't now why they don't see the complains in the forums. In any case Rotometal said over heating causes that but I took 5lb of plumber lead and heated the hell out of it to 1000F and that did not happen to it and did not change to clay. I won't buy from Rotometal again.
i like roto metals and buy hundreds of pounds of birdshot from them pretty regularly. i started casting shotgun slugs for my own use with a lee pot brand new. bought 3 bars of hardball lead from them and two bars were just awful third one was almost ok. had so much forgeign material, dirt/sand/ ???? it filled half a 2lb. coffe can. this is a great company and im sure it was a fluke, or a couple of flukes, but it did happen to me also. i wrote to them and they got back to me but we were already packing up at end of winter to come north again so i did not pursue it. stuff happens in production lines and i don't hold it against them. shame about prices, but i think they do a good job. best to all, rgw/73/usa
Yep, .30-06 & 30-30. Well, this particular mold isn't for the 30-30, my flat nose mold covers that base. I've been to the range a couple times doing load dev. on my 30-06 with the lead bullets and as of yet, haven't found the right powder & load combo. Just a matter of time. It's good these bullets are cheap LOL, I'm using quite a few finding that powder-sweet-spot. Enjoy the salsa, no matter how you change the very important & tested recipe... that shouldn't be changed LOLOL, kidding :)
TheDave570-Quite a few viewers are now getting dental lead-check your dentist-if still using x-ray film (roughly 1 out of 2.75 dentists still non-digital), they are collecting the lead foils from the film packets for waste haulers to take away. Ask them to save the x-ray lead for you instead. Check dentists of other family members. You can easily get 25-40 pounds @ 6 months from 1 dentist for free. Perfect for slugs or muzzleloaders. Please see my videos on Need Lead-Here's a Secret Source
I have purchased two seperate orders from these people on two seperate occasions. the first was a small order of 10 lbs or 2 bars. the lead was supposed to be 99.9 % pure. In fact it was a very clean lead once melted. I cast a couple hundred 45-70 .457 bullets for my Martini9 Henry. The second order was 15 lbs and I have to tell you it was the dirtiest lead i have evr used. I had to keep skimming the dirt and slag off the top of my melt. I will call them before i buy any more !!!!
RyeOnHam- I see what you mean - Pretty hard to make a bar that bad. I'm sure that if RotoMetals let two bars like that get out, they would be mortified. And they would be having many many casters screaming and yelling. Sounds like those negative reviews were either rare flukes, or something unscientific or weird happened. Thanks for the info...
I am one of those unlucky ones who got a bad 5lb bar from Rotometal. It was 30-35% red junk. something was wrong with it's composition. They won't admit it because is not good for their reputation.
+Miles Huggins -- I suppose there are many possible explanations - but RM has been in business to casters for over 75 years - can't build a good business giving customers slag and dirt... Best to ya, lFC
Hello, Why would you not be concerned with a 5lb bar being under weight? What if you bought 25lbs of lead and each bar was under weight. Don't you think you have some kind of recourse. Or will you live with it. Just Asking, Hank
POV NW - Some have reported that they have much difficulty finding lead supplies. Here is CA, we used to be able to buy linotype for 35 to 55 cents a pound. And we could get wheel weights from any tire shop. Then regulations were passed whereby sources were shut down to the public - tire shops had quotas of wheel weights that they had to turn in to prevent selling wheel weights to the public on the QT. Luckily, I can get range scrap from the range, but who knows if that will be shut down at some point. They could even stop lead sales in CA (don't want to give the anti gunners any ideas). Then we'd have to go out of state. Best policy is to have lead reserves on hand at any event. Have a great day, FC Steve
same here.. I also found other foreighn material in mine.....not sure what it was,,,,they also buy used.. old material.perhaps they are not paying attention to what they are melting....also very expensive...roto metals are not the greatest..
Hey, I hate to be a bore. Are you buying by the lb. or the bar? If buying by the bar you would correct. But your buying by the pound. They should adjust the price if the bars come out short. I'm sure if your you tubers comes out short most of the time, the law will be looking at their business practices. Hank
DON C. - That is a great savings - My own base lead is picked up for free at our range - can't beat free. Best to ya and thanks for posting this for shooters who buy their lead...
