Adding tin

[holsterguy]

Feel like this should be a no brainer, but I thought I'd ask anyway.
Have a few 50/50 bars (maybe 6), a couple 60/40, and a few bars of auto body solder. Also a bunch of misc. smaller pieces.
I'm thinking about just smelting it all together so I can treat it as a common for adding to my lead.
I want to try 20-1 for my handguns (all under 1000 fps)
Could I still take 19 one pound ingots of pure lead and 2 one pound ingots of this mix to get there?
Thanks

[bangerjim]

Keep all alloys separate! Mix as you cast and need it. Your needs may change in the future and you will be stuck with an alloy you wish you did not have.

Download the free alloy calculator spreadsheet on here to answer all your "what if" questions! Good stuff.....I use it all the time.

banger

[Scharfschuetze]

Sounds about right if you use your 50/50 bars and they are one pounders to start with.

I'm not sure what "auto body" solder is. Can you fill me in on that?

[holsterguy]

Not really sure what the composition of any of the unmarked stuff is.

[holsterguy]

Auto body solder is (was) used in place of bond to fill dents, etc.

[aephilli822]

Auto body solder is (was) used in place of bond to fill dents, etc.

Bondo replaced "lead" for bodywork.

[30Carbine]

I get auto body lead from my buddy that restores cars for a living all the time. x rayed it is 30/70

[smltownr]

Where is this Alloy Calculator you speak of?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Where is this Alloy Calculator you speak of?
in the stickys in the "Lead and Lead alloys" forum.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?105952-Lead-alloy-calculators

[smltownr]

Thanks

[Harry O]

Most of the old auto-body solder is less than 50-50. A lot of the older rolls of solder for home projects are also less than 50-50. Many of them were not marked on the roll or the marks have rusted away by now. I melt all the unknown stuff together and cast it into .690" round balls (that just happens to be the largest RB mould I have -- any size could be used). From that I calculate the amount of tin in the ball (it is Algebra -- a weapon of math destruction). If you are interested, I can dig out a sample of how the math is done). I put the balls in a container and mark it with the amount of tin in each ball.

[Cowboy_Dan]

I am an advocate of keeping alloys seperate as bangorjim suggests, but I do melt my various solder rolls into one batch. From there I get it gunned at the scrapyard and stamp the ingots with the tin percentage.

I keep the marked bars as is, they are already their own ingots. Just use the part with the marking last if you don't need the whole thing.

[Shiloh]

My source is lead free solder. 95/5 pure tin/antimony.

Most times, by tweaking heat or casting speed you don't need it. Others times you may have to ad it.

SHiloh

[Green Frog]

When I was shooting essentially nothing but lead rifle bullets (for schuetzen and BPCS) I would mix up 50 pounds at a time of 25-1 pure lead to tin, then cast it into 1# ingots that were so marked and ready for use. I was looking for ultimate consistency and predictability, so I would use known alloy and shoot the carefully hand inspected bullets in the order they were cast. This is the extreme for me. :mrgreen:

Otherwise, I keep my lead ingots as sourced... pigs of pure lead, ingots of rendered COWWs, sticks and muffins of pure tin, and type letters and sticks of linotype and monotype. It's hard to un-mix an alloy once it's mixed and I feel like it's easy to mix known stuff in small batches as needed, so unless I'm in some sort of special large quantity situation like for schuetzen I like to keep my known alloys...

known! :bigsmyl2:

Froggie

[6622729]

When I was shooting essentially nothing but lead rifle bullets (for schuetzen and BPCS) I would mix up 50 pounds at a time of 25-1 pure lead to tin, then cast it into 1# ingots that were so marked and ready for use. I was looking for ultimate consistency and predictability, so I would use known alloy and shoot the carefully hand inspected bullets in the order they were cast. This is the extreme for me. :mrgreen:

Otherwise, I keep my lead ingots as sourced... pigs of pure lead, ingots of rendered COWWs, sticks and muffins of pure tin, and type letters and sticks of linotype and monotype. It's hard to un-mix an alloy once it's mixed and I feel like it's easy to mix known stuff in small batches as needed, so unless I'm in some sort of special large quantity situation like for schuetzen I like to keep my known alloys...

known! :bigsmyl2:

Froggie

I agree. I had considered replacing the lead I was using from the stack with Rotometals ingots of known content. $2.55lb for Lyman #2 would have been convenient. However, with the pencil method hardness testing I believe I can observe and adjust hardness as needed for whatever application may come up or for making changes to try to improve a pet load. So, I'm leaving my stash as received. As such I have COWW in ingot form, Linotype in line type form, what is supposed to be foundry in monotype form, isotope in ingot form and antimony lead (5%) in ingot form from forklift battery intercell links. I just ordered several pounds of 96% tin this morning.

I shoot 9mm from straight COWW and I harden the COWW a little for 300AAC so I don't think I need any soft lead. Isotope was $1.58lb, COWW ran me about $1.45lb and the antimony lead $1.09/lb all are delivered prices. I'm sure someone is going to say this is high but that's a relative term right? What I am paying is a bargain in my eyes. The whole driving around thing looking through scrap yards, buying tire shop guys donuts, etc. I just can't relate to that. My stack is clean, in ingot form, delivered to my porch and minimizes my lead exposure. I'm now approaching 1000lbs. Even my wife is on board now. If I'm not home casting she knows where to find me at the range.

[Hardcast416taylor]

When I stop and think of how many fishing sinkers were made and sold from a stash of about 200 lbs. a neighbors cousin had of body solder, I could just about cry! He did give me about 5 lbs. of it that he had left though when he learned I could use it to cast boolets.Robert

[smoked turkey]

I also am in the camp of keeping your known casting metal in separately marked containers. As you do different types of shooting such as plain old paper punching, hunting, muzzleloader shooting, Black powder cartridge shooting, etc you will be able to tailor your boolit hardness for the application. Another example: let's say you purchase a barn burner handgun such as a 480 Ruger and you find that you need to shoot a harder alloy such as Lyman #2 or Lino in order to stand the pressures generated by those beasts, you can make up a batch for that purpose. I will admit that I have not always kept good records of my as cast boolits. Not good. To be where you want to go with this you have to keep good records and your boolit storage must be well marked as well. Those plastic baggies that I tend to use are not the way to go in my opinion. In other words don't do as I do, do as I say.