Tin

[45forlife]

I’ve been casting 45 acp for 5 years with wheel weights. I just purchased a 454 and want to cast harder boolits for it. What is a good source or where I can I buy tin.

[Lloyd Smale]

tin isnt going to do much to harden ww bullets. YOu have two options either water drop or oven heat treat or alloy with lineotype

[45forlife]

Thanks, I water drop all of the boolits I make but I always thought tin hardened the alloy. Is there anything I can add to harden the finished product?

[Cherokee]

Antimony is the hardner and it best added as an alloy such as linotype. Very difficult for average caster to add antimony only because of the high temp requirement. You can buy alloys that are heavy in antimony and add it that way as well. I believe antimonyman.com sells such, and other alloys as well.

[sturf]

Contact "The Antimony Man" on the web. He Has tin and the metals necessary to make lino out of your wheel weights. Me is Bill Furgison. Hope I spelled it right. Very nice guy and very heplful.

[Cherokee]

I just checked and that URL for the antimony man does not work. Try google or such, I think he is still out there.

[sturf]

should be "name is" not "me is"

[sturf]

www.theantimonyman.com

[Scrounger]

This one works: http://www.theantimonyman.com

[R.M.]

45forlife

One of the easiest ways to obtain tin is leadfree solder. There's a brand that's called Dutchboy or something like that, and it's made up of 95% tin and 5% antimony. Should run about $11.00/lb. There was somebody on here that was selling some for $5.00/lb plus shipping. Good deal, I wish I'd gotten in on it. Midway's selling some for about $15.00/lb. Radiator shops use 60/40 solder, and their droppings are great. 50/50 solder is another good source of tin. If all else fails, you could try a scrap yard.

Hope this helps.
R.M.

[deadguy]

Nah, the scrap yard idea isn't so great. What most people (as well as scrap yards) consider to be tin is really galvanized steel, and that won't help you at all....

[45forlife]

Guys,

Thanks for the education.

[montana_charlie]

Adding enough tin to bring it up to ten percent of the alloy will produce the greatest amount of hardness that is possible with tin. Even that will be softer than straight wheel weights. On top of that, tin doesn't supply any extra hardness when water quenching or oven tempering.
Look in other areas for hard bullets and save your money, as tin is expensive.
CM

[R.M.]

I think some of you guys are missing something in the original post. He is using WW, and wants to add tin. I can't put my jands on it right now, but if he adds a certain amount of tin to his WW, he should end up with Lyman #2, which I believe to be in the area of 15 BHN, aircooled.
Or am I out in left field someplace?????

R.M.

[454PB]

If you want to have success shooting full velocity .454's, WW will work fine as is.....IF you use a gas check. WW boolits will also work fine plain based if you keep the velocity around 1300 to 1400 fps and the barrel, throat and bore fit are right. Above that level, good luck. Working at 60K to 65K pressure is tough with plain based WW boolits, and even pure linotype will not solve the pressure problems. I use 75% WW and 25% linotype in my .454's, but more for the better casting gained by the additional tin than for the hardness. Add 1% or 2% tin to your wheelweights and use a gas check for all out loads.

[montana_charlie]

The information contained on this webpage pretty much answers all of the questions alluded to in this thread...
http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm
CM

[45forlife]

Again Guys,

Thanks for the education. I used pure linotype with the first cast boolits I shot out of the super redhawk. The thing is I think I jumped the gun. I cast them in the morning and shot them in the evening probably not giving the boolits enough time to harden. I ordered a 300 grain gas check mold from Lee and hope to cast them this weekend. I’m glad to hear that plain wheel weights will work with a gas check but I guess I should still wait a couple of weeks before I shoot them????? I have a lot of goals for this gun. One is to win a bowling pin round with it, 2 is to kill some coyote, and three is to find a load that will shock and awe. I’ve been told that H110 and Winchester 296 will light it up but haven’t been able to find a load for a 300 grain lee boolit with either powder. Again, thanks for the information. It has helped me sort hearsay and facts out, at least for me.

[BruceB]

Checking the AntimonyMan site, he's charging $15.00 per pound for tin.

Midway has ingots of pure tin, "approximately TWO pounds", at $17.99..... I think I know where I'd buy the stuff.

[vp146b4]

45

If your still interested, I still have pure tin for sale at $5/lb plus actual shipping of $8. Just shoot me a PM and I can give you my info. I'm a shooter/caster, and would prefer to furnish a good product at a good price to fellow shooters.

