Christmas came early this year

[Kurt]

I got a call from my Son asking if I could use scrap solder. I can get a bunch from work that they have to pay to have it removed. This is from wiping off circuit boards from their automated soldering setup.
I said sure bring it.
Last night he came up and when I saw him come around the corner of the shed the back of the truck was way low LOL. He had a 4 foot square box almost halve full of this stuff. I said the way this rain is freezing you better leave that box back there for weight this winter, he said the front end bounces off the ground when I hit a bump
I have a small 33HP tractor with a loader and it is only rated for around 900 lbs and it would just barely lift it and if I didn't roll the bucket it would not have gotten the job done.
I guess I will be spending the rest of this winter making ingots

   

[Don McDowell]

There is a Santa Clause

[Hanz]

Free stuff is good stuff!

I'm a newbie to casting. Is solder a known hardness? Can you cast bullets with it as is or will you have to make an alloy?

[Kurt]

Hanz
yes you can cast bullets with just solder but that is a waste. Solder is a alloy of a bunch of different combinations of additives to lead or no lead.
Chances using just solder would smear the bore more then pure lead.

[Hanz]

Thank you for explaining that to me.

[Kurt]

Hanz.

Maybe I should explain solder a little more. I was in the plumbing trades and in my early years in the trades we worked with a lot of lead and solder. Like making roof flashings and lead pans for showers or any sort of basins.
Lead in the pure form melts at around 620 degrees and Tin melts around 450 degrees
Lead has a hardness of 5 BHN (brinnel hardness number) I don't know for sure what tin is but it's very close to lead. When you mix tin and lead basically solder you can only go so far for maximum hardness of tin/lead alloys is 17 BHN that is at 63% tin and 37% lead known as 60/40 solder. Tin lowers the melting point of lead alloys, eutectic (?spelling) 60/40 solder melts at around 360 degrees F. if memory is still right. We used a lot of 60/40 solder for wiping lead joints (connecting brass spigots to lead pipe) or wiping the joints using sheet lead because of the lower melting point of the solder compared to lead.
The only way you can make tin/lead alloy harder is by adding different elements like antimony, copper, silver, bismuth, arsenic and so on. Just a little bit of antimony like 22 grams and 15 oz of pure tin to 17 pounds of pure lead will hold the ogive of a bullet shot with a load of black powder just as well as 1/15 T/L
Kurt
I hope this clears up the bullet alloy a little better.

[Hanz]

It does.

Thanks for typing all that out.