should I buy 60/40 solder?

[xpshooter]

I stopped at the local radiator shop and asked what they had for scrap, and they said it 60/40 solder leftovers mostly and that they don't get muchfrom the scrap yard $0.16-0.18 per pound. I was wondering if I should buy this or not? Should I add any of this to my wheelweights or not? I will be making 44 cal for 44 magnum and later maybee add moulds for my .223 and 7BR all pistols.
Thanks for the input

[jhalcott]

certainly buy it. how much did they have? depending on what you are casting for, it is a good source of tin. If your WW isn't casting well a couple ounces of 60/40 could improve the mix.

[felix]

Yes, indeed, buy it all. The waste is about 50 percent, so figure double the price you have figured. Double the price again, and that will be the price of the tin content. Figure in the cost of flame to smelt, and you are looking at about 80 cents to a dollar per pound of tin. That is hiway robbery in my book. ... felix

[OLPDon]

Sounds like a Group Buy to me!!!!!!!!
Don

[Treeman]

Felix means that YOu would be the one making out like a bandit.

[OLPDon]

Yep making out like bandit and that is what I mean too!
Don

[Lloyd Smale]

worth 10-20 times there asking price!

[OLPDon]

Lloyd yep ditto just like Mr Berra said "Cash as good as money!"

[xpshooter]

Well I picked up one 5 gal. bucket of scrap from the radiator shop for 20$. One guy at work said that a 5 gal. bucket of WW weigh 200-225 lbs but I didn't think my bucket was that heavy putting it into my car. I weighed it today and it only weighs 150 lbs. They had 5-8 more buckets of the stuff, but I am not sure how much lead is in the bucket at this point. It looks like a lot of stuff that comes from grinding steel, and possibly off of the floor. I will have to take some to work with me, see if I can get some time to try to melt it so I can see how much usable stuff I have.

[xpshooter]

Well I finally got a cast iron pot and fired up the colmann stove and I ended up putting 18 pounds of the stuff from the radiatior shop and I got out about 5.5 pounds of what should be 60/40 solder. So if figure correctly I should get about 35 pounds of 60/40 out of one 5 gal. bucket which cost $20 is this cheap or not?

[kywoodwrkr]

You will get about 45# of the 60/40 or about 27 lbs of tin.
Tin goes from about$5 a lb on upward.
You answer this question, are you happy spending $20 for about $137 worth of tin?
Even if it has become a little bit contaminated , I think you have done real well.
Now about all those other buckets full you say they have!
Good luck, well that's sorta needless isn't it?
I think you did pretty good.
DaveP kywoodwrkr

[leftiye]

Where'd you say this was? Have 'em ship me a couple of those buckets!

[freddyp]

I was able to save some time with my radiator shop scrap by washing it prior to melting it. I take a 4x4 sheet of plywood and set it up at an angle. I throw about 20lbs of scrap at the top and hose it down with the garden hose. I use a spoon to move it around and then set it out to dry. This will remove ALOT of dirt and powdered rust from the alloy. After it is dry, I just melt, flux it and pour it into suitable ingots.

[garandsrus]

xpshooter,

I am really surprised at how little 60/40 you ended up with on your test. What did the 2/3 of the mix that got thrown out look like/consist of?

Be careful with radiator fluid in that it has a sweet taste that dogs like. Unfortunately, it does something to their liver and kills them. There is an antidote if caught early enough.

John

[hunter64]

I thought it was only cats that it killed, no big loss, but dogs I did not know about. I never thought of dropping by a rad shop for a cheap source of tin, a 5 gallon bucket would go a long way with WW's. To find out the percentage of tin in the lead then follow these directions. I think I got this off of the forum but anyway it works great.

1.Cast a slug of pure lead.

2.Cast a slug of the alloy.

3.Divide the alloy weight by the lead weight and multiply by 11.345 to get the Speciif Gravity.

4. Divide 2050 by the Specific Gravity and subtract 180 to get the percentage of tin in the alloy.

I did it with an unknown lead mixture and at it came out as 60/40 tin to lead. For pure lead then get some stickon wheel weights, they are really close to pure lead.

Once you have done this then you will know for sure if it is indeed 60/40 and you can use it accordingly to mix with the WW to get what ever mixture you would like.

[xpshooter]

The left over stuff looked like soot and/or dirt they swept off of the floor.

I was thinking about washing the stuff before melting it but I was worried about water in the pot, but I do think this will save also of time, I will have to try this.

I will have to check the % and I will compare it to some lead that a guy from work gave me it is stamped "National lead co. 2080" and I was told it is pure lead.

I am new to this casting stuff as this wa my first experience, So what are the best uses of this mix? I will be loading for the 44mag/445 supermag and later .223 and 7br.
Thank for all the input

[freddyp]

Just to give you guys a little bit of info on anti-freeze. It's the alcohol used in it that KILLS. It destroys the liver and other organs in the body. Its effects are not limited to cats. I had the opportunity to see a guy almost die from drinking one glass of his favorite brand of green anti-freeze. It took about eight hours for the effects to show-up, and about a two-weeks to fix. Its a very painful way to go.

[xpshooter]

Thanks for the warning, I always try not to get any closer to the fumes than I have to, and work in a vented area.

