Here is how I get my tin......

[Harry O]

This is solder that my wife has bought for me at estate sales. They have all kinds of mixes from 40% tin to 95% tin. Every once in a while, I melt down a bunch and cast them in 0.690" balls. I figure out the amount of tin in each ball and use that to figure out how much I have to add to get whatever mix I want.

[jsizemore]

That works and you don't have to send a sample and a lb of lead to BNE to know.

[lightman]

I recently melted about 30# of mixed solder and cast it into ingots. My pile looked a lot like yours to start with. A little of this, a little of that. I sent a pinch off and was pleased to learn that it was 51% tin.

[Whiterabbit]

Me too. I use the CB alloy calculator. Start with clip on WW or range scrap, add type-metal by the lb as needed to get my antimony where I want, then add from my spools of solder until I get the tin where I want. It's enough process control to get close enough to hardball to do everything I could want.

Then it all goes in the dutch oven over the turkey fryer and off I go. Usually 100 lb batches, starting with one MFRB of base lead and one SFRB of typemetal. Works great.

[Tom W.]

My tin is all Ni. Babbitt. It's 98% tin with a bit of copper and a trace of Ni..... My supply is dwindling slowly though.....

[Traffer]

This is solder that my wife has bought for me at estate sales. They have all kinds of mixes from 40% tin to 95% tin. Every once in a while, I melt down a bunch and cast them in 0.690" balls. I figure out the amount of tin in each ball and use that to figure out how much I have to add to get whatever mix I want.

If you wanted to part with a partial roll, I am going to need some more 50/50 or 60/40 for soldering stuff.

[rcslotcar]

I get a lot at flee mkt's. If it is dirty partial rolls it is usually real cheap.

[RP]

Like a lot of things the days of finding solder at yard sales or estate sales are coming to a end people now days are not fixing anything heck I would not be surprise if you post a pic on a public site asking what it was most people under 20 would not have a clue what it is or how its used. Like a rotor dial phone they are clue less.

[Harry O]

I have taught my wife to buy it cheap or not buy it at all. She has done well. I am figuring the tin cost doing it this way is $3 to $4 per pound.

I randomly throw in partial rolls when melting it for casting into balls. Since there is often rosin core solder, I do it outside with an extension cord to keep the furnace as far as possible from the house. That stuff is nasty. I weigh the finished 0.690" ball after it cools. I know the weight of a pure tin and a pure lead 0.690" dia. ball. From that, I can calculate exactly how much tin I have in each ball, regardless of the mix. It generally comes out between 40+% and 50-%. Most common is about 45%. I generally add one ball for each pound of lead or WW (which usually brings it up to about 2% tin), but can add more if needed.

[RogerDat]

I do the same flea market and garage sale, plus the occasional scrap yard roll collecting. Anything high tin if in a decently full roll stays on the roll. I think I might have 2 or 3 full 1 lb. rolls of lead free 98% tin solder. The rest of the stuff gets melted in a big batch and cast in as 1/4 inch or so thick "coins" in mini muffin tins. Large batches make it worth testing.

My best was around 63% which had some "probable" pewter tossed in. My typical is 33 - 43 percent. A lot of the older metal working stuff has gone around 25%. With 5 - 10 pounds in a batch I don't mind a pound of lead to get it tested. Stash a batch worth of coins in zip lock baggie with the Sn percent written on the whole batch of coins and drop in my solder bin. These and small 5 to the pound pewter ingots are my go to for making a batch sweetened lead. I like to save the stuff that is commercially marked like bar solder or clearly marked high tin roll solder for trade or sale if I don't use it.

People I think would desire 1 pound foundry bars with 30 Sn on it over my coins that are tested at 33% Sn. The bar is a known product with an foundry stamp for the tin content. That has a known value. My coins are tested but the stamp is me with a sharpie which despite my being much more honest than I am handsome isn't as much of a guarantee. Rumors that I have to wear a pork chop around my neck to keep dog from shying away from my face are exaggerated.

[NyFirefighter357]

I have a 5gal bucket full of solder rolls and a 3gal bucket full of solder bars. I do heating and am in 40-80 houses a week. If I see some old solder or pigs I'll ask to buy them. Most people just give them to me. I bought "a lot" of lead from an estate of an old plumber pigs, NOS lead waste pipe, solder bars ect got it for $0.15lb.

[Harry O]

That reminds me. I also have this stashed away. It is 50/50 solder. I am saving this for last for the same reason you guys are. Use the junk first and keep the clearly marked stuff for last. These cost me $1.00 per 1 lb. bar because the guy running the estate sale thought they were lead rather than solder. He also had a about a half bar that he wanted the same $1.00 for (and refused an offer of 50 cents) so I left it behind. I am still kicking myself for that.

