Is There A Ready Source For Tin?

[scottnc]

As my question must be a fairly common one I did do a search before posting. Is there a common hopefully local source for tin? Some type of solder maybe?

Just started using a new NOE 4-cavity 160gr 30 caliber mold. Granted the mold is new but 99% of the boolits have wrinkles and 50% the GC base not filling out. I watched the lead and mold temps closely over a range of temps (NOE says <600f for the mold) but saw no improvement. The lead is the same batch of WW ingots I've been casting good quality, large caliber boolits from for years.

Before giving my new mold another go I thought I might add 2% tin to the pot first.

[imashooter2]

Lead free solder from the home center or plumbing supply if you have deep pockets and no patience.

Pewter or solder sales here if you have a bit more time to wait.

Pewter from thrift stores and yard sales if you have time and enjoy the hunt.

[imashooter2]

And heat the pot up some. 600 degrees is cold.

[bangerjim]

Food service grade pewter from junk stores and yard sales as many on here find. Leadfree solder but it is rather expensive.

There are many threads on here about finding pewter. Do a detailed search.

And there is always the "for sale" section on here. And of course, Rotometals at the top of the page.

[zarrinvz24]

Rotometals is a good source for known quality alloy.

[RickinTN]

I've had success buying lead free solder from e-bay. It's been a while but around $17/lb is what I remember. You may have to buy a few rolls to get the best price.
Rick

[scottnc]

And heat the pot up some. 600 degrees is cold.

600 was NOE's recommendation for max mold heat, ran the pot up 750 at one point.

[zarrinvz24]

I have a PID controlled pot, and lately I have been casting between 740 and 800. I smelt at lower temperatures to keep zinc from contaminating the lead, but that is in a completely different pot. When casting heat is your friend to ensure good mold fill out and no wrinkles. The only reason why I don’t just stick to 800 is because of shrinkage while cooling. For molds that I know cast a nice fat boolit, I don’t stress about heat, but for the few that cast a little on the smaller side, I try to keep down around 740.

I agree, turn pot up to 800 and ensure you are leaving a large puddle on top of the sprue plate.

[Scrounge]

As my question must be a fairly common one I did do a search before posting. Is there a common hopefully local source for tin? Some type of solder maybe?

Just started using a new NOE 4-cavity 160gr 30 caliber mold. Granted the mold is new but 99% of the boolits have wrinkles and 50% the GC base not filling out. I watched the lead and mold temps closely over a range of temps (NOE says <600f for the mold) but saw no improvement. The lead is the same batch of WW ingots I've been casting good quality, large caliber boolits from for years.

Before giving my new mold another go I thought I might add 2% tin to the pot first.

You can get 95/5 tin/antimony solder in rolls, last time I got some was several years ago, it was $25 a pound. Tain't cheap, but if you can't find anything else, and you don't need a lot of it, for most things a bit of antimony won't hurt. Sometimes you can find 50/50 tin/lead plumbers solder, and that's not usually cheap, either, but it's a good choice if you need a bunch more tin. Usually comes in 5lb bars, IIRC. I got some when I bought my 33lbs of mostly lead pipe a year or so ago. Maybe two years? Some junk yards will sell to you, some places. Just have to go and see what you can see, and hope they'll sell to you.

Bill

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Did you scrub the mold with dish soap and then brake cleaner? Even doing this, I have some new molds hold onto some machining oil for quite a while. Or any chance you got sprue plate/pivot lube in the cavities?

Venting could also be an issue, but I doubt it.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Preheat that mold good and hot. I do mine on the glass top stove while my pot heats up.

[MrWolf]

Look at garage sales and such for half rolls of solder, etc. I have never had the luck folks have of finding pewter. Good luck.

[JoeJames]

Look at garage sales and such for half rolls of solder, etc. I have never had the luck folks have of finding pewter. Good luck.My cousin hits garage sales and auctions regularly and keeps me well supplied with lead free solder, 95% Tin. He has never paid more than a couple of bucks a roll for it.

[William Yanda]

Lead free solder from the home center or plumbing supply if you have deep pockets and no patience.

