What's a good 'scrounging' source for TIN?

[inuhbad]

Hey Everybody...

Do you know of any good source for low-cost TIN to help with alloying?

Any ideas or thoughts? Thanks!

[454PB]

Some say radiator shops will sell scrap solder retrieved from their repairs.

[Shiloh]

Garage sales for pewter beer steins or goblets. Scarce, but sometimes one gets lucky.
I'm going to try the radiator shop approach as well.

Shiloh

[DLCTEX]

+1 on the pewter. Most old trophies for sports, etc. are pewter. Pewter has a high tin content. I picked up 5 lbs. of pewter at a garage sale recently for $1.50.

[Pepe Ray]

Pewter is great stuff, just be sure to ID it properly.
New stuff is suspect. 'Specially in the trophy category. Lots of Zinc.
Pewter is usually marked as such if you look carefully And it's soft where as zinc is hard. When in doubt get some acid and look for reaction in the zinc NOT in the pewter.
Pepe Ray

[kbstenberg]

Pepe you said to use acid to check pewter? What kind of acid? Does it just run off like water? What does the acid do on zink?

[jsizemore]

I found most of my pewter at thrift shops and flea markets.

If you squeeze or bend a piece of pewter it doesn't have memory just like lead, in other words it doesn't try to return to it's former shape.

If it will hold a rivet, it's NOT pewter.
If it uses a screw to hold it together, it's NOT pewter.
If it's welded together, it's NOT pewter.
If it won't bend, it's NOT pewter.

Tin is used for solder so the base, handle or hanger is SOLDERED on.

[leadman]

I bought 5 rolls of solder from Grainger that are 63% tin, 37% lead. Cost was $2.67 a one pound roll! There is rosin flux in the solder so make sure you have lots of ventilation.

[jar-wv]

Radiator shops. Just got a half bucket full of floor sweepings for free. Is very dirty to smelt.Is usually 50/50 or 40/60. I throw in a half pound Lee ingot in a 20 lb pot.

jar

[Pepe Ray]

kbstenberg;
Our Guru , Felix by name, has suggested a particular acid that was easily acquired and it makes since that one type may be more effective than some other, but I can't remember it. I've used a soldering acid and the muriatic such as masons use to scour a concrete surface. They've each given a sizzle when applied to a scratched surface on a zinc casting. Not so with pewter.

jsizemore has given a great list of identifying characteristics.
Pepe Ray

[OeldeWolf]

Hydrochloric acid, of which muriatic acid is a form sold by pool supply palces. The resulting gas is hydrogen gas.

As always, be careful with any and all acidic substances.

[madman]

Just a thought as I have ran across a few in the last 6 months are the collectable items made out of pewter. You could be melting a couple hundred bucks to get a few oz of pewter. Just a thought. Selling the valuable stuff and purchasing tin is way better than destroying an valuable item.

[Marlin Hunter]

Garage sales for pewter beer steins.....

Shiloh


Please don't ever meld a beer stein. It's blasphemy!!

[high standard 40]

I am fortunate enough to have a radiator shop near me that gives me solder drippings for $5 per 5 gal bucket. Realize that there is a LOT of trash mixed in with this. A single 5 gal bucket can yield 50-60 lbs. of ingots (sometimes much less) of solder which I consider 50/50. There's no way to be certain, you can only guess. This is what I use.

Now if this were not available to me I would just order pure tin from Rotometals.
$100 will deliver 10 lbs of pure tin to your door. If you mix 2% tin this will make 500 lbs of alloy for you. That's only 20 cents worth of tin per pound of alloy. Reasonable.

[BD]

Lately I've been picking it up off the ground in the form of 50/50 bar solder being used by the roofers :)

I've also recovered about 50 lb of lead from lead cased direct burial cable we've dug out this week. It could have been 500 lb if I'd have been willing to dig another 60 feet of trench in the wrong direction.

BD

[fecmech]

+ 1 on Graingers. They are closing out their 63/37 solder for $2.67 a lb. and I just bought 20 lbs. That makes the tin cost at $4.27 a lb. which is pretty darn cheap. Throw in 1 roll of solder to 30 lbs. of wheel wts and voila, a 2% tin/ww mix. Life is good!

[inuhbad]

Great info, Guys!

Thanks for the heads-up on the Tin source! I bought 10 rolls of the solder now...

Any idea where to find ANTIMONY???

[358wcf]

Try Antimonyman.com

358wcf

[Cap'n Morgan]

One way to acquire a supply of tin:

1)
Make sure you have a friend who works at a power plant.

2)
When he asks you if you want the babbit metal from the old turbine they're scrapping, answer "Yess..!"

3)
When he delivers a single150lb solid chunk of babbit try to keep a straight face - remember: Beggers can't be choosers.



http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/919/img0798r.jpg (http://img16.imageshack.us/i/img0798r.jpg/)

5.5% - Copper
80% - Tin
3% - Lead
11.5% - Antimony

[Wilburt]

I went to grangers website..... Do you have to have a buisness to order from them?

[fecmech]

I'm not sure about that. I use a employee purchase acct number from the company I used to work for and it gives me a small discount , but not on close out items. I would give them a call and ask.

[10mmShooter]

no business acct necessary at Grainger

[jerrold]

I went to grangers website..... Do you have to have a buisness to order from them?


Back when they were selling off 95% tin solder I made up a name and the order went through fine. With the present economy i doubt they will miss a chance to sell a discontinued item.

[sheepdog]

If you want some tin alloy I have a mess of solder rolls I'll sell for $4 a pound.

[hammerhead357]

Sheepdog what type of solder rolls? Is it rezin core or solid and what is the alloy? Is it 95/5 or 60/40 I would be interested if it is the proper alloy and type....Wes

[leadman]

If you buy the grainger solder remember it is not 100% tin, only 63% of the 16 oz. roll is tin.
Figure it a grains, 7,000 per one pound, of which 4,410 grains will be tin of the Grainger solder.

[melchior]

I got to my local hardware store and buy spools of 95-5 solder. It's 95% tin, 5% antimony. Works good, reasonably priced.

[hammerhead357]

Sheepdog BTT any reply??????

[sheepdog]

Sheepdog BTT any reply??????

Its mixed. Little of both