Bar Solder in Saskatoon

schick

schick

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It's getting warm around here, and I'm getting ideas about converting wheel weights to ingots again.

I was just curious if anyone from around the Saskatoon area knows where I can get some bar solder. I want to experiement with hardness, and was told that solder in bars is a nice tin source if I can find it.
 
schick,
You can get bar solder at Walkers Autobody supply, which is on Faithful down by Wholesale Sports. It's actually more expensive that way than buying it by the roll, at least in 'Toon Town.
Levi Garrett hit the nail exactly on the head with the Plumbers solder. It's sold as "Lead Free" Solder at Canadian Tire and Home Depot and is 95-5. The 95% is the tin content, what the 5 is I was never able to find out. Might be bismuth.
Tin helps fill out the molds, but doesn't do a whole lot of hardening. If you really need hard bullets drop them right out of the mold into water then lube them with an oversized die right away. They get harder than hell over the next couple of days, right up to Brinel 26-28. I've taken gas checked bullets up past 2400 fps in rifles with no leading. Pistol bullets usually don't need the "poormans heat treat", and shoot better a lot softer.
Have fun.
Dogleg
 
I thought antimony was used to harden lead alloy for bullets. Tin makes it flow better and gives it some shine.
 
You are correct , antimony does that, but is also in wheelweights, so that not the big problem. The lack of tin is. Now you won't get a high BHN number our of this combination, but it will work better(and you can drop in cold water out of the mould for a bit more). Linotype BHN 22 is a better choice, also monotype I think is even higher like 27-28 .
By the way I know of a place that has Linotype for 30 cents a pound , in letter format. This stuff is very hard to find these days and costly.
Oh for info, 16 BHN is recommended for hunting
Frank
 
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I have used silver solder a lot for knife-making, you would go broke using it in bullets! On the bright side they just might be effective on werewolves or vampires, and you wouldn't need many.
 
I have only ever used 50/50 solder in the one pound roll, you can buy it at Canadian Tire for about 7 bucks. 9 pounds of WW and 1 lb of 50/50 and you have a nice Linotype bullet lead. Drop them right into the bucket of water right from the mold. I use a 5 gallon pail that I put on the floor and have a cloth covering the opening with an X cut in the middle. Right from the pot I turn to the left slightly and drop the bullets down into the pot. When I am done I run them thru the sizer/luber and let them sit for a couple of days before reloading. They look absolutley store bought and the work excellent. Leading is caused by lots of things but if you bullets are hard then most likely you are sizing it wrong if the barrel is leading.
 
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