Pewter or solder sales here if you have a bit more time to wait.

Pewter from thrift stores and yard sales if you have time and enjoy the hunt.

I think that about covers it!

[Soundguy]

Babbit is good too.

[fredj338]

Rotometals is a good source for known quality alloy.

^^THIS^^ They have sales all the time. Though a trip to the local radiator repair might get you a few # of drippings.

[renoce]

It has been said, but I also use Rotometals for casting materials. Very reliable fast shipping, and excellent quality. You get what you want from them.

[Forrest r]

If you're local scrap yards sell lead to you then you don't need to look any further for all your lead/tin needs. I take in my scrap metals and trade for the lead they have laying around. I needed some pure lead and grabbed the bucket while I was at it that had sticks of 50/50 tin/lead in it.
https://i.imgur.com/5WlP7G3.jpg

Another 165# of lead from the scrap yard. As you can see there's always a mix of things to grab/buy/trade for.
https://i.imgur.com/hZs2kEO.jpg

Craigs list is another good place to find lead/tin/etc. Put a running add in it. The local scrap yards were paying $.10 a # several years ago & I put an ad in craigs list paying $.25 a #. Didn't take long to take the add down & made good $$$ selling the extra off.

[tinsnips]

I use 95-5 solder at work it is now 45.00 dollars a pound . Just like most stuff lately it has gotten out of hand in the price department.

[bowfin]

600 was NOE's recommendation for max mold heat, ran the pot up 750 at one point.

I think the mold itself is not to get hotter than 600 degrees. Pure lead won't even melt at 600 degrees, if my memory serves me.

[Land Owner]

The OP asked, "Is There A Ready Source For Tin?". The answer, THERE SURE IS!

When you are "ready" get on your horse and head to the Thrift Store, the Bargain Barn, Resale Shop, 2nd Hand Store, Flea Market, and Garage Sale in your neighborhood and your neighbor's neighborhood as the "source" of a heap of cheap and quite often available pewter...but you have GOT to work for it.

Every time I am out and about I try to go through a different area. Knowing where I have been in the last 30-days helps, by not going back to the same places too often, as their stock does not turn over nearly that fast. Bargain, negotiate, finagle, and haggle over price of pieces that may, or may not, reach one pound.

The latest score was Saturday in a consignment ANTIQUE SHOP where price is expected to be HIGH. The $6 asking price was negotiated to $4. The candle holder, labeled on the bottom as 95% tin, was 1.25 pounds by scale when I got home. Not too shabby as that will turn 62.5 pounds of lead into ~2800 x 158 grain x 357 Mag. SWC's of 49/49/2 percent - Pb/WW/Sn!

[Mitch]

yes there are source the sure fire one is RotoMetals or another source of new alloys.I do not fine much Pewter in my location. I use to find more solder at the scrap yards but the solder and the scrap yards are drying up.To me it verys alot from one location to another what you will find.Best advise i an give is keep searching for any tin you can find.If you do find the mother load of tin buy all you can you will never reget it.I keep searching i am petty set with lead tine is the number one thing i look for, then antimony.good luck on you search.

As for the wrincled bullets yu can heat the alloy up but is the mold is cold you will still have bad bullets.A low priced hot plate is your friend here.get the mold hot try lead temp of 725f to 750f you shoud see decten bullets you will need to ajuts for your casting speed but it whould work.is you do not have a hot plate yet use the 750 trmp and car quick till you see the wrincles go away and the fill out is good

[GregLaROCHE]

Rotometals is a good source for known quality alloy.

I agree, especially when starting out. Keep it as simple as possible and your variables at a minimum. Later you can start looking for bargains that can take time to find.

[JeepsAndGuns]

Must be a very regional thing, as around here, pewter seems to have more value as the item as it does as pewter.
Guessing the weight of the pewter item for sale, and then calculating the price to $$ per ounce, it comes out to be cheaper to just buy it by the pound at rotometals than buying it was pewter. At least around here.
I have checked the local thrift store (none to be had) and a couple local flea market/antique place. I found several pieces, but all over priced.
I guess if I buy any, I am just going to get a 1 lb bag of tin nuggets from rotometals.