Bill

[454PB]

Not to worry 45forlife, your freshly cast boolits will be fine. That Lee mould you ordered is a great design, I use it all the time. Please protect your hearing and HANDS, wear a good shooting glove. I use H-110, WW 296, WC 820, and Lil'Gun for my full power loads. I'd suggest you start around 27 gr. of H-110 or WW 296 with that boolit, then work upwards if desired.

[45forlife]

T:Fire: hanks 454PB, I think I'll pick up some H110 on Friday, cast some 300's, and let them rip on Sat.

[woody1]

45

If your still interested, I still have pure tin for sale at $5/lb plus actual shipping of $8. Just shoot me a PM and I can give you my info. I'm a shooter/caster, and would prefer to furnish a good product at a good price to fellow shooters.

Bill

This is good stuff folks........AND the best price you'll find. I bought some, I know. Regards, Woody

[45forlife]

Sounds like a great price but with the information I have received I'm going to try without it. If I have a problem I will probably be in contact. Thanks

[Bass Ackward]

45

If your still interested, I still have pure tin for sale at $5/lb plus actual shipping of $8. Just shoot me a PM and I can give you my info. I'm a shooter/caster, and would prefer to furnish a good product at a good price to fellow shooters.

Bill

I'll vouch for Bill. But that's liable to actually ruin his reputation.

I bought 20 lbs off him and am perfectly satisfied.

[45forlife]

454PB,
:-D I used your load and got great accuracy for pins but didn’t get a lot of flame (I did get some ). I raised it by a grain and will check it out on Sunday. The load felt good, almost like the Winchester 300 grain factory load. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get a little more flame. It would be great if I got one load to do every thing I want…..pins, coyote, shock and awe.

[454PB]

Glad it worked for you. Not enough flash and flame for you? I get dirty looks from everyone around me at the pistol range with my .454's muzzle blast.

Try shooting at dusk or dawn!

[WineMan]

I still have a supply of the Tin for $5/lb +4th class USPS. from Plymouth California 95669.

They are wine bottle capsules at 99.999% tin and coated with a water based enamel paint.

The USPS website will let you check on shipping costs.

Send me a PM and we can work out the details. A MO is my prefered payment method.

[cbrick]

Adding enough tin to bring it up to ten percent of the alloy will produce the greatest amount of hardness that is possible with tin. Even that will be softer than straight wheel weights. On top of that, tin doesn't supply any extra hardness when water quenching or oven tempering.CM

The following from this article: http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletAlloy.htm

Maximum hardness of lead/tin alloys is 17 BHN at 63% tin and 37% lead (commonly known as 60/40 solder).

Pretty pricey bullets not to mention how lite they would be [smilie=1:.

Rick

[MakeMineA10mm]

I drop 2 lbs of 60/40 solder into about 80-85lbs of WW alloy. With the .5% of tin that WWs already has, I figure that gives me between 1.75 and 3.0% tin in my final bullet alloy (depending on how much tin is really in the WWs). This casts PLENTY pretty bullets with the added benefit of being mild-hardness if air-cooled and plenty-hard if water dropped. Covers all my needs in pistol bullets (and probably rifle, though I've only ever cast 311410s for 30 Carbine, haven't gotten into higher-velocity rifle cast shooting yet), and I only have to stockpile one alloy... (No wondering if I left the soft stuff or the hard stuff in the pot, the last time I shut it off...)

While tin does add hardness (to a degree, probably ending it's usefullness-to-cost value at around 3-5%), its primary importance in casting is to reduce surface tension to allow bullets to fill out the mould well. Commercial casters use 2% alloy generally, and Lyman uses 5% in their alloy. I haven't seen any need to exceed 3% to get bullets fully filled out, smooth, and shiney. One can replace the tin with high-temperature casting (frosted boolits), but I like my bullets silvery-looking! :mrgreen:


:castmine:

[cohutt]

45

If your still interested, I still have pure tin for sale at $5/lb plus actual shipping of $8. Just shoot me a PM and I can give you my info. I'm a shooter/caster, and would prefer to furnish a good product at a good price to fellow shooters.

Bill

+1,
Bill sent me 21 1/2 lbs on the 20 lb order; tin is in nice long ingots that can be pinched off in small quanitites to sweeten a pot......