Tin prices

[cbrick]

Anyone adding tin to their alloy? I do but I stopped buying it from Midway once they decided it wasn't really tin but gold instead.

My last tin order was from this California company. They offer free shipping (USPS flat rate box) on orders over $100.00 plus this weekend they have an additional 10% off sale going on. Ingot tin is $10.00 per pound and bar tin is $11.50 per pound. They also have lead and various other casting metals plus they will make custom alloys.

Compare this tin price to Midway's $15.00 per pound plus high shipping rates.

RotoMetals, Inc (http://www.rotometals.com/Tin-Ingot-s/27.htm)

Hope this helps some of you.

Rick

[sleeper1428]

Yeah, I still add tin to my alloy. Fortunately, I started casting back in the mid-1980s when a small company by the name of Leading Edge Tool Supply (LETS) was in business. At that time they sold tin in one lb bars that were exactly one ft long which made adding the proper amt of tin very easy (just measure the amt you need and melt that much into the pot) and the price was very, very reasonable. When LETS elected to go out of business, I took advantage of their even lower sale prices and in addition to quite a number of Saeco bullet molds, I also purchased somewhere in the neighborhood of 80lbs of tin in addition to over 100lbs of pulverized antimony and more than enough Alloyer's Flux to allow me to alloy all that Sb into my bullet alloys. All my handgun boolits are cast in an alloy equivalent to Taracorp's Magnum Alloy (92-2-6 Pb-Sn-Sb) while most of my rifle boolits are cast in Lino equivalent so I figure since I'm pushing 71 now that I probably have enough alloying materials to last me for as long as I'll be capable of shooting!

[anachronism]

Go to the hardware store & look for 95/5 leadfree solder. I buy it by the roll, but have seen it in bar form for plumbers. Read the label carefully, the stuff I buy is 95% tin & 5% antimony, which makes it perfect for my use. I imangine there may be different formulations available too

[technetium-99m]

Tin seems to be a good price, but my favorite alloy (92/6/2) is 2.70/lb! I trade my scrap locally and get it for around 25% of that price.

[Cpt. Jack]

My first post - I too got fed up with the exorbitant prices for tin. For years I just went to the plumbing supply houses or hardware store and bought 95/5 solder. When I went to my local Ace Hardware a couple of months ago I was stunned to learn the price for a 1/2 lb roll of 95/5 solder was $14.69. Add in my state's 6% sales tax and that makes it over $30.00/lb for tin!

Thank goodness, I noticed the add for RotoMetals on this site and checked into it. Just like cbrick said, $10.00/lb plus shipping for ingot tin. Friendly folks, no hassles, and they had the tin to me in 3 days. Don't mean for this to sound like a commercial for RotoMetals, ...I'd like to see them selling it for $3.00/lb. But, when the local folks are gouging us for $30.00/lb, I agree with cbrick that we need to get the word out that there are sellers with reasonable prices.

Cpt. Jack

[leadeye]

An easy way to find tin is to go to auction or yard sales and look for nic-nacs made of pewter. I just got back from an auction where I got a box of them, several pounds, for 2 dollars.:-D

[Tom Herman]

I got in on the Grainger solder sale, where they dumped 95-97% Tin solder for around $7/#.
Another good source is "lead" at scrap yards. Folks try to pass off rolls of solder as "lead". The locals are happy to sell 60% Tin solder to me at 35 cents a pound all day long....

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[Buckshot]

.............Rotometals is a site sponser. Look up at the top of the page.

..............Buckshot

[kawalekm]

Do any of you guys have a flea market in your area? I have picked up whole rolls of plumbing solder for a dollar there. I can also get cheap pewter (85-97% tin), the more banged up the cheaper. I add 5% tin to everything I cast because my long term average cost for tin is about 1$/lb.
Michael

[madman]

Drop Randyrat a PM. The greatest guy to deal with. Tell him I told ya so.