Just ordered some tin, how much to use?

[David LaPell]

I have ordered some tin to help my $358156 HP bullets that were fragmenting, but how much tin by weight should I add say if I am using my little Lee ladle pot which holds 4 pounds altogether. So for four pounds say of wheelweights or WW-lead mix how much by weight should I add of tin?

 

[Frank46]

Think I convert lbs to ounces then times 2% for the tin. That's about what I do when adding tin to wheel weights. 1.28 oz for the tin. Years back had a buddy who taught splicers how to wipe joints on electric cables. Every so often he'd show up with these little hocky puck discs of either 50-50 or 60-40. That was great while it lasted. Frank

 

[jimkim]

(4 x 7000) x 0.02 = 560gr That would give you a little more than 2%. You can also type "2% of 4 pounds" in the Google search bar and it will give you the answer in grams. "2% of (4 pounds) = 36.2873896 grams" Then type "36.2873896 grams = grains" and it will give you this. "36.2873896 grams = 560 grains" Things are so much simpler now.

Anything over 2% is considered wasted. Since I don't know the exact tin content of your WW's I assumed zero.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Tin is hard to incorporate into your alloy. You might have been better off using solder because it's easier to melt into your alloy. A 1 in 20 mix will make great bullets.

 

[ruger-p94]

On the Cast bullets web site they have a great calculator that tells you how much of each to add to give you a certain hardness. All you do is fill in the blanks. Lead alloy calculators - Cast Boolits

 

[Titegroups]

Isn't it antimony that has the high melting point. I think tin melts at a relative low temp.

 

[jimkim]

The melting point of Tin is 449.41998 °F. The melting point of Antimony is 1166.0 °F

Chemical Elements.com - Tin (Sn)
Chemical Elements.com - Antimony (Sb)

 

[Titegroups]

So antimony is the one that won't melt in a std pot(900F)max. and should be bought mixed with lead. Tin should mix easily.

 

[jimkim]

So antimony is the one that won't melt in a std pot(900F)max. and should be bought mixed with lead. Tin should mix easily.

I'd buy it already alloyed. There's a way to do it, but I'm not that sophisticated, and don't want to ruin anything. I'd say put in a call to the Antimony Man, but his site is down.

Adding antimony to your alloy. - Cast Boolits

 

[GregG]

For hollow points tin is usually alloyed with pure lead.

25:1 ratio is pretty good.

I buy mine already alloyed from Rotometals.

 

[Forrest r]

A 20 to 1 ratio of lead to tin is 4# lead & 2.4oz (1050grains) of tin. The bullits speed plays a huge factor in your alloy. I really don't know of any way of testing the ww's to know what there metal alloy ratio is.

You might consider getting some pure lead to use for a base metal or ordering a pre-mix alloy from roto metals because you might play around & find a recipie that works with one batch/pot of ww's & fail the next batch due to the vastly different alloys used by the different ww mfg's.

I hate to say it but I've found that I get more consistence out of hill pickings (range lead) than I do out of strait ww's. I melt 50# of range lead at a time & it has been comming out at a pretty consistent 10bhn for 20+ years now. And bullets water dropped from this alloy are right at 15bhn (a hb pencil parely leaves any marks on them). The 10bhn is a basic 20 to 1 ratio lead/tin. The strait hill picking do excellent in hp bullets & most bullets in general up to 1200fps.

This is an old article but it has some interesting reading & might help you identify what your doing or looking for.

http://www.goodrichfamilyassoc.org/44_Special_Articles/44 spl - may 1953 american rifleman.pdf

Please keep us informed with your tests/results. HP's are always interesting.

 

[ChuckS1]

I always used tin to help with fill-out. If your HP's are fragmenting, I would think you'd want a softer alloy. I've never gotten good expansion with a straight WW alloy.

 

[fredj338]

Tin is hard to incorporate into your alloy. You might have been better off using solder because it's easier to melt into your alloy. A 1 in 20 mix will make great bullets.

Pure tin easily melts into lead & alloys fine. For a LHP, 20-1 for vel above 1200fps, 25-1 for low vel stuff. The issue w/ ww alloy is the antimony, makes the alloy brittle. Cutting clip ww w/ 50% pure lead & water dropping shoould be fine to 1250fps or so. The HP design has a lot to do with how they expand &/or if they fragment. For hogher vel stuff, a smaller cup point is amazing. That 45-70 bullet was going just under 1600fps impact vel.

 

[Robert Palermo]

Pure tin will alloy easily into your mix due to its low melt point.
The general rule of thumb as outlined above is 2% is a good ratio to add into the WW mix for good fill out and ductlity to the alloy. Don't exceed 3% unless you want to duplicate Lymans No.2 alloy which is 5% tin to 5% antimony and the WWs you have won't have 5% Its more along the lines of 1-3%. You would have to add in more antimony and that would be hard to do with your pot unless you had acsess to some linotype which would melt easily since its alloyed already and runs a 4% tin 12% antimony mixture.
In Blackpowder applications a ratio of 20: 1 to 30 to 1 pure lead to tin will do very well in producing good blackpowder bullets. I settled in at 25 to one as what works best for our applications

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Isn't it antimony that has the high melting point. I think tin melts at a relative low temp.

I stand corrected, sorry. Yes, it was antimony I was thinking of...