Where do you guys get your tin?

[captain-03]

I have been trying to "hoard" some lead for several months now. I have a couple hundred pounds of WW and another couple of hundred pounds of scrap range lead. Now I need some tin for an addition ... where can suitable cast tin be found and what is a decent price?

[docone31]

I order mine through the hardware stores.
I use 95/5 wire solder.
It does not take much.

[Trey45]

I go to a local radiator repair shop for the solder drippings, you might try the same thing, even offer to clean the solder tanks for the drippings, it's a little bit of work, but you can walk away with a couple hundred pounds of solder for free.

[ktw]

I got most of mine as "sweepings" from an old shop that repairs radiators. There are fewer of these nowdays, but it pays to look them up and ask. There can be a lot of dirt in it that needs to be removed at smelting but the price is right.

You can also check at your local scrap yard. Linotype, monotype, babbit, old pipe organ pipes, solder and pewter all contain fairly high percentages of tin.

Worst case (priciest) is lead free solder in one pound rolls from a big box hardware store or plumbing supply store.

-ktw

[leadeye]

I pick mine up at local sales and auctions. Never have found a tin pile at a scrap yard that I have visited.

[Dale53]

Tin is where you find it. I've even found tin tubing (used in the food service industry - as a for instance, beer equipment) at junk yards. I bought a bunch of tin from a poster on here a couple of years ago for $5.00 per lb. You need to think ahead of the curve. Recently, I notified a friend of a major distributor that was clearing out some lead free solder for $8.00 per lb. He bought all they had available. You have to keep your eyes open and JUMP when you have the opportunity.

Dale53

[sargenv]

People also sell high tin babbit on here.. and I recently picked some up off the for sale board.

[Bodine]

You can check over at Rotometals.com last I checked 99.8% pure tin was 10.95 in 1lb bars, cheaper by the hunk and they offer price breaks and free shipping for orders over $100.00. Good people to deal with.

[Dale53]

If you have to pay $11.00 per lb for tin, using 2% addition of tin to improve castability (like I do) your per bullet cost casting 200 gr bullets will be Six Tenths of a cent per bullet. That is STILL a very inexpensive casting aid, IMHO. I didn't have to pay that much but I would not shirk in buying some at that price if I didn't have any.

FWIW
Dale53

[Ole]

I've bought a bunch of tin/PB solder from ebaY.

Most of it was pretty cheap. I got 25 1lb rolls of 63/37 for $50 +$10 for shipping. I also got 2 4lb rolls of 63/37 for $10+$9 for shipping. When I first started casting, I made the mistake of buying some 95/5 sn/sb and paid about $70 for 10 1lb rolls. That's still a good deal compared to retail, but no where near as cheap as the right deal on sn/pb solder.

In order to score a good deal on fleabaY, it's my opinion that you have to be at the right place at the right time.

[sheepdog]

Sometimes you can find solder rolls or solder bars at the junk yard sorted with in the "lead" section. This is how I bought about 25 pounds of tin.

[Gunslinger]

I usually just drop by the thrift shops when I see one. They always have a few ashtrays, bowls, vases etc. They usually go for less than the value of the metal.

[Cherokee]

I got my tin supply from the junk yard. Organ pipes are 50/50 and got a bunch along with other tin items.

[BowHunter252]

Tin cans:confused:

[Down South]

Organ pipes are 50/50 LOL, that is a nice fact to know. The problem is I've never seen an organ pipe scrapped. I lucked up on 12 lb of 95/5 solder a while back. That will last me for a while. I've got to check into this radiator shop thing though.

[briang]

Tin cans:confused:

Made from steel, no tin to be had.

[fredj338]

You can check over at Rotometals.com last I checked 99.8% pure tin was 10.95 in 1lb bars, cheaper by the hunk and they offer price breaks and free shipping for orders over $100.00. Good people to deal with.

I bought some from Rotometals, quick shipping, 10% price break & free shipping w/ $100 order. No tax to you lucky folks NOT living in Commiefornia.:groner:

[dwtim]

I use 50/50 solder in a pinch. But mostly I get it from other people; people who use too much tin in their bullets. I throw in a handful of cast bullets from range scrap, and I have no problems with fill-out.

[Tom Herman]

Sometimes you can find solder rolls or solder bars at the junk yard sorted with in the "lead" section. This is how I bought about 25 pounds of tin.

I got a bunch of Tin from solder this way, too... Also bought about 30 pounds of Tin from Grainger for $7.50/pound.

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[Jkeith]

here is a site where you can get several different materials from
hope this helps

http://www.rotometals.com


Jim


We sleep safe in our beds at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would do us harm.
George Orwell 1903-1950

[1stSkink]

Grainger has 63/37 for $5 and change a roll. Works out to $8 a lb gor the tin.

skink

[HangFireW8]

I have been trying to "hoard" some lead for several months now. I have a couple hundred pounds of WW and another couple of hundred pounds of scrap range lead. Now I need some tin for an addition ... where can suitable cast tin be found and what is a decent price?

I get it from electronics board makers. And at yard sales.

We live in the age of the great lead-out, when all the electronics companies are switching to lead-free solder.

Load up while you can.