I purchased a 5lb bar fro Rotometal. It was full of dirt. I say about 30 t0 35% dirt. What is going on? Please don't put your good reputation on junk. They may be sending you good lead but not to us. If you want, give me your address and I ship to you what was in a 5lb bar.
I am glad you took the time to expand on your buying the lead. I learned a little each time you post...so, Professor, teach away and have fun doing it. I finally shot up some of the various .44's that I had loaded for 'sweet-spot' quality. I will PM you on details...
I have used Rotometals for many years ! Lino type /#2 Lyman / 30 to 1 / "Pure lead" in the last ten years or so I have only filled 1 and half soup cans with flux scraping & gone through 28 or so sticks of Thompsons hard bullet lube
They sell by the bar not the pound. Read before you buy!
I have been happy with all my rotometal orders, including Lyman no. 2, and Linotype, and even bismuth.
AnonaThetan-Thanks for the comment. I've never casted a chamber - sounds like you have a great lead-in for doing a video...Always good hearing your comments...
30% by weight would be over 50% by volume because the impurities are significantly more voluminous.
Very informative video! I've been interested in ordering from these folks and you have shown me that they seem reputable and trustworthy when it comes down to who I want to do business with. God bless and keep up the good work!
Tommy Rad-Thanks for posting your comments. I'm going to put in another order with RM for linotype tomorrow. Going to fire up some more of my Lee molds and I need it to add to range scrap. Sorry to hear about your ebay experience. I'm told that ebay does their darndest to have legitimate selling and buying, but these things can still happen. Always great to hear from you…Best Regards...
I've used Rotometals to buy super hard alloy for cowboy shooting. I have had no issues. I have not purchased pure lead. Im not slamming anyone, but I can say I have had success with Rotometals, purchase after purchase in their hard alloy product. FC45LC taught me that what I thought was "slag" was really antimony and tin and that I should not be removing it but I should be mixing it into the alloy.
+Slingshot Silas - I've been a regular purchaser of RotoMetals SuperHard alloy. Really is a handy way to add antimony to alloys. Good castin' to ya..!! FC
+Slingshot Silas -- Glad you reminded me - I used the last of my own Superhard alloy in the last casting video - time to reorder myself...Continued good castin' to ya. Always good to hear from Slingshot Silas... FC
TheDAve570-Hats off to all you Martini shooters - The Gun of Empire!! There have been other casters complaining of the same thing. One or two can be a fluke - when more report, there is something going on - I intend to inquire also - But one thing I am picking up - it's always the pure lead in the complaints. I have never ordered pure lead from RotoMetals - all the linotype and SuperHard have been clean and good. Try dental lead foil for your pure lead - I get it free - slugs are good...
Have used plenty of RotoMetal lead. Worked fine every time.
I've used RotoMetals for years and have found their alloys pure and very clean. I get Lyman #2 and Linotype. And if you buy enough (last time I checked it was $149), you get free shipping.
Hank-I just checked the RM site again - and yes, they sell by the bar and give the dimensions of the bar then saying that weight is approximately 5 pounds +/- .25 so bars weigh 4 3/4 - 5 1/4 pounds. Have a great day...
Good video and from your information I wouldn't have a problem ordering from RotoMetals. Thanks again for you very informative videos my friend.
Those sorcerers at Rotometals are sure good at hiding that 30% dirt in those bars you showed! They did such a good job that you can't even see the 30% dirt, before OR after melting it! What a conspiracy.... Lol
The whole "30% dirt and slag" claim seems a bit dubious. You'd know if there was that much flotsam in there!
HighlanderNorth1 - And we casters know from making our own ingots - if we had dirt or slag in our ingot pours, that dirt and slag would be easily seen in our finished ingots...They would be totally unacceptable from the get go... Best to ya, FC
I got some casting alloy from RotoMetals for chamber casting some older mausers I had...i was not sure if the rifles had been re-bored to a diff caliber...stuff works great
HammeringHank100 reply 2- weigh what they do depending on composition of the lead alloy. Harder alloys will weigh less than the softer alloys. They use same size molds for all their alloys so weights will vary a bit. Still, your point is well taken - remember how we always like Sierra bullets because they gave us an extra bullet or two in every box? We liked that - on top of the goodness of the bullets. I'm buying the bars-anything close to 5 pounds is OK with me. Best Regards...
