Shouldn’t a scrap yard owner know better?

[David2011]

Something triggered an old memory. My mentor and I were looking for tin and he called around to some scrap yards. One guy said he had lots of tin. When we got there we found building siding instead of tin.

[Three44s]

Well there is tin ..... and there is tin!

One is an element, the other slang for metal roofing!

Three44s

[Winger Ed.]

That's probably what 99% of his customers called any sheet metal that wasn't Aluminum.

If anyone ever brought in real Tin, it might not have been 10 pounds in a year,
and even then, he might have thought it was, and paid out for it as cast Alum.

[bangerjim]

Most people call siding and sheet metal "TIN". Even scrap dealers, not in the know.

How about tin cans? Tin-plated steel at best.

Some of the VERY high-end whiskeys I buy have actual TIN foil seals on the tops! Most are just plastic and aluminum.

Sorry you missed out.

The only real pure TIN I have found at scrap yards was original 2# foundry ingot bars marked with the foundry logo and "PURE TIN" in bold cast letters!

They had 50# of it and I got it for the price of lead - - - $1.00 a pound.

Most people on here have luck finding modern pewter-ware and using that. Or solder. I have 100 bars of wave solder that is 63%-ish Sn. Plumbers were forced to get rid of all their 50/50 solder some time back due to new laws and I have found 25# and 50# rolls of it at scrap yards for a buck a pound.

ARRRRRRRR................Keep a sharp eye out!

[Land Owner]

Wander through every Flea Market, Thrift Store, and yard sale looking for pewter and you will find it. Then negotiate for a price you are willing to pay. Typically, you do not need a lot of tin. At 2% Tin (Sn) in a 49-49-2 percent alloy of Pb-WW-Sn, 2#'s of tin melds well with equal 49# to 50# weights of both COWW's and pure lead. Finding 2#'s of tin should neither take too long nor be too expensive. 100#'s of alloy cast into (say) 104 grain 380 ACP (pick a caliber, boolit weight, and recalculate) is almost 6,750 boolits! With expendable components, you can reload and shoot for quite a while with those numbers!

[Garyshome]

" 100#'s of alloy cast into (say) 104 grain 380 ACP (pick a caliber, boolit weight, and recalculate) is almost 6,750 boolits! With expendable components, you can reload and shoot for quite a while with those numbers!"

That's a LOT of .380"s

[Land Owner]

...hehe.

I picked a small (not the smallest) boolit for which I cast so that that 100#'s converted would be BIG.

In 45ACP, at 230 grains per boolit, that 100#'s is a smidge over 3,000 boolits!

On the other hand, for the tiny 50 grain 22 Bator, 100#'s of alloy equals FOURTEEN THOUSAND (14,000) boolits!!! That'll make you happy...

[Land Owner]

Taking this "math fun" just a little further, the 223 Bator boolit requires around 7.5 grains of Unique (per Lyman #4 manual). It'll require 15 pounds of powder to load 14K x 223 cal. brass cases. Forming cases and measuring powder will take a while. Not really going to attempt to quantify that, however...

Let's say you are not reloading on a Dillon Progressive. Production won't approach 100's of rounds per hour. But then the numbers wouldn't be as interesting.

Lets say a finished round comes off of the press (wth - single stage) every 10 seconds (ymmv). How long will it take to load 14K? Provided your arms don't fall off, your equipment doesn't break, and you can sustain that rate (probably not), theoretically it'll take 38 hours and 53 minutes. I don't have that stamina...anymore (hehe).

Math can be fun! I wouldn't try this many at one time though.

[lightman]

There are probably more people who call metal siding and roofing "tin" than there are that don't. If I were calling around looking I would ask the guy if it was real tin or if it was siding. Its easy to be misunderstood.

[jim147]

All of my outbuildings have tin roofs and sides. Try as I might it just won't melt in my pot.

[GregLaROCHE]

Consider checking the second hand shops for pewter objects.

[tomme boy]

I have picked up over 20lbs of pewter over the last 2 years at the scrap yard here. You have to go check out the cast aluminum box or barrel. For about $1/lb not too bad.

[jonp]

I've checked Goodwil and the like around here for a couple of years and have never found a pewter object of any type.

[David2011]

I have a nice inventory of pewter, some straight tin, monotype, Linotype, pure lead and COWW. This happened many years ago. I’m not hunting tin; just relating a story of the scrap yard guy.