lead pipe soldered joints question

[iridebikes]

I am just getting into casting. I have a friend that is a plumber and he said he would give me all the lead he comes across. I picked up a load from him over the weekend. I turned it into ingots today. I wasn't sure what to do with the soldered joints (I searched but got mixed results). I ended up with 29lbs.

So my question is do I go ahead and add it to the pot or keep it separate and recycle it.

http://i1099.photobucket.com/albums/g381/glock27kcmo/IMG_1968.jpg

http://i1099.photobucket.com/albums/g381/glock27kcmo/IMG_1971.jpg

[fryboy]

separate it !!!!!! that's the good stuff !!! high in tin ( quite possibly either 60/40,50/50 or 40/60 ) most melt it off and then throw the remaining pipe in with the rest of the pipe , by not melting it with the rest of the melt ya did good !!! ( at least in my humble opinion )

[swamp]

+1 Melt it off seperately. It is easy to do with a propane torch. High tin solder. When I get lead pipe it is the first step I do.

swamp

[iridebikes]

Thanks guys. I will melt it off and throw the good lead in my bucket of lead to be melted. Hopefully I will get another call soon to pick up more lead.

[10 ga]

Ya done good! Dittos " " for what fryboy and swamp said. Seperate the joints out. I just save a bunch of the joints and smelt the joints all together and have some small high tin ingots that I use when needed. Mark your ingots for source/content as you'll forget what they are if you don't. 10 ga

[btroj]

I just melt them down with the rest of it. I generally do 30 to 50 pounds per smelting pot so the tin is distributed over a bunch of lead.

I just don't get worried about it, if I want to add tin I just add it later.

[Bob Krack]

If I am understanding correctly, someone suggested and you agreed that melting off the Tin as the thing to do.???.

In my opinion (from my personal experience), a very small amount of Tin can (occasionally) be "melted off". I save the section of pipe/flashing that has the solder indication and just call it "higher than most non-solder Tin mixtures".

I would really guess that I might have 5%-10% Tin in that mix. ----or----- 2 to 3% Tin?

Many of the pipes and flashings contain a considerable amount of Antimony, usually 1 to 3% but sometimes as much as 6 or 7%.

We need Tin in an Antimony/Lead (or near pure Lead) mix to make the mold fillout a little better and easier and - sometimes to make for a better Tin/Antimony ratio.

Good luck,

Bob