How much tin is just enough for fillout?

[pps]

I'll be pouring some boolits this weekend. One batch is from melted down recycled swagged 95%pb, 5%Antimony. One batch is clip on ww. I was planning on mixing these two and adding enough 95% Tin/5% Antimony solder to get enough tin for fillout.

What percent is "just enough"/

[randyrat]

Don't add tin unless you need to. Then never add more than 1% tin any more won't help fillout if your having problems, if it's contamination and such.

[carpetman]

pps---For years I kept hearing I needed to add tin for fillout on .22 cast bullets. Added tin to the wheel weights and could tell no difference. Only thing was lack of fill out in my wallet from buying the tin.

[pps]

Cool, I'll try a few without the tin. I'll mix the hornady lead and ww 50/50 and experiment with how well they harden up. This will be my first casting so I'm sure I'll be coming back with some questions.

[Shiloh]

I add to the melt if needed. Wheel weights needed just a little, about 3 feet of 95/5%
tin/antimony solder. A little more for range lead. With some batches of wheelweights it was fine as melted.

Shiloh

[Jim]

There's 22 feet of wire on a 1 pound roll of lead free solder. Do the math.

[Lloyd Smale]

Its about like asking what load is going to shoot well in your gun. Some alloys cast fine with one mold and cast like crap in another. Some batches of ww cast better then others. Ive had batches of ww that cast great with some molds as is. For the most part i add about 2 percent tin to my alloy. Ive seen batches of ww that were probably lightly contaminated with zinc that did much better with 5-6 percent added. Then ive seen it where tin lead alloys casted worse then straight ww. Casting large caliber molds like .512s and .475s are a good case. Theres a fine ballancing act between to hot and to cold. The thin area betwee the two bullets in the mold heats up faster then the rest of the mold. Tin tends to hurt your casting in those cases. High tin alloys tend to leave frosted voids around the driving bands and lube groves. Especially if your tin content exceeds your antimony content. I dont know if this makes any sense to the sceintific group on here but it sure seems to for me. After years of casting i about know which alloys work best for the bullets im going to cast. Its about like feeling out what temp and rythm to cast at for each mold. After years it about comes without thinking. To me anyway about the easiest alloy to cast with and make good bullets if your brain dead is 5050 ww/lyno and I never sat down and figured how much tin was in that but i think its more like i said. Its not the tin content its the ration between then tin your adding and the antimony.

[Bret4207]

Brets first rule of sucessful casting- If in doubt, turn up the heat! Before adding tin try getting the mould and alloy a little hotter. I bought some tin ($$$$) and my experience says more heat and a clean mould/alloy will sove most problems with fill out. You can also try the "bump it" method where you lightly thump the mould on a solid surface while the alloy is still liquid. with some, not all, moulds this will force alloy into the nooks and crannies and give you better fill out. Odd, but it sometimes works. Be careful you don't splash alloy on yourself if you try it.

[Boerrancher]

PPS,

I use to shoot straight WWs and had no issue with fill out, then I started slowly adding range scrap to the mix to soften up my boolits some. I am now to where I am mixing a 20 range scrap to 1 WW ratio. I get good fill out and so far have not had any issues with leading, and I am pushing my 30 cals 2100 to 2200 fps. I have not added any tin to my alloy in months. I had always heard you had to add tin, so I added it and then slowly started cutting back just like with the WWs.

Best Wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[pps]

You guys are awesome. I'll cast up boolits and see what happens. This will be the first time. As such, any problems I will not automatically assume to ba from lack of tin.

I have cleaned my moulds, with degreaser and have smoked the moulds as well. I'll cast several passes to get the moulds up to temperature and evaluate from there. I'm not expecting perfection the first pass, but since mistakes can be re-melted that will be no big deal.

I have no doubt I'll be picking your collective brains as problems arise.

[oso]

None at all is enough for me. As Randy said, you can add 1% if you like. I only add tin if I'm making linotype, then 4% tin.

[deltaenterprizes]

Tin helps with fill out and hardness ,that is why linotype has so much in it.
Also the tin fills the space between the lead and antimony crystals like the mortar between bricks and adds strength to the alloy.
Taracorp Magnum alloy that is the standard for comercial casters is 2% tin,6% antomony and 92% lead and is a nice hard alloy. This can also be achieved with a 50/50 mix of linotype/lead,that is what the last couple of years before I quit commercial casting,it makes pretty boolits!