Acid core solder

[Texas by God]

Can it be used for casting? It's quite old so I'm assuming it's pure lead. Thanks for your answers in advance.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[MyFlatline]

I melted down about 5 pounds of it, works great. A word of caution, have a large open air area for melting, flux heavily, as the acid becomes like tar. The fumes are toxic, so keep that in mind..

[Hossfly]

Are you sure its acid core or rosin core?

[redhawk0]

Acid core is used for plumbing applications...rosin core is for electronics...either will melt down and make good boolit alloy. but yes...flux, flux, flux your alloy...and say upwind.

redhawk

[RogerDat]

solder is not likely to be pure lead. Even 50 years ago tin was added to give good flow, lower melting temperature, and provide extra strength. 20% tin and 30% tin were common roll solders as I recall from back when an awful lot of my allowance and lawn mowing money went for things like dry cells, wire and solder, along with components from Purchase Radio & Electronics (kid heaven in my youth.

Today a lot of the solder has no lead but back when it did have lead it also had tin, for the same reasons we want tin in our casting alloy and in the bullets.

Yes the core flux is a stinky mess and will tend to make a mess of your pot too. Sawdust to bind with it and help it burn can help. I use one of those grill lighting long lighters to ignite the whole smoking mix of core and smoldering sawdust.

Those candy or mini muffin molds filled about 1/4 inch deep make good scrap solder molds. You get "coins" out that are easy to weigh small incremental amounts or add in small amounts into a melt.

[Texas by God]

I'll melt it down in a iron poached egg pan outdoors with a Mapp torch. I figured it'd be stinky. Thanks all.

[lightman]

I melted several dozen rolls of odd solder recently. A real mix of rosin core, acid core and about every % known to man. It smoked, smelled bad and had a skum on top to skim off. But once I got it clean and fluxed it made purdy ingots. I had it tested and it was 51% tin and 49% lead. Just do it in a well ventilated area or outside.

[RogerDat]

I melted several dozen rolls of odd solder recently. A real mix of rosin core, acid core and about every % known to man. It smoked, smelled bad and had a skum on top to skim off. But once I got it clean and fluxed it made purdy ingots. I had it tested and it was 51% tin and 49% lead. Just do it in a well ventilated area or outside.

Yeah you never know. I pick up rolls at garage sales, flea markets, out of scrap yard bins, a couple or three times a year I do a big batch. Has tested from 23% to 63% with mid 30's to mid 40's being the most common. The 63% had some suspected pewter picture frames that were not clearly marked pewter but passed my general tests. They essentially vanished when dipped in melted solder so in it went.

More than once have seen $5 toolbox with some junk in it, some of the junk is a roll or two of solder so I offer a buck for just that couple of rolls. Not bad $1 for 2# of solder. I could hate the one fellow who reported getting a 10# spool of new 95% tin solder for like $20 it is scores like that that keep me motivated and in the hunt so I guess I can't really be hating him.

[kevin c]

New solder is breathtakingly expensive everywhere I've looked, and it seems, from prices out here on the west coast, that is a commonly known fact at the larger, well organized estate and garage sales. The selling prices accepted on old solder often make it no bargain on the tin, but a good deal for the solder.

[marek313]

I got lucky and managed to get over 20lbs from my local scrap yard for $0.85/lb. They raised their prices to $1/lb but I manage to find a lot of solder, 50/50 tin bars, solder, lino and even some babbitt so that makes it worth it for me. Anything in the lead bin for $1 works out ok for me. I'm always looking for any treasures I can find. Last time I got couple isotopic containers which are nice too.

[RogerDat]

The higher the price the better the "find" has to be to justify the price. At 85 cents plain sheet lead is a good deal. At a one dollar might be more cost effective to buy plain or WW's in our S&S forum. But a dollar for solder is great. Even messy solder.

Funny how regional this stuff is. A member in Ariz. was telling me he routinely gets batches of wave solder from electronics manufacturing but never sees lead pipe or sheet lead liners or roof boots etc. Where here in Mich. it would be rare to find large batch of wave solder used on circuit boards but every demolished old house has some lead scrap someplace. We also have at times had a fair amount of Bell Telephone lead and solder show up.

New england and mid-west seem big on pewter. The south and west not so much. Especially hear a lot of southern members lament the lack of garage sale or thrift store pewter. We see a lot of auto body solder here in Mich. someplace I have some ingots stamped GM scrap right from the mold, that is solder for body or radiator I think. However some of the southern gulf and Atlantic coast states have an abundance of keel lead from boats.

This stuff perpetuates. We did lead plumbing when much of Michigan was settled and built up which means our plumbers had supplies to repair lead plumbing. Our phone lines were lead sheathing so same applies Bell had to have lead boots and wiping solder available until all those lines were replaced. In many areas that grew later they were already using plastic when they put in major infrastructure.

[marek313]

I'm in NJ and I find everything from time to time at my scrap yard. Anything from pure bricks, lino pigs, babbitt, solder, 50/50 bars, lead shot, pipe, sheet, isotope, cast boolits and even a bag of 308 FMJs go figure. You never know whos getting rid of what but its always a treasure hunt so I dont mind. I like to go once a month or so and dig in there and see what I can find. Most of the time I drop some stuff off and I pick some lead on my way out.

I just smelted 55lbs of range scrap, pipe, sheet with a touch of lino and quite a bit of tin since I always have more tin then lead. Need to stock up clean lead for winter reloading :castmine:

[leebuilder]

I was gifted a 2.5 kg roll of acid core 95/5 solder. I took a good section (couple of feet) I put it in a pot of melted WW and it was horrible I had to move hot stuff fling at me, freaky pre tinsel fairy visit sounds. When it was all done it was a fine clean melt, so now I use a.foot or so with caution to flux.
Your results may vary.
Be safe

[JSnover]

Ive used it and it worked fine, didn't ruin my pot or anything, I just didn't care for all the smoke and spitting.