Need advise on Lead

[mugsie]

I have a source of 63/37 bar solder. Can this be used for cast bullets or will it be too soft? I'd appreciate any advise you could give me.
thanks....

[cuzinbruce]

If you can get it cheap, it is a great source of tin for your boolit mix. I pick up 50/50 bar or wire solder when I can and use it for the tin in my pistol bullets. I use 15 pounds of pure lead (from pipe or sheet) and 2 pounds of 50/50 solder to get a 16-1 mix. Lyman lists it to make No. 2 bullet metal with wheelweights if I remember correctly.

[Castinoff]

Hi Mugsie,

If you've found an inexpensive source for these bars, I as well as others would be interested if you care to share your source.

[mugsie]

No one has said if it's acceptable for use as is. Is it?

BTW - I can get it from where I work. since I'm an employee, they allow me to purchase a few bars for myself every once in a while at their cost. Can I use this as it is already or must it be mixed with something else?
thanks...

[imashooter2]

You can cast with it straight, but it will be ruinously expensive and the boolits will be very light since they are cast of 63% tin. Even at "cost" that solder has to be many times the price of scrap lead.

If you go ahead with this, let us know where you shoot so we can go mine the berms.:)

[LeadThrower]

mugsie,
I'm looking at the phase diagrams for tin/lead alloy and your 63/37 solder is over on the primary field of crystallization for tin. As the liquid solution cools there will be solid tin crystals dissolved in a tin/lead solution until the mix cools to point where the remaining solution solidifies. I'm sure few folks have shot these expensive boolits, but my hunch is that they would not perform as desired -- particularly at the point of impact (shatter, perhaps?). Please see my pm.
LeadThrower

[Bullshop]

Trade ya some nice clean ww ingots for it.
BIC/BS

[xsquidgator]

Can anyone recommend decent places to buy solder for this purpose? Hardware stores don't seem to have anything that's not outrageously expensive and I'm not sure their electronics solder would be worth alloying with pure Pb anyway.

[grumpy one]

Shooting 67% tin is a really bad idea. It will ruin your casting pot, and is quite likely to do the same for gun barrels. Tin erodes ferrous metals, when it is hot enough to melt. Look at what happens to a soldering iron tip if you want proof. Lee warn against the use of high tin alloys in their casting post instruction sheet. In addition tin "tins" ferrous metals and is then extremely difficult to remove from them.

Your first step should be to decide what bullet performance you need, then select a conventional alloy to suit. You will need some tin in that alloy, but except for special circumstances it should not exceed 2% because you will be wasting tin, which is very expensive.

The obvious way to use your solder is as an additive, in very small quantities, to WW to make them easier to cast. For that application you should not exceed about 1.3% tin - any more is just wasted.

If you should end up casting linotype - which I don't recommend - as a seemingly easy way to make very hard bullets, you will find that most scrap lino is tin-depleted and once again you can use small amounts - perhaps 2% - of additional tin to bring it back to performing as it should.

The short summary is any sensible use of your solder will be in very small amounts, as an additive to lead or more likely lead-antimony alloys. If you have large amounts of it - hundreds of pounds - it will make sense to trade it for something else. Be careful when you do that - it is an expensive material and you will be in danger of getting ripped off. It isn't difficult to find honest people, especially on this board, where it is easy to check on people's bona fides from their histories.

[crowbeaner]

Shooting that much tin will weld the tin to your gun barrel making removal extremely difficult. Alloyed with WW metal will produce MUCH better results. The Lyman formula for #2 alloy and the one I use is 18# of WW metal to 2# of 50/50 solder. This makes a very tough and durable bullet; one that is not brittle and break up. With your tin solder I'd use 1.5 lbs. and add a lb. of pure lead to 17.5 of WW metal. That should be close enough to #2 for all intents and purposes. If you can garner a quantity for a good price, there are many people here that will gladly take some off your hands. Hope this helps. CB.

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Can anyone recommend decent places to buy solder for this purpose? Hardware stores don't seem to have anything that's not outrageously expensive and I'm not sure their electronics solder would be worth alloying with pure Pb anyway.

I've recently(today), raised the price of my 95-5 solder to $12/lb. This is still only 2/3 the going price(about $18/lb) being charged retail. This is FIRINIT SWL-38, an assayed, high grade tin-antimony solder, imported from Germany. If interested, send me a PM.
Morgan