Salvage solder-establishing tin content

[stocker]

Yesterday I processed about 75 lbs of radiator shop scrapings. Let me say there is a heck of a lot of crud: dirt, gasket material and probaly flux contained in that stuff. All told I recovered 6 full pours of solder in the Lee 1/2 pound/1 pound 4 cavity ingot mould. The rad. guy said he uses 70/30 solder but I am struck by the relative lightness of the ingots which makes me think the tin runs off a repair job in greater proportion than it's percentage in the solder.

Can anyone give me weight/displacement sytem of calculating the tin content in these bars, even to an approximation? Felix?

Also did a wheel weight melt and added another 150 lbs to the pile. A good afternoon.

Thanks.

[Willbird]

Well, this is like Mom and dad saying "look it up in the dictionary" but you could ladle cast a few bullets from known solder's. you can float the ladle in the pot and melt the solder in it. Then cast a few bullets from your unknown and compare them.

Bill

[sundog]

Stocker, Felix and I did the radiator solder thing. Were told 50/50 original on radiator, 60/40 for repair. Found many lengths of unsed solder, as well as drips of - original or new? Now, with that mix, and no lab equipment, there's no way to get accurate reading at home, other than you have a bunch of cleaned up solder - that's good. We pour our alloy in BIG batches, testing as we go. When it 'seems' right, the whole batch goes into ingots and marked. We even add things like used air gun pellets, copper babbit, range scrap. When you get a big batch that is right, you got a big batch. Next big batch may not be the same, but if it works, who cares? Idea is to get a big batch for long term consistency until you have to make more. Only thing is that you really don't want to waste the solder, don't use more than necessary to get a good pour, good boolit fill out. Later after a big batch is made you can do thing like add tournament grade chilled shot (antimony and arsenic) for a harder mix and a little more tin to help it continue to fill out, but do not overdo the tin at this point as your after the antimony and arsenic for hardness. That's all I know. sundog

[felix]

Sundog has it juuuuuuust right! Nuff said. ... felix

[stocker]

Thanks guys. It'll be like my music then - by ear. Envy you guys with space to do the big pours. We're in a seniors condo and a little space limited for storage. Try to keep 600 lbs of ingots on hand and that's about it.