Anyone know?

[badgeredd]

I was over to a friends house yesterday and he showed me some scrap lead he'd like to sell. :evil:

It seems this was acquired with other stuff years ago and came from a fellow that did some restoration of cars as a hobby. It is a auto body lead or solder.

I am under the impression that auto body lead is pretty close to pure lead. Is that correct? The stuff he has is in strips approximately 1/16" think and 3/4" wide. It is flexible,NOT easily scratched with a finger nail, and will snap off if it is bent too severely. I think it is a base solder for leading a auto, but I don't know. ALSO it is shiny, not dulled from aging much at all, indicating it may be high tin content.:confused:

Anyone know about auto-body lead and solder?

Thanks,

EDD

[billyb]

I talked to a fellow shooter a couple of weeks ago about boolit casting. He did not cast and was from Illiniois and had a lot of auto body soldier in his attic up there. He said what he had was 60/40. Yes high tin content. Great to add to your mix. Bill

[runfiverun]

that would sound like 60-40 just by the description if you bend it i bet it has a cracking sound to it.
i have 50-50 and it always turns greyish and oxidizes but the 60-40 or higher always seems to stay on the silver side

[HeavyMetal]

Think it will make a great "sweetner" metal.

Buy it if the price is reasonable, you'll get a lot of milage out of it.

[Shiloh]

Think it will make a great "sweetner" metal.

Buy it if the price is reasonable, you'll get a lot of milage out of it.

+1

That's what I have used it for when I acquired some.

Shiloh

[badgeredd]

Thanks gents. He wants to sell it "CHEAP" to me and I want to give him a reasonable and fair price for it. He mentioned that he thought $0.40/lb was fair. I told him that I didn't think it was pure lead so if I could figure out what it probably was, I'd like pay him more. I see scrap solder is $0.99/lb on the scrap market so I think I'll let him decide what is fair. If he wants too much in my mind, I'll simply pass. I hate buying stuff from friends...friendship is something that money issues alway pose the potential for problems. BTW he has about 100#!

Edd

P.S. My problem is I know what I can afford, given the fact I am unemployed, but he is unemployed too. Obviously we both could use the money. If I was working, I'd have no problem giving him a buck a pound....

[Echo]

Body solder is NOT 60/40 (60/40 is actually 63/37). 60/40 is eutectic - it does NOT go through a plastic state as it melts, rather it turns directly to a liquid. This is VERY desirable for electronic work - it prevents the dreaded cold solder joints that look good, but aren't. That is a good thing for electronic work, but a bad thing for body work.

The body man wants the solder to go through the plastic (clay-like) state, because he can push it around and shape it to suit the situation. If he used 60/40, it would just run all over the place.

I believe most body solder is 40/60, with 50/50 also used. I may be wrong on that...

In any case, if your friend wants 40 cents per pound, give it to him, and you will both be happy.

[JIMinPHX]

I've spoken to a few guys over the years that did lead fill work on "lead sleds". Each one seemed to have his own special witch's brew that he preferred to use as base material. Most of it was pretty soft. Most of it had some tin in it. Aside from that, it was a craps shoot as to what else you might find in there.

If I were you, I'd try to grab a few pounds off of him first & cast up a few boolits with it. If it doesn't cast well, then you probably don't want the whole 100 pounds.