[Crash_Corrigan]

My friend has a small radiator shop. He was paying a company to remove his sweepings from the floor (spatters of solder and chunks of coil solder) and a lot of just plain dirt as toxic metals. It was costing him about $10 a 5 gallon bucket to get rid of it. I dropped off a half dozen 5 gal buckets and he filled each half way (so I can carry them easily) and I ended up spending 6 hours melting down that stuff. It stunk of anti freeze, tobacco and rubber but I ended up with almost two buckets of ingots. I add a half dozen or so to each 20 lbs of ww and they cast great (although light in weight) boolits. Benefits are they are free and I have no problems with fill out or leading at decent velocities. I am getting 1" groups with my 223 Rem at 2100 FPS with a GC Lyman boolit behind Varget powder. I gotta love those 22's as a pound of casting metal goes a real long way. Keeping the velocity down is getting me up to 10 uses of a military cartridge case. The only pain is when I get a bunch of new cases I have to roll out the primer cup crimp with a Dillon swage and then I clean off the burr inside the case and do a full resizing for the 1st use. After that I only neck size as I only shoot it in a CZ 527 bolt action. For my .45 I load 4.3 Gr of Bullseye or 4.0 of Clays with a recycled Case and I have yet to have to toss a .45 ACP case for any reason. They last forever. I have some I have loaded 25 times. When I pick range brass I find dented cases (caused by ejections) and I even use them sometimes if it isn't too bad. Again some military brass is nasty but the Dillon swager takes care of it all. I have even found some 380 ACP stuff with the dreaded crimped primer pockets. Almost all of the 223's around my range are Military but the upside is that there is some much of it around. I am usually picking up 50 to 150 rounds from the range everytime I go. I need to stop it. I need the space for other projects.
The ww problem is not going to go away. If you are lucky enuf to have a shooter who can utilize the end product then you have a good deal. If not then donuts, favorite beverage and or yankee dollars can keep you in ww forever. I have 5 shops in town with my buckets awaiting contributions. Some take boolits, some just ask me to give out their business cards etc, one likes Samuel Adams and another loves it when I invite him to go shooting with me. He never fired a gun in his life and loves the 357 Mag at night with big billowing flames and boom. Invite them to shoot your guns and ammo with their lead. Spread the sport. Everyman (within reason) should be armed at all times and then we would have a polite society. You ain't gonna antagonize a person who may have gun!
Crash in Vegas:castmine:

[Crash_Corrigan]

My friend has a small radiator shop. He was paying a company to remove his sweepings from the floor (spatters of solder and chunks of coil solder) and a lot of just plain dirt as toxic metals. It was costing him about $10 a 5 gallon bucket to get rid of it. I dropped off a half dozen 5 gal buckets and he filled each half way (so I can carry them easily) and I ended up spending 6 hours melting down that stuff. It stunk of anti freeze, tobacco and rubber but I ended up with almost two buckets of ingots. I add a half dozen or so to each 20 lbs of ww and they cast great (although light in weight) boolits. Benefits are they are free and I have no problems with fill out or leading at decent velocities. I am getting 1" groups with my 223 Rem at 2100 FPS with a GC Lyman boolit behind Varget powder. I gotta love those 22's as a pound of casting metal goes a real long way. Keeping the velocity down is getting me up to 10 uses of a military cartridge case. The only pain is when I get a bunch of new cases I have to roll out the primer cup crimp with a Dillon swage and then I clean off the burr inside the case and do a full resizing for the 1st use. After that I only neck size as I only shoot it in a CZ 527 bolt action. For my .45 I load 4.3 Gr of Bullseye or 4.0 of Clays with a recycled Case and I have yet to have to toss a .45 ACP case for any reason. They last forever. I have some I have loaded 25 times. When I pick range brass I find dented cases (caused by ejections) and I even use them sometimes if it isn't too bad. Again some military brass is nasty but the Dillon swager takes care of it all. I have even found some 380 ACP stuff with the dreaded crimped primer pockets. Almost all of the 223's around my range are Military but the upside is that there is some much of it around. I am usually picking up 50 to 150 rounds from the range everytime I go. I need to stop it. I need the space for other projects.
The ww problem is not going to go away. If you are lucky enuf to have a shooter who can utilize the end product then you have a good deal. If not then donuts, favorite beverage and or yankee dollars can keep you in ww forever. I have 5 shops in town with my buckets awaiting contributions. Some take boolits, some just ask me to give out their business cards etc, one likes Samuel Adams and another loves it when I invite him to go shooting with me. He never fired a gun in his life and loves the 357 Mag at night with big billowing flames and boom. Invite them to shoot your guns and ammo with their lead. Spread the sport. Everyman (within reason) should be armed at all times and then we would have a polite society. You ain't gonna antagonize a person who may have gun!
Crash in Vegas:castmine:

[Lloyd Smale]

my radiator shop sorce cut me off. Said he can now trade it back to the guy who provides his solder for new solder.

[Beau Cassidy]

xpshooter,

Be careful with radiator fluid in that it has a sweet taste that dogs like. Unfortunately, it does something to their liver and kills them. There is an antidote if caught early enough.

John

The antidote for an ethylene glycol (radiator fluid) overdose is more or less an alcohol infusion. I believe it is 10%.