While in Chilliwack this weekend, I contacted a scrap metal dealer to see if he still had the linotype he had mentioned the week before. I made the mistake of mentioning it to an acquaintance and he scooped it on me. Oh well, he was only an acquaintance and he won't get any more info from me again.
Anyway, he made the mistake of only asking for the linotype. When I called the scrap metal dealer on Monday, I asked if he had any Pewter or Tin ingots. That's when I found out the Pewter had been scooped and by whom.
It turns out he had a 45 imp gallon drum full of Pewter bits and pieces. Mostly old teapots, ornaments, loving cups and beer mugs. Some of it is beautiful but it is only worth what the market will bring as scrap. Today, I melted a few pieces down and it seems to be about 23 on the BHN scale. Good stuff for 10 cents a pound. Almost pure Tin which is $8/pound in bars. He also had 10ea, 1 pound bars of pure smelted and marked as such Tin. I bought those as well but I think that was just greed as the Pewter will do just as well and the stuff in the barrel, weighed out to 115 pounds.
I like the stuff being in large enough pieces to melt one piece at a time to determine whether the pieces are Zinc or Pewter. Zinc cups and plates are not very ductile and are hard to bend or collapse. It also breaks into chunks when ground. Pewter on the other hand is quite ductile. Anyway, I am taking a chance on this stuff one way or the other and melting it one piece at a time and checking the temp it melts at with an optical pyrometer before adding it to the ingot tray.
The Tin bars are fine.
This sort of thing is always a crap shoot. Thanks to Gunrunner8 for his good advice. This stuff was cheap enough to likely give me a lifetime supply at a very reasonable price.
Small local scrap metal dealers very seldom have this sort of thing. Even then, they usually think you mean galvanized roofing when you ask them for Tin.
The dealer I went to also had a few hundred pounds of scrap solder. It was a mixture of all different types and he takes it to a smelter where they melt it down, separate it into its individual elements and pay him accordingly. It was to expensive though and I declined his offer. It was good clean stuff though and likely worth what he was asking.
Anyway, he made the mistake of only asking for the linotype. When I called the scrap metal dealer on Monday, I asked if he had any Pewter or Tin ingots. That's when I found out the Pewter had been scooped and by whom.
It turns out he had a 45 imp gallon drum full of Pewter bits and pieces. Mostly old teapots, ornaments, loving cups and beer mugs. Some of it is beautiful but it is only worth what the market will bring as scrap. Today, I melted a few pieces down and it seems to be about 23 on the BHN scale. Good stuff for 10 cents a pound. Almost pure Tin which is $8/pound in bars. He also had 10ea, 1 pound bars of pure smelted and marked as such Tin. I bought those as well but I think that was just greed as the Pewter will do just as well and the stuff in the barrel, weighed out to 115 pounds.
I like the stuff being in large enough pieces to melt one piece at a time to determine whether the pieces are Zinc or Pewter. Zinc cups and plates are not very ductile and are hard to bend or collapse. It also breaks into chunks when ground. Pewter on the other hand is quite ductile. Anyway, I am taking a chance on this stuff one way or the other and melting it one piece at a time and checking the temp it melts at with an optical pyrometer before adding it to the ingot tray.
The Tin bars are fine.
This sort of thing is always a crap shoot. Thanks to Gunrunner8 for his good advice. This stuff was cheap enough to likely give me a lifetime supply at a very reasonable price.
Small local scrap metal dealers very seldom have this sort of thing. Even then, they usually think you mean galvanized roofing when you ask them for Tin.
The dealer I went to also had a few hundred pounds of scrap solder. It was a mixture of all different types and he takes it to a smelter where they melt it down, separate it into its individual elements and pay him accordingly. It was to expensive though and I declined his offer. It was good clean stuff though and likely worth what he was asking.
