brassy tint on ingots

[JohnFM]

Yesterday I picked up 200#s of WWs.
After we moved a pallet load over by the scales to weigh the amount I was going to get I noticed a pile of ingots of all sorts of sizes kind of hidden behind some piles of other stuff. Probably was at least 500#s piled up there.
Most of the ingots had a real distinct brassy colored wash to them.
Isn't that a sign of a high tin content?
Owner of the yard couldn't remember the details of that pile, they'd been laying there for years.

[captaint]

In my experience, yes it is. High tin lead has a "goldy" look to it. Looks kinda yellowish. My .02. enjoy Mike

[JohnFM]

Thanks. Digging through some of the info I can find here that sounds right.
I don't think I've seen anything with as much color before.
It'd relatively hard stuff. Didn't spend much time looking it over, but on a few of the pieces I did pick up, I could barely make a mark with a thumbnail.

[Sonnypie]

That's the color I got yesterday when I added my 6' strip of Lead Free solder to my pot of Magnum Shot in preparation to cast.
Pretty!
Then I buried it in flux and stirring.... :veryconfu

[JohnFM]

Next month when I go pick up another couple hundred #s maybe I'll get 20 or so #s of these ingots and remelt and flux it and watch the temps.
Maybe I can get an idea of what it might be.
I guess I could invest in a hardness tester.
This is the last scrap yard we have around here and the owner is thinking seriously about retiring.
As long as he's selling WW at .50 and his other cleaner stuff at .60, I figure I'll buy as much as I can afford.

[evan price]

Nail all of that gold tint ingots you can carry! Tin is expensive!

[JohnFM]

Nice thing about this semi forgotten pile is it's all ready pretty clean.
Must have been smelted once and poured into ingots.
Some of them look like into standard sized bread pans. heavy suckers.
So, it'll be easy to weigh and load.

I wonder if there's a way to determine if it's tin mixed in or some other metal that gave it that distinctive color.

[stubshaft]

Nice thing about this semi forgotten pile is it's all ready pretty clean.
Must have been smelted once and poured into ingots.
Some of them look like into standard sized bread pans. heavy suckers.
So, it'll be easy to weigh and load.

I wonder if there's a way to determine if it's tin mixed in or some other metal that gave it that distinctive color.



Check with the scrap metal yards in your area, they may be able to run an analysis for you.

[JohnFM]

As I noted above, this is about our last source of scrap.
If I found someplace to do an analysis cheap enough I might do it out of curiosity.
Otherwise I'll just remelt some and see what happens.
Show some pieces around to the guys, maybe one of them will recognize the stuff.
Not too worried about it for the time being.
Got 2 hundred pounds to get smelted and cleaned up for now.

[Bloodman14]

Grab all you can and sell it here.

[glicerin]

Could be hi? speed babbit, approx. 80% tin, 12% antimony, balance lead, copper, nickel? Hard, rings like a bell, often yellow- gold, and doesn't corrode much with age, or moisture. I believe pure tin would be softer. Great source of tin

[JohnFM]

Babbitt? Could be. There's a lot of flavors of babbitt. I've got most of what was probably a 5# bar that's marked Diesel Marine Genuine Babbitt. Lot of other markings on the bar, it may have had the composition on the part that was sawn off.
It's way beyond fingernail hard and is a pale brass color, almost looks like a nickle silver.
I've cast a lot of lead, but never bullets before, and it didn't matter much what the alloy was.
Problem with these mystery mixes is knowing just what's in them without paying the bucks for a test.

[letsmeltlead2693]

Like my mystery alloy here I made. Contains pewter, tin solder, and tiny amounts of lead. Heavy as lead too.


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