Alloys alloys alloys - all questions

[toecutter]

So, I've been working on doing quite a bit of casting lately with my new magma master caster, and I've been trying to find a reasonable way of adding tin to the WW I've been using to cast.

So far, the only product I was able to find (at a reasonable cost) was a lead-free solder consisting of 95.5% tin, 4% copper, and .5% silver. I add this at about 1.25oz/10lbs bumping up the tin in my WW by about 1%.

I know copper is a big no-no (affects wetting, to my knowledge) but with this mix, I'm adding about .0003% copper to the mix. And so far I've not seen any wetting problems, I get good mold fill with the occasional raisin when first starting (molds are cold). Does anyone have any comments on this? I typically add the solder to my large dutch oven I use for pre-melting the stuff before it goes in to the magma pot. I also flux aggressively with wax and sawdust during this process. Don't know if that has any affect.

Should I be adding more tin to the mix? or is it workable to simply use raw WW alloy?

The other question I have, can anyone recommend a good tutorial for heat treating WW alloy?

[Bass Ackward]

There is no such thing as "pure" lead. It always has .... minute percentages of several elements that we refer to .... as nasties. Copper requires more heat, so it is counter productive to adding tin.

There is no secret "perfect mix". The secret is using any mix in the "correct" pressure range. Ask hard lead to putts along and you will hate it. Try and max out pure and you will hate that too. What determines the difference between putts and max is your guns condition and THE LUBE you choose to run. I find lube much more critical to accuracy in big bore rifles and wheelguns.

You need to find yourself another source for "pure" tin. I get mine off a board member here for $5 / lb. Search for member vp146b4 and send Bill an email.

[Andy_P]

I have a quantity of "Lead Free Solder" that is 99.3% tin and 0.7% copper (plus trace elements as always). I add it to wheelweight in a 1/50 ratio (i.e. 2%), which bumps the tin content of the mix to about 3% and dilutes the copper to a trace element at about 0.014%. It works wonderfully - as if it was pure tin.

Why not just buy a pound and try it? I'd add 1%, see how it goes, then move to 2%. As you pointed out, 4% copper diluted 1:100 gives 0.04%, which I think qualifies as "trace".

[toecutter]

Bass:

Thank you very much, for the tip on pure tin. I'll look him up and shoot him a mail. That will save me quite a bit over the solder I'm currently using. For the most part, all I'm loading are boolits for my wheel gun. Mostly cowboy loads in a .45 colt, lube wise I'm using US army 1871 - 1 part beeswax, 3 part tallow.

I need to do some more testing, but I may load the same alloy in .454 casull, provided it's hard enough, from what I can tell, anything that's approaching about 28-30BHN should be acceptable with a decent lube for this application.

Andy:

With the mix I'm currently using the copper is beyond trace, it's down to 3/1000th's of a percent. So, if what you say is true, it's not a big deal.

[wiljen]

I found a 95/5 solder under the dutch boy label that is 95% tin 5% Antimony. If you can find it, you'll skip the copper and be adding something worth having.

[Lloyd Smale]

I use a babbit that has a trace of copper in it and at first i went to the bother of smelting it to remove what i could. It was a pain in the but and to be honest i never noticed that the alloys i made casted one bit better with it removed.

[buck1]

Thanks Bass! I was low on SN !!!.......Buck


There is no such thing as "pure" lead. It always has .... minute percentages of several elements that we refer to .... as nasties. Copper requires more heat, so it is counter productive to adding tin.

There is no secret "perfect mix". The secret is using any mix in the "correct" pressure range. Ask hard lead to putts along and you will hate it. Try and max out pure and you will hate that too. What determines the difference between putts and max is your guns condition and THE LUBE you choose to run. I find lube much more critical to accuracy in big bore rifles and wheelguns.

You need to find yourself another source for "pure" tin. I get mine off a board member here for $5 / lb. Search for member vp146b4 and send Bill an email.

[monadnock#5]

http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm#top

Here you go. On this site you will find alloy recipes and your tutorial on heat treating. RCBS and Lyman both publish cast boolit manuals. I have the RCBS Manual #1, which has teat treat info. You will find both complementary and contradictry information in the various resources. But after all, what we do is both an art and a science.

Ken

[WineMan]

I have a supply of wine capsules (the metal top that covers the cork on more $$ wines). They are painted (water based enamal) but I would assume that it would "burn off", they are 99.999% pure tin made in Spain. The $5 lb sounds right to me. I am in Northern CA so shipping might be an issue. Let me know by PM.