-HF

[geargnasher]

I have an old friend from college who is taking over a pipe-organ shop, the pipes are mostly custom-made by just a few organ companies on a custom basis by extremely specialized and highly skilled pipe makers. The only pipes he has belong to complete organs. If anyone lives in MO. you could look up Quimby Pipe Organs in Warrensburg and see what they do with their scrap tin/solder.

Gear

[Gunslinger]

Awww all that talk about organ pipes makes me weep :violin:

Before I started casting and when my folks lived in their old (and enormous house) my pops - a retired music teacher - had THREE BIG organ pipes just laying around along with a lot of other instruments. When they moved my mom ordered him to choose between the pipes (which she considered junk), a lot of car parts and his art painting accessories. And whatta ya know the pipes were thrown out.....

Normally I feel very dearly for my mom... just not that day :twisted:

[high standard 40]

I just picked up 2 full 5 gal buckets of radiator drippings from a local radiator shop. Also another smaller bucket that weighed about 22 lbs. I melted the 22 lbs today and after skimming of all the junk, it yielded 17.5 lbs of solder. Only problem is I have no idea what the tin/lead ratio is. But that's a small problem.:-D It was free for hauling it off.

[felix]

60 percent tin. ... felix

[jnovotny]

Just call it 50/50 and you won't go wrong.

[high standard 40]

Calling it 50/50 will give me a 50/50 shot at being right.:-D This particular radiator shop uses 40/60 solder in-house. The solder drippings are from the tanks they disassemble though so it's probably a combination of 40/60, 50/50, and 60/40. Doesn't really matter, I'm grateful to have it.

[geargnasher]

The nice thing about radiator drippings is it is a binary alloy, someone here is bound to know the formula for weight/volume or a hardness test to figure out exactly what percentage your stuff is but I agree that it is probably close enough to 50/50 to not matter.

[Matt_G]

Send JMax a private message.
He had some 62% Sn, 36%Pb, 2% Ag solder for sale a while back.
He might still have some.
Can't remember the price on it, but it wasn't bad; I do remember that.

Dang, I just looked at my tin stash.
I should send him a PM myself, but money is tight right now.
The stash I got from GAR before they closed down years ago is running low.
I bought a bunch of tin and enrichment metal from them before they closed the doors.

Sure do miss those guys. They were great to do business with. :(

[SciFiJim]

geargnasher brought up a good point. I have some radiator drip tank solder as well. Does anyone know how to determine the percentage of tin to lead?

The bucket I got has a lot of crud in it. I've smelted down about 70 lbs so far and gotten about 35 lbs of alloy.

[alamogunr]

I've posted before that I got several hundred pounds of 40/60 and 50/50 solder from my former employer (I'm retired). I just assume that it is all 40/60. That is 40% tin and 60% lead. Even if I use too much tin, I'll probably still have a bunch left when I'm unable to cast or shoot. They will probably condemn my shop as a hazardous waste site. Although I guess I could cast solder boolets.

John
W.TN

[sheepdog]

I've got some 63/37 tin solder in S&S section for $7/27 ounces

[SciFiJim]

As I have been smelting the radiator tank drippings I have been pouring it off into muffin molds. This seems like a bigger chunk than I will need to sweeten a pot of lead. What size of ingots would work well for this? I've been thinking about getting a fishing sinker mold off of feebay. This would help to differentiate between alloys and be of a known size for compute proportions.

[Dale53]

I typically add 2% tin to WW's for my "normal" bullet alloy. I use only clean ingots in my bottom pour pots (I cast EVERYTHING bottom pour). My tin is in long, slim, shapes. Mostly, they are "as supplied" bars. It is quite easy to weigh a full or partial bar (having determined how much tin I need to add). I use a postal scale for weighing tin bars. Say I have a complete bar and it weighs 16.0 oz. I need 5.5oz in my melt. I just melt off 5.5 oz. It takes less time than it takes to tell and it is quite accurate and repeatable.

If I were casting tin into ingots, I would want it to be in a bar, so it would be easy to alloy with. In fact, I have a batch of tin that has been melted and molded in foot long lengths of angle iron ("V" side down). You can use most any size angle iron, but just use the bottom portion of the "V" for a size to please YOU. It doesn't matter at all if it is slightly irregular as you will weigh it prior to "melting off" what you need in the pot of molten alloy.

Dale53

[Echo]

Make the tin up into regular ingots (Lyman whatever), weigh, then you can mark off into 1-ounce lengths. Put you weighed WW ingots into your furnace, when melted add enough tin to bring the % up to 2.5. For example: Eight pounds of WW = 96 ounces. Adding 2 ounces of tin will bring the tin percentage up to between 2 and 3 percent, all you will ever need for good fill-out.

Or.

Put 40-50 pounds of WW ingots into your rendering pot, add a pound of tin, and re-cast into ingots.

[sheepdog]

As I have been smelting the radiator tank drippings I have been pouring it off into muffin molds. This seems like a bigger chunk than I will need to sweeten a pot of lead. What size of ingots would work well for this? I've been thinking about getting a fishing sinker mold off of feebay. This would help to differentiate between alloys and be of a known size for compute proportions.

Jim muffin molds work fine but bearly fill each cup so it makes waffers about as thick as a silver dollar. Its a small amount but you can also break it into smaller pieces by hand that way.

[Flash]

I usually hit some flea markets and buy the cheap pewter tankards for a quarter or fifty cents. They are about 70% tin and will clean up a 20 lb pot easily.