Capt Nemo 882 Posted February 13, 2013 Report Share Posted February 13, 2013 Save your pennies from 1982 and earlier. Just reading up on swaging bullets gave me an idea. The article said that 90/10 copper/zinc alloy is used for bullet jackets. Guess what old pennies are made from? The same 90/10 alloy!!! No wonder our gun grabbin gubmint changed them! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Shandlanos 1,470 Posted February 13, 2013 Report Share Posted February 13, 2013 Negative.pre-1982 copper pennies are 95% copper, 5% zinc. I'm not sure if that would work well for a jacket material - probably.Save those pennies, if for no other reason, then because the base metal value is already about 246% of face value. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Capt Nemo 882 Posted February 13, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2013 I'd have to dig it back up and see. Looks like the book I had on pennies is wrong! Pure copper was out as a jacket material, but the low zinc alloys are good. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
netpackrat 566 Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 Be aware that what you are proposing is against the law. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/331 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Shandlanos 1,470 Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 That does not apply. The purpose of that law was to prevent someone from, for example, stripping 1% of the weight from gold or silver coins, then passing them back into circulation at their full face value.Defacing currency and coin is not in and of itself illegal - otherwise those ubiquitous coin-stamping machines found at fairgrounds, museums, amusement parks and other miscellaneous attractions would not be so ubiquitous. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
netpackrat 566 Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 Yeah, you're right. I was confusing that with the anti-melt reg that was enacted a few years ago. Looking at the correct reg more closely, there is an exception for non-profit use of coins for other purposes: http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/31/82.2 Never mind. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HarvKY 72 Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 also of note........... Nickles produced up through a rather recent year are actually worth more than their .05 face value. I forgot the exact year but the mint has been changing them and many banks are reluctant to dispense extra quantities of rolled nickles Have fun Harv Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Capt Nemo 882 Posted February 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 Just dug up the info and I was wrong on the alloy percentages it's 94-96% copper and 4-6% zinc with traces of iron and lead (alloy 210). So at 97/3 pennies would be at the top of that range and should work similar. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gunfun 3,931 Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 Alt method: Mine the berm for range lead. Skim the jackets off the top and electro plate that copper back onto your cast bullets. It's already the right alloy. Possibly do similar only using fired 22lr brass as jacket anode material. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
netpackrat 566 Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 IIRC, RCBS got their start making dies for swaging spent .22 casings into jackets during WWII when reloading components were not available. You can still get dies for doing that from Corbin and other manufacturers. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IndyArms 10,186 Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 This is a pretty interesting site... for SURE!!! http://www.coinflation.com/ Lots of GOOD INFO... and CURRENT daily market price info as well!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
filthygovemploye 64 Posted March 1, 2013 Report Share Posted March 1, 2013 Alt method: Mine the berm for range lead. Skim the jackets off the top and electro plate that copper back onto your cast bullets. It's already the right alloy. Possibly do similar only using fired 22lr brass as jacket anode material. naw, ya would have to cast em undersize then no? requiring all new molds etc? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gunfun 3,931 Posted March 1, 2013 Report Share Posted March 1, 2013 I don't think so actually, If you do a fairly thin plate, you don't have to add meaningful thickness to prevent gas cutting. With cast bullets you usually want .001"- .002" over slugged diameter. It looks like you can plate a bullet maybe an additional ~.0004" and that is enough to prevent leading and gas cutting, but not enough to really change how easily the lead conforms to the rifling. So you get a slicker cleaner bullet and reduced lead handling without much change in load data needed. Basically just enough copper or brass to keep the rifling from cutting through the plate. Scratch a remington or cci plated 22lr. They put enough copper or brass blend to prevent lead smearing, but not so much that rifling doesn't cut the copper. I expect berrys and similar plated bullets go just barely thicker. I have been looking at others who are doing that, and as near as I can tell they are using standard bullets "as cast" (without sizing). The methods I have seen are absurdly laborious. Mostly because they are carefully hanging about 5-10 bullets from a cathode wire. They prove that plating works with hand cast though. My thoughts are more to make a couple racks. One would be a metal plate on the bottom of the tank. Basically you would take the plastic trays that factory ammo comes in and stick them on a belt sander so that every bullet placed in the trays would allow the tip to poke through. That way when you set it on the bottom of the tank they would all make contact with the same plate at the same height. (since they should all be the same length.)Then there would be another plastic mesh tray that the anode would go in sitting on top of that. This would hold a uniform gap between the anode and bullets so that they should plate at about the same rate. The way it looks in my head, I think you could get away with using scrap wiring as the anode and make a sort of tray that would allow you to just set it in the proper rows and hook on a couple gator clips. Another theoretical perk would be that you could possibly get away with using the easier to find pure soft lead without having to enrich your alloy. Since you don't need lube grooves anymore, you can choose molds that don't need tin to fill out the complex shapes. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gunfun 3,931 Posted March 1, 2013 Report Share Posted March 1, 2013 BTW, the most common complaints I have been finding about molds is that they cast under desired size to start with, so this could be a way to skip the "beagling" process. i.e. book size for 9mm is .356, however the vast majority of 9mm guns prefer .358" Nominal mold size is .356, but it might drop at .355" .005" of plating would take it up to the size a jacketed bullet would be, and maybe add the rigidity too. My lee 6 cav mold drops .358" with 50/50" WW/pure PB, So why mess with something that works. A fancy person could also dip the tips in wax and scratch off the very end (just to make electrical contact) before plating so that most of the tip did not get the plating for a Nosler partition effect. I don't want to mess with anything like this unless I can figure out a way to do it in large enough batches to make the work negligible. I might be willing to gas check rifle bullets, but I am still reluctant to bother. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
termite 463 Posted March 13, 2013 Report Share Posted March 13, 2013 So that big ass pickle jar I have in the basement FULL of pennies, that has to be moved with a set of hand trucks, might actually be worth something? I've been dumping pennies in this thing for YEARS, a few here and there when I have them. There is also a bunch of wheat pennies in there too. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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