Wiping Solder

[Gun Junkie]

A friend of mine, recently retired from the phone company, traded me three bars of 'wiping solder' for a 500 count box of commercial cast 44SWC bullets. The bars are about 6.5" X 1.5" X 2.25" loose dimensions.

He said they were like 50/50 bar solder?

I remember melting lead phone joint casings and using them as pure lead. This stuff doesn't look like pure lead, but does anyone know the tin content in this stuff. I'd love to use it to mix with wheelweights.

[grumpy one]

The same question has been asked and answered here several times recently. Wiping solder is low-tin solder, designed to stay mushy for as long as possible while cooling. High-tin solder (close to the 60-40 eutectic) passes from liquid to solid without passing through a mush mode.

There has to be enough tin to allow the material to bond with lead pipe, but no more than that. As far as I recall, they told me at school that it is about 15% tin.

Geoff

[Gun Junkie]

Thanks for the info Grumpy One. I hadn't seen the info before....guess I shoulda woulda coulda done a search eh?

Oh well, anyway thanks, I can still use it, just not what I thought it might be.

Gun Junkie