Melting Pewter...How Do YOU Do It?

[RydForLyf]

I finally snagged my first pewter and melted it in my Lee pot at just over 500 degrees. It was a lot thicker (viscous) than I expected and that made pouring it through the nozzle not so great.

So I'll toss this out to the crowd for comment and suggestions.

Thanks!

[oley55]

500 degrees seems too low for casting purposes. I have cast nearly all of my pewter into boolit form, just for ease of calculating my pot mix ratios. I'm pretty sure I was in the 600 degree range and do not recall where I got that recommendation.

as per this non-bullet casting site the recommended casting temps are 525-600 degrees. Since pewter is 92% plus tin, I wouldn't think casting at a higher temp would cook the tin out of itself. Just crank the heat up and see what happens.

http://www.eagerplastics.com/castingpewter.htm

[JimB..]

Dutch oven on a propane burner.

[GhostHawk]

Since I upgraded to a Lee Magnum Melter my old 4 lb dipper pot is now my pewter pot.

I poured half ladle full into muffin tin and got nice "coins" tthat are unlike anything else I have.

I have also cast pewter into 300 gr bullets for adding small amounts to a pot.
Those went into a container marked Pewter. And sit in the same corner of my casting table as my other pewter/tin.

[RydForLyf]

500 degrees seems too low for casting purposes. I have cast nearly all of my pewter into boolit form, just for ease of calculating my pot mix ratios. I'm pretty sure I was in the 600 degree range and do not recall where I got that recommendation.

as per this non-bullet casting site the recommended casting temps are 525-600 degrees. Since pewter is 92% plus tin, I wouldn't think casting at a higher temp would cook the tin out of itself. Just crank the heat up and see what happens.

http://www.eagerplastics.com/castingpewter.htm

Do you do anything to clean out impurities, like fluxing? It seemed like I had a lot of schmutz on top that didn’t want to separate out easily. Maybe the low temps made it worse than it really was.

[imashooter2]

I have melted and sold many hundreds of pounds of pewter on this site. I used a Lyman 10 pound dipper pot and cast ingots at 500-600 degrees. Just hot enough to melt and char the paint stirrer that I used to flux. Total waste was never more than a teaspoon or 2 of dry dust after any oxides reduced back into the melt. The metal was never thick or lumpy and it poured beautiful shiny ingots.

http://imashooter2.com/pictures/pewz1.jpg

[imashooter2]

Pewter melts well below the 500-600 degrees, but I found it wouldn’t flux until hot enough to char the stirrer easily.

[RydForLyf]

Pewter melts well below the 500-600 degrees, but I found it wouldn’t flux until hot enough to char the stirrer easily.

Thanks. I’ll crank up the heat bit by bit to find a better temp.

[MrWolf]

I used the bottoms of soda cans to make mine from the very few pieces I have ever found. Distinguishes them from everything else.

[jsizemore]

I melt mine in my large smelting pot using propane. That's about 80-120lbs at a time. I hold temps 450-500 which requires a lot of attention. I reduce with pine rosin or candle wax that's high in bees wax.

[RydForLyf]

I melt mine in my large smelting pot using propane. That's about 80-120lbs at a time. I hold temps 450-500 which requires a lot of attention. I reduce with pine rosin or candle wax that's high in bees wax.

Where the heck do you find that much pewter? I’m struggling to find 5 pounds at a time.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

You can take a Lyman ingot mold and prop up the handle. Ladle in a bit and have nice little wedges.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Where the heck do you find that much pewter? I’m struggling to find 5 pounds at a time.

Pewter, like classic wheel weights, is a finite thing. They are not making any to speak these days. Goodwill, Salvation army and junky antique stores is where you find it. Mostly from stuff that didn't sell at estate sales.

[imashooter2]

Low cost Pewter stashes are built the same way as low cost lead stashes. Years of dedicated scrounging. I had 3 Goodwill stores I would visit twice a week on the way home from work. 9 times out of 10, nothing. But then there was the tenth time. I watched Craig’s List. I low balled eBay ads. I got well over 600 pounds in about 2.5 years. But I was selling it. You don’t need anywhere near that weight for sweetening your own alloys.

I stopped when the bottom dropped out of the market after one of the Vendor Sponsors scored a half a ton of ice buckets from some hotel chain. Now I only have 30 or 40 pounds of good 97% Selangor on the shelf for my own use. That will no doubt take me to the grave.

Anyway, if I could do it, you can too. Just keep a lookout. You will easily find enough to keep you casting.

[jsizemore]

Where the heck do you find that much pewter? I’m struggling to find 5 pounds at a time.

Just like imashooter2 said, it takes a while to build a stash. I hit a few flea markets in the area and told vendors I had cash money any time they had pewter in any shape. I paid better than the scrap yards. I'd get a call about a large haul and drive to their house to sort and weigh so they didn't have to take up space for their normal setup. Things have slowed up a bunch with the demise of flea markets in the area. The folks that were too high before still have their too high pewter.

Finding pewter is like eating an elephant. The more help you got the quicker it goes too.

