Where Do I Find Tin?

[Foto Joe]

Ad tin, ad tin, ad tin.....I read it all the time on the forum but what I don't read is: Where do you get tin??

Help me out here guys, I've got a .454 round ball mold and about 20 lb of ingots from stick on wheel weights. I've poured a hundred or so RB's but the temp is way up there and I'm still getting wrinkles so of course I need tin. Since the vast majority of my casting is with COWW's I've never had the need or occasion to try and hunt down tin for casting.

[AlaskanGuy]

Look for pewter stuff to melt in 2nd hand stores.... Lots of good pewter there... Look in the lead alloy forum and there is a lot of info about what pewter looks like and such.... And keep an eye on swapping and selling. There are a couple guys here that offer it up pre fluxed, clean, and weighed out in small amounts that are perfect for mixing...

[Dale in Louisiana]

Rotometals is a site sponsor. They sell tin.

dale in Louisiana

[ShooterAZ]

I use 95/5 solder, 95% tin, 5% antimony. I buy bulk spools at the hardware store. It's not cheap, but I get it at employee cost so that helps. Round ball loads I still use pure lead though, and cast at about 850 degrees. Preheat your mold, crank up the pot temp, and cast as fast as possible.

[Beagle333]

I have never used tin in round balls.
Get it hotter, they'll drop fine. :D

[jmort]

Retail on tin is around $20.00 a pound delivered. You can find it for less. Ebay has solder 50/50 or whatever percentage. Usually first number is the tin percentage. I avoid rosin core solder but many don't mind it, just need to flux-out the rosin. Two pounds will make 100 pounds of good alloy.

[Foto Joe]

With only 20 pounds of soft lead I don't need much tin so a bulk roll of 95/5 solder is probably not a good plan for me. I'll have a look at the hardware store today and see if I can find some solder that will work.

As far as getting the temperature up...I'm already pushing 800 degrees which to me seems excessive considering that I normally cast at around 650 max.

[Zymurgy50]

Heat it up more, you are not gonna oxidize any tin out of the mix. Pure lead requires more heat to cast properly.

[ShooterAZ]

One 8 ounce rolls of 95/5 is all you need (1/40), if you insist on using tin in RB. Found at any hardware store. Crank the temp to 850 for pure! Cast like a madman.

[bangerjim]

More power to you guys that find pewter in junk stores! I have looked for it for MANY years and it is just not there! When it is, they have it at the counter at the register as a "collectable" with a ridiculous price.

Swap & sell and Roto are good sources for alloys.

I do not cast large RB's but after reading all the thread by those that do, I so not see where anyone uses anything but pure Pb to cast them. I do cast 32 cal RB's as "nose pieces" for my hot melt glue 45 LC's and pure casts perfectly.

banger

[1bluehorse]

Wrinkles in cast are "generally" caused by to cold a mould, not pot temp....

[Tatume]

You can add tin to your alloy fairly economically if you just peruse the ads in the "Swapping and Selling" forum here. You can buy solder or linotype metal, either of which has tin, and the linotype also has antimony.

[imashooter2]

For your 20 pounds of lead, a half pound roll of 95/5 solder purchased locally is probably your most economical "gotta have it now" solution. If you are a scrounger, than yard sales or thrift shops will often have partial solder rolls or pewter. The S&S here has lots of pewter and solder offered, but it is usually 5 pound or more lots to make the shipping reasonable.

[rattletrap1970]

Yeah, wrinkles is a cold mold generally. Not enough tin, the boolit looks really nice finish-wise, but all the grooves and corners look rounded not sharp. If you got wrinkles, get yourself a nice little ceramic hotplate and thermometer. I went through all the settings of my hotplate with the thermometer and re-labeled the dial so I know the temps. And just sit the mold on it.

As far as tin.. Yeah pewter is good. Go to flea markets and buy dented and damaged pewter dishware and things.
The other source for tin I have found is wine capsules. That is the wrapper that covers the tops of wine bottles. There are 3 materials they are typically made of: Plastic, Aluminum and Tin. The tin is on better bottles of wine and on most single malt scotch. It has a goldish cast to it and is dead soft. If you talk to the package stores around you that do wine tastings as ask them to save the tin capsules I have found many will (especially if you are a repeat customer).

