My first hunt for pewter

[njc110381]

Hey guys. I went out to a local sale today to see if I could pick up some cheap pewter tankards to mix in with my roofing lead. I finished the day with about 7lb, which cost me £6 - around $9. I don't think any of it is weighted and there are no glass bottoms, but I did buy one tankard that turned out to be nickel! Oops!

At a 1/20 mix I figure that will make me around 2500 bullets. Not bad to get started and I could make it stronger if that's any advantage?

I'm planning to melt it in batches and cast ingots. I bought a small baking tin to make them but have just noticed that it's Teflon coated. Will that cause me any problems?

[JASON4X4]

Good job $70 worth of tin for $9 can't beat it.

[RogerDat]

Have to "burn off" the Teflon coating, or it produces gas from the heat and makes the ingots all bubbly on the surface. Not a big deal but they won't be smooth ingots until the Teflon stops off gassing when heated.

Nice score, trying to think how many stores I hit to build up 7 lbs. of pewter. You done nailed it right out of the gate.

[jsizemore]

You could go 1/50 and still be doin' fine. 1/10 is about the useful limit. 450degF is about the melt temp so your Teflon may be able to handle the temp if you don't get too high. Gas bubbles on the surface of your ingots won't hurt a thing.

[njc110381]

I'll torch the tin and wire brush the Teflon off. Shouldn't take long.

I'm not sure if you guys have these but in the UK we have car boot sales. A load if people fill up their cars with junk and get together in a field or car park and sell it. It's like a yard sale with maybe 500 homeowners all in one place. By the time I had a couple of tankards people were calling me over if they had one for sale. The pewter pretty much found me!

[bumpo628]

Boot sales? that's pretty awesome

[Geezer in NH]

Called a flea market in the nor east USA

[jsizemore]

They're called flea markets all over the US. Been a while but there used to be one 2.5 miles long just outside Waldo, Fla.

[edp2k]

Don't "burn off" the teflon, it produces toxic gases. Not good.

[njc110381]

Ah - I've heard flea markets mentioned a lot but hadn't made the connection. Around here at least, that's the place to go for pewter!

Perhaps I'll just brush the teflon off? I was thinking I'd burn it off outside, but I guess it's still not ideal. And to think people cook in that stuff! A frying pan would easily hit that kind of temperature if misused.

Will pewter give me much of a usable hardness gain? I understand probably not? So I may need antimony.... What's the secret for finding that cheaply?!

[njc110381]

Well I made my first mistake already. I made up some alloy by weighing a tankard, then melting down 20 times the weight in lead and throwing the tankard in. My pot isn't anywhere near full but being so small it's near impossible to lift! Oops..

[RogerDat]

Boot? Isn't that UK for an automobile trunk? So boot sale is a bunch of people selling stuff out of their car. Makes sense. Think there is a different term for selling stuff out of your garage too. We say garage or yard sale. Seems like I might have heard that called a boot sale also.