I picked up two pewter mugs, a pewter suger bowl, and a pound of 95/5 solder all for $3.50. I'm sorry I passed up the pewter tray two weeks ago for $5. It weighed a pound or more. I find that a lot of the pewter mugs are bend and dinged and can be had for as little as $.25.

Carroll,

OK, I'll bite: What can be done with pewter?

Does the sizer work?

Good morning,
Forrest

The "Pewter" is the thingy I'm looking at and typeing on write now.

Pewter is about 85% or greater in tin content. Mixed with the lead it flows into the mould better to make the bullets fill the mould. By the way, I'm typing this on my "pewter". I found out about the tin in pewter while reading about casting bullets on my pewter.

Forrest: The RCBS sizer works great. I'm using RCBS green lube in it. Bullets come out looking like they were bought at the store. Haven't had time to shoot any yet. I'm two months behind in getting my boat in the water and I'm tired of hearing others talk about all the fish they are catching.

[ 07-01-2003, 14:21: Message edited by: Carroll B ]

Carroll,

Thanks for the post.

OK on the 85% tin content in pewter, waht is the remaining 15%?

Good news about the luberisizer. I'm happy to hear that its back on the bench again.

Good morning,
Forrest

Fasmus:

Sorry about butting in, but here is a Modern definition of pewter, which is somewhat variable in the proportions of metals used but is usually at least 90% tin. Some older pewter will have lead in it and may have a lower tin content, but it is not likely that you will find much of that at a flea market. Not sure of when they started deleting the lead, but quite a while back. It is possible that you might find something marked "brittania metal" which is basically pewter as well. Definition follows:

"Pewter is a highly polished metal that does not tarnish and is simple to clean using warm soapy water. Pewter is essentially tin: 90 - 98%, with antimony: 1- 6% and copper: � - 3%, there is no longer any lead content. Pewter has been labelled as the Metal for the Millennium."

Gatogordo,

Thanks for the post! It was very informative and I may be able to get some additional tin into my bag of tricks just knowing more than I did this morning.

And! never worry about posting good stuff in an on-going thread: You're always welcome.

Good afternoon,
Forrest

Another good metal to not pass up is "Babbit Metal". It also has a very high Tin content, with a little copper tossed in. I came across several pounds of this in ingot form where I used to work, and snatched it up just before the company went under. Anything that will raise the Tin content of your casting metal will give greater detail to your bullets. Bill T.

I've always heard that copper was bad to get in a melt. True or not??

Has anyone actually used pewter as an alloy component and had success? I just bought a bowl and tray for $3 at a yard sale. The bowl is stamped "Federal Solid Pewter" and the tray is stamped with a pitcher logo containing the word "pewter". So, can I melt these down and add them to my alloys, assuming they are 80-90% tin, or will this stuff mess up my alloys?

If the old babbit metal looks shiny, it is tin based. If not shiny, it is lead based. All babbits have high antimony, comparatively speaking. Some have copper too, but mostly that is in the lead based babbit. Arsenic can be in either type of babbit, and that is a most welcomed element. If the melt smells like garlic after coming into the casting room from fresh air, that's the arsenic, and the melt should be diluted by 100 percent for a re-smell-test. Continue dividing until no more smell is recognized. After that is fixed up, then ladle a lot of the melt, as in pour it out of the pot fast. If the melt looks like it is sheeting, that means it is freezing on the outside of the stream. That means too much copper. If the pot spout gets clogged up during casting, that means the same thing. To get rid of too much copper, leave the room for an hour or two with the pot turned on at casting temperature or above. Copper will float to the top because it is very difficult to keep it in the solution as a component without stirring. Skim the top layer off the melt, and reflux. Continue casting, and stirr quite often to keep the remaining copper within the melt. Copper is a great element in the mix for high speed boolits, like 2200 fps plus, and most especially in tough requirements like fast twist barrels. ... felix

Too much tin in the mix is a waste of money. For non-experimental boolits, keep tin percentage below that of antimony. If the boolit is too light in weight that what you are used too, that is the tin percentage. Add more WW or pure lead. ... felix