Lead free solder?

[gishooter]

What is the composition of the new lead free solder that is being sold in all the box stores?
I've heard (depending on the brand) they are 95% tin/5% antimony. Is this true?
I've used 9 Lyman ingots of wheel weights to 1 pound of 50/50 plumbing solder in the past for my cast .30 rifle and .45ACP. But I can't find 50/50 anymore more at a reasonable cost. Help!:cry:

[bumpo628]

There are three types that I have seen: antimony, copper, and silver. They all have 95% tin and 5% of the other metal. The antimony mix seems to be the most common.

Your previous mix had more than 5% tin and 2 to 3% antimony, depending on the WW composition.
Have you tried just straight WW for the 45acp?

[gishooter]

No, I haven't tried straight wheel weights for the .45ACP. I'll try it this weekend in .45 and 9mm to see how they cast. Any idea what brands contain the antimony? I did not see composition listed on the few brands I checked at the store.

[R.M.]

Go to there.the manufacturers webpage, they should list it there.

[BoolitSchuuter]

What I have shows 5% silver on the label. Which would explain why it cost 21 dollars a pound.

[shooterg]

I picked up 2 1lb. rolls of solder at the flea market this past weeked for 4 bucks. One is labeled 95% tin, 5% antimony, the other says only "Lead Free Solder" and "a silver bearing alloy". Can I assume it's 95% tin & 5% silver ? And what, if anything does the silver do in a boolit mix ? Good for vampires and werewolves, maybe zombies ? or ?

[KohlerK91]

What I have shows 5% silver on the label. Which would explain why it cost 21 dollars a pound.

Guy at the flea market wanted 20 bucks for a role of solder too. I wanted it for casting and not for a second was going to pay $20 for a roll of solder.

But the next table down yeilded about 7lbs of mixed solder for ..............$4.00Some of it is labeled 50/50 or 60/40. Others are a mystery

A few more tables past that yeilded about a pund for a DOLLAR.....and it was clearly 50/50 solder.


As for the mystery solder I gues I will just assume its tin. I dont think it can hurt can it?

[bumpo628]

For casting purposes, the 5% metal does not really matter. It is little more than trace elements at the ratios we use for boolits.

Here are a couple of examples:
1 lb 95/5 solder + 18.00 lbs pure lead = alloy with 5% tin, 0.26% other
1 lb 95/5 solder + 22.75 lbs pure lead = alloy with 4% tin, 0.21% other
1 lb 95/5 solder + 30.75 lbs pure lead = alloy with 3% tin, 0.16% other
1 lb 95/5 solder + 46.50 lbs pure lead = alloy with 2% tin, 0.11% other
1 lb 95/5 solder + 94.00 lbs pure lead = alloy with 1% tin, 0.05% other

If anything, the other metal % would just serve to harden the alloy a bit.

[gbrown]

I look for old pewter. I have about 5 # to smelt now. There are some threads on this area that give information on it. I smelted some alloy with 9.5# WW and .5 # pewter and it came out at 14+ bhn with my Lee tester, after aging. A good, hard alloy for hotter loads. Plain WW should work fine for .45's. A lot of the pewter is of unknown composition, you need to test it and check. I have made a couple of bonehead buys of stuff--didn't cost a lot, like 2 or 3 dollars, but it turned out to be some zinc based alloy. I'm always on the lookout for pewter.

[leadman]

Air cooled WW should work fine for 45 acp pistol loads. You may want to water drop the bullets for the 9mm.

[paul h]

Straight air cooled ww's are fine for most pistol applications. I use them in 9mm, 357 mag, 44 mag, 45 acp and 480 ruger. I've driven them from 700 fps to 1500 fps. Just use a good lube and size them 0.001" over bore if your gun will chamber such slugs.

[garym1a2]

We use a lot of 96sn/4ag solder at work (Tin/Silver).