I just bought 21 lbs of lead pipe for the local salvage yard. It's dirty and knew this when buying it. As It only cost $1.75 a lb if I end up with 17 0r 18 lb of lead after refining I'll be happy.
Didn't have enough to get the free shipping from FM but as it turned out the guy at the salvage yard is a caster with as much know how as FortunCookie45LC. One more brain to pick so I'll keep buying from him for the time being.
I recently purchased some casting material from RotoMetals and was quite pleased with my purchase. The price was good and the material worked exactly as advertised; plus, I received it ahead of the scheduled delivery date. I normally don't do surveys, but I have no reservation in recommending this company and its products.
Not me. 30-35% of my 5 lb was red dirt. I think they passed on some bad lead but they are not going to admit it. I contacted Rotometal. Their answers were very short without reasoning. Now that Rotometal is junk, I buy junk locally at much cheaper price.
You can’t believe every review, there are those out there that purposely leave bad reviews. Just out of spite or to try and push people to buy from a different company. They are out there.
Also you may have inexperienced casters who think oxidized lead on the surface is dirt/dross/slag and just keep skimming and skimming and reduce their overall material weight. Then go and leave a bad review saying they had dirt because they skimmed 1/3 of their material away.
Tommy Rad - Cast lead loadings expand the versatility and utility of our rifles. Like we can load 200+ grain 30 cal and shoot them just below sonic level - doggone things hit like piledrivers. Red Dot or Unique powder let's us do that (other powders also). We'll probably be sharing other recipes along the way…some we can eat, some we can shoot…Best Regards...
I picked up some 2-3% antimony lead from them recently. It came in small chunks. When I added some to my range scrap to cast, an oily residue appeared on the surface of the melted mix and my bottom spout completely clogged up. Had to disassemble and drill out the spout. This problem persisted until I used up their alloy. Wouldn’t buy from again.
Tommy Rad-Sounds like you are going for 308 or 30/06 loading. And I agree - great bullet molds for $20 - we smile as we cast, cast, cast. I got the 170 grainer FN for 30/30. We need to compare notes when we get to our shooting…The next range Bar-B-Que we do (Mark is already talking about the next one), I'm going to add some of the other ingredients you suggested and make the nacho sauce also - should be a hit at the range…Have a great day...
Old post, but worth seeing. Several years ago I got tired of not finding good soft lead for black powder and bought a 1000 pound pallet of certified pure lead from Rotometals. Wound up being 1.71$ delivered. 100 pound ingots are a pain to cut down, but overall I'm super glad I got it. I have bought tin from them as well and never had any issues with them.
1.71 a lb?
I buy pewter ingots from them for my detailed castings and thier alloy of 98 pewter is the best for me. Roto metals is a good company for any metal casters!
Amescopino - Thanks for sharing this information on pewter casting... Best Regards, FC
chevy6299-Just think, in the old, old homes, lead pipe was used for water pipes. And that lead is still in some of those homes, but like dinosaurs, they are vanishing breeds. Lead wheel weights are a vanishing breed. Anything made of lead short of car batteries will be a vanishing breed. My advice to you is get the lead pipe while the getting is good (that's a good price). Lead pipe is oftentimes nearly pure lead and can be used for shotgun slugs, BP shooting, and low velocity target (see2)
I have a far off theory that might explain Mr. Reyes issue. If one does not weigh one's produced bullets, and actually know the weight of the bullets, and then uses the assumed weight of the bullets times the number of bullets cast ( BxW= total mass of ingot melted and cast into bullets with B being number of bullets and W being assumed weight), if one uses this formula wrong, their calculation of the total mass of the usable lead of the ingot will be wrong. Let's have ourselves the example of someone casting Lyman 452374 bullets, but instead of Lyman #2, he's using pure lead. Instead of 225 grain round nose bullets, his bullets drop at 235 grains.
