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CA-ALL Red brass shot, nuggets, ingots ?
- Thread starter DaveK
- Start date
Canada Wide
Aren't bullet casings red brass? Scrap casings are pretty easy to get a hold of
I am looking for casting nuggets/ingots not rod/hex/tube/flat-bar. I actually called those folks, the gentleman I spoke with had no understanding of casting material. Do you have a source for nuggets or ingots ? Like this but in Canada :
Brass 85/5/5/5 UNS C83600 - Belmont Metals
Leaded red brass is typically found in plumbing applications. It is known for its reasonable cost with good machining and casting properties. The lead content ensures pressure tightness. Red brass is also used for low-cost bearing materials under low loads.
www.belmontmetals.com
Thanks,
Dave
I am looking for casting nuggets/ingots not rod/hex/tube/flat-bar. I actually called those folks, the gentleman I spoke with had no understanding of casting material. Do you have a source for nuggets or ingots ? Like this but in Canada :
Brass 85/5/5/5 UNS C83600 - Belmont Metals
Leaded red brass is typically found in plumbing applications. It is known for its reasonable cost with good machining and casting properties. The lead content ensures pressure tightness. Red brass is also used for low-cost bearing materials under low loads.
Thanks,
Dave
Buy rod or what ever and cut it up into smaller chucks.
Since your casting anyways could you just make it, copper, lead, tin and zinc right ?
Most of that could be salvaged, definitely cheaper, might even be easier as a those items are definitely easier to source
Brass must not be used much for production in Canada, seems to be hard to get....I put some feelers out to Ryerson and few other special metal suppliers a while back for a quantity order (I was willing to buy 5k$ worth or so), and no one could really get anything
Most of that could be salvaged, definitely cheaper, might even be easier as a those items are definitely easier to source
Brass must not be used much for production in Canada, seems to be hard to get....I put some feelers out to Ryerson and few other special metal suppliers a while back for a quantity order (I was willing to buy 5k$ worth or so), and no one could really get anything
mickeyf
Ultra Member
I have a collection of brass plumbing fittings I'm hoping to try casting with some day, but I have no idea what the composition is or how well they will work for that. if "Leaded red brass is typically found in plumbing applications" who knows, it might be just fine. Do you know the original use of your scrap?
I'm not sure if your question was rhetorical?
A quick google search says leaded red brass is the most common and typically used in things such as screws , valves, fittings...
So maybe you already have a collection? I'm not sure if there is a way to test the composition of the brass, but what have you got to loose by melting it down into an ingot and seeing how well it flows...etc
A quick google search says leaded red brass is the most common and typically used in things such as screws , valves, fittings...
So maybe you already have a collection? I'm not sure if there is a way to test the composition of the brass, but what have you got to loose by melting it down into an ingot and seeing how well it flows...etc
I haven't priced this option, just assuming that any formed metal will be significantly more expensive than new casting material (about $15 / pound).
That is plan B, add lead to unknown-alloy scrap. Yes it seems the pure metals are more easily sourced (compared to specific brass alloys).
Most of my original melts were old brass figurines. I doubt the alloy was intended to be machined, and is likely a bronze. Unfortunately I don't have much old brass plumbing fittings, but suspect they would be OK.
No, and no collection of plumbing fittings
. There are ways to test the alloy, but not sure I am interested in going to the trouble of a "eureka" process. Frankly that is why I am looking for a source of known alloy. But ya, plan B is to tweak scrap brass/bronze (add lead) and test for machinability. I believe that most brass/bronze scrap will flow fairly well but its machinability will be a crap shoot. Certainly my first castings were tough as hell, not what I want to deal with in my various planned projects.Aye, that it i$. I paid a lot for the bits of bar and rod in my materials pile, not sure I want to melt them down .... yours either
but thanks for the consideration. I can buy scrap from the unwitting for under $5/pound, it's just a little more work and time and unreliable.Dave
Phone Inproheat in Edmonton, and see what they have to say. They supplied a bunch of the foundries doing Art Casting out near Regina, and while they mainly dealt with the big plants, they also were not willing to tell the small buyers to get lost! The carried various Bronze alloys for casting, and if they could get those, they will know who to talk to for other alloys.
I kinda doubt you will find anyone selling smaller than some pretty large qty's of casting nuggets or shot, without you paying way over the odds for it at a Jewellery making supply house, probably in 1 pound jars, if not ounce baggies.
I kinda doubt you will find anyone selling smaller than some pretty large qty's of casting nuggets or shot, without you paying way over the odds for it at a Jewellery making supply house, probably in 1 pound jars, if not ounce baggies.
Yeah, I know it's an old post, but the info is good, at least in my opinion.
I may be biased a bit...
Skip the unknown alloys.
Scrounge copper (plumbers, electricians, probably wise to pay them what they would get as scrap), zinc is easy, used in a lot of tire wheel weights [marked as Zn.] these days, as well as for sacrificial anodes for boat motors and hot water tanks, and lots of other places). The bullet casters that used to be hot on scrounging wheel weights at tire shops have cut way back, due to the reduction in use of lead in wheel weights. If you know a guy that casts his own bullets, he may have a bucket of zinc that he will hand along! You only need 3/4 pound, for a 15 pound batch.
Lead Free plumbing Solder is bout 97% tin with traces of copper and silver making up the rest, in most of it. Tin ingots are not that hard to source, but for the 'easy button' a roll of Lead-Free goes a long ways. Pricey though.
I have read of, but do not have offhand, the composition of, some shot that the foundries used to use, when pouring brass, to 'innoculate' the flask, just before the pour, essentially to replace the elements lost during the melt and subsequent additional heat in the furnace. May be worth looking in to, may not be... Have also read of using glass or similar on top of the melt, to keep it from absorbing gasses at temperature. More reading...
You may know, but others may not, that welding or melting and overheating Zinc can cause a lot of white smoke, which if breathed in, can cause severe headaches among other side effects. Puking too, if you get enough of it. Not fatal, but miserable. Drink milk, if you are welding Galv, or you cloud yourself out, in the foundry. Big white snotty clouds of the stuff in the air, the first time I oveheated a brass melt!