Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Cheap Tin

Also known as pewterware.

Went browsing through some local antique stores and flea markets yesterday with my wife & daughter. They were looking for a small antique table, I was looking for treasure.

Found three pieces, an American made bowl and a teapot, and a Chinese container, probably used to hold tea.

The three items weighed jut over three pounds and I spent a total of $7.00. Even if they are conservatively 80% tin, I figure I did well.

These will help sweeten the 150lb of clip on wheel weights and 30 lb of stick on wheel weights I have waiting to be made into ingots.

Anybody else here use old pewterware as a source of tin?

Ed

It's a pretty common thing nowdays, just be sure to check the hallmarks on the pewter to be certain i'ts real pewter.

Amen! There are websites out there that have most hallmarks and some resources that will help identify pot metal, aluminum, and zinc ware that we do NOT want in our pots.

Ed

Just got into casting about 6 mos ago. Already have a dozen moulds in 4 cals. Only bought half a pound of pure tin before I started collecting and using pewter. Even found some ebay bargains. Awesome source to sweeten alloys. Haven't looked back. Have been using mostly coww, but also have about 150 lbs of soww, and about the same of range scrap.

My new favorite hard cast is 50/50 coww/range scrap plus 2% pewter ice-cold water dropped. I don't have a hardness tester, but I'd guess it is in the mid 20's for Bnh. Handles mid 40's in my 30-06, and +P pressures in my 44 mag lever gun. I could keep on babbling. Casting is my new big thing. Loving it!!

I'm no expert but my understanding is that ww have a lot of tin in them anyway. I cast straight wheel weights and range pick ups and skim off the tin and other dross on top. I end up with TOO MUCH "tin"

How does "too much tin" appear to you? Does it change the way the bullets cast? Does it physically show up in the melt?

I'm no metallurgist, but I don't think you can "skim off" the tin from a lead/tin mixture without some chemistry involved.

You can certainly "burn off" the tin by heating it too high, but once tin is alloyed it tends to stay that way.

WW's don't have a lot of tin, that's why WW have to have tin added to some mixes to get the alloy to fill out molds properly.

Ed

Yes and no. I cast a lot with straight WWs and get nice fillout by simply running the temp up in the pot. I quit adding tin to most of my WW alloys long ago.

Just curious, do you water drop or air cool your straight WW bullets?

instead of running the pot temp up, try heating your mould up by dipping the corner in the melt.

Mould temp when casting is everything.

I can run at 650 or so melt temp if my mould is up to temp.

Wheel weights contain a minimal percentage of tin required to enable the antimony to alloy with the lead.

A little extra tin doesn't hurt anything and makes the alloy flow a little better in the mold, but coww is an excellent bullet alloy just as it comes once your casting technique is perfected.

It can be mixed 50/50 with stick on ww, pure lead or range scrap and have an excellent alloy for handgun loads.

For HV rifles straight coww works well when water dropped, but the long rifle molds do benefit from a little more tin...tin lowers the melting point.

Generally, in an antimony amplified alloy, the tin does not function as a hardening agent, it is an alloying agent.