Now, let's assume our friend is using the formula I listed before, BxW= useable lead mass. If our casting is perfect, without waste or dross, we can assume 155 bullets of Lyman #2, and 148 bullets of pure lead. Now, let's assume that our user uses 148 and the 225 grains as advertised bullet weight, instead of his real pure lead bullet weight of 235 grains, and attempts to calculate his weight incorrectly: he might assume he has lost an entire quarter pound of lead, out of a 5 pound ingot, without being cheated a single grain! If one is casting in a mold which is bullet weight rated for an even harder alloy, the problem gets worse and worse. You will get more bullets out of a harder alloy per weight than pure lead, this is simple fact, and with poor calculations, one can easily be "cheated" out of lead.
There are no substitutes for accurate scales and measurements. Formulas to determine things are only as accurate as the inputs. But I might be wrong and going on a tangent.
kingduckford - As a matter of personal experience, all my molds drop bullets heavier than they are advertised... the worse one being the Lee 429 240 RN that actually casts with my regular magnum alloy at 264 grains - a full 24 grains heavier than advertised. You would think that a harder alloy would cast lighter. Imagine how heavy that bullet would be if casted out of pure lead. So I would never get the number of bullets per pound or 5 that I would have expected. However, never a problem for me as I have lots of alloy...and am lucky enough to not be concerned with how much I'm using. That is not true for my pure lead shotgun slugs though, my sources of pure lead have been curtailed so I don't get as much as I used to be able to get. still no matter, I just cast with what I've got and if I don't get anymore pure lead, then I'll have to buy it from RotoMetals or other suppliers... Best Regards to ya, FC
Hank - Interesting, I just added a note on the video saying to RotoMetals that they should give casters 5+ pounds instead of 5-, just before I went to answer comments - and up pops yours. I think that RotoMetals says that the bars weigh approximately 5 pounds, not weigh at least 5 pounds. I talked to another shooter who bought from RotoMetals and he was disappointed that some of his bars weighed 4 3/4 pounds (even a bit less). My take is RotoMetals molds weigh what they do (see2)
dovani imamovic- reply 2- Thanks for the comment, but like I was urging - every shooter needs a continued source of lead - and even if I got you some lead - I cannot be that ongoing source for you. I pick up range scrap every visit to range, and I can't get enough for others. You need to find a source from local tire shops, junkyards, recycle yards, metal yards, roofers, dentists, or places like RotoMetals. Best Regards to ya...
FCLC45, I think its important to remember that Rotometals does use raw, virgin lead from out of the ground, which might explain some of the sand or dirt that some are experiencing.?. For me, I like to find a little evidence of their claim of using raw, clean, virgin lead. I got my first lead boolit casting ingot from Rotometals just the other day. I have not melted it down yet, but upon visual inspection and thumb-nail hardness test, I'm more than satisfied with this purchase. Thanks again for letting us know about Rotometals, AGW.:-)
AirGunWarriors - Thanks for posting - even when I put in a big chunk of their SH alloy into a pot of lead, before I stir, I can see a small amount of slag over the spot where the chunk settled in. There's always some slag even when we use our cleaned ingots - that's just the way it is - but with RM ingots, I've never seen a big problem. The reports of dirt are few, more complaints about the bars not quite weighing 5 pounds. I don't have any problems with it though, because I buy them by the bar and each bar is supposed to weight about 5 pounds - not exactly, or over, but about 5. Best to ya...and Good castin' to ya
chevy6299- reply 2- ammo for revolver shooting (low velocity and soft alloy not suitable for auto pistols), or for alloying with tin and antimony (the salvage guy may have some linotype or monotype - if so, get some of that too). Since he is a caster, you might ask him where he gets his tin and antimony for his harder lead needs (solder perhaps if not lino). And if he can't help you, RMs lino or SH will fill the bill. Best Regards...
