solder

[dudley2112]

bought some solder today but just realized its not 50/50 but the 97% tin stuff... will this still work for adding to alloys, but just using smaller amounts? of should i be going and getting 50/50 solder

[zomby woof]

bought some solder today but just realized its not 50/50 but the 97% tin stuff... will this still work for adding to alloys, but just using smaller amounts? of should i be going and getting 50/50 solder

97% tin vs 50% tin. Buy what ever is cheaper per pound of tin. Use accordingly.

[bumpo628]

No, the 97% tin solder is fine.
The 3% other material will be insignificant to the final alloy since it will be so small.

How much did you pay per pound?

[Jim]

You might wanna see if you can determine what that other 3 percent is. If it's plumber's solder, it might be a mix of copper and selenium, copper and silver or selenium and silver. The selenium mixes are nothing to get strung out about. But copper acts as a strong hardening agent. That's why some solder mfgrs. use it in their alloy.
You'd be surprised how little dissolved copper in the alloy it takes to drive the BHN up significantly. If boolit hardness is an issue, I'd know what that 3 percent is before I start puttin' too much of it in my mix.

[dudley2112]

i thought copper wuold just float to the top when smelting? some of the lead im using was recovered from the water in a backstop at an indoor range and the cops have been using lots of frangible ammo there. The copper from the frangibles wont make the lead useless will it?

i just bought a spool of it from princess auto think it was like 8$ ish

[Gswain]

how much per pound was it though? was it a 1 pound spool?

[dudley2112]

god no i wish i think its like a 1/4 spool... horrible pricing i know

[bumpo628]

some of the lead im using was recovered from the water in a backstop at an indoor range and the cops have been using lots of frangible ammo there. The copper from the frangibles wont make the lead useless will it?

Aren't some frangible bullets made from zinc?

Regarding the copper in the solder:
If you added enough solder to get 10 lbs of pure lead to 2% tin (.21 lbs), the copper would only be 0.06%. I don't think that is enough copper to have a noticeable effect.

[Bill*]

god no i wish i think its like a 1/4 spool... horrible pricing i know
The other 3% might be silver. Even though its only a small percentage of silver, I've seen it priced crazy high compared to other solders shelved right next to it.

[Jim]

When lead free solder, for the purpose of soldering copper pipe, is made, the copper is "dissolved", if it were, in the mix by way of high heat and chemicals that cause it to bond. Copper, in and of itself, will not bond directly to tin, so the process uses silver as a catalyst to make the bonding occur. The copper is in the tin base on a molecular level, therefore, it will not separate.

Over the course of thirty plus years as a plumber and mechanical pipefitter, I've used thousands of pounds of solder fabricating and installing copper pipe systems. The various contractors I've worked for sent me and a bunch of my fellow workers to seminars to learn about this stuff.

I've got close to a hundred pounds of it in my casting shed that I use as tin additive/hardener. Trust me, the new lead free plumber's solder is like Brylcream. "A little dab'll do ya!"

Look at the DATA (http://www.silvaloy.com/silvabrite100.php) for Silvabrite 100 lead free solder. It's 4% copper. That's why it's good to know the alloy of the solder you're using.