Where to get tin

[Charlie Two Tracks]

Is there an economical place or way, to get tin? It seems kind of expensive to me.

[Bulltipper]

I just got 2 # from one of our local winerys, they use tin for capping the cork on wine bottles. i musta cut the tim off 300 wine bottles but it makes a great alloy! you can also hunt the second hand stores for ttin and pewter stuff, pewter is about 80% tin...Good luck!

[docone31]

I have almost never used tin. I still have the original stock I got when I was told I needed it.
I use heat instead.

[fryboy]

seeming expensive is a relative thing ..the less money we have the more expensive everything seems :P ( trust me i know - i'm a po'boy ) as docone stated "almost never used tin" is pretty apt , tho i do use it but only when needed or making an alloy , garage sales and thrift stores , ur looking for dinged up pewter that has no collector value ,small partial rolls/bars of solder ( often for a quarter or a buck) old old squeeze tubes used to be tin ( newer one are usually aluminum ) old heavy belt buckles ( like the hunting and fishing ones folks are always giving me ) when scrounging for tin like that i like to melt everything down separately and check to make sure it is tin

[crawfobj]

I watch my pawn shop circuit for partial rolls of solder in the loose tool/junk bins. I've found several, but like they said above, I haven't actually used much of it.

[John Boy]

you can also hunt the second hand stores for ttin and pewter stuff, pewter is about 80% tin
Your local scrap yard for pewter!

[462]

95/5 solder is readily available from hardware stores. If you use it, 2% by weight seems to be the agreed upon amount.

[littlejack]

The pewter I have been getting at the local St Vincent De Paul and Good Will stores is "stamped" 95% to 97% tin. I believe the rest of the alloy added is about 3% copper and 2% antimony for the 95% and 2%-1% for the 97%. This is nice metal to add to bullet alloy.
Jack

[lwknight]

If you shop and be patient tin can be gotten for about $10.00 per pound.
Rotometals just had a sale recently.
1 pound of tin will sweeten 49 pounds of lead and will make about 2300 150 grain boolits
thats less than 1/2 cent per boolit.

[myg30]

I hit up the local goodwill, thrift stores when I get free time to look. Almost always come home with a pice to melt down.
Old rolls of solder seems to be more abundant since the newer generations dont know what its used for ! PVC and sniffin glue took the place of copper.

Good searchin, Mike

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

I have a few "extra" belt buckles I don't use . . . how do I tell if it is pewter? it is not labeled. seems harder than the tin I got from roto . . .

[Charlie Two Tracks]

Thanks guys. I will try your suggestions. I have never paid attention to pewter. I will have to see what it really looks like.

[dale2242]

Go to your local radiator shop and see if they have the solder drippings from the older copper/brass radiators repairs. i boight enough years ago to last a life time. Worth a try. May be a cheap source of tin for you...dale

[fryboy]

I have a few "extra" belt buckles I don't use . . . how do I tell if it is pewter? it is not labeled. seems harder than the tin I got from roto . . .

the good stuff will be labled ,some unlabled could be zinc , the knife test or the cutter test should tell ,mostly the ones i seem to find are the enameled kind ( such as a large mouth bass or a fleeing deer ) commemorative belt buckles also often are pewter , years ago when i was young i had a grenade lookin belt buckle long story short it was cool ( in my young mind ) and heavy !! the top part broke i tried soldering it back together and the soldering gun wouldnt do it so out comes the lil torch ( btw ? soldering isnt something i'm good at lolz ) u guessed it it melted and totally ruined it so i'm thinking this is like some of the balls and boolits i cast ( at that time i was casting muzzle loaders only ) so i casted it into 44 balls ....that didnt work so good either sure made pretty balls tho and way too hard for what i needed , try a hardness test or a melt test ,some of the unmarked ones seem softer more like a lead pewter alloy

[qajaq59]

I look for rolls of solder at tag sales. Surprisingly I often find it, and it is cheap as dirt.

[kbstenberg]

Qajaq I was wondering what you ment by a "tag" sale?
Kevin

[qajaq59]

kbstenberg, we call garage sales "tag sales". It's a New England thing. And the best ones for solder or pewter are the estate sales. Here in FL we have lots of those because someone passes and their kids sell off everything, including all the odd stuff in the garage or sheds. That's where I usually find the solder.