[fredj338]

One source of inexpensive tin would be a local radiator shop. They would collect drippings form repairs, offer them $1/#, good to go.

[JeffinNZ]

I scored a large bearing lining with tin based babbit many years ago. I'm still using it. It was a LARGE bearing.

[Garyshome]

Get some pewter. cheap at the goodwill or second hand stores I won't pay any morw than $3.00/pound.

[BubbaJon]

More power to you guys that find pewter in junk stores! I have looked for it for MANY years and it is just not there! When it is, they have it at the counter at the register as a "collectable" with a ridiculous price.

Pretty much been my experience too - even with Craigslist. I found out that you can get bar solder (plumbers 50/50) at wholesalers that cater to roofers. Don't bother with the hardware store and welder/plumber supplies - they think that stuff is gold plated.

[bhn22]

At the last gun show I went to, a guys wife was trying to sell some "antique" dishes. Among this was a silver plated tray with non-matching pewter cream & sugar cups. I tried to buy the cups of course, but didn't want the tray. They thought they were so pretty... Finally they asked me why I wanted the cups, and I told them that I was going to melt them down for the tin. They got all emotional and told me they would never sell them to somebody who wanted to melt them down. I stopped short of asking them why they brought them to a gun show for in the first place.

[AlaskanGuy]

If you need to find tin, here is a great guy selling some in very convenient little ingots that are already measured out...

Here is the link
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?218536-5-Pounds-Modern-Food-Service-Pewter-Ingots

[quilbilly]

I haunt the garage sales and barn sales looking for the shop. A few times every year I find a roll of 50/50 or 60/40 solder and offer a buck or so.
If I need some tin in a hurry, I head down to Walmart where I find pure tin in the fishing tackle area where they sell lead-free fishing sinkers. Two size 4 tin splitshot will "flavor" about 1-1/2 pounds of lead.

[GaryN]

There are plenty of good suggestions for acquiring tin above. I don't think you need to add tin. Round ball molds shouldn't need any tin at all. I think your mold is too cold. Cast faster. Pre-heat the mold. Lastly, if nothing else works, turn up the pot. You need more heat.

[M-Tecs]

Wrinkles are normally a cold mold. Cast faster.

[Foto Joe]

Well, I do have to say that I appreciate all the suggestions. As far as the mold or the melt being too cold I will reiterate that I'm pushing 800 degrees!! Also, the mold is definitely up to operating temp, I actually cast about 200 RB's on the last session and #200 showed the same fill-out or wrinkle issues as #50 while casting at a good clip with the only interruption being to lube a sprue plate. Also I'm a little frustrated that the balls are dropping at below the spec of .454. Anybody who shoots BP revolvers should be able to tell you that an undersized ball can get you experience with chain-fires so I'm hoping that adding a touch of tin will also keep my shrinkage down just a couple thousandths.

[M-Tecs]

As far as the mold or the melt being too cold I will reiterate that I'm pushing 800 degrees!! Also, the mold is definitely up to operating temp, I actually cast about 200 RB's on the last session and #200 showed the same fill-out or wrinkle issues as #50 while casting at a good clip with the only interruption being to lube a sprue plate.

Are you using a lead thermometer? On one of my old pots the dial is accurate up until about 600 degrees. After 600 going to 800 only brings the pot up to 650.

[Foto Joe]

That's a definite yes to the thermometer question. As a lot of folks have discovered, the dial on pots is notorious for being finicky. On my Lyman I can have it set in a specific place and be casting along all fat dumb and happy with the thermometer showing 650 degrees. I can unplug the pot and come back to it a few days later with the dial in the same place and find that it either won't get hot enough to melt the alloy (most common) or it melts and and hits 700 degrees. Controlling temp is an art form.

The reason that I don't want to cast at such a high temperature is that I've had enough exposure to nasty airborne chemicals and compounds in my life, I really don't need to oxidize and vaporize lead to cap off the rest of the poisons in my system.