[imashooter2]

Oh, and if you have a wife, dropping anything you find before it hits the front door will prevent a lot of “oooooooo… mine!” :bigsmyl2:

[lightman]

I've never found enough Pewter to do anything with. But when I melt solder I use a smaller melting pot than I use for lead and clean it really well. I use the Lyman type ingot molds. The Lee mold with the smaller 1/2 pound ingots works well. I flux it with wax, much like I do my casting pot.

[kevin c]

There's a lot of geographic variation in bargain pewter availability. In the NorCal Bay Area it took me three or four years to put together ~400#, though I could have gotten there much sooner without being price picky. I hit thrifts, estate and garage sales and auction houses, but none were regular or steady sources.

I make casting alloy in batches of 240-250# that need ~ 5# of pewter each. So I melted all my pewter into lots depending on anticipated Sn content (it varies), had each analyzed, recombined lots that I calculated the tin content of, and cast that into Cast Boolit ingots of about 1 1/4 pounds each, plus a mess of mini muffin tin coins.

I tried the pewter bullets, but I needed the bigger ingots. Also, either the sprue plate wasn't fully closed (brand new caster, back then) or pewter is remarkably tough when hardened but I had to beat my mold open with a mallet after the first pour, so I gave it up.

[RydForLyf]

I tried the pewter bullets, but I needed the bigger ingots. Also, either the sprue plate wasn't fully closed (brand new caster, back then) or pewter is remarkably tough when hardened but I had to beat my mold open with a mallet after the first pour, so I gave it up.

That’s my intention as well. Hopefully I won’t have the same issues.

[Retumbo]

Generally I will sit in front of my woodstove with a big cast iron ladle and and melt my pewter in the wood stove in small batches.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

That sounds wonderful!

[RogerDat]

Where the heck do you find that much pewter? I’m struggling to find 5 pounds at a time.

Like grandma would say "steady licks will whip the devil" takes looking often and consistently. Much of mine came from Salvation Army store that had reasonable prices. Another one was too "upmarket" and priced pewter at what it was being offered for on eBay. Not sold for mind you offered for.

Think of it as being like having a route of clients you visit to do business with. Maybe you spend a day doing estate sales and garage sales. Don't see much pewter in garage sales myself but have found solder for dirt cheap in them. Flea market comes here 2x a year. I go early looking for pewter. Let your "clients" at thrift stores know you will buy it even if damaged if the price is right.

I generally do not mention I'm going to melt it for bullets, when I mention buying it even if damaged I tend to say so I can melt it down and recast it. Which is what I do. I cast into ingots and use those ingots to sweeten bullet alloy. Some folks can get funny about having those pretty things destroyed.

Study the sticky with pewter hallmarks and other pewter designations. Got a heavy plate for cheap at the up market Salvation Army store because they did not associate "Zinn" and "Made in Netherlands" with pewter. Zinn being Dutch/German for pewter.

Scrap yards that sell to the public can get pewter in. Might pay lead retail scrap yard price, might pay 2x lead price, but still a deal for tin.

Use your phone camera to take a close up of the hallmark and then zoom in on the picture to see what the piece has stamped on it. Have avoided some none pewter that way.

But mostly it comes down to looking and scrounging on a regular basis. Area seems to matter too. Out west and down south members seem to not find as much as new england states and midwest. And even here in michigan it seems that area matters. Both in terms of quantity and price. High end suburbs it sells for $$$$ older cities can be more like $ or $$. Communities where more modern urban décor is the norm vs more rural areas where country or americana is a more common. Or old city neighborhoods where some of the older residents will have decorated with pewter in the past. Pewter was big at different times in US history. Some time as a common item, then as upscale, and as a core for silver plate.

So it wasn't just me that found the ton of ice buckets cramped their market. Good for the community that the supply became available at a good price. Not so great for my selling any surplus. Still what I didn't sell I kept. So I guess good for building up my stash.

[RydForLyf]

Yeah, down here in GA, it’s not as abundant as other places around the country.

[imashooter2]

You can still lowball an endless series of eBay auctions until one or two come home. It costs nothing to bid.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Quadruple plate serving trays are a good source. I will pick one up and try bendining it against my knee. If it bends I buy it. I then use a hatchet and a chopping block to segment it into pieces I can fit in the pot. These can have some copper in them which you can clearly see when fluxing in the dross. Lots of weight here!1

[imashooter2]

After a fair bit of experimenting, I found it easiest to process everything with a 3 pound drilling hammer and a bench vise. Plates and trays get bent and hammered flat a few times until the tube will fit the pot diameter and then the tube is fed in as it melts. Bowls, tankards, teapots and the like get the legs and handles twisted off in the vise and then hammered to fit and fed in same as the plates and trays.

[RydForLyf]

After a fair bit of experimenting, I found it easiest to process everything with a 3 pound drilling hammer and a bench vise. Plates and trays get bent and hammered flat a few times until the tube will fit the pot diameter and then the tube is fed in as it melts. Bowls, tankards, teapots and the like get the legs and handles twisted off in the vise and then hammered to fit and fed in same as the plates and trays.

Driving over objects with a heavy vehicle works well too. I bought about 15 pounds from a seller and it was amazing how much she got into the FRB after driving her car over the items. She says it was also mildly satisfying.