Fortunecookie45LC,
I'm going to be picking up a couple of bullet molds for making hunting bullets, in .44 and .454 calibers, and I was wondering if the 9% or 10% antimonial lead I'll be using them for would be too hard for hollow points to expand? If so I'll just go with the round nose flat point bullet molds.
jungblud59 - As you are well aware since you are asking this - we tread a narrow path trying to get cast bullets to expand - takes soft lead at as much velocity as we can get (casters have tried with some results by annealing to get bullet noses soft while the driving bands are hard) - Our cast bullets work best as big bore hard cast slugs crashing through and letting out the blood...and they excel at doing that... Elmer Keith was a big proponent of powerful big bore handguns driving hard cast bullets. For expansion, JHPs with pure lead cores are the way to go...Best Regards...
jungblud59 hi, have you watched jiujitsu2000 youtube videos on using gas checks ?
dovani imamovic - Goodness, it's just range scrap, nothing special. The good stuff I get from RotoMetals and then I mix my own to be shot at my chosen velocities in my guns - tuned for performance. If I sell you my lead, it might not be right for your needs. My range scrap is the same as RM antimonial lead (maybe that is their purified version of range scrap and scrap shot from clay target ranges) except that RM really cleans better than I do. Every shooter needs continued source of lead...
Long ago I figured out that scrounging scrap lead, wheel weights etc of unknown composition and making a usefull alloy out of it wasnt worth the time and labor involved, not when I can buy a known alloy with certs from Rotometals for $20 per 5 lbs.
I've never had a problem with it.
What wads can you used with lee slugs and round ball without having to cut them down?
What ratio would you recommend for 45-70 cast lead bullets with gas checks? Good video!
I do believe that if you leave led in the melted condition for too long there will be some oxidation causing slag.
Be careful banging on your cast iron. Cast iron is pretty brittle. It doesn't take too much shock to crack it, particularly if there's a flaw or square corner where a stress fracture can start.
_Suburban_ - That sure explains the one time I split my Lyman ingot mold - I still use that one to cast a couple of 1 pound ingots at a time. None of my other cast iron has failed though over 40 years of use...but I have newer cast iron that I have added to take some of the load off my old stuff. It's all good. I'll keep the banging down a bit, but if I crack any of my cast iron, it's really cheap now from Costco. Have a great 4th, FC Steve
I recently acquired 184 lbs. of lead alloy from a scrap yard , all in ingot form . I did the thumb nail test and it is about 18 bhn . They worked well for my 30-30 cast bullets. There was about 10 lbs of ingots that look like the super hard in your video . My thumb nail doesn't make a mark at all on these ingots . I don't know if they are super hard or maybe zinc alloy . Is there a way to tell for sure or should I just not use those ingots ?
James Pollard - Congrats on the 184 - Zinc alloy would be much lighter than your lead bars. Zinc is 7 gms/cm3 while lead is 11. Plus, when you drop a lead ingot on the sidewalk, it hits with a dull sound. Zinc will sound more of a metallic ring to it. If your hard ingots sound the same as your softer lead ingots, it should be OK. Another test is that when your lead ingots melt, your hard lead ingots should also melt at the same time, If your hard ingots refuse to melt into your freshly melted lead, it is probably zinc. If you continue to heat it past 787, the zinc will melt into your lead and ruin it. Best to ya, FC
If any zinc was in your alloy it WILL NOT make good cast bullets !
Hank - I think that I accepted the concept of bars being sold by the dimensioned bar and not by weight so long ago, that I just don't have any problem with what I've been buying. I get the product that I want and need and it does exactly what it's supposed to do. I just get their bars and happily cast away. New customers at RMs are on the weight concept, and it's my fault for not pointing out that RM deals by the bar as alloy weights will vary. Best Regards to ya...
Thanks FC45LC. Great info as always.
Great test. Getting into casting I'm probably going to have a plethera of questions about mixing alloys and leads. That is if I haven't seem a vid you've done on it first :-D
MadMetalManiac74- There is so much technical stuff out there on bullet casting, but when you get right down to it - the simple workings of casting can be done by anyone (even buffalo hunters on the frontier over campfires)...we don't need to take it to the microcrystalline level or to the level of lead alloy complexes formed by water quenching vs post - cast annealing, etc etc...Good castin' to ya...
I have noticed sand like material from the Rotometal bars but not that much maybe 5%-10%
Jerry Bradley - Sorry your comment was missed so the reply didn't happen till now - If I got 5-10% sand, I'd be a little perturbed as well. But when I mix my alloys as I cast bullets, I just melt the portion of RM bars right into my lead. So if there was any sand, it might get masked. What I did was clean up my skillet as well as I could, then take only a whole bar of RM linotype and melt it. Didn't seem to be any sand or dirt in there. There was a very small amount of slag that came up, but this always happens any time any lead is melted. Apparently, this sand/dirt thing is a bigger problem for bars of pure RM's lead. I have no explanation on this, as I did contact RMs and their answer was that 10%-50% dirt in the lead bars would be easily visible as it would float to the top before the bar cooled so that it would be seen - If the bars look like alloy, that is what it is. Yet I know that customers don't look to make complaints, so there has to be something there. And not all RM customers complain. It's mystifying….Best to ya...