[imashooter2]

Low cost pewter stashes are built the same way as low cost lead stashes. Dedicated scrounging. If that isn’t something you’re willing to do, then pay the freight for virgin metal.

[deltaenterprizes]

^^THIS^^ They have sales all the time. Though a trip to the local radiator repair might get you a few # of drippings.

That was going to be my suggestion!

[oley55]

Low cost pewter stashes are built the same way as low cost lead stashes. Dedicated scrounging. If that isn’t something you’re willing to do, then pay the freight for virgin metal.

That right there is the secret; dedicated scrounging! I am not obsessed, but I do keep an eye out for Goodwill Stores and other charity thrift stores and will zip in and out. It only takes 10 minutes or less to check, though I generally come up empty. But somehow or another I have managed accumulate over 22 pounds of processed pewter over the past 18 months, give or take a month.

Also don't ignore old nasty looking silver plated items. Except for some super high quality stuff, almost all of the plated services have handles n feet/legs that are pewter/tin soldered to the copper/brass base object. Also the raised/ribbed area around the perimeter are also silver plated pewter/tin. I've picked up a lot of silver platters/plates/bowls that had a lot of pewter/tin and they are often priced below pewter (probably because folks see little value in a silver plated something or another that has been worn through/down to bare copper/brass). I carry a small pocket knife and I will try to carve a tiny sliver off in an inconspicuous location.

For initial processing of my silver plated items, I use a propane torch and melt the tin parts n pieces off into a small pot.

[Rany A]

Was having wrinkling issues also, I got the Lyman 25lb pot, love the heck out of it but discovered that the aluminum mold guide draws a “lot” of heat out of the mold.

[almar]

I scored a pretty good amount of pewter from a large thrift store where one of the booths had a huge amount of decorative kitchen stuff, the intact pieces were pricey but the dinged up pieces were pennies.

[Lilaen]

Anny good tips for making the pewter/tin to small shots/ingots for adding to the 20-4 Lee pot, or is it recommend to add to the big prosessing batch when melting down the lead/alloy bars.

Anny way the decorative stuff from the flee markets, sure save a lot of space when melted in the old pot, but to fill some moulds/etc would bee nice, and ready to add to the Lee.

Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk

[kevin c]

I add tin to make specific percentages in 200-250# batches of casting alloy, but I don’t mind committing the component metals because I’m pretty confident that I’ll use it all. Many folks prefer much smaller batches of alloy, or just add tin “to taste” to the pot they’re casting from: mixing only what you need when you need

For my purposes, then, pewter in the form of 1 to 1 1/2 pound Redneck Gold ingots plus ~one ounce “coins” made in mini muffin aluminum pans. For the second, pewter bullets cast in a gang mold and maybe the coins. The bullets have the advantage of a low uniform weight good for sweetening the casting alloy.

[imashooter2]

Anny good tips for making the pewter/tin to small shots/ingots for adding to the 20-4 Lee pot, or is it recommend to add to the big prosessing batch when melting down the lead/alloy bars.

Anny way the decorative stuff from the flee markets, sure save a lot of space when melted in the old pot, but to fill some moulds/etc would bee nice, and ready to add to the Lee.

Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk

I have collected, processed and sold some 700 pounds of pewter and I have tried many methods to process it. Cutting it with saws, clippers, etc. are time consuming and difficult. The best tools are a sturdy bench vise and a 3 pound drilling hammer. For teapots and the like, clamp the legs, handles and spouts in the vise and twist them off. Use the hammer to crush the body into a rough tube small enough for your pot and feed it in as it melts. Trays and plates, clamp a few inches into the vise and fold it over. Hammer the fold flat and repeat until you have a tube and feed it to the pot. Bowls, fold the edges in and hammer as required to fit the pot again.

