Adding tin solder

[ssn vet]

Hey guys! On my most recent smelt, I mixed some scrap roofing lead into my clip on WWs. I wasn't in any way precise, but if I had to guess I'd say it was ~25%. I'm taking the day off work tomorrow and hope to try out two new molds, A 125 gr. RN for 9mm and a 158 gr SWC for .357 mag. Both are TL molds and I plan on luging with LLA & Rooster.

Tonight I picked up a pound of 95/5 1/8" solder, hoping to use it to improve flow/fill-out and maybe harden up the alloy a bit.

Any recommendations for how many inches of solder to add to my pot??

I'm using a 20# bottom pour (that I usually only fill 3/4)

I've mostly cast air dried WWs for .45 acp, and this will be my first shot casting for higher pressure pistol cartridges, and I'm not sure how hard I should be shooting for.

[runfiverun]

fill the pot up a bit more it only holds about 18 lbs anyway.
you have 1 lb of solder which works out to 1 roll per 100 lbs of alloy at 1% [which is what i use]
your 25 ish % soft and 1% ish tin is my close nuff alloy for most everything.
i water drop it for rifles and hunting with them, and air cool it for revolvers/pistols.
just unroll the wire and bend/cut it into 5 equal lengths each one is enough for 1% tin in 20 lbs of alloy.

[lwknight]

Not quite, if its a lee pot .
The 20# Lee pot will overflow with 15# in it.
I don't know how on earth they came to advertise it as 20 pound capacity.

[leadman]

The 95/5 solder is probably 5% antimony and 95% tin. Confirm this by looking on end of the roll. If so you will get additional herdening from the antimony.
Look on the bottom of the page for the LASC icon and read on alloying the lead.

[454PB]

I'm with R5R, except I might add a bit more solder and bring it to 2% added tin.

Tin adds very little to hardness, but really helps with "fluidity". The way to increase hardness is either more antimony or heat treating.

[dragon813gt]

I wish I could tell you how long of a piece. But I always do it by weight. I add 3.5 oz to 7# range lead / 7# Isotope Core lead. This yields 96/2/2. There is a lead alloy calculator somewhere in one of the forums here.


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[bumpo628]

I think I figured it out, but you should double check my calcs with a scale.

Assuming that you have the 75%ww/25%pure mix and there is 12 lbs (9ww+3pure) of the mix in the pot:
24.6 inches (0.080 lbs) of 95/5 solder + 12 lbs your alloy = alloy with 1.00% tin, 1.52% antimony
44.4 inches (0.145 lbs) of 95/5 solder + 12 lbs your alloy = alloy with 1.50% tin, 1.54% antimony
64.8 inches (0.210 lbs) of 95/5 solder + 12 lbs your alloy = alloy with 2.00% tin, 1.56% antimony

The above is also assuming that clip-on ww has 0.25% tin & 2% antimony and that the roof flashing is pure lead.
A 1 lb roll should have about 25 feet of 1/8" diameter solder.

[slohunter]

I'm glad to hear 95/5 is good for a little hardness and fluidity. I just picked up 2 25 lb rolls for a song.
A lot of good info on Castboolits!

[shadowcaster]

I wish I could tell you how long of a piece. But I always do it by weight.

This how I do it as well. Also I would not add any tin at all to begin with. Your WW's have some tin already. See how they cast up. At that point if you feel you need to add more tin, do it then. I try not to exceed 1% tin.

Shad

[Lloyd Smale]

why are you adding roofing lead to ww and then after wanting tin to harden it. Why not just use straight ww.

[N1YDP]

can you use rosin core solder?

[plainsman456]

Yep it just has a flux built in.

I use the 95/5 in my pots and usually put in about 3 ft if the mix is going to be pushed fast.

[frkelly74]

Watch out for spatter with the rosin core stuff.