Guys I’m absolutely new to all of this! I have just ordered a 9mm mold and I have been preping my work station to get ready, but I’d there Ingots out there that I can order/purchase that is already ready to be molded for 9mm bullets? I seen the Lyman #2 and hardball, from what I read about it, I took it that it was pretty versatile for 9mm, and other molds. Please help thank you
where might i find dental lead foil ?? is it x-ray material ?? Thanks
I like the blue color of your burner flame.
+UnstoppableNick69 -- Highly desirable for the best results indeed... Have a great evening, FC
Pour 1/2 into the mold use a spoon to scrape away a trough while soft, fill with dirt and seal the top with lead.
Never had any issues at all with RotoMetals. I've been buying large 50lb ingots with little slag.
chevy6299-I'd phone some metal recyclers tomorrow to see if they have any lead pipe, but no need - I just keep picking up some range scrap for free each trip to the range. And I'll be lucky to be able to do that until some point when they say no...
Sorry, I forgot to mention that these will be for in the 1200- 1700 fps range without gas checks. Unless you would recommend that I use gas checks.
what did you use as your ingot mold....
looks like a cast iron cornbread pan?
+MrsRanMac - Lodge Cast Iron Products makes a number of nice cast iron scone and muffin molds that are fine ingot molds... I have their scone and muffin mold - and they are not expensive either... Best Regards to ya!! FC
Old video but it popped up on my feed. Interesting though, I recently got some Rotometals ingots and for the first time I got huge amounts of dross when I fluxed. Not 30% but more than I've ever seen in over 40 years of casting. I've bought from Rotometals for about 20 years and never had this happen before, makes me wonder of it was just this batch and that occasionally happens to an occasional batch in poor quality control
Awesome info FC thanks
Quite a difference in material density; slag-dirt v. lead. This equates to a weight difference between the lead and non-metallic inclusions. This should have been noticeable and first compared to a known weight standard before melting the advertised weight ingot.
Plenty of houses like that here in West Virginia.
Fortunecookie45LC,
I just ordered some super hard lead from roto metals with the 30% antimony alloy, a lady friend of mine came up with a mixture ratio of 4.5 parts of the 92/6/2 alloy to 1 part of the 70/'30 alloy to achieve 9% antimony in the lead for rifle bullets . I just wanted to touch base with you and see if her figures are correct.
jungblud59 - By my calculations, diluting 1 to 4.5 gives you a total of 5.5 call it 6. You are therefore adding 5 points of hardness to the total 6. Meanwhile, you are diluting the 6% antimony of the 92 alloy to roughly 5 by the dilution. So your final antimony is 10%. For all intents and purposes, your friend and I are calculating the same as there will be errors in the mixing anyway. Your alloy should make fine rifle bullets. I wouldn't go any softer. If your bullets are .001"-.0015" over groove diameter, you are going to be in business...Best to ya...
andyaux09- Thanks for the question. Just posted a video titled So Many Wads, So Little Time on just this…Best Regards to ya and Good shootin' to ya...
Yep, normally ebay's great. I got a bad one. It happens. Luckily I was able to find & remove the zinc prior to putting it in the smelter. Dirt's pretty easy to remove during the fluxing stages.
On a more positive note, Midway was selling [and I bought one] a Lyman aluminum bullet mold, a .309 - 180g 2-bullet mold with handles for $20 !!! I love a good deal :)
All the best to ya. Tried the salsa yet? :)
I have another question for you o
great ruler of all things lead, bullets and reloading. What are your
thoughts on Foundry lead? I have been searching ebay for linotype and
monotype and have seen listings for Foundry Lead. What is this?
