That is how I get the tin I add to the melt. My wife goes to estate sales each weekend. If I am not there, I have taught her to look for solder for $1.00 or $2.00 per roll. We get it cheap or not at all. When I get about 10lbs of solder (or I am getting low on my last batch), I process them into balls for ease of calculation. Ended up with 9lbs, 1oz after processing this time.
Since a lot of it is acid core solder, I start out by melting it in an old pot outdoors, as far away from the house as the electric extension cord will allow. That stuff is nasty. After getting rid of the stuff that comes to the top, I transfer it to my regular pot and start casting 0.690" round balls out of it. Nothing special about the size. It was just the biggest mould I could get cheap (Lee).
Some things I have learned about casting with solder. It sticks everywhere you don't want it to, including the inside of the mould. The flip side is that I usually have a hard time getting it to stick where I want it to stick. It is also necessary to turn the heat WAAAAAAYYY down compared to casting bullets.
Most of the rolls (or partial rolls) of solder that I have are not marked with how much tin is in it, or, the roll is too rusty to read. When I first started, I figured that it would probably average out about 50:50 lead:tin. Turns out that was a little optimistic. I average between 40% and 45% tin by weight.
I know how much the weight is for a 0.690" pure tin round ball, and also how much for a pure lead round ball. Then I weigh the actual round ball with a mixture of tin and lead use that to figure out how much of each is in the mixture.
The last time I cast solder balls, it worked out the be 0.36oz/ball of tin. This time it came out 0.38oz. That is close enough to 1/3oz of tin per ball for casting purposes. I usually use one ball per pound of pure lead. That works out to a little over 2% tin, which makes it cast nice. I have enough to sweeten nearly 200lbs of pure lead right now.
If I don't get enough solder rolls for the next time (it seems to be getting harder to find), I have about 15lbs of plumbers 50:50 solder in bars to start on. That should last me a good long time.
Since a lot of it is acid core solder, I start out by melting it in an old pot outdoors, as far away from the house as the electric extension cord will allow. That stuff is nasty. After getting rid of the stuff that comes to the top, I transfer it to my regular pot and start casting 0.690" round balls out of it. Nothing special about the size. It was just the biggest mould I could get cheap (Lee).
Some things I have learned about casting with solder. It sticks everywhere you don't want it to, including the inside of the mould. The flip side is that I usually have a hard time getting it to stick where I want it to stick. It is also necessary to turn the heat WAAAAAAYYY down compared to casting bullets.
Most of the rolls (or partial rolls) of solder that I have are not marked with how much tin is in it, or, the roll is too rusty to read. When I first started, I figured that it would probably average out about 50:50 lead:tin. Turns out that was a little optimistic. I average between 40% and 45% tin by weight.
I know how much the weight is for a 0.690" pure tin round ball, and also how much for a pure lead round ball. Then I weigh the actual round ball with a mixture of tin and lead use that to figure out how much of each is in the mixture.
The last time I cast solder balls, it worked out the be 0.36oz/ball of tin. This time it came out 0.38oz. That is close enough to 1/3oz of tin per ball for casting purposes. I usually use one ball per pound of pure lead. That works out to a little over 2% tin, which makes it cast nice. I have enough to sweeten nearly 200lbs of pure lead right now.
If I don't get enough solder rolls for the next time (it seems to be getting harder to find), I have about 15lbs of plumbers 50:50 solder in bars to start on. That should last me a good long time.
