My pewter haul from Saturday and this morning...

[Tripplebeards]

I have one more goodwill to hit today but found a pewter plate for $1.50, shot glass for a $1, mug ..99, candlestick $1.50, and free solder from a buddy. Saturday I picked up 2 candlesticks for .65 each and a shot glass for .90.

Yesterday I finally went over and picked up a 5 gal and 2 gal pale of wheel weights from one of the local shops that were given to me. They still have a pale for me free for the taking that is tall as my waist that I have to get yet. It's gonna be a good week.

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[RogerDat]

Ahh yes the joys of a successful scrounge. That solder wire can be just the ticket for adding a "touch" of tin to a mix. Once you know how many inches is an ounce it gets downright easy to flavor the stew with a percent of tin to help the fill when casting them wheel weights you be picking up.

You know what they say make hay while the sun shines.

[Tripplebeards]

My buddy has another spool three times the size. He is having an auction and figures it's an antique spool and thinks it's worth some coin. I'll make sure I'm there trying to get it for a $1...lol

I never hit the last store I'll save it for tomorrow.

[RogerDat]

And I find a fair amount of solder in garage sales for really cheap. Often missing the label or spool too rusty to read. All goes in the "solder and unmarked suspected pewter" batch. Picture frames end up in there a lot.

I use a mini loaf tins until I have enough of those from solder for a bigger batch and the big batch I pour into mini muffin tins as 1/4 inch coins of mystery solder which I then get xrf gunned. Beware the acid core flux solder. You don't want that in a pot you use for casting. I have an old thrift store pot for solder, and those weighted pewter candlesticks full of camel dung glue. Stuff is messy and hard to get rid of once it melts. I bust those up to remove as much as I can but some is always left bubbling on the surface and sticking to everything.

I recall a really big score posted awhile ago. Fellow bought a spool of lead free solder that ran 5 or 10 pounds, maybe more for a few bucks. Lead free is almost all tin.

[dbosman]

Wonderful.
Last Fall and Winter my youngest son and I hit the thrift shops every two weeks. When I melted our treasures (reloading treasures, nothing valuable) it came to 24 lbs. Apparently we bought it all then. I've only found three pieces of pewter that was worth the asking price since spring. There has been some pieces but either way too pricey or way too light for the price.

[adam_mac84]

Never seen pewter local. We have 3 shops within 5 miles of me (goodwill type)

[RogerDat]

I finally had a conversation with a local thrift shop, actually two. One listened and one didn't. I explained how pewter was not generally valuable, and was rarely going to be an antique. If it was it would probably be a very dark color since they used lead back then. That any item that was beat to heck wasn't valuable since "damaged" really hurt the value to any collector, so unless the piece was rare or made by a famous source that pitcher that looked like it was kicked across the parking lot was worth about $2 And the vase with the badly bent base was maybe 99 cents. One listened and sells nice looking pieces for prices that reflect what they are a metal candlestick, vase, tray. And beat up ones at prices that interest me.

The other store insisted that they list for those prices on eBay. I said did you look in sold? Or only in the asking price? They insisted asking price was the price that people "sold them for". No point in telling them they were "priced that high in order to sell them to the ignorant such as yourself". Figured lost cause when I saw pewter mug with some guys name on it and a date from in the 80's was marked $43 because it was "Sheffield English Pewter". I did speculate out loud if John Finklebinder who had his name engraved in it was willing to sell it for less than the asking price I wonder how much more it will be worth to someone with a different name?

24 lbs. is one nice stash of pewter, bet it made a pretty pile of ingots. With 10 lbs. able to sweeten about 90 lbs. of WW's it will make one might big pile of cast bullets when all is said and done.

[lightman]

Thats a nice score! You're really on a roll, with the pewter and wheelweights. I would be studying about how to get that waist high barrel of weights home. That would worry me until I had it I'm my possession. I'm thinking 4 wheeler trailer with a ramp and a 2 wheel dolly.

