Found some pewter

[johnnyjr]

While snooping around a couple of stores I came across some pewter dishes.
I have no tin. How much of this should I add to lead pipe for gas check rifle bullets. Probably a little over a lb is all I have. Pewter that is.. thanks.

 

[richhodg66]

I've always treated pewter as pure tin. Tin mainly improves castability, it is an inefficient hardener.you need some antimony if you're wanting to harden it up much. Two or three percent is about all you can really use. Figure 160 ounces in a ten pound pot. One percent of that is 1.6 ounce. Simple math.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

I get "drips" from a friend in the printed circuit board industry. They make a mess and are considered waste by the company. So he is allowed to take what he wants. They are dime to 1/2 dollar sized and about 1.5x as thick as a coin. Its 63/37 solder so not pure but I toss a few in as needed. Unless Im making specfic alloy (10:1, 20:1 or 16:1) I dont measure or weigh. If it casts well its good if it seems not to I add a little more.

 

[Mitty38]

Gas check rifle bullets. I don't know as I don't use pipe for those.

Pipe is almost pure lead. Usually blend with plate lead, which is also very close to pure. Nice and soft.
I use 30 lead -1 pewter or 20-1, for my low node pistol plain base.
For my black powder stuff 50 to 1.

Tin by itself will harden lead, added at levels of 2-4%.
After that it's effectiveness decreases greatly.
Tin needs some antimony to help harden. They work together.
Otherwise the tin is just a flowing aid.
But if you go too heavy with it you get a sheeting effect as it tried to separate from your alloy. Lead can combine with only so much tin after that the remainder just floats around in the lead, causing sheeting and inconsistant bullets.

I basicaly use 18 lb wheel weight with a pound of 20 to 1 added. For most gas checked rifle stuff. 30 caliber or larger.


I use the formulas in the Lyman book for alloys production.
If you get the Lyman Cast lead book it has all that in it. Great resource.
Accept it always goes a bit harder on recommendations for alloy then needed.

 

[dale2242]

Most of my tin is drippings from radiator shops in the old days when we had brass and copper radiators.
Hard to solder an aluminum or plastic one.

 

[JustJim]

Ah, the good old days. . . when I got paid $50 to clean up and dispose of almost 250# of "waste" solder at the radiator shop!

I miss those days. . . .

 

[johnnyjr]

My uncle had a radiator shop for years. Never gave it a thought in those days..

 

[Winelover]

Before I retired as a pipefitter, whenever we had a copper pipe job, I would pick up the 95-5 drippings and melt them down into small ingots. Kept a small ladle in my toolbox. Used a tablespoon for a ingot mold. Just the right size to sweeten a 20# pot. Waste not, want not.

 

[richhodg66]

a few years ago, #2 son and a bunch of his buddies piled into his POS old junker and went camping at a lake a couple of hours away. Car broke down catastrophically, so i drove out to get them and coordinated to have it towed to a shop, had all the signs of a blown head gasket and possibly worse. The only shop specialized in radiators and he called the next day totell me what I figured, car wasn't worth fixing. So, he made a low offer for it which I was ok with just to get rid of a headache, and my counter offer was, "ok, if you throw in whatever solder dippings you have lying around". He probably thought it a strange request, but he had a big box of solder drippings when I got there for me. Still haven't used any of it.

 

[johnnyjr]

Before I retired as a pipefitter, whenever we had a copper pipe job, I would pick up the 95-5 drippings and melt them down into small ingots. Kept a small ladle in my toolbox. Used a tablespoon for a ingot mold. Just the right size to sweeten a 20# pot. Waste not, want not.

I to use a table spoon to take samples of alloy before casting bullets