cost of tin gone crazy

[farmbif]

yesterday in a trip through the local Lowes while walking down the plumbing aisle my eyes caught glimpse of rolls of solder. when I looked at the shelf they had 1/2 pound rolls of no lead solder which is usually pure tin with maybe a minuscule tiny amount of copper or silver added. it didn't say on the label exactly the composition but i know its beloved tin. what got me putting on my reading glasses to read the fine print on the price sticker on the shelf. $33 for 1/2 pound roll.
when my back is screwing with me I'm usually here on the internet sometimes scouring auctions to keep up with whats going on and maybe find some useful bargain.
I'm currently watching 150 pounds of tin solder. that stuff would just love to come home with me and get mixed up with my buckets of wheel weights and pure lead if the price doesn't get to be a fraction of $66 a pound.

[imashooter2]

Virgin metal has always been pricey compared to scrap. I’m very thankful I got in on the front end of pewter scrounging before prices on that started to climb. I managed to put up a lifetime supply for myself, made a few dollars selling to my fellow board members and I like to think I helped a few neophytes start their own searches along the way.

[Rickf1985]

Rotometals has super pure tin for 38.00 for a 1.1 lb. bar. Regular tin for 28.00 with a minimum purchase of 6 units.

[dondiego]

Virgin metal has always been pricey compared to scrap. I’m very thankful I got in on the front end of pewter scrounging before prices on that started to climb. I managed to put up a lifetime supply for myself, made a few dollars selling to my fellow board members and I like to think I helped a few neophytes start their own searches along the way.

You certainly helped me! I started scrounging pewter and your tutoring really helped. Now, I can identify good pewter a mile away. I have a good supply of pewter and actually use some of the pieces, but if needed they would go in the pot. For some reason I don't shoot, reload, nor cast, as much as I used to do. I can shoot in my back yard too. What?

[dtknowles]

Metal, almost of any sort is going up in price.

Tim

[35 Rem]

Rotometal has the very convenient Tin wire pieces that weigh about 1/2 ounce each for $29.99/lb. If you order $100 you get free shipping. I anticipated bad times a few years back and bought a lifetime supply from them at $17.50/lb. As I said, the wire pieces are so convenient to use since they all weight the same - all you have to do is count out the weight you need for your pot.

https://www.rotometals.com/tin-cut-wire-pieces-99-9-pure-1-pound-made-in-usa/

[Winger Ed.]

In the old days, I'd buy a 1lb. roll of 95/5 for 7-8 bucks for a big plumbing project,
then toss what was left in the buckets with all the other 'castables'.

Then didn't need any for several years. One day I was at the big box store, and saw the same rolls for $35.
I about swallowed my tongue.

[justindad]

More & more electronics using more & more tin. Even refrigerators have LCD
screens now.

[WILCO]

It's been a while, but I remember seeing tin sinkers at Wallyworld.

[Delkal]

It's been a while, but I remember seeing tin sinkers at Wallyworld.

It must of been a while because all of their sinkers now are cheap zinc. I bought some split shot and you can't just pinch them on like the lead ones. You have crimp them on with pliers till the line breaks or risk cracking your teeth. I threw them away.

[jsizemore]

A friend that prototypes and manufactures power supplies for electrical equipment says about all his customers specify lead free solder. He knows from experience that lead makes the solder joint more durable to hard use and heat. Same for all the plumbers I know too. Plumbing code used to require copper and lead free solder for the back flow check valve, expansion tank and 2' of copper pipe around the hot water heater. Cost of lead free solder drove the install very high. Now it's not required. You can run PEX right to any device.

I did have a customer want a new sink faucet installed. Made in China that had a dangling tag that said lead was used in the manufacture. Customer preferred the low price so I installed it.

[WILCO]

it must of been a while because all of their sinkers now are cheap zinc.


w0w!!!!!!

[jdgabbard]

Yeah, prices of all alloys has gone through the roof. Look at what people are selling lead for in the S&S section. $2-3/lb if you're lucky. Spot on lead is currently at 0.98/lb USD as of the time of writing this comment. Order it through ROTOMetals and you'd do well to wonder if it is plated in gold. I just can't wrap my head around why people think it's worth that much as scrap.

[beemer]

For years I picked up rolls of solder at yard sales and flea markets for almost nothing. Probably have 15-20 lbs of 50-50. Lately even those places have gone up but keep your eye out. I picked up some pewter lately and poured it in thumb size pieces. I am glad that I don't need anything else. A life time supply doesn't look like it used to.

[deltaenterprizes]

Yeah, prices of all alloys has gone through the roof. Look at what people are selling lead for in the S&S section. $2-3/lb if you're lucky. Spot on lead is currently at 0.98/lb USD as of the time of writing this comment. Order it through ROTOMetals and you'd do well to wonder if it is plated in gold. I just can't wrap my head around why people think it's worth that much as scrap.
The price increases are caused by the closing of all of the lead foundries in the US!
The ore is still mined but it is sent to China to be refined and then shipped back to the USA!

[deltaenterprizes]

I picked up a bunch of lead pipe a long time ago and cut the wiped joints off and then melted the solder off the joints.
The solder melted before the lead, you just have to stay there and watch it. Once a puddle formed it was easy to just roll the joint and then grab the piece of lead pipe, the brass fittings are not going to melt so they can be removed after the lead.