[RogerDat]

Thats a nice score! You're really on a roll, with the pewter and wheelweights. I would be studying about how to get that waist high barrel of weights home. That would worry me until I had it I'm my possession. I'm thinking 4 wheeler trailer with a ramp and a 2 wheel dolly.

Got that right. Only two ways move it as a single item or go there with several smaller buckets, leather gloves and metal scoop. I find 3/4 full 5 gallon HomeDepot bucket runs around 80# and they buckets stack one inside the other very well when 3/4 full.

I once bought 400# in a 35 gallon barrel. Used a wood shelf and backstop to spread the weight out on the back seat. Used a forklift to get the barrel into position then three of us managed to tip it down and slip it onto the back seat. Then I got home and it was me, the dog, and the wife. That took a lot of smaller buckets to get the weight down where I could get the barrel back out. Think I hurt my face I was grinning so much.

[Eddie Southgate]

:grin:

[lwknight]

Don't melt the stein. Beer tastes better in it.

[dimaprok]

you are lucky where you live the prices are so low. When I go looking pewter items in thrift stores, its priced so high, its easier to buy it from eBay at $10/lb. The most I accumulate was short of 3lb And I sought it was a lot!

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[Tripplebeards]

Thats a nice score! You're really on a roll, with the pewter and wheelweights. I would be studying about how to get that waist high barrel of weights home. That would worry me until I had it I'm my possession. I'm thinking 4 wheeler trailer with a ramp and a 2 wheel dolly.


If I didn't have over 2,000lbs or more of ignots sitting in my garage it would be home. I'm the only one who gets offered the COWW. I'm good friends of the owner and have known him for 25 years. They're not going anywhere till I take them.


With lead added into pewter I'd be afraid to drink out of the mug.

[William Yanda]

" With 10 lbs. able to sweeten about 90 lbs." That's a pretty tin rich alloy. I would stretch that over 500 to 700 lbs of coww.

[David2011]

" With 10 lbs. able to sweeten about 90 lbs." That's a pretty tin rich alloy. I would stretch that over 500 to 700 lbs of coww.

I was thinking about the same thing.

[Tripplebeards]

Yep, I've been adding 2% to my mix lately which is about 3.2oz per 10lbs.

[marek313]

" With 10 lbs. able to sweeten about 90 lbs." That's a pretty tin rich alloy. I would stretch that over 500 to 700 lbs of coww.

I'm thinking that probably should have been 900lb to get roughly 1% right?

[RogerDat]

My bad on the 90 rather than 900. I think would go around 400# or so to hit 2% maybe 450# I'm a big believer in don't waste it but it also doesn't do any good sitting on a shelf. 1% is adequate but getting closer to 2% casts very nice and makes a durable bullet. Also you can cut 50/50 with plain for revolver plinking loads or PC and still have the 1%. Of course you could do the 1% and add more if the situation or use case seemed like it needed the extra tin.

Takes me a long time to go through 450# of lead, 900# would take like IDK maybe twice as long.

[Don1357]

I'm waiting for this lot form ebay to make it to me, $26.90 shipped. I have no idea how much it weights but the way I see it anything over 3 pounds is a win.

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[imashooter2]

If it’s all the real deal, I’m thinking 6 or 7 pounds there. The center and left front look a bit funky to me. Hope I’m wrong. :)

[Scott_In_OKC]

Posted in the pewter pics thread earlier. These were my finds today, the marked plate is 1lb 9 oz and the unmarked dragon is 9 oz. I THINK the dragon is good, but not 100% sure. Even if it's not, at $8.11 OTD for both, I'm happy.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171112/268578e7936dcbed4c0d213e0d32d3aa.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171112/acd62a73825d2da88eb29cda40b2d4ac.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171112/f213f1cf9d26978bc40e5e527cac9f65.jpg

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[MaryB]

Stick that dragon on eBay and probably triple your money(or more!)

[RogerDat]

No doubt, dragons seem to sell really well.