Decent price for tin?

[btreanor]

What would be a fair/decent price to pay for 99 to 99.9% pure tin on a per pound basis? I'm seeing prices that seem a little high to me. Thanks!

[Wheelguns 1961]

$10 a pound. Maybe, I think that is for pewter now that I think about it.

[jmort]

$10 if you are patient
I took my time and have a decent stash
Retail is $20
With rare exceptions, I only got marked bars
60/40
100
38/62
50/50
Whatever, as long as they were marked bars
I would pay $5 to $6 for 50/50 obviously

[kevin c]

My impression is that pure tin is both expensive and, for our purposes, not necessary. Tin alloyed with other metals (mainly lead, antimony and copper in the form of solder, Babbitt metal and pewter) is less expensive per pound of tin present than pure. The other metals present are commonly found in boolit casting alloys and aren't much of a problem unless a very exact alloy is desired.

My stash is mostly pewter that I scrounged over the past three or four years. At my average overall purchase price per pound, the tin by itself costs me around three dollars a pound for an amount that I suspect will last me the rest of my life. Partial spools of solder at garage sales at a buck a piece can be even cheaper.

But as jmort pointed out, it takes a lot of patience, and the cost I quoted totally discounts my time, gas and wear and tear on me and my car both in the traveling to thrift shops, estate and garage sales.

[ABJ]

The last foundry tin I purchased was just shy of $14. delivered.(99.9). I just checked Rotometals and depending on the amount is $16/lb and up. But like kevin c said, do you need pure? Alloys with a high percent of tin might be less expensive and the other metals might or might not help. If you use the alloy calculator available for download on this site you can change the cost and see which is the least expensive way to go.
Tony

[Conditor22]

I won't pay more than $4 a pound for pewter or 40/60

[LAGS]

I think the last time I got some 99.9% Tin, it was going for $16.00 a pound ,from Sea Fab Metals in Casa Grande Az. not to far south of me.
Driving down to pick it up was cheaper than shipping.
I picked up 20 lbs.
But I smelt my own mixes, and want to know what metals I am starting with so I don't have to keep having my metals tested.
I still have a pretty good size chunk of it left since I don't use that much unless I am making Lino or Mono Type

[Tripplebeards]

I bought a pair of pewter goblets today from goodwill. They were marked $2.99 each and I had a $5 credit so I paid a buck basically. I weighed them when I got home. They were good size and weighed 1.1 lbs.

The bottom of the cups were stamped real pewter 94% ... I never seen the actual percentage stamped on anything before! Kind of cool.

[kevin c]

If your cost was a buck and we assume the common tin concentration of modern food service pewter to be 92.5%, you got just over a pound of pewter at about 98 cents a pound - not bad!

[georgerkahn]

Rotometals (https://www.rotometals.com/tin-ingot-99-9-pure/) is purveying it, on "sale" presently, at $19.39 per pound.
geo

[alamogunr]

I won't pay more than $4 a pound for pewter or 40/60

I tried to sell 40/60 solder for $4/lb a few years ago and got exactly no buyers. Decided to keep it all and let the heirs scrap it out.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

The real questions are: what do you need? and what are you willing to spend?

As George posted, Retail value of 99.9% pure tin is about $20/lb
Scrap 99.9% pure tin can be found occasionally in S&S for around half of Retail
If you are real lucky and have good timing, some scrap yards will sell anything that looks like Lead or Solder for 60¢ to about $1/lb, but to do that, you gotta know what is what, when you see it...like vintage beer cooler tubing.

[tecdac]

Pewter is your friend.
I find it at thrift stores.
Goodwill seems to be catching on that it is worth more than aluminum.
Go to the small thrifts.

[jsizemore]

I've found 99.95% tin, 96-98% solder and lots of 90%+ pewter. Cast it all at 1-2% and couldn't see a bit of difference in the bullets. I'm paying $3-4/lb for the pewter.

[tecdac]

I've found 99.95% tin, 96-98% solder and lots of 90%+ pewter. Cast it all at 1-2% and couldn't see a bit of difference in the bullets. I'm paying $3-4/lb for the pewter.

I wondered if it was just me.
Guess not.

[RogerDat]

People scrounging for pewter generally try to keep it down around $3 a pound, maybe a bit more if not a large purchase. Figure anything less than $4 a pound is good price for the tin.

When selling it in S&S there can be a wide market range. Sometimes someone will have a big score, or a large quantity to unload and it drives the price down. Other times no one will be selling any and the price asked will be higher and someone will jump on it. Sometimes people just wait for a deal, or just wait to get their price. Have seen pewter offered from around $7 per pound to near $10 per pound. The $7 stuff sells quicker, go figure Roughly 50% of commercial to 66% of commercial price.

One can often find partial rolls of solder at garage sales, often very cheap. Sometimes with enough label left to know what percentage tin it is. If not just collect it, melt it into one big batch at the end of summer and have it tested. Lot of scrap yards treat solder the same as lead so one can buy it for what one would pay for lead.

1 or 2 percent tin in the alloy can make a couple of differences, lead will flow better and at a lower temperature, helping to get grooves and bases with crisp edges this can matter more for some molds than others. It makes the metal more ductile, less inclined to shatter. Helpful for say a hollow point round that you want to mushroom but stay together not fragment and lose penetration. Or hunting bullet that won't be as inclined to shatter on bone impact for that same need for penetration. Hollow base wad cutters need to be soft to seal and not break but strong enough you don't blow the skirt off so some tin can help with that.

1/2 percent tin can be plenty if you can run the melt and mold hot and are able to cast good bullets. On the other hand 1 or 2 percent doesn't really cost that much even at the high end of tin prices.

Many molds cast to size and weight with a specific alloy Lyman #2 is commonly mentioned. That would be 5% tin & 5% antimony which is sort of spendy but a really nice alloy to work with. Change the percentages and expect to cast a slightly different bullet. Heavier for sure and possibly slightly different size. Some of the custom mold makers want to know the alloy you intend to use so the mold cavity will be sized to drop bullets of desired diameter with that alloy. Clearly tin can make a difference. Just not always one that you need to care about with a great deal of intensity.

It doesn't take much tin for a lot of bullets so with patience and persistence eventually you will have a good stash of it for not a lot of money. Once you have enough on hand for immediate needs it allows you more freedom to pass on overpriced pewter and wait for a deal. I started taking a battery powered postal scale with me to Salvation Army and Thrift stores, prices are high enough I'm not willing to guess at weight any more.

[David2011]

I bought a pair of pewter goblets today from goodwill. They were marked $2.99 each and I had a $5 credit so I paid a buck basically. I weighed them when I got home. They were good size and weighed 1.1 lbs.

The bottom of the cups were stamped real pewter 94% ... I never seen the actual percentage stamped on anything before! Kind of cool.

Nice find but no way I could melt those goblets. They would go on display in my bar and only be used for the consumption of good stuff.

[sureYnot]

Nice find but no way I could melt those goblets. They would go on display in my bar and only be used for the consumption of good stuff.

Pewter is not friendly to beer. Fine for wine though.

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