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Old 08-27-2014, 11:27 PM
Chickenthief Chickenthief is offline
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Default Tin instead of lead

Anyone tried it yet?

With all this no lead frenzy gaining momentum an alternative is paramount, but has any of you good folks that swage yourself tried to substitute tin for lead?

It has most of the qualities of lead but unfortunatly only has a mass of 7.3gram/ccm~0.262lb/cui vs. lead at 11.34gram/ccm~0.409lb/cui.

Lighter bullets yes but thay are doable on existing gear.
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Old 08-28-2014, 12:14 AM
george ulrich george ulrich is offline
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tin is also quite a bit harder so core form dies will have to be changed also not a malleable as lead so increase in pressure core seating and pointing up.a few of the co's are playing with different types of powdered metal the specific gravity is no where close to lead though..yrs ago gene harwood I think tried lead tin mix to bring the specific gravity of cores to around same specific gravity of jackets I can't recall mix seemed like a pretty good idea jacket runout would have zero effect on bullets but they would be significantly lighter so b.c. would go down...

Last edited by george ulrich; 08-28-2014 at 12:19 AM. Reason: added info.
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Old 08-28-2014, 12:57 AM
Chickenthief Chickenthief is offline
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Is it that bad?
Pure lead is BnH 5 and pure tin is BnH 7
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Old 08-28-2014, 03:54 AM
hemiallen hemiallen is offline
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And Tin is about $11.00 a pound vs about a buck a pound for pure scrap lead.

There are plenty of less expensive options on the market, but I suspect you are thinking of the "home-made" bullet guys. If so, they can't compete with the big boys, I am afraid. I have plenty of wheel weights and Linotype if I have to, or my next generation has to, use my casting equipment.

Allen
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Old 08-28-2014, 04:01 AM
Oleman Oleman is offline
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Default Tin vs lead

Don't worry about it stock up on lead now.
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  #6  
Old 08-28-2014, 10:14 AM
george ulrich george ulrich is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chickenthief View Post
Is it that bad?
Pure lead is BnH 5 and pure tin is BnH 7
not bad for finished bullets just bad for making them harder material =more pressure....and yes 2 points higher is a whole bunch

Last edited by george ulrich; 08-28-2014 at 10:15 AM. Reason: added info
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  #7  
Old 08-28-2014, 11:23 AM
TinMan TinMan is offline
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A whole bunch for sure.

Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) for lead is 2610psi and for tin is 31900psi.
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Old 08-28-2014, 12:28 PM
dungheap dungheap is offline
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Sorry to go off topic, but does anyone out there know how to test for pure tin? I got two huge, heavy bread pan ingots of it years ago from a friend (for free!!!!!!!!!!), and melted one into smaller ingots. Forgot to mark the darned things, and now they got mixed up with linotype and wheel weight ingots, and at $11.00 a pound, I need to separate them.

Help?
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Old 08-28-2014, 01:42 PM
iiranger iiranger is offline
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Default Dear Dungheap...

Seems you haven't heard the story of "Eureka." That is a Greek exclaimation.

King ordered a crown. Metalsmith took x amount of gold, made the crown and suddenly had more gold than he should. King asked his wise man to figure out if the crown was pure gold or not without melting it down or otherwise damaging it. In a public bath he (wise man) was pondering and it came to him. He leaped from the bath and ran naked through the streets to home (not a big deal in those days, the shouting more obnoxious than the nakedness)... shouting "Eureka..."

Point: "DENSITY." Lead weighs "x" per unit of volume. Tin ain't close. Gold is much heavier than copper or other potential alloy material. A piece of gold and copper takes up a lot more space than pure gold...

As the kids joke went, "What weighs more? A pound of lead or a pound of tin?" [ANSWER: same.] "What weighs more? A quart of tin or a quart of lead..." GUESS...

Your tin ingots should not be near as heavy per approx same volume as the lead ingot or any lead alloy... I don't have the tables at hand to do an approx...

Then there is hardness. The warning to muzzle loaders, if you cannot scratch the lead with your thumbnail, then it is probably not pure. There are impression tests that will tell tin from almost any lead/lead alloy. Again, don't have table handy. But they are easily available... Luck.
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Old 08-28-2014, 02:04 PM
Chickenthief Chickenthief is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hemiallen View Post
And Tin is about $11.00 a pound vs about a buck a pound for pure scrap lead.

There are plenty of less expensive options on the market, but I suspect you are thinking of the "home-made" bullet guys. If so, they can't compete with the big boys, I am afraid. I have plenty of wheel weights and Linotype if I have to, or my next generation has to, use my casting equipment.

Allen
The fact is that more and more states in Gods own country is going "no lead" so no matter how much you have squirreled away, the fact stands that an alternative has to be found for any legal hunting and shooting.

I have heard of all sorts of sintered cores but thought that tin was a waiable alternative to lead as core material for those who punch their own bullets.
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