Melting Pewter...How Do YOU Do It?

[RydForLyf]

I finally snagged my first pewter and melted it in my Lee pot at just over 500 degrees. It was a lot thicker (viscous) than I expected and that made pouring it through the nozzle not so great.

So I'll toss this out to the crowd for comment and suggestions.

Thanks!

[oley55]

500 degrees seems too low for casting purposes. I have cast nearly all of my pewter into boolit form, just for ease of calculating my pot mix ratios. I'm pretty sure I was in the 600 degree range and do not recall where I got that recommendation.

as per this non-bullet casting site the recommended casting temps are 525-600 degrees. Since pewter is 92% plus tin, I wouldn't think casting at a higher temp would cook the tin out of itself. Just crank the heat up and see what happens.

http://www.eagerplastics.com/castingpewter.htm

[JimB..]

Dutch oven on a propane burner.

[GhostHawk]

Since I upgraded to a Lee Magnum Melter my old 4 lb dipper pot is now my pewter pot.

I poured half ladle full into muffin tin and got nice "coins" tthat are unlike anything else I have.

I have also cast pewter into 300 gr bullets for adding small amounts to a pot.
Those went into a container marked Pewter. And sit in the same corner of my casting table as my other pewter/tin.

[RydForLyf]

500 degrees seems too low for casting purposes. I have cast nearly all of my pewter into boolit form, just for ease of calculating my pot mix ratios. I'm pretty sure I was in the 600 degree range and do not recall where I got that recommendation.

as per this non-bullet casting site the recommended casting temps are 525-600 degrees. Since pewter is 92% plus tin, I wouldn't think casting at a higher temp would cook the tin out of itself. Just crank the heat up and see what happens.

http://www.eagerplastics.com/castingpewter.htm

Do you do anything to clean out impurities, like fluxing? It seemed like I had a lot of schmutz on top that didn’t want to separate out easily. Maybe the low temps made it worse than it really was.

[imashooter2]

I have melted and sold many hundreds of pounds of pewter on this site. I used a Lyman 10 pound dipper pot and cast ingots at 500-600 degrees. Just hot enough to melt and char the paint stirrer that I used to flux. Total waste was never more than a teaspoon or 2 of dry dust after any oxides reduced back into the melt. The metal was never thick or lumpy and it poured beautiful shiny ingots.

[imashooter2]

Pewter melts well below the 500-600 degrees, but I found it wouldn’t flux until hot enough to char the stirrer easily.

[RydForLyf]

Pewter melts well below the 500-600 degrees, but I found it wouldn’t flux until hot enough to char the stirrer easily.

Thanks. I’ll crank up the heat bit by bit to find a better temp.

[MrWolf]

I used the bottoms of soda cans to make mine from the very few pieces I have ever found. Distinguishes them from everything else.

[jsizemore]

I melt mine in my large smelting pot using propane. That's about 80-120lbs at a time. I hold temps 450-500 which requires a lot of attention. I reduce with pine rosin or candle wax that's high in bees wax.

[RydForLyf]

I melt mine in my large smelting pot using propane. That's about 80-120lbs at a time. I hold temps 450-500 which requires a lot of attention. I reduce with pine rosin or candle wax that's high in bees wax.

Where the heck do you find that much pewter? I’m struggling to find 5 pounds at a time.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

You can take a Lyman ingot mold and prop up the handle. Ladle in a bit and have nice little wedges.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Where the heck do you find that much pewter? I’m struggling to find 5 pounds at a time.

Pewter, like classic wheel weights, is a finite thing. They are not making any to speak these days. Goodwill, Salvation army and junky antique stores is where you find it. Mostly from stuff that didn't sell at estate sales.

[imashooter2]

Low cost Pewter stashes are built the same way as low cost lead stashes. Years of dedicated scrounging. I had 3 Goodwill stores I would visit twice a week on the way home from work. 9 times out of 10, nothing. But then there was the tenth time. I watched Craig’s List. I low balled eBay ads. I got well over 600 pounds in about 2.5 years. But I was selling it. You don’t need anywhere near that weight for sweetening your own alloys.

I stopped when the bottom dropped out of the market after one of the Vendor Sponsors scored a half a ton of ice buckets from some hotel chain. Now I only have 30 or 40 pounds of good 97% Selangor on the shelf for my own use. That will no doubt take me to the grave.

Anyway, if I could do it, you can too. Just keep a lookout. You will easily find enough to keep you casting.

[jsizemore]

Where the heck do you find that much pewter? I’m struggling to find 5 pounds at a time.

Just like imashooter2 said, it takes a while to build a stash. I hit a few flea markets in the area and told vendors I had cash money any time they had pewter in any shape. I paid better than the scrap yards. I'd get a call about a large haul and drive to their house to sort and weigh so they didn't have to take up space for their normal setup. Things have slowed up a bunch with the demise of flea markets in the area. The folks that were too high before still have their too high pewter.

Finding pewter is like eating an elephant. The more help you got the quicker it goes too.

[imashooter2]

Oh, and if you have a wife, dropping anything you find before it hits the front door will prevent a lot of “oooooooo… mine!”

[lightman]

I've never found enough Pewter to do anything with. But when I melt solder I use a smaller melting pot than I use for lead and clean it really well. I use the Lyman type ingot molds. The Lee mold with the smaller 1/2 pound ingots works well. I flux it with wax, much like I do my casting pot.

[kevin c]

There's a lot of geographic variation in bargain pewter availability. In the NorCal Bay Area it took me three or four years to put together ~400#, though I could have gotten there much sooner without being price picky. I hit thrifts, estate and garage sales and auction houses, but none were regular or steady sources.

I make casting alloy in batches of 240-250# that need ~ 5# of pewter each. So I melted all my pewter into lots depending on anticipated Sn content (it varies), had each analyzed, recombined lots that I calculated the tin content of, and cast that into Cast Boolit ingots of about 1 1/4 pounds each, plus a mess of mini muffin tin coins.

I tried the pewter bullets, but I needed the bigger ingots. Also, either the sprue plate wasn't fully closed (brand new caster, back then) or pewter is remarkably tough when hardened but I had to beat my mold open with a mallet after the first pour, so I gave it up.

[RydForLyf]

I tried the pewter bullets, but I needed the bigger ingots. Also, either the sprue plate wasn't fully closed (brand new caster, back then) or pewter is remarkably tough when hardened but I had to beat my mold open with a mallet after the first pour, so I gave it up.

That’s my intention as well. Hopefully I won’t have the same issues.

[Retumbo]

Generally I will sit in front of my woodstove with a big cast iron ladle and and melt my pewter in the wood stove in small batches.