Tin in the old days

[FieldShunt]

Having learned to cast by reading those old-fashioned things made out of paper with ink all over them, I of course was exposed to the writings of the grand old Elmer Keith.
He had some opinions, as you may recall. Pretty strong ones. Given that he'd fired approximately one kabillion more bullets than I had, I tended to think he knew whereof he spoke.
I pretty much took it on faith that I wanted to get my casting alloy in the neighborhood of 1/15, tin to lead. That's what Elmer said to use.
It seems now that we never mentioned antimony back then. You had lead, you had tin, and you put them together.
It worked for me for years and many thousands of rounds.
Now, I'm low on wheelweights and getting more is getting pretty tough. But I do have a good supply of roofer's lead, and lead-free 95% tin solder.
30 years ago, I'd have tossed these into the pan balanced to get 1/15, heated up my ol' Lee 228R (which I still use), and proceeded to the reloading press, on the way to the Colt .45 (this was before we called 'em "1911s").
So, can I still do that, or has antimony ruined it for us simple-minded types?
Bill

[JohnH]

Lead and tin still work just fine, just like us ol'timers that still remember using those alloys.

[runfiverun]

i have some 20/1 that i shoot in the 45colt.
heck it is bout as hard as ww's with 2% anyway.
the b/p guys push it to 14-1500 so why not smokeless?

[Lloyd Smale]

only downfall is the price. Tin is a valuable comodity and to use that much in an alloy is a waste. Id consider selling or trading some of your tin for lineotype and using it in small ammounts to get your desired hardness. It would be much cheaper in the long run. Even to make a trade for wws would be to your advantage as 1-15 is no harder then straight wws and in my experience those hight tin content alloys can be tough to cast with.

[FieldShunt]

Fair enough, Lloyd, but I have no potential trading partners in this neck of the woods, not that I know of. My only clubmate I know to be casting has a pile of wheelweights (which he's no longer interested in parting with, since he found out they were valuable).
I did get the tin pretty cheap and have enough to last the year out.
There's no scrapyards but one or two within any reasonable driving distance around here, and the one here doesn't get wheelweights hardly at all.
I'll figure the 1/15 will be a short-term solution.
I just checked four local tire shops, I might add, and all now recycle their wheelweights back to corporate. One manager even expressed some concern over the handling of a hazardous substance like lead.
Scrounging just isn't what it used to be.
Bill

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Bill, Schuetzen shooters generally cast 20-1 or 30-1 for their rifles. Most don't want any antimony, for reasons unknown to me. When I used to shoot that sport, I sold 95-5 solder to other shooters, and some didn't want it because of the 5% antimony. These rifles are shooting at 1200-1400fps. Should be a good alloy for your .45acp., and make your tin last longer. I've been casting over fifty years, and hadn't ever cast any bullets using WW's, until I started shooting Cowboy Action, about four years ago. I was surprised to see how well they worked, and how cheaply they could be had. Wish I hadn't waited so long. Now, they're getting hard to find.
Morgan

[DLCTEX]

You can ship 70 lbs of lead ingots for about 12 dollars using prority mail packaging (reinforcement added). Some members can't get pure lead and would be glad to trade ww for it. That's cheaper than buying enough tin to make 70# of alloy. DALE

[Trez Hensley]

I have about 500 lbs of foundry type. Since I also have linotype, I have much more antimony than I will ever use. I'm not interested in getting rid of large quantities but would sell or trade 50# or so. Foundry type is supposed to have 15% tin, 23% antimony, 62% lead. It makes a great enrichment alloy for pure lead. 3-6% antimony seems to be a good mix when balanced with 2% or so of Tin. I would sell you some for $2 lb or trade for some of your tin. Make me an offer for trade. If we both pay for a $9 one rate box, we can do a trade deal pretty cheaply.

Take care and let me know if you want to trade a bit.

[FieldShunt]

First of all, I should clarify that in terms of having tin, my stash contains only just enough. To the kind forummates offering trades for tin, I would like to thank you, but I'm afraid I don't have quite enough to spare.
However, and meanwhile, and happily, since my previous post, a visit to my long-time tire store, where I've bought many a hoop over the last 25 years or so, produced.
The manager was bored stiff and so while he was rolling out a 65-pound bucket to throw into my van, one of his techs dragged up a hundred-pounder.
That's got to be a net of at least 140 pounds in one quick stop, and for now, anyway, I'm going to consider the shortage at least no longer acute.
Let's see... that's 140 times 7000, divided by 230... that's forty-two hundred and sixty punkin balls! And if it all went to stuffing Colt .36 cals, that would be sixty-two hundred! If only I had that many primers...
I am very gratified by the kind offers, though, and may well find myself having to return to the topic again.
Thanks
Bill

[Trez Hensley]

Thanks for the reply Bill and great to hear about your score. As for the offer I made, it is open ended if you need some later.

If you do need some later, I would also trade for pure lead as I do have a shortage there also, that is if I mix up all my lead into bullet alloy. No real shortage. Just creating a surplus for whatever the government changes do to us. I'm working on the second half of my life time supply.
Happy casting!!:-D

[JohnClark7886]

I keep reading about linotype....what type of businesses use linotype so I can start calling around to find out who has some. Also this roofing lead, is that coming off of commercial buildings, and should I call a commercial roofer? Has anyone every hit any of the auto junkyards for wheel weights - just a thought...am gonna start calling around today. Also a lot of the tire stores I call tell me that battery companies are buying their used WW's...has anyone ever tried salvaging the lead out of a used battery before? Me thinks junk yards are chock full of old car batteries....

[FieldShunt]

Whoa... that's a lot of questions.
For roofer's lead, what I usually mean is the lead flashing collar used to cap sanitary drains' soil pipe penetrations. In other words, vent pipes poking out of shingled roofs.
I used to get these in good numbers, but I just asked my roofer the other day and they just toss them into the dumpsters with the rest of the tearoff. Apparently it's too much trouble to separate them. I imagine I'm missing about six a week or more, at about ten pounds apiece. Apart from the solder at the joint of the vertical and horizontal parts, it's pure lead.
To touch on the other items, linotype was used by the old moveable type printing shops. It's pretty rare, now.
Battery lead is nasty to reclaim- use the search function to see other guys' experiences.
Junkyards are each a rule unto themselves. It's case-by-case.
Bill

[Cherokee]

Do not try to get lead from battery's - Not enough to go after in todays battery's even if you ignore the risks.

[Shotgun Luckey]

Linotype, Monotype and Printers lead were all use in the printing business before off-set printing made them obsolet. It is getting really tough to find and doesn't got cheap anymore.