Smelting Pewter

[cabezaverde]

I have a number of pewter pieces I have accumulated and would like to smelt them into a uniform lot and cast into a sinker mold I have for adding small pieces to a pot of metal.

Has anyone done this?

Just go at it with a clean pot and my turkey fryer - or is something lower temp required?

[358wcf]

I confess- I have been lurking around the yard-sales and hospice-stores for several years, accompanying my wife on her weekly forays-
Finding pewter is not too difficult, learning to recognize it well takes a bit of time, and then you have to be aggressive in your pricing negotiations as well- Too often sellers will price it for artistic or sentimental value- All I'm interested in is the metal- nothing more.
Once I've identified the pewter, found it bendable, proper soft color, and beaten the seller down on price, I get it home and begin the rendering process- my best buy to date was a set of approx 10 large, glass bottomed, beer steins, purchased for the princely sum of $.50- yes, that's 50 CENTS!!!
Using my sheet metal shears, I cut it up into pieces that fit my 20lb Lee pot, and render it down to beautiful, sweet tin-rich metal alloy for my casting endeavors.
I use a 300gr RCBS boolit mold in 44cal, which I seldom use for any other purpose, and set those large, heavy pewtar boolits aside, in a clearly marked container.
When casting at the bench, I will add my pewter boolits one at a time to the pot until I get the consistency and crisp mold fill-out that a proper tin mixture is famous for, and all is well.
Try this simple procedure, and you will find your efforts pay off fully. Better quality boolits- all as a result of hitting the yard-sale trail.
Enjoy!!

358wcf [smilie=1:[smilie=1:[smilie=1:

[littlejack]

+ one on what 358 stated.
I am more of the innovative kind. As I like the feel of many large metal coins in my hands a jingling around (probably because I don't have ant) I bought one of the aluminum candle holders available at the Good Will stores. The cavities are for the small short candles. The candles are about 1 1/2" across and about the same in height. I melt my pewter in my cleaned lead casting pot. I use my Coleman burner, the same as I do as casting boolits. I pour the metal in the candle recesses to about 3/16" thick. I have about 40 to 50 pounds of the coins. It makes me feel like a pirate running his hands through silver dabloons and letting them fall. I know, I know, I'm just a big kid. I have been going to let my grandson play with them, but I haven't learned to share yet.
Jack

[lwknight]

I cast my pewter into a 3X5 bread pan about 1/4" thick and pretend they are silver bars.
I have casted several tin or pewter ingots in the Lee 1/2 pound ingot molds. They come out about 4 oz and can be cut even smaller with pruning shears.

[cabezaverde]

I cast my pewter into a 3X5 bread pan about 1/4" thick and pretend they are silver bars.
I have casted several tin or pewter ingots in the Lee 1/2 pound ingot molds. They come out about 4 oz and can be cut even smaller with pruning shears.

What do you melt them in? I would like to do a larger batch than the Lee pot allows to homogenize the mix.

[littlejack]

I cast mine in my (made in China) cast iron pan. It is about 6" across and about 4" deep, with a wooden handle. You can pick one of them up at your local Good Will or St Vincent de Paul stores for about 4.00 or so. Any little cast pot or pan will work good. It is better to have a pan that will hold a deep amount of melt rather than that will hold a wide amount. It is better for one to dip there ladle in. ------ No wise cracks guys.-----
Jack

[jsizemore]

The same dutch oven I ingotize ww in does my pewter too.

[cabezaverde]

Flux it?

[littlejack]

I do flux my melt to get out the impurities. Its just too easy and too cheap not to.
Jack

[lwknight]

I actually used my Lee #20 pot for tin bars. The pewter I melted was melted into a large capacitor cover with a propane torch.
If I wanted to do a large batch then I would use the dutch oven on a turkey fryer burner.
I do dip up the molten metal with a ladle instead of using the bottom spout.

[clodhopper]

I just melt in the same small cast iron fry pan I melt lead scrap with, then just the lee 1/2 lb ingot mould.
Some planer shavings are the flux, with pewter I leave the dross in the pot untill some more lead gets melted.

[220swiftfn]

I think Do-it molds has something you guys might like for pewter.... decoy weight mold. IIRC, it casts four 1/4 x 1/2 x 12" bars that'd be perfect for cutting with snips.....


Dan

[lwknight]

I've even tried pouring long thin streams on the concrete floor.
Come to find out , you can never get the floor clean enough to keep from picking up
junk in the streamers.

[jr81452]

I've even tried pouring long thin streams on the concrete floor.
Come to find out , you can never get the floor clean enough to keep from picking up
junk in the streamers.


