Ford TRS 912 lead

[15meter]

With a bunch of other reloading stuff is a whole bunch of "Ford TRS 912" sticks of lead, I assume this was body lead from the days when they filled body seams with lead.

Any ideas?

Also with this were some marked "Body Solder Hewitt-Detroit" plus "Waraloy 35" 20-30 lbs. total.

[poppy42]

Your close. Back before plastic auto body filler lead was used. It was applied with wooden paddles. To my knowledge the only place it’s still used is by certified Rolls Royce technicians.

[lightman]

If you can't find any info on it I would melt it all together and send off a sample to have analyzed. I did this with a bunch of roll solder that I couldn't read the labels on and it has worked well. This stuff had been in a 5 gallon plastic bucket, half full of water, and looked like a mess.

[15meter]

Any guess on alloy?


How much tin (or other stuff) is in typical body solder?

[15meter]

If you can't find any info on it I would melt it all together and send off a sample to have analyzed. I did this with a bunch or roll solder that I couldn't read the labels on and it has worked well. This stuff had been in a 5 gallon plastic bucket, half full of water, and looked like a mess.

I've seen reference to alloy testing but can't find the right thread, my google-fu ain't working this morning. Help!

[RedlegEd]

Hi. There is a member here, BNE who will analyze your lead. I thinks he asks for 1 lb. of lead in payment for his service. He's done one for me, and I'm really pleased with the results. It's really nice to know exactly what you have in you alloy. Hope this helps. Ed

[RogerDat]

Body solder was typically in a lower tin and higher tin varieties. One was used after an acid to "tin" the surface to be filled. Heating the metal and rubbing the solder on it like a crayon to get a bond coat with the metal surface. Then the other solder was heated to a putty like consistency and wood paddles were used to fill and shape the solder repair, paddles were rubbed in a pan of melted wax to help them work the lead.

The not very high stuff is only 5 or 10 percent tin as I recall. I might have some of that Hewellit-Detroit body solder that I had tested but I think the percentage may vary, I also think most of that has been the lower tin content. The Waralloy 35 is I'm pretty sure the 65/35 working solder with 35% tin. That is close to the wiping solder used by Bell Telephone for soldering seams of lead cable. Desirable for it's long plastic stage when the seam could be "wiped" to make it smooth and well embedded into the joint.

The low tin stuff cuts with pure nicely for known binary Pb/Sn alloy for soft revolver rounds. Hollow point, hollow base, cowboy action shooting that requires only two historically correct alloys in the bullets. It can also of course be used as sweeter but only if one doesn't mind introducing a lot of lead for a small amount of Sn into that mix.

[PBaholic]

Probably 50/50 Sn/Pb, but it could be anything.

Measure the Brinell Hardness of it, and you can guestimate it's mixture:



This is how Brinell himself measured hardness, by pushing a ball bearing into the surface, and measuring the diameter of the indent. I use this method, and can get repeatable results down to about 0.5 BHN.

Once you get the BHN, you can use this chart to determine the approximate Sn/Pb mix: