plumbing solder

[haff202]

Can I use lead free plumbing solder in my wheel weight lead? Will this help the wheel weight lead fill out the mold better? What metal or metals is plumbing solder? I also have a pound of electrical solder that has a flux in it. It says it is also lead free, can I use this also. How much to use per 10 pound LEE POT? I was thinking like 3 or four inches of solder per 10 lbs. of wheel weight lead.
Sorry about all the questions, just hate to go buy some tin if a have something else sitting there with no use for. There is no plumbing in my future.

[shotman]

your lead free is Tin but you need to go by weight. Not 2or3 in You can do the % thing. But weight works same way

[runfiverun]

2oz will be about 1% in your 20 lb pot. and about all you'll need

[Echo]

Well - 20 pounds is 320 ounces, so 2 oz. of lead-free actually adds less than 1% tin to the alloy. I would add about 5 oz. to bring it up to 2% (or thereabouts).

[southpaw]

I would go with 2oz for your 10lb pot. That would add about 1.25% of tin to the mix. Wich should bring your total % tin up to about 1.5%.

It is not needed tho. I have been casting at 750* with ww and after the mold is up to temp you cant tell that there isnt any tin in them.

Hope this helps

Jerry Jr.

[montana_charlie]

I was thinking like 3 or four inches of solder per 10 lbs. of wheel weight lead.
What does four inches weigh...maybe 70 grains?
Ten pounds of alloy weighs 70,000 grains.

Your addition would be one thousandth of the pot content.
A fart in a hurricane would be more noticeable.

If you want tin to have any effect on 'liquidity', you should probably add (at least) one percent (1%). More is certainly better.
In a pot which holds ten pounds you have 160 ounces. One hundredth (one percent) of 160 ounces is 1.6 ounces.

It's easier to weigh out that amount rather than figure out how many inches it would take. But if you are into eyeballing...
For a 1% addition to ten pounds, you need a gob of solder that is about the same volume as three 230 grain bullets.


This second part is addressed to all of those who talk about 'adding a few inches (or a foot) of solder' and suddenly their bullets start casting right.
I suspect you are dreaming...like the guy who thinks his car goes faster with a full tank of gas.

But, while you are feeling miserly about tin addition, consider this.

Take a guy who has always cast bullets with ww, or a 50/50 mixture of range lead and ww. There is a little bit of tin in the ww, but not near enough to cause enhanced liquidity.
So he throws in a foot of solder and, after getting his alloy up to 800, he gets frosty bullets with no wrinkles, and acceptable corners on base and driving bands.

If that guy was given a chunk of 20:1 lead/tin and he cast a potful with it...he would find out what 'good fillout' really means. He would see what tin can actually do to bullet quality.
I suspect he would then be willing to add tin, to his antimonial alloys, in sufficient quantity to do some real good.

But, everybody cringes at the 'cost' of tin...so they put in 'inches' of solder to avoid being 'wasteful of that valuable metal'.

Take that 20:1 alloy. Call it a pound of tin, and that comes out to 5%.
If you pay a full $12 for that pound of tin, and cast 20 pounds-worth of 250-grainers, you get 560 bullets. The twelve dollar pound of tin, divided by 560, comes to two cents per bullet.

Buy tin for $6 and the price per bullet drops to a penny.

Once that guy tried the 20:1 alloy, and saw what sufficient tin can do for his 'quality', I bet he would think of a penny as a good investment.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you should buy tin instead of solder. I use solder, myself.
I'm just saying, "Don't be so stingy with it."

CM