Slowly pour it into a 5gal bucket of water as a continuous stream. Makes nice long round strips that are easy to cut. Watch out for the ends though, they're damn sharp. After I've done that, I prefer to measure out 700gr +/- 0.2gr of it, stick it in mini muffin tins, and set it in the oven at 450 for five/ten mins. When I open the oven and the tin is still liquid, I flux each mini melt with a Popsicle stickand a dab of soldier flux to break down the oxides. I end up with what I like to call my 1% coins. As in, for every ten pounds of alloy, you add one coin for 1% tin content.

[kckid101]

okay this maybe a dumb ? but kinda new to scanfeging pewter but how do you reconize pewter? any definifate ways to tell? thanks for your input. newbie kevin

[lwknight]

I am at a loss about this recent pewter hysteria.
$30.00 worth of tin solder will sweeten enough alloy to make 5000 150 grain boolits.

[jsizemore]

I am at a loss about this recent pewter hysteria.
$30.00 worth of tin solder will sweeten enough alloy to make 5000 150 grain boolits.

And that's about $4-5 worth of pewter.

[lwknight]

And that's about $4-5 worth of pewter.
Well... yea if you can get it that cheap. The pewter dishes are really light though.
Not to mention that its not just real easy to find in the first place.
For most people , pewter is not a reliable source and often not economically prudent.

[a.squibload]

My recent haul. Only one I question is the picture frame, not marked.
The candlesticks are "weighted pewter", with what? Hope it's lead!

http://s1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd487/a-squibload/?action=view&current=morepewter.jpg


PS: so far I like Photobucket, I was worried about which of my wonderful shots to delete if I got too many here.
Saving bandwidth for Castboolits!

[Doby45]

I got 2lbs of roto tin from Jeff_Jones for $20 shipped. I have little pirate coins too. Just fill the SS condiment cup up about 1/4"

[jsizemore]

My recent haul. Only one I question is the picture frame, not marked.
The candlesticks are "weighted pewter", with what? Hope it's lead!


Some of that weighted stuff was made in South America and I think they might have used Llama do-do. I cut along the edge of the bottom with tin snips and then axially from the bottom edge to the center stem. One or two good whacks and the Llama filler falls right out. Any small remnants act as flux. Hmmm, Llama flux smell.
Good luck with the picture frame. I'd melt it by it's self to be sure of it's alloy. Hate to mess up that other pretty pewter.

[home in oz]

How do you identify it? If it is not labeled.

[jsizemore]

How do you identify it? If it is not labeled.

Get some that is labeled and play with it. Then when you run up on the unmarked stuff you'll know what's what. If in doubt, put it down and walk away. I pick up and put back more then I buy. Good Luck with the hunt.

[captaint]

I just use the 6 quart dutch oven for smelting pewter. Then they get poured into the Lee half pounders. Works great!! Need a little tin?? drop one in. enjoy Mike

[a.squibload]

Some of that weighted stuff was made in South America and I think they might have used Llama do-do...

Yeah, made in Bolivia.
I pried the bottom cap off and inside it looked like peanut brittle (without the peanuts),
or maybe glue or cheap ceramic?
Whatever it was the cats tried to eat it, even dumped over the trashcan.
Maybe hoof glue?
Smack with the hammer cracked it up enough to dump out.

Starting to think I should just buy solder or tin ingots, but at least the pewter is available
and not real expensive.

PS: the picture frame cut up with tinsnips just like the rest, and I did the citric acid + salt test, no zinc.

[jsizemore]

Starting to think I should just buy solder or tin ingots, but at least the pewter is available
and not real expensive.

PS: the picture frame cut up with tinsnips just like the rest, and I did the citric acid + salt test, no zinc.

I got 2 coffee cans of ingots and 50lbs I haven't smelted yet. It's taken me a year to accumulate, a couple pieces at a time. I show up at some places and the folks have stuff put away for me.

Glad the picture frame worked out. I know where some are. Thanks for the info.

[a.squibload]

Glad the picture frame worked out. I know where some are. Thanks for the info.

No problem. I thought I would have to buy that frame either way 'cause while testing
I bent it a little and heard the glass crack!

[jsizemore]

No problem. I thought I would have to buy that frame either way 'cause while testing
I bent it a little and heard the glass crack!

Ya'. If you use the bend test, be ready to buy it. I snapped a handle off a piece when I got started in my searching. I got lucky when it was the good stuff and the price was right. Whew! That's when I made the rule to 'check price first'. Don't want to buy a heirloom.

[Rangefinder]

Awe man, I hit the motherload! I frequent the local second-hand stores here (there's only 2 of em), always grabbing this or that, and always on the lookout for pewter. Yesterday they had a fruit bowl on a base for $1 (probably almost a pound worth of coins all by itself!!). When I checked out the lady at the counter said:

"You did notice it's bent and crooked, right?" (bent because of me, I should add :D)

ME: Yup, it doesn't matter because I'm just going to melt it down anyway.

