buying wheel weights, pure lead, solder

[shoestring]

hello everybody, i've been loitering around here as a visitor for a while and decided to sign up today. just wanted to share a story on my quest for ww. i work in very southern california, i was driving down a road where every 3rd of 4th building was a tire shop, i pulled into the first one and after asking 2 of the employees about wheel weights (they didn't speak english) the 3rd guy spoke a little. after motioning and pointing at his bucket full of ww, his english greatly improved. he said $65 for a five gal bucket. i turned and left for the next shop, there a 5 gal bucket full was free! (thank you very much). the shops i stopped at after that it seemed the prices were $15-$20 a five gal bucket. i am a plumber for a living, and at my local supply house, i can buy pure lead for $.50 a pound. need tin to harden it. heard of using solder for this. the old 50/50 solder is available if you order it and the newer 95/5 solder is about the same. today we use 100% lead free. canfield brand, it contains tin, antimony, silver, and copper. i'm not to sure about the last two ingredients, but the price is not an issue. once a roll gets cruddy from laying around getting flux and pipe dope on it it is more trouble to clean than it is worth. i can boost these off the job for free. but am un-sure about the copper and silver in my alloy. being a good redneck, i pride myself on my resourcefulness.

[jnovotny]

Welcome shoestring, as far as a source of alloy sounds like you hit the motherload. Cast a few boolits with the stuff and see how they shoot. Betcha they'll do just fine.

[454PB]

Welcome to the madness!

Tin is a wonderful addition to casting alloy, but it used for fluidity and better casts, not hardness.

It contributes very little to hardness, it's antimony that increases hardness.

You can drop your boolits into water to add hardness, just mix pure lead 50/50 with wheel weights and add 1 or 2% tin for better fillout.

[Tom Herman]

once a roll gets cruddy from laying around getting flux and pipe dope on it it is more trouble to clean than it is worth. i can boost these off the job for free. but am un-sure about the copper and silver in my alloy. being a good redneck, i pride myself on my resourcefulness.

Welcome aboard, Shoestring!

I admire resourceful people.. Scrounging is an artform... I would never admit boosting anything from the jobsite, but I could easily save someone the trouble of getting rid of it by throwing it out for them.
Copper in the small quantities found in your alloy aren't an issue. The silver iIknow will harden it somewhat.
95/5 solder works GREAT as a source for tin!

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[Echo]

Realize that you will only be using a little solder. Three percent is PLENTY, two percent is OK, so if you have 2% lead-free solder, the amount of other metals is infinitesimal.

[runfiverun]

i add about 1/2% of tin to my ww mix.
the silvabrite plumbing solder is a nice one to work with.