What is it?

[the dude]

I have reclaimed lead and solder. It was melted down from pipes and solder joints. Is there a simple way to tell what the actual content is of the different bars?
I know some is "pure" lead as it was melted down from lead pipe and heated enough to get rid of a large amount of dross. I do not know if the pipe was "pure" or if the pipe is alloy.

The same with solder that started out at 60/40 or 40/60 but I do not know what it is now,after heating ,cleaning and molding into ingots. I also have bars of 50/50 that are factory marked, and one bar marked SN. At some point I will need to figure out what to add to the lead to make castable metal, right now I am trying to figure out what I have.:confused:

At one time we had someone come by to buy our excess lead,solder, etc. and he used a cone mold and then decided on the composition of the metal by the appearance and weight of the cone. I this a valid method?

Any ideas on how to tell what I have?

[runfiverun]

some pipes are extruded and have antimony added to them up to 5%
the best way i could figure is to pour some boolits and compare the weights to a known alloy.
the bar marked Sn is tin.
the solder i would just call 50-50 as that will be close enough for your mix.
the other way to guess at it, it is to do a hardness test after letting the mix sit for about 3 weeks.
then there is the "scientific" tink and tud test where you drop it on the concrete if it tuds it's likely close to pure, if it tinks it's probably got tin/antimony in it.
and if it tacks it has likely got tin in it.

[southpaw]

You could do a specific gravity test on it but that only works if there is only tin and lead. take a sample and weigh it ( sample weight ). then suspend that piece from a piece of fishing line and hang it from your scale and weigh it again ( dry weight ). now fill a cup up with room temp water and fully submerge the sample ( wet weight ). you dont want the piece way down in the cup, just under the surface. weigh it.

here is the formula: sample weight ( the one with the piece on the scale ) / dry weight ( the one that was hanging from the string ) - wet weight ( the one that was submerged in the water )= sp ( specific gravity )

sw/(dw-ww)=sg

to find the % of tin take 2049.06 / sg - 180.69
hope im not wrong and if i am some please correct me
again this only works if there is only tin and pure lead involved.
hope this helps and welcome aboard

[the dude]

I understand that WW are the accepted norm for casting. I just found a source for 40tin/60 lead solder. Is this usable for casting or only for sweetening the mix or not at all usefull? What would be a good price?

Thanks for the help.