Melting solder into balls

[crabo]

I have a lot of different pieces of various solder in rolls, ingot, stick, and babbit that I was told to use as tin.

I have often thought about melting it all down and then casting large round balls or boolits to clean things up. I would then just drop a round ball or two in the pot when I need tin to help fillout.

Would the solder lose some of it beneficial qualities by doing this? I know I would then have a mix of unknown quality, but the way I am using it, I don't see that that is a problem.

Thanks,

[archmaker]

The solder for the purpose that you are wanting to use it will be fine.

Actually, I think that getting all your "tin" supply to be the same, even if unknown, that you would find it easier to get your own recipes right.

[garandsrus]

Crabo,

I think it was Buckshot's suggestion, but he just melts the solder into a coffee can filled with water. It will produce "little balls" that you can then use as needed.

John

[crabo]

Crabo,

I think it was Buckshot's suggestion, but he just melts the solder into a coffee can filled with water. It will produce "little balls" that you can then use as needed.

John

I just tried this with my hot plate and a tin can. It was not worth the effort. I think the only way it would work is to use a lot more heat. The little balls are very irregular in size and shape using the hot plate method.

Right now, pulling a length of solder off the roll doesn't look so bad, but that doesn't help with my other stashes of tin and babbit material.

[runfiverun]

i just melted down 8 lbs of assorted stuff like you mention just kinda figured what was what weighed it and threw some ww's in it to get it to about 50-50.
one of these in a 40 lb pot will last for the whole session. even if i add a bit more lead to it.

[crabo]

i just melted down 8 lbs of assorted stuff like you mention just kinda figured what was what weighed it and threw some ww's in it to get it to about 50-50.
one of these in a 40 lb pot will last for the whole session. even if i add a bit more lead to it.

Did you mold it into round balls or boolits?

[SierraWhiskeyMC]

I have a lot of different pieces of various solder in rolls, ingot, stick, and babbit that I was told to use as tin.

I have often thought about melting it all down and then casting large round balls or boolits to clean things up. I would then just drop a round ball or two in the pot when I need tin to help fillout.

That sounds like a pretty good plan. While at first you wouldn't know what the mix was, you'd soon figure out via trial/error what you needed to add to your current mix to straighten things out.

Would the solder lose some of it beneficial qualities by doing this? I know I would then have a mix of unknown quality, but the way I am using it, I don't see that that is a problem.

Just keep it fluxed and well stirred while you're pouring your balls/boolits/whatever so that you have a reasonable amount of consistency. Your pours don't have to be perfect by any normal boolit casting standards - but they should be clean.

[Echo]

Remember that you only need no more than 3% tin in your alloy for maximum pourability and mold fill-out. If you make you tin balls 1 pounders, you would need 30+ pounds of other alloy to get the right mix. Fifty pounds of WW's and a 1 pound ball of tin would give a very satisfactory 2%+ content. I suggest you make them up into 1/4 pounders - that would make mixing somewhat easier. A quarter-pounder in a 10 pound pot would do pretty dang well.

[SciFiJim]

I have had this as a thought previously as well. I even did the math. A slug mold with .500 diameter and 1.0 inches long would cast a slug of about 1 oz. with 50/50 solder. One ounce slugs would be perfect for sweetening a pot with and easy to work with. I have tried with a single cavity .45 round ball. It cast 1/4 oz balls. I had 15 lbs of solder to cast this way, I gave up after about 100. I've used some of them to add tin and it works well, but casting 15 lbs of 1/4 oz slugs one at a time will drive you nuts.

[archmaker]

I had not thought of trying to get it all into a ball.

What I did with some tin alloy I had was go to Lowe's and buy some small channel Iron, 4' long for about $8.

I Then set it up between a couple of lead ingots, and using another one held in my hand started to pour at one end. Was surprised that I had no leakage around the piece I was holding. Once it solid at the end I let go, but continued to pour the full length of the channel doing the same at the other end.

Now I had a 4 ft long V shaped tin ingot, totally different than my other ingots. I used a cold chisel to mark the bar in 6" long pieces and then bent and break. Works just fine.

[Nazgul]

I got 250 lbs of solder drippings from a radiator shop. It had a lot of dirt/sand etc. in it. Found 3 old cast iron breadstick pans at a yard sale, each one has 10 half round cavities about 6" long and weigh about a pound. Quickly reduced all the scrap into 178 sticks that are easy to handle.

Any reasonable sized ingot mold would work.

Don

[bigdog454]

I'm going to try a sinker mold.

[SciFiJim]

I've thought about a mold for duck decoy anchors. They come out long and thin and could be cut into usable chunks with heavy wire cutters.

[runfiverun]

just take a 2x4 scrap, drill some holes in it about 1/2" should work.
now screw it down to a piece of whatever you got and pour into all those little holes till they are full you now have a gajillion pieces of tin alloy all the same size.
just break the board up to get them all back.
so drill your holes in rows and it will be lots easier.

[bearcove]

Trolling sinker molds. Mine cover from 1-32 ounce.