tin stash ques

[Chapped Lips]

Let's say you have 1000 lbs of smelted WW in the corner......how many lbs of tin would you like to have in the other corner?

:coffee:

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

20 lbs should work. (2%) is the most I typically add, it all depends on what I am casting.

On a similar thought, I have bought Tin from several sources here.
mostly the ingots are too large and are a pain to add an ounce or two
to a 20 lb pot. So, I melted them down and cast several hundred in
a 2 cav. 50 cal. Real boolit mold. I also made the sprues large.
So I have more than one size to easily add to the pot.
Jon

[Chapped Lips]

JonB......i also have decided to create a handy bin of 1 oz tin nuggets.

[Stick_man]

Let's see, 1000 lbs of WW in one corner, how many lbs of tin in the other corner? How big is the corner? If the price were right, I would want to have 1000 lbs of tin in the other corner, more if it would fit.

Tin is way more expensive than lead, so I don't think you could ever have too much in storage. If you have a higher tin:lead ratio than you like for your preferred alloy, I think it is easier to find lead then to find tin (at least on the pocketbook). If you have more tin or lead than you can use, you could always sell some of it to fund other purchases. Lead wheelweights may now be an endangered species, but there are still many other sources of lead for gathering. Some of that is pure, some is alloyed. Some could use some additional tin added for your desired mix.

[MtGun44]

Actually, the wwt should already have about 1% so that addition should need more like
1% which is 10 lb. IME, I don't always need ANY tin, only occasionally, so probably the
requirement is less than this.

10 1 lb spools of lead free solder would do it.

Bill

[geargnasher]

CL, only YOU can answer that question, because there's no rule that says what, if any, additional tin you NEED. I don't always add tin to clip-on wheel weight alloy. Usually I do, but not always. If I do, it's to affect the performance of the alloy, not improve castability, as most COWW metal has just enough tin to work well as-is if your moulds are the right temperature.

I collect as much cheap tin as I can, always on the lookout for old rolls of solder and pewter at estate sales, garage sales, flea markets, etc. If you have two pounds of tin thats probably enough to get you throught the next year unless you shoot a LOT.

Gear

[gray wolf]

I have no tin left in my stash, Does that make me a bad guy ?
Is there a punishment for this ?
If there is can Julie administer it ?

[lwknight]

It don't matter how much lead or WWs you have or don't have when you are talking getting cheap tin. Hoard all that you can. Its like gold and silver.

[Chapped Lips]

Appreciate the responses. All answers are valid based upon each one's experiences. Initially i had my thoughts wrapped around a straight ratio of lead-to-tin stockpile but your answers opened up a bunch of diff views for me.
The trading or reselling of acquired tin was an angle i never considered.