Linotype with bnh of 15?

[donovansn585]

I got a box of what I thought was linotype yesterday and it tested a bnh of 15. Just wondering if any knows why it's is? It is type lead cause it still has the words on it from a printing press it has not yet been melted down. Thanks Sean

[Hickory]

Just wondering if any knows why it's is?

Probably worn out.
After being recast time after time antimony and tin are lost from slagging off the dross.

[donovansn585]

I got a box of what I thought was linotype yesterday and it tested a bnh of 15. Just wondering if any knows why it's is? It is type lead cause it still has the words on it from a printing press it has not yet been melted down. Thanks Sean

[kbstenberg]

Just guessing. Could it be that it has been used enough (re-melted multiple times) that the tin level has been decreased to minimal levels. Kevin

[RogerDat]

Linotype they printed todays news paper on the thin strips for printing then re-melted the strips to re-cast into pigs (bar with the eye hole) to re-use the next day. Alloys would get depleted, when it was low enough they would add back in alloy. If you got some that was at the low point for alloy but not yet freshened you could see reduced BHN.

Get a scrap yard to x-gun it and you will know exactly what you have. How are you testing the BHN?

[donovansn585]

I'm testing it using a lee hardness tester which for most of my other testing has been very accurate, I have some pure lead and when testing that it comes out perfect. I am going to melt down a bunch of the linotype let it sit and retest it. This am I mixed 1/4 Lino to 3/4 pure and casted a few boolits I immediately tested th and got a bnh of 12 very happy with those results

[bangerjim]

12 is good.....12 is fine. Use you quasi-lino in good health!

If you wait a week rather than testing it "immediately" the hardness will probably be even higher. I normally see a 3-4 increase after about a week or two. If you PC everything, you really do not have to worry about hardness anymore anyway. 12 is a good target hardness for most target shooting.

bangerjim

[bangerjim]

This question was posed in ANOTHER thread and there are more answers there. No need to double post questions.

banger

[Defcon-One]

It is not Linotype! Simple as that.....

The only way to know what you have is to have it tested, but it sounds like you have about 1/2 the Antimony that you should. My Linotype metals have all tested pretty close to 4% Tin, 12% Antimony, 84% Lead, BHN of 19 to 20, but my hardness tester is not perfect either. None of mine hit 21. (That is for both strips and shop ingots.) They are not dead on, but close enough that there was no doubt what it actually is.

Yours was either "worn out" as stated above or someone at the shop was cheap and used a lesser alloy. Maybe they were running a small job where the volume was low enough that they did not need harder type to prevent wear or maybe they used Lyman #2 alloy by mistake? Who knows!

A photo of it wouldn't hurt, if you can post one?

[madsenshooter]

I had some rules that was supposed to be lino. By rules, I mean it had a fine line on it that was supposed to print, like the boxes around our posts. It tested 15 also. Some of what you got may be the proper hardness, or the shop may have just been recycling what they had rather than rejuvenating it. Printers aren't metallurgists, as long as it got the job done, good enough.

[RogerDat]

I'm testing it using a lee hardness tester which for most of my other testing has been very accurate, I have some pure lead and when testing that it comes out perfect. I am going to melt down a bunch of the linotype let it sit and retest it. This am I mixed 1/4 Lino to 3/4 pure and casted a few boolits I immediately tested th and got a bnh of 12 very happy with those results

According to the lead alloy calculator one part Lino to three parts Plain should yield right about 12 BHN not sure why the low reading on the plain Lino before casting. But if it really had half the antimony I would think a mix with your ratio would be much softer. In the end if you get good boolits then it's all good.

I had a lino pig that pencil tested around 15 but when checked with a gun was fine.

[fecmech]

Could be electrotype. Have an old NRA BHN list and it shows electrotype as BHN 12.

[RogerDat]

Could be electrotype. Have an old NRA BHN list and it shows electrotype as BHN 12.

Two facts from OP posted do not reconcile. Lino with BHN of 15 and mixing 1 part of that Lino alloy to 3 parts plain lead yielding a BHN 12 cast boolit. I suspect one of the two is incorrect data. Unless someone with a more fundamental knowledge of metallurgy, or casting experience can provide an explanation.

"Real" Lino with a BHN of 19 mixed in a 1:3 ration with "Real" plain lead would yield a BHN of 11.7 according to the alloy calculator based on formula provided by RotoMetals.

Three possibilities I can think of:

• BHN measurement of Lino as 15 was incorrect.
• What was mixed with Lino was not really plain lead but an alloy that brought antimony and/or tin to the mix.
• BHN measurement of the alloy resulting from the mix of Lino and plain as 12 was incorrect.

Answers started out assuming Lino BHN of 15 in original post was accurate so people suggested depletion, other alloys etc. to explain the low BHN. With the results of mixing having a 12 BHN it seems to me that something very interesting from an alloy standpoint is going on or one of the possibilities I listed has taken place.

[donovansn585]

Thanks everyone for the info sorry about the double post

[Lloyd Smale]

like was allready stated id guess that lead was cut with something else. Ive been getting linotype for 30 years and have had it test as high as 22 and as low as 18-19 and the batches i got that low the printer told me it was older reused stuff, never saw it as low as 15.

[meeesterpaul]

Hardly any linotype that I have scanned has been the 4% 12% *4% mix. More typically it run around 3% <11% 86+% which should test out a full 1 BNH less then fresh 4/12/84.
I do have foundry type etc that I can mix in to harden it more but I'm going the other way for my use.

[GLL]

Run a controlled cooling test of your alloy while accurately recording temperature drop.
If you graph time vs. temp true linotype will produce a distinct eutectic "flat" in the curve at 465 degrees F !

I always run this test for any large batch of linotype I buy.

Jerry

[Larry Gibson]

You will get a light reading if you are just BHN testing the printer strips. Not sure why but I always do. Cast come bullets and test them at every 24 hours through 7 - 10 days. That will tell the real BHN of the alloy as bullets.

Larry Gibson