Alloys (silver)

[machanic]

Anyone know if there are any bad properties to having silver in your casting alloy in small amounts, less than 1%.

[Hickory]

Werewolfs and silver-no good.
Lead and silver-Ok.

[machanic]

Never met a werewolf, but if I did I'de be prepared, I put that under good properties. I was wondering more about hardness and fouling in the bore.

[cbrick]

Rumor has it that "Oregon Trail Bullet Co." uses an alloy with silver in it.

Should make it a tick harder, may need a tad more heat to cast well but if you have Sn in your alloy don't go over 750 degrees pot temp.

Won't foul the bore unless your shooting a mild manored load/caliber and the bullet is simply too hard for the application. Silver or not that can lead a bore.

Except for the cost I don't know any reason not to use it. Hope you got a deal on it.

Rick

[41mag]

I got a bunch of rolls of solder from a fellow at work that are 95/5, (tin/silver). I have been using it as pure tin for all of my alloy with no ill effects so far.

[machanic]

Thanks 41mag, I have about 10# stripped from stainless refridgerated serving tables, ya know, salad bars, and some still in rolls just hanging around, guess I found a use for it!
Thanks for the info
machanic

[Jim]

I got a bunch of rolls of solder from a fellow at work that are 95/5, (tin/silver). I have been using it as pure tin for all of my alloy with no ill effects so far.

Did you check the content on the paper label on the spool flanges? I'm not callin' you out, I'm just confused. The thirty years I was a pipefitter, the only 95/5 I ever saw was tin & antimony. I didn't know they made a tin/silver 95/5.

[I'll Make Mine]

I didn't know they made a tin/silver 95/5.

I've seen 95/5 and 97/3 tin/silver in the internal search system where I work, indicating they've sold at least a couple units of it fairly recently. They also have the 95/5 and 97/3 tin/antimony, 99+% tin, and various tin/silver/copper and tin/antimony/silver alloys -- though I don't trust the prices I see, since most are out of stock and prices have changed a lot within the "recently" time frame they use.

[machanic]

From the pages of a Welco catalog cerca 1977

[41mag]

Did you check the content on the paper label on the spool flanges? I'm not callin' you out, I'm just confused. The thirty years I was a pipefitter, the only 95/5 I ever saw was tin & antimony. I didn't know they made a tin/silver 95/5.

No problem, but yes that is where I got the info from. I had also contacted Bumpo and asked him to add it to his alloy calculator and it might even still be in there.

My coworker was a commercial welder / pipe fitter for quite a few years, and like rolls of Teflon tape, it just seemed to end up following him home from work from time to time. He said it was all they used in building drinking water systems when they soldered in the copper piping for drinking fountains and such. He said that the company he worked for started using it, to avoid any issues with having to rework any of the piping due to the content of the solder.

For the price I didn't argue, and sure didn't worry about the silver content, he handed me a bag of 16 rolls over for free, and said that ought to hold you a while. So far it has...

[machanic]

Mike I hope it ends up in the Calculator, silver has some interesting properties, not exactily sure how they will work out in boolits, some experimenting is in order!! The alloy I have is Welco#5 its listed in another thread in this section, its a 94% tin 6% silver.
Martin/RI

[bumpo628]

Mike I hope it ends up in the Calculator, silver has some interesting properties, not exactily sure how they will work out in boolits, some experimenting is in order!! The alloy I have is Welco#5 its listed in another thread in this section, its a 94% tin 6% silver.
Martin/RI

The 95/5 tin/silver is in there.
You can either overwrite the numbers or add your solder in one of the custom alloy slots.

[machanic]

Thanks bumpo628, now I need to find a free copy of Excell, so off to downloads!!

[Lee W]

A little blurb about wetting in lead free solders from here:

http://alphacpmd.com/~/media/Files/CooksonElectronics/Effect%20of%20silver%20in%20common%20leadfree%20al loyspaperEng042309.pdf

This is one of the major differences
between Ag bearing and Ag free alloys. Ag
free alloys have higher surface tension at
standard operating temperatures and don’t
wet as well. An optimized balance of Ag and
other additives helps to lower the surface
tension of solder alloys at standard Pb-free
operating temperatures. This lower surface
tension results in faster wetting contributing
to better hole fill and SMD soldering at lower
contact times.