[OS OK]

For large, 40~50 pound ingot pot Sn adjustments I have small ingots of 60/40 that I weighed and then stamped the weight of the 60% figure so I would know how much Sn was in these little ingots. That and Bumpo's calculator makes it easier to get within the ballpark of what I'm after...



in the end and without the help of BNE my only way to really know is testing the BHN of the batch a week later but that really doesn't say much about the Sn content...that story is told in the mould. Does the blend cast well and have good fillout? If it's a batch of HP blend, then does the HP's expand as I hoped for? Then there's the conundrum of how we test the HP's...it all ends up in an arguement with the purists anyway...

For small adjustments of the pour pot, I have cast the 63/37 solder into manageable sizes for the 20 pound pot...makes it easy to spiff up some Pb that is not casting just right.



There are the Sn chunks there too from RotoMetals but I got those before coming into this solder...they'll cost you plenty!

I tend to cast on Sn rich side because I enjoy having nice looking casts coming out of the mould and since I get all my Pb back from the target backstop it is not a function of cost and throwing that Sn rich Pb away into a public berm.

I got this back yesterday...

[Taterhead]

OS, that is a nice looking display of tin. Beautiful! The stampings look professional.

[Winger Ed.]

That reminds me. I also have this stashed away. It is 50/50 solder.

Those are what body shops used before 'bondo' came along in the late 1950's to fill dents.
They also used it to fill the holes when they re-did a car and pulled the chrome trim off.
That's why back then, cars that had a lot of repair body work or customizing done were called a 'Lead sled".

Ya might be able to sell them for much more than their ingot value on ebay or some place where old antique car guys can find them.
Not that they'd use them for doing bodywork, but would make a really cool conversation piece
hanging on the wall with old paper or metal one quart oil cans from the period.

The last time I saw one was in a old body shop in the early 80's.
If you noticed, and asked about it, the old owner would proudly take it off the shelf and tell ya how to use it.
Anyone who had that many of them, probably had the really strange looking files that were used to shave the solder down with.
Sand paper was crazy expensive then, and didn't work very well anyway for smoothing it.

[Bird]

Those are what body shops used before 'bondo' came along in the late 1950's to fill dents.
They also used it to fill the holes when they re-did a car and pulled the chrome trim off.
That's why back then, cars that had a lot of repair body work or customizing done were called a 'Lead sled".

Ya might be able to sell them for much more than their ingot value on ebay or some place where old antique car guys can find them.
Not that they'd use them for doing bodywork, but would make a really cool conversation piece
hanging on the wall with old paper or metal one quart oil cans from the period.

The last time I saw one was in a old body shop in the early 80's.
If you noticed, and asked about it, the old owner would proudly take it off the shelf and tell ya how to use it.
Anyone who had that many of them, probably had the really strange looking files that were used to shave the solder down with.
Sand paper was crazy expensive then, and didn't work very well anyway for smoothing it.

I have used a lot of body lead over the years, and the 50/50 is worth considerably more than $1.00 per lb.
The body files are called dreadnought files 9 teeth per inch. I still have the flux and lead sticks and paddles, but I need to pick up some more files.

[rrob692326]

I raid the salvation army stores for pewter as they usually are glad to give you a deal if you buy enough. Just familiarize yourself with the "markings" so you know what percentages you are dealing with.

[OS OK]

Those are what body shops used before 'bondo' came along in the late 1950's to fill dents.
They also used it to fill the holes when they re-did a car and pulled the chrome trim off.
That's why back then, cars that had a lot of repair body work or customizing done were called a 'Lead sled".

Ya might be able to sell them for much more than their ingot value on ebay or some place where old antique car guys can find them.
Not that they'd use them for doing bodywork, but would make a really cool conversation piece
hanging on the wall with old paper or metal one quart oil cans from the period.

The last time I saw one was in a old body shop in the early 80's.
If you noticed, and asked about it, the old owner would proudly take it off the shelf and tell ya how to use it.
Anyone who had that many of them, probably had the really strange looking files that were used to shave the solder down with.
Sand paper was crazy expensive then, and didn't work very well anyway for smoothing it.

I remember seeing some cars that had extensive body work in the early 60's...we called them 'Bondo Queens'.
I would imagine if you handed a kid a quart of oil from back then and a spout they'd be all day trying to figure it out...there weren't any directions or warnings on the oil can....hehehehehe!

[uscra112]

As long as we're braggin". Went to an estate sale a few years ago and came home with a partially used 50 pound roll of 50-50. Yup, fifty pounds. Actual weight 42 pounds when I got it home. Paid $35 for it as I recall.

[Winger Ed.]

I remember seeing some cars that had extensive body work in the early 60's...we called them 'Bondo Queens'.
I would imagine if you handed a kid a quart of oil from back then and a spout they'd be all day trying to figure it out...there weren't any directions or warnings on the oil can....hehehehehe!

We called them 'bondo buggies'.
Kids would look at a old quart can of oil without a screw on cap about the same way they'd look at a set of feeler gauges.