Pewter is relatively clean compared to scrap lead, but there is dust from sitting, sometimes varnish has been applied to avoid tarnishing and of course the oxides from melting. I melt at 500 -550 degrees. The alloy will melt at lower temperature, but I have found the sawdust I use to reduce the oxides back in work much better at 500 plus degrees. Molds are all preference. I use Potter molds. The 2 small cavities of a Lee ingot mold are about the right size. Decoy weight molds are good. Some use large bullet molds. At least one member here uses the bottom of beverage cans to cast coins. If you use anything other than a bullet mold, cast the ingots thin enough that you can snap them for smaller additions to the pot.

I strongly recommend you read the first few pages of the Hallmarks thread linked in my signature. Good luck.

http://imashooter2.com/pictures/pew6s.jpg

[Lilaen]

I have collected, processed and sold some 700 pounds of pewter and I have tried many methods to process it. Cutting it with saws, clippers, etc. are time consuming and difficult. The best tools are a sturdy bench vise and a 3 pound drilling hammer. For teapots and the like, clamp the legs, handles and spouts in the vise and twist them off. Use the hammer to crush the body into a rough tube small enough for your pot and feed it in as it melts. Trays and plates, clamp a few inches into the vise and fold it over. Hammer the fold flat and repeat until you have a tube and feed it to the pot. Bowls, fold the edges in and hammer as required to fit the pot again.

Pewter is relatively clean compared to scrap lead, but there is dust from sitting, sometimes varnish has been applied to avoid tarnishing and of course the oxides from melting. I melt at 500 -550 degrees. The alloy will melt at lower temperature, but I have found the sawdust I use to reduce the oxides back in work much better at 500 plus degrees. Molds are all preference. I use Potter molds. The 2 small cavities of a Lee ingot mold are about the right size. Decoy weight molds are good. Some use large bullet molds. At least one member here uses the bottom of beverage cans to cast coins. If you use anything other than a bullet mold, cast the ingots thin enough that you can snap them for smaller additions to the pot.

I strongly recommend you read the first few pages of the Hallmarks thread linked in my signature. Good luck.

http://imashooter2.com/pictures/pew6s.jpgTanks, have been prosessing the pewter/tin in a old stainless pot on a propane flame, and the solidefyed 1-3 in thick in the bottom. Just to save volume.
Like the idea of the soda bottoms and the tiny ingots on Lee mould. Have experimented with poring into water, but did just flatten out and turn brittle those "shots" remelted to a solid block.

-lilaen

Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk

[imashooter2]

A small 1 quart stainless pot on a gas flame would be great. I used a 10 pound Lyman “Big Dipper" furnace for my processing. Ingots were poured with a Lyman dipper. It didn't take much practice before I was pouring ingots very close to my 2 ounce target weight. After cooling, each ingot was weighed on that cheap postal scale and labeled with a magic marker. After that I can easily weigh out components for a pot or two of any specific alloy I choose, although most of my casting is just for casual targets and usage is "this mold is cranky today, let me toss in a little tin."

For beverage can coins, a strip of duct tape around 6 or so cans on a table top will make a nice stable multi cavity mold.

[NObamain2012]

I have have a NOE 25 cal 120 grain aluminum mold. It was my first experience with an aluminum mold under 50 cal, and my first experience with a mold smaller than 30 cal. I use 94-3-3 aloy, cast faster than normal,and run the lead temp at 800F for it to cast good boolits. The instructions also called for using DAWN dish washing detergent, I was using Palmolive,I guess there must be some kind of wax or oil in it, but caused wrinkled boolits too.

[35 Rem]

RotoMetals might not be the very cheapest source for tin but you know it's pure and if you buy the sheared lead wire pieces, they are about 2 pe ounce so it's real easy to add the amount you want to the pot. I took the plunge and bought 14 lbs at once to get their 1st volume price break. Also shipping is free if you order at least $99 worth. It's painful but mighty handy to have what for many/most of us would be a lifetime buy.

[lightman]

Most of my tin comes from odd partial rolls or bars of solder. When I acquire 10 to 20 pounds I melt it all together and send BNE a sample to test. Pewter is scarce here in my area.

[GlocksareGood]

I buy solder off Facebook marketplace. I pay no more than $10/lb of Tin content. I have almost 300lbs of tin now.

[kevin c]

300# is enough to make 7 1/2 tons of improved castability 2% alloy, or 3 tons of 5% (a la Lyman #2).

