Cannonball true weight......

[Seafever]

A couple years back I bought 2 cannonballs off a guy that pours them himself.

They were 12 lb'ers.

At the time I thought they were a tad shiny for an all-lead ball.

But the price was good ....

never used them...they were spares..

Always thought they felt a little light for 12's so yesterday I put them on the scales to see..

Turns out they actually weigh 10 even though 12 is stamped on the side......

I think he mixed some other metals in with the lead when he made them...

Guess you can't be too careful these days......

 

[halimark]

FA must be fishing?? He should be all over this.

HM

 

[Sr SQ]

Not sure if that was the reason or if the molds were just undersized....?
I know the molds I have now are between 1-1.5 pounds ( some pics in my F/S ad) heavy regardless of the lead I have used however one of the first molds I bought, a #10 poured balls @ #8.5
I havent used lead from a lot of different sources (xray sheet and hydro splice wrap) but from where I have used it, it dosent seem to change the weight of the balls enough to notice.
Not sure how other metals could be mixed in as the melting points are so different, but I am no expert?
I find if the molds hot and the lead is the right temp mine come out really shiny, but the lead will patina fairly quickly even when stored indoors.

 

[Fish Assassin]

FA must be fishing?? He should be all over this.

HM

Yup..... There is a thread about crap balls. Many of them out there. Turns out if they are cheap enough no one seems to care... I thinks it a freaken joke.....

 

[Seafever]

I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.....I might use them for inshore reef rock-banging..

Right now I use planers for that......but on occasion I'll use c/balls .....and after they've smashed a few rocks and hung up on bottom I take them home and work them over with a ball-peen hammer until they are nice and round again with no holes in them.

So I can find a use for these......they've sat in the basement for a long time now......

 

[Lank Thompson]

He will have used a tin/antimony/lead mix or a combination thereof. It makes it much easier to make a clean object (cannonball, bullet etc) from a mould. Pure lead can be a little fussy in comparison. Also a lot harder than pure lead so resists deformation. The mould would be sized for pure lead.