Greg Smith Foundry lead is used to produce extra hard printing type when alloyed with regular linotype. You would do this if you were running more copies of whatever it was you were printing. I've never found any of this as linotype is as hard an alloy as we would ever need. The closest to this is Superhard alloy (30% antimony). If you find any Foundry Lead, it will probably be on the expensive side. Also, bullets cast any harder than linotype would be too brittle in many shooting applications. Good castin' to ya
Thanks,
I have found some and the intention is to mix it with some of my softer lead to achieve a desired hardness. Do you see any problem with doing this?
Greg Smith None whatsoever, casters do that all the time. One thing though is that if you have soft lead - that is fine as is for muzzleloading and shotgun slugs. Some casters really cherish the soft lead for that. Once you put your foundry lead in to harden it, you are in business for casting centerfire handgun bullets. Best to ya
Yes I have soft pure lead and other hardness' as well. I won't be mixing into the pure lead until I run out of the other. Thank you for your assistance once again. Happy shooting.
Thy probably let the lead oxidize while molten.
I save my tin and lead slag and when I have a bunch of it, I remelt it and do get just a little more out of that slag.
You might add that dirt or slag would show up on top of the bar as dust or a crumbly slag that would rub or fall off in handling. Dirt will not "alloy" with lead.
dale meade - Thanks for bringing this out...needed to be brought out...Happy Thanksgiving to ya...!! FC
Why do you use Rotometals super hard instead of their foundry alloy? The foundry alloy would add tin instead of just antimony?
dale meade - The RM foundry alloy would be very fine to use. I have enough tin in range scrap that Superhard gets me more antimony than the foundry. But you are right, the foundry alloy is intriguing. I will be getting that in the future. Best to ya, FC
+FortuneCookie45LC ok, my concern is too much antimony can cause brittleness in the bullet alloy. Range scrap or wheel weights have both tin and antimony but super hard adds only antimony. That can increase brittleness to a risky level at rifle bullet speeds. Plus the antimony tends to increase surface oxidation when tin decreases this tendency. I will be waiting with interest for your evaluation of foundry alloy as an alternative to super hard.
dale meade - That was the problem trying to get cast bullets hard enough to shoot to full rifle velocities - if pure Linotype was used (BHN 22) the bullets could be shot faster, but the brittleness on impact ruined the usefulness. My use of Superhard is to raise the BHN to the 15-18 range only. BHN 18 is a good alloy for magnum pistol and light rifle. For more than that, I'd just switch to jacketed bullets. With today's powder coating, many are taking cast bullets to higher velocities without leading, but at some point, the rifling will not hold whether powder coated or not..I am not doing more until powder coaters get the accuracy issues solved with high velocity... Best Regards, FC
Try Zipmetals.com they are a bit cheaper than roto metals.
can i use plumbing lead to cast bullets
Julio Cuevas - Plumber's lead is almost pure lead...You should add some linotype to it 1 to 1 mix and you will get what is called Hardball Alloy - same performance as Lyman #2 slloy. Best to ya, FC
Yep you are right. How could you get 1.5lbs dirt in a 5lb bar. You would see it before you even melted it.
I wish an experience caster would say why that happens. It happened to me. I bought a 5lb bar from Rotometal and about 2 lb was junk. I contacted Rotometal. They told me I am the only one with a complain in 70 years. I don't now why they don't see the complains in the forums. In any case Rotometal said over heating causes that but I took 5lb of plumber lead and heated the hell out of it to 1000F and that did not happen to it and did not change to clay. I won't buy from Rotometal again.
Sorry, Looked at their site. They sell by the bar. Not pound. Hank
i like roto metals and buy hundreds of pounds of birdshot from them pretty regularly. i started casting shotgun slugs for my own use with a lee pot brand new. bought 3 bars of hardball lead from them and two bars were just awful third one was almost ok. had so much forgeign material, dirt/sand/ ???? it filled half a 2lb. coffe can. this is a great company and im sure it was a fluke, or a couple of flukes, but it did happen to me also. i wrote to them and they got back to me but we were already packing up at end of winter to come north again so i did not pursue it. stuff happens in production lines and i don't hold it against them. shame about prices, but i think they do a good job. best to all, rgw/73/usa
Yep, .30-06 & 30-30. Well, this particular mold isn't for the 30-30, my flat nose mold covers that base. I've been to the range a couple times doing load dev. on my 30-06 with the lead bullets and as of yet, haven't found the right powder & load combo. Just a matter of time. It's good these bullets are cheap LOL, I'm using quite a few finding that powder-sweet-spot.
