and then it was 50-50......

M

Mauser Rat

New member
I hate to whine. I hate to hear other people whine. Usually, if I just go out and get busy, I can get the job done before I quit whining....BUT

Now it's 50-50 solder? Then there is TSP which used to let me round up some loose metal ions. There's EDTA. I can buy it if I want to chelate clean my kidneys but not to clean up the shop so I don't NEED to chelate my kidneys.

Who sweats copper pipe with silver solder????? I have been using silver solder for years to make up my own bandsaw blades because I almost defy anyone to find a decently sharp bandsaw blade in a blister pack that will stay sharp for more than 3 cuts for less than $30. But now all I can find is lead free solder? Three stores. Three displays of lead-free SILVER solder for $35.75 a roll. I kept asking the store employees where they kept the REGULAR solder for working guys like me. 3 HOURS! I will never get those hours back! What happened to the concept of precious metals?

I guess that I should thank them for protecting me from......stupid ole me? Yep. Blonde to the core. I wonder how long it will be before I need to be protected from smokeless powder? OMG! And those dangerous explosive primers! No body should be allowed to buy ANY lead I guess. We might eat it. Or........for lack of any proper cleaners we might get contaminated. "They" are already curing me of my addiction to that filthy gasoline the hard way......

I say lets get rid of.....EVERYTHING but lime Jello! We might hurt ourselves with anything else. Just sit at home in a vat of lime Jello. Except I am not sure who is going to actually.....er.....build that house?

I guess I will get on to Rotometal and see if I can buy a little Tin to "fix" a mix that will not fill the mold for some reason no matter what I do. Next week when it gets here...... Heaven forbid I actually want to buy something locally and do something.....now?

HUGE effing SIGH cause I don't even like listening to myself whine......:barf:
 
M rat

If ya let the melt sit & cool to say 600-650f does it have a bit of oatmeal consistentcy on top ????

If it does you could be fighting zinc contamination !

I would get some of that leadfree solder & add a 8" peice to 1# of melt & see if it helps if it does carry on , if not pour ya some fishing weights for ya buddies .

Ya can go to the big builders stores & buy it by the lb., I can remember when it first came out "leadfree" for $6.00 !!

If ha have some ingots that have stayed extra shiney there hi in tin & antimony & should help a tin deplited melt.

Good luck !!
 
MR, the next time you're at that store, look for the lead free solder that spells out the ingredients. Find some that says 95% tin-5% antimony. That's the source I normally use for adding tin to my alloys. I normally don't mind the antimony because I'm usually adding it to alloy that already has antimony in it.

I think, but am not sure, that the "silver solder" is actually 95% tin and 5% silver. At least that's how I treated it when that's all I could find at the hardware store.

When making up 40-1 or 20-1 pure lead to tin, I DON'T want any antimony in it. That's when I use the little bars of pure tin I get from roto metals.

I agree 100% that I'm tired of being protected by big brother gubmint. The elimination of lead from all aspects of our daily lives is just plain foolish. It isn't all that harmful. Those demon wheel weights just fly off those tire rims and hunt us down to kill us! How stupid are we becoming? I'm not whining, I'm on a rant!;)
 
I got lucky last week. A carpenter friend was on a st. louis rehab and he brought me free about 25 eighteen inch long pieces of 1-1/2" lead pipe each with a wiped joint on the end!
I cut up and smelted the lead getting about 100#, then separately smelted the wiped joints I cut off, getting about 30# of what is probably 30-40% tin, considering wiping lead is typically 40-50% to begin with.
I put the word out several years ago with friends in the construction industry, and someone is always bringing me something, even if just an old bag of trot-line sinkers or weights off a diver's belt!
 
GP100,

This was one o' them top drawer mixes. Rotometal pure lead, Rotometal Linotype 50-50 mix. Everything came out wrinkled and rounded. Turned up the pot. Wrinkled. Turned up....wrinkled....turned up....wrinkled.....eventually frosted.

I don't think the Linotype was linotype. It was marked lino.....but what else could it be except too little tin? And real lino should have plenty of tin and I should end up with a 2-6-92 mix? No graininess. So maybe no zinc?

Went to a real store today. A contractors supply store cause I KNOW they are not using $35.75 a roll solder to build houses! Got a couple lbs of 40-60 and some stuff from Lenox with Tin Copper and Selenium in it. Anybody know what the copper or selenium will do to a boolit mix after it raises the melt temp a little?

Snuffy,

The Home Despot (no pun intended of course) and Lowest had NOTHING but that shiny $35.75 a roll er....stuff. and its not that I don't like silver. It's pretty and shiny and all of the things that primates like me like! Its just the lack of choice! Like Americans have become such cattle that they just EXPECT us to let them pat us on the back and protect us from that SCARY world out there. So its not the 95 Sn 5 Ag that worries me but, rather, the $35.75 thing. I was making some harder stuff for the .44 Redhawk to send down range at 1100 fps or so w/o leading me to death!

Actually, the world IS getting pretty scary to a primate like me but not for the reasons they think. Some day its maybe going to be nice to have learned how to do some things for myself - and if anybody gets hurt by the lead in my boolits it probably won't be me unless I have a bad misfire?

I found a great cartoon but I don't think I can post it because of the copyright thing but its two gunfighters discussing antimony and tin content while they face off etc.........

Steve buddy! Ya got a....er.....phone number for that guy???:D I.....uh....need some shelves built....that's it....shelves.

mikld,

Yeah, I found Kester and Lenox on line but sometimes up here, its nice to spend the money locally and the benefit is....I get not to stand in line at the Post Office so long and there are still one or two local stores left in business that can't buy their goods to sell by the trainful. I know. Its a crazy concept but I am self employed and I have this small spot in my heart for the little guy. Even though our very small business friendly gummint takes 50% of every nickel I can convince someone to give to me and not some other unemployed....er....self employed guy!

Thanks to all of you who listened to all of the original and now this additional....er.....stuff? Sorry for the ranting but if I don't get it out here I have to reload a thousand rounds or so and go and make mayhem somewheres up here in the woods.......and them ole bears are wakin up this time of year.....and......shoot......I need to get out in them woods!
 
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