(Insert brief explanation of what we use pewter for in this addiction)

Lady: So it really doesn't matter to you if it's beat up and ugly, so long as it is real pewter?

ME: Nope--ugly gets fixed by 700+ degrees in just a few minutes.

Lady: Well, we get a lot of stuff that's dented or really badly scratched that just get tossed because we'd never sell it. We'll just start saving it all for you instead!


And that's how I managed to strike a pretty little gold vein of tin alloy yesterday! :D

[a.squibload]

Nice! I'll ask next time about pewter rejects.

[Bloodman14]

OK, gang got a question; I want to melt down my pewter and cast it into boolits using my Lee 120-R mold. I need to convert the weight to grains in order to get a 1-2% mix for my WW alloy. Does anyone know how much a 120 grain pewter 'pill' actually weighs? With that info I can figure out how many 'pills' to add to the Lee 10-pounder.

[Rangefinder]

casting into pills, you're going to be WAY under the 120gr. that would otherwise be a bullet. Cast, weigh, and multiply. 7000 grains is one pound. For a 10-1 in a ten-pound pot, that's a lot of little pills...

[Doby45]

Just don't cast them into little "blue" pills cause that would make your alloy hard as granite..

[Rangefinder]

Just don't cast them into little "blue" pills cause that would make your alloy hard as granite..

:D On the bright side though, it'll be easy to lube your bullets afterward---they'll all stand on-end by themselves! :D

[Bloodman14]

You guys are just too funny![smilie=s: Seriously, how much would a 'pill' of pewter weigh if cast with that mold? I have no way at this time to weigh one myself.

[Rangefinder]

It's a 120gr mold according to a pour of #2 alloy? With pewter you'd probably get about 75 grains--just a rough guess without throwing any pewter on the scale. So, for 10-1 alloy, you'd need to throw in about a 90-100 of those buggers to alloy up a 10lb. pot. Lotta trouble if you ask me. I got hooked on the "coin" method. Nothing fancy--I just pour into the bottom of up-side-down soda cans. the average is about 4oz. give or take a shade one way or the other. It makes the math easy. 10lb melt, throw in 4 coins. 5lb melt, throw in 2, etc... No point in over-complicating.

But, just for kicks, I'll go throw a solid pewter boolit from a mold I know the normal throw of and get a weight variance for ya.

EDIT: one of my rifle molds throws an even 170gr from WW alloy. It threw 111gr with pewter, coming out to roughly 65% throw weight. If your 120 throws a reliable 120gr with WW, expect about 78gr. from pewter.

[Rangefinder]

So I stopped into my thrift store today on a whim... They had a pewter platter for me. Nothing fancy, a little dinged up, stamp mark indicating pewter... Got it for 50 cents. Took it home and threw it on the scale because I was curious--it was pretty heavy. SCORE!!! 2lbs 9oz! I love good hook-ups... :D

[a.squibload]

No I'm not addicted.
I was in the thrift store looking for pants (did buy a t-shirt).
Found this 14oz (weight) cup, read about Selangor pewter in a thread here, never saw any before.
Photo is evidence that pewter is sometimes machined.
$1.41 x 16oz / 14oz = $1.61 per lb, guess that's OK.
Found a few other pewter items, left 2 there, price too high. Won't negotiate this time.
I'll go back in a month they'll be marked down. Will need another t-shirt by then anyhow.
Asked the stupervisor, they have a salvage guy who picks up the damaged pewter, etc.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_69sguoFlVzY/TNEDEvYMuII/AAAAAAAAADc/T_rEZmsYgrY/pewtercup.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_69sguoFlVzY/TNEDE3a_lTI/AAAAAAAAADg/YNlSzNwZ6mo/pewtercupseal.JPG

PS: I cut the stuff into pieces, why ingotize? Will just throw in an appropriate size chunk or two.
Gonna flux anyway.

PPS: Photobucket doesn't give you much storage space unless you pay, Google is free.

[lwknight]

PS: I cut the stuff into pieces, why ingotize?

Melting stuff is fun and ingots are cool.

[Rangefinder]

I cut the stuff into pieces, why ingotize?

Several reasons. First, I have enough sharp, jagged things laying around without adding to them. Second, if I melt down a big batch of pewter together, then I know the blend will remain consistent through the entire batch. And third, call me a big kid--I freely admit it--but I like having a nice pile of shiny silver coins :D.

[fryboy]

i like the threads where they melt them into coins and feel like they have a pirates treasure ..mite have to try that same day as i always wanted a few doubloons lolz

[a.squibload]

OK, you got me, hadn't even thought about it but the different items
could be way different alloys.
And a stack of pewter coins might be fun!
When we were kids we played poker with my friend's dad's silver dollars,
he kept 'em in a drawstring whiskey bag.