solder price

[remy3424]

I have a leed on some drippings from a radiator shop. What is a fair or good price for it? (40 tin/60 lead, I think he told me---maybe 5-10#s) I'm new to adding tin, should I be putting it into small ingots and adding it to my ww ingots in the pot when casting, adding so much per ingot or how do most do it? I only cast for handguns currently and am looking for just a little better fillout.

[richbug]

Someone on ehere was selling it for $3-4 a pound in the last year or so.

[felix]

No, it's 60 percent tin. ... felix

[GLL]

I buy the “drippings” from the local shop as well. Be aware there are “drippings” and there are “drippings” ! Sometimes the bucket full of is rather clean stuff as in the first photo. Other times it is a mixture of sludge, drippings, rust, and random chucks of metal. I recently paid $30 for a 5 gallon bucket that usually yields 20-35 pounds of 60/40 (60% tin). The second photo shows a 27 pound haul !

Processing the sludge can be very messy ! I advise washing and screening a couple times before melting the stuff down to ingots.

Jerry

Washed and ready to make ingots
http://www.fototime.com/7D15931F35477FE/standard.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/3D9E4C790723581/standard.jpg

[leadman]

I just got from Grainger, bought 5 rolls of 63% tin, 37% lead solder for $2.67 a one pound roll.
Part number is 1ZHW8.

[SciFiJim]

I get what is essentially dross from the local radiator shop. Lots of sludge, a razor or two, chunks of rubber and odd pieces of metal. I put it all in a cold pot and then crank up the heat. After the smoke clears there is layer of about in inch of sand on top of about an two inches of melted metal. The sand acts as a good insulator to help retain the heat in the melt. Once the sand is skimmed off and scraped up from the bottom of the pot the left over solder is ready for clean ingots.

Make ingots as small as you can. Just enough to cover the bottom of a muffin cup is good.

I pay $10 for a full five gallon bucket that weighs 150 lbs and get about 70 lbs of solder. It saves them a trip the hazardous waste recycler 70 miles away.

[remy3424]

Well, I'll see what $10 and the best part a half gallon of drippings nets me out. It was the only local radiator shop close to me, maybe I would have been better off going to Grainger, we'll see. Recycling is good though!!