Short of casting commercially, I’d say you’re good for a while ;^).

[GlocksareGood]

Yeah I am in a good place but I still buy it when I get a deal.

[jednorris]

I cannot think that I am that much different from other bullet casters, but I want to know EXACTLY the makeup of the lead I mold bullets out of. If I want all my shots to go the same way, I do not want 10% tin, 50% lead, 20% crap 10% steel and the balance of whatever might melt. Being able to reliably be duplicating my mixture consistency seems to be paramount to me. No two mixtures will go down the barrel the same way. Am I missing something?

[dondiego]

I have never worried about the composition of my alloy. If it wasn't too hard, nor too soft, and it fills the mold well. It worked. I shot thousands of pounds of stuff I had no idea what it was.

[imashooter2]

Nor have I. And I will wager that the vast majority of others are the same. And then a good portion of the rest are fooling themselves when they pretend to know the composition of various scrap alloys.

[jednorris]

Hard lead will not obturate as fast as soft lead and therefore not fill out lands and grooves uniformly. How can that possibly cause accuracy to be as consistent as a known ratio. If I am just "throwing lead' I can see the reason for not being precise, but I cannot believe the lack of concern. I am NOT trying to be critical, it just seems the most accurate bullets would be the shooters aim.

[imashooter2]

There’s accuracy and then there’s accuracy. What you say is true, and there are those here that want to shoot sub MOA at several hundred yards and win competitions. Those people are the ones that need to pull all the stops. There are others that want to make the gun go bang with the least possible cost. Whatever melts and the smallest powder charges to operate the gun are their creed.

Most aren’t at either extreme and they look for a balance of accurate enough for application and low cost. That means scrap alloys made harder or softer as application requires. Absolute precision isn’t something they need. I’m in that group.

[kevin c]

I like reproducible results, so even though my typical applications don’t require tack driving accuracy, I make casting alloys to specific recipes, using known components that BNE kindly analyzed for me.

It probably doesn’t matter all that much when my max scoring zone is a 6”x11” rectangle usually under 15 yards, but it scratches my particular itch.

[35 Rem]

Hard lead will not obturate as fast as soft lead and therefore not fill out lands and grooves uniformly. How can that possibly cause accuracy to be as consistent as a known ratio. If I am just "throwing lead' I can see the reason for not being precise, but I cannot believe the lack of concern. I am NOT trying to be critical, it just seems the most accurate bullets would be the shooters aim.

There is no way you can ever know precisely what you have when using scrap metal. What you say about hard alloy not obturating as well is true but it's not accurate to imply that you are going to get "hard" alloy just because you don't know it's precise makeup. Antimony is the main hardening element of our alloys and it's expensive so it's very unlikely to be in excess in scrap. Sure we try to sort scrap the best we can to cast consistent bullets but you can never equal a large manufacturing plant buying certified materials. Experience will show that it doesn't make that big of a difference either as you can get perfectly good hunting accuracy using scrap lead alloy.

[fredj338]

I have never worried about the composition of my alloy. If it wasn't too hard, nor too soft, and it fills the mold well. It worked. I shot thousands of pounds of stuff I had no idea what it was.

^^^This^^ i have a rough idea of my alloy because i sort my scrap by source & keep track, blend in the pot. For most handgun use, exact composition isnt a real issue. F you can shoot 2” slow fire groups at 25y, the bullets will be up to the task if cast of scrap or precise bullet alloy.

[fredj338]

I like reproducible results, so even though my typical applications don’t require tack driving accuracy, I make casting alloys to specific recipes, using known components that BNE kindly analyzed for me.

It probably doesn’t matter all that much when my max scoring zone is a 6”x11” rectangle usually under 15 yards, but it scratches my particular itch.

Yeah accuracy at 15y, your alloy isnt really going to matter much. Most of my handguns will do under 2" offhand at 15y with my not perfect alloy bullets.

[jednorris]

The website "Espy" sells a lot of odds and ends and I was surprised to find pure tin on there. It came in small uneven chunks but I bought 4# for $12 per pound.