[jdgabbard]

The price increases are caused by the closing of all of the lead foundries in the US!
The ore is still mined but it is sent to China to be refined and then shipped back to the USA!

That accounts for the rise in spot price, not people selling it for more than spot. Spot is the value of the metal on the market. Sort of like the price for corn, price for gas, or price for any other commodity. People selling above that are selling it for more than what it’s worth. People willing to buy it for that 3x spot price are over paying.


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[jsizemore]

I was at the grocery store earlier this week. Check to see what the price of any produce might be to get something fresh. 4 ears of sweet corn was $5. I'm pretty sure that's above spot. Aged (?) leftover meat was $9/lb. Bologna was 2 - 1lb packs for $6. Everything is as high as a giraffe's hind end.

[kevin c]

I’d guess RotoMetals buys tin directly from the refiner which they then sell to the public. A hardware store buys the solder from the manufacturer who made it with tin they bought from the refiner.

There’s a pricing rule of thumb called “keystoning”, that doubles the price every time goods change hands. A quick check shows the spot price of tin at a bit over $15/#, so, while painful, maybe RotoMetals’ pure tin at around $30/# and the hardware store’s solder at $66/# are to be expected.

Like imashooter2, I’m glad I have a good supply of scrounged pewter bought for considerably less than the wholesale price; making the few hundred pounds of 2% tin alloy I need each year would cost me a few C notes in tin otherwise.

[gns4me]

if anybody is in need of tin let me know. I've just finished smelting organ pipes and have a bunch of 50/50 (tin/lead) to swap for other lead.

[Rickf1985]

if anybody is in need of tin let me know. I've just finished smelting organ pipes and have a bunch of 50/50 (tin/lead) to swap for other lead.

I wish I had know this a week ago, I was just through NC on 95 last Wednesday and I have tons of wheel weights I could have traded.

[The Appalacian]

To whoever is lurking around ebay in the last couple months buying up pewter and paying way more than its worth. Think about what you're doing.

Those sellers pay attention to prices just like we do. When they see stuff sell for more than what they're asking on theirs, what do you think they're going to do with their own pricing? For Pete's sake, you're shooting yourself in foot and the rest of us too.

If people would just stop panic buying everything they see prices all across the board would come down, and that includes even pewter bud vases and other silly stuff.

[kevin c]

What with not being able to weigh or examine the item (descriptions can be inaccurate), costs like shipping, and the fact that the asking price reflects the perceived value of the object, not that of its metal content, I haven’t been able to convince myself to buy second hand pewter on line.

[Rickf1985]

And you are not getting pure tin which you can buy at places like Rotometals and know for sure what you got. You can buy pure tin for 28.00 lb. and that pound will do a lot more than pewter alloy. One pound will alloy a LOT of lead. 10lbs. of antimonial lead, 5 lbs of pure lead and .5 lbs of tine give a very balanced 15.5 lbs. of 12.5 BHN lead. Enough to make 543 200gr boolits.

And if you buy 4 lbs. you will get free shipping over 100.00! That knocks at least 20 bucks off of the total and brings the price down to 23.00 lb.

[jsizemore]

And you are not getting pure tin which you can buy at places like Rotometals and know for sure what you got. You can buy pure tin for 28.00 lb. and that pound will do a lot more than pewter alloy. One pound will alloy a LOT of lead. 10lbs. of antimonial lead, 5 lbs of pure lead and .5 lbs of tine give a very balanced 15.5 lbs. of 12.5 BHN lead. Enough to make 543 200gr boolits.

And if you buy 4 lbs. you will get free shipping over 100.00! That knocks at least 20 bucks off of the total and brings the price down to 23.00 lb.

If you find 95%+ pewter for $10/lb shipped, how much can you alloy with the same $92? How much difference is there between 95% and 100% in your final casting alloy? Or 90% and 100%? I've cast with all them and can't tell the difference.

[Delkal]

If you find 95%+ pewter for $10/lb shipped, how much can you alloy with the same $92? How much difference is there between 95% and 100% in your final casting alloy? Or 90% and 100%? I've cast with all them and can't tell the difference.

And when you are only adding a few percent of something the math gets even less significant. Even though pewter is around 90% tin by the books I just treat it as a pure bar of 0.999 pure tin. Adding 2% of something 90% pure means your alloy is wrong by 0.2% tin. Does anyone think this will matter? And pewter has antimony so for hardness the difference is even less significant.

Same goes for Rotometals high antimony bars. Just buy some monotype for $2 a pound off of Ebay and it already has a good amount of tin already in it.

[Rickf1985]

If you are at 90% then the difference is negligible, but how do you know you have 90% without testing? And as has been said, the price is going up on pewter so is it still worth it?

[Delkal]

If you are at 90% then the difference is negligible, but how do you know you have 90% without testing?

It doesn't matter. Being over or under by a tenth or two of 1% is not going to change anything in the real world. And if you find a piece of pewter that is more than 90% the error is even smaller. At 95% tin your alloy will be off by 0.1%.

[6.5X284ever]

All this math is making my head hurt.

[jsizemore]

If you are at 90% then the difference is negligible, but how do you know you have 90% without testing? And as has been said, the price is going up on pewter so is it still worth it?

I do 60-120lb batches at a time and send a sample to be tested. Last 2 were 90.5% and 92.6%. I spent less than the asking price from the foundries.