Enjoy the salsa, no matter how you change the very important & tested recipe... that shouldn't be changed LOLOL, kidding :)
TheDave570-Quite a few viewers are now getting dental lead-check your dentist-if still using x-ray film (roughly 1 out of 2.75 dentists still non-digital), they are collecting the lead foils from the film packets for waste haulers to take away. Ask them to save the x-ray lead for you instead. Check dentists of other family members. You can easily get 25-40 pounds @ 6 months from 1 dentist for free. Perfect for slugs or muzzleloaders. Please see my videos on Need Lead-Here's a Secret Source
I have purchased two seperate orders from these people on two seperate occasions. the first was a small order of 10 lbs or 2 bars. the lead was supposed to be 99.9 % pure. In fact it was a very clean lead once melted. I cast a couple hundred 45-70 .457 bullets for my Martini9 Henry. The second order was 15 lbs and I have to tell you it was the dirtiest lead i have evr used. I had to keep skimming the dirt and slag off the top of my melt. I will call them before i buy any more !!!!
RyeOnHam- I see what you mean - Pretty hard to make a bar that bad. I'm sure that if RotoMetals let two bars like that get out, they would be mortified. And they would be having many many casters screaming and yelling. Sounds like those negative reviews were either rare flukes, or something unscientific or weird happened. Thanks for the info...
FortuneCookie45LC. Yep last batch I ordered was Crap lyman#2 so much slang I threw it out antimonies had to be separating
I am one of those unlucky ones who got a bad 5lb bar from Rotometal. It was 30-35% red junk. something was wrong with it's composition. They won't admit it because is not good for their reputation.
probably had a new employee that want up to par that day they got there bars would be my guess
+Miles Huggins -- I suppose there are many possible explanations - but RM has been in business to casters for over 75 years - can't build a good business giving customers slag and dirt... Best to ya, lFC
So why don't you tell us what we could be doing wrong that we get 35% clay. What could it be?
Hello, Why would you not be concerned with a 5lb bar being under weight? What if you bought 25lbs of lead and each bar was under weight. Don't you think you have some kind of recourse. Or will you live with it. Just Asking, Hank
It doesn't seem that difficult to collect, clean, and cast your own lead. I guess some folks are too busy for all that.
POV NW - Some have reported that they have much difficulty finding lead supplies. Here is CA, we used to be able to buy linotype for 35 to 55 cents a pound. And we could get wheel weights from any tire shop. Then regulations were passed whereby sources were shut down to the public - tire shops had quotas of wheel weights that they had to turn in to prevent selling wheel weights to the public on the QT. Luckily, I can get range scrap from the range, but who knows if that will be shut down at some point. They could even stop lead sales in CA (don't want to give the anti gunners any ideas). Then we'd have to go out of state. Best policy is to have lead reserves on hand at any event. Have a great day, FC Steve
same here.. I also found other foreighn material in mine.....not sure what it was,,,,they also buy used.. old material.perhaps they are not paying attention to what they are melting....also very expensive...roto metals are not the greatest..
how 1bar rotometaks here now
I got a bar of linotype and I got 99% use
Hey, I hate to be a bore. Are you buying by the lb. or the bar? If buying by the bar you would correct. But your buying by the pound. They should adjust the price if the bars come out short. I'm sure if your you tubers comes out short most of the time, the law will be looking at their business practices. Hank
I got my first order from RM very good stuff. I just seen on their site they dropped their price on pig ingot from 119.00 to 99.00 52-55 lbs.
DON C. - That is a great savings - My own base lead is picked up for free at our range - can't beat free. Best to ya and thanks for posting this for shooters who buy their lead...
I purchased a 5lb bar fro Rotometal. It was full of dirt. I say about 30 t0 35% dirt. What is going on? Please don't put your good reputation on junk. They may be sending you good lead but not to us. If you want, give me your address and I ship to you what was in a 5lb bar.
Rotometals are short on weight again!
Don't buy from they over charge for wrong product also there customer service is horrible
S