source for tin

The big hardware stores have a roll of 95/5, which is 95% tin and 5% lead and its not cheap.
This is the easiest source I have found and in a 20 pound lead melting pot I add about 20 inches of wire to get excellent bullet forming. I am using range lead and wheel weights and get good results.
 
I've checked with several scrap dealers around the Edmonton area, and a few people I know in the refridgeration business. No luck. It's not that common anymore. Everything that used to be made from tin is now made of aluminum. With the exception of buying high tin content solder which is an awfully expensive way of getting it, you're going to have a hard time.
 
I don't have it handy but there's a guy in "Canadian Access" (the Canadian version of Shotgun News) that advertises ingots of tin. I think he wants $5.00 per pound. If you can't find a copy email me at Sahara(at)airware.ca and I'll get you his address.
 
casterpollox said:
You're pantry, just make sure you take the soup out first! Maybe Jethro can help you with that.
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I don't know where you would find tin in your pantry. At one time tooth past tubes were made of tin, but of course, no more. There is no tin in "tin cans." They are made of iron.
 
Try the Metal Supermarket and Russell metals, both in Edmonton.

blacksmithden said:
I've checked with several scrap dealers around the Edmonton area, and a few people I know in the refridgeration business. No luck. It's not that common anymore. Everything that used to be made from tin is now made of aluminum. With the exception of buying high tin content solder which is an awfully expensive way of getting it, you're going to have a hard time.
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"...take the soup out first..." Food cans aren't made of tin.
Don't think the Metal Supermarkets carry tin. Wouldn't hurt to call 'em though. They'll likely know where to get some.
 
I'm not too sure if I understand what ' tin ' is exactly but recently we took out a ton of ventilation ducting which we call gavalvanized tin ( I'm not sure if it really is tin ". Anyhow the surprising thing about this was that the scrap dealers didn't want it, said that the price for tin was too low to make it profitable to load and ship out. One guy did eventually take it, he had his own BobCat and it had a thumb, so he ran over the ducting and squished it with the thumb, then loaded it into his own dump truck which he drove. A one man show.

Anyhow if galvanized ducting is indeed tin, you might want to look around a construction site in your area where they are doing a reno, or call-up a local tin bashing company.

KTK
 
Galvanised "tin" is galvanized (zinc) over iron.
Tin is a seperate metal in itself, like silver, lead, zinc, etc. and, like them, is one of the elements, that make up the earth.
 
If you are looking to buy pure tin. You can buy it at canada metals in Calgary. The price is $16 for one pound.
 
I had it here on CGN for over a year at $10 shipped and hardly moved any - the CGN casting community is a very small market for it.

One pound goes well with 50 lbs of wheelweight (adding 2%), so it goes a long way. Using 50/50 solder and up is not a bad way to go if you just cast modest amounts.
 
Ken The Kanuck said:
I'm not too sure if I understand what ' tin ' is exactly but recently we took out a ton of ventilation ducting which we call gavalvanized tin
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Tin is a metal, symbol Sn, atomic number 50, group IVa on the periodic table. It sits right above lead and to the left of antimony, so it is closely related to both of them.

Hardly anything that people call 'tin' is actually tin. Tin foil is aluminum. Tin cans are steel. As are tin roofs and your ductwork. Tin has virtually disappeared as an engineering material in the world of consumer goods, and with good reason, as it is expensive. Tin is one of the rarest metals on earth, being somewhat LESS common than gold, in terms of mass percentage of the earth's crust. Two hundred years ago, when smelting technologies were such that man could only produce metals that sat very high on the reduction potential scale, tin was important and common. This has not been the case now for almost 100 years.
 
If you want a great source of cheap tin go to a radiator repair shop and buy there old "lead" that they have for scrap that is left over from fixing some of the older radiators. Most of it is 60/40 or even 65/35 tin/lead. Smelt it separately because you will have rad fluid/anti freeze on some of it and make sure you do it outside in a well ventilated environment. I bought two 5 gallon buckets about 2 months ago and gave the guy 40 bucks for both of them and he was happy and I have enough tin now to do about 2 tons of bullets.

I usually mix 20 to 1 but with this radiator shop tin mix I can go to about 22 lbs WW and 1 lb. rad shop. Water dropped the hardness after 1 month is 22 bhn which is right were I want it for high velocity rifle loads. Thin the tin out a bit and air cool and they usually come out about 9-12 bhn which my pistols love.
 
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