A little more about the amount of silver:

There is a significant difference
in the wetting times of alloys with different
level of Ag content when the test is carried
out at 250oC pot temperature. Wetting time
drops from ~2.3 sec to ~1.1 as Ag level goes
up from 0% to 0.6%. A further increase in Ag
level to 1.0% results in only a very small
reduction in wetting time; from 1.1 sec to 0.96
Sec.

[machanic]

Lee W, a bit of a read, most nonrelivent, but a couple of good points, Cu to be avoided and %Ag should be at or below 1% although a bit above might result in a fragmentary Boolit!

[lwknight]

Thanks bumpo628, now I need to find a free copy of Excell, so off to downloads!!

Download " Open Office" free from openoffice.org.
It does almost anything that microjunk office can do and uses far less resources to operate.

[machanic]

Thanks for that site info lwknight, I already found Excell and loaded it on my desktop but I will try Open Office on the laptop I use as my backup!!
Thanks
machanic

[I'll Make Mine]

Only thing with Open Office Calc is that it won't run most Excel macros. It'll load the spreadsheet and the formulas will work, but anything that acts like a program most likely will fail.

[MT Chambers]

I don't know nothing about spread sheets, 'cept what I sleep on when I'm not in the dog house but 95% silver would cost a small fortune. The 95/5 "silver solder" is undoubtedly 95% tin and 5% antimony or some such, real silver solder needs torches to melt.

[I'll Make Mine]

The 95/5 is, in fact, 95% tin and 5% silver; that alloy melts only a few degrees higher than 60/40 tin/lead solder. It's used in electronic soldering because the silver improves wetting (ability of the solder to flow onto the metal being joined) compared to 100% tin. This is important for industries that make electronics for sale in Europe, as all lead solder is banned in EU countries.

That percentage of silver doesn't kick the price of the solder up terribly; 100% tin is around $10/lb, 95/5 tin/silver is about double that (and 97/3 is more commonly used, priced in between). For mass production soldering of electronics that have to be lead free, it's a bargain, just on the basis of the lower process fallout rate.

The "real silver solder" that needs to be red hot to melt is more correctly called silver braze, these days; the filler metal used there is roundly half silver, the remainder some combination of zinc, cadmium, and tin. Tin/silver solders are similar to what used to be called "silver bearing" solders, which flow at soldering temperatures but typically form significantly stronger joins than tin/lead solders.

[toolz568]

Ok, I'm not sure if I found the answer to the question. I ran out of WW and all I have is pure lead. I too have 5 lbs of guaranteed 5% silver, 95% tin and I was going to add it to my pure lead. It seems that all I have to do is keep the silver content at less than 1% and with a 20-1 mix, this should never be an issue. So, is it ok to use?

[RG1911]

Only thing with Open Office Calc is that it won't run most Excel macros. It'll load the spreadsheet and the formulas will work, but anything that acts like a program most likely will fail.

Some time back, OpenOffice was forked and LibreOffice has almost universally supplanted it. The latest info is that LibreOffice does a much better job with Excel macros. I haven't tried that yet. Check:

http://www.libreoffice.org/

Cheers,
Richard

[machanic]

Ok, I'm not sure if I found the answer to the question. I ran out of WW and all I have is pure lead. I too have 5 lbs of guaranteed 5% silver, 95% tin and I was going to add it to my pure lead. It seems that all I have to do is keep the silver content at less than 1% and with a 20-1 mix, this should never be an issue. So, is it ok to use?

From what I've gathered so far, silver not a problem, expect improved flow out in mold and so far hardness of boolits has been in the range calculated for alloy.

[Jeffrey]

If you have 5% silver solder you might consider selling it and using the proceeds to buy lead, wheelweights, whatever. Staybrite 8% silver solder is on fleabay for $50.00 a 1 lb roll. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stay-brite-8-Solder-/160925212530?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2577e3df72

[machanic]

Good point, I didn't know that soft silver solder had gone that high!!