Is 63/37 Solder Acceptable to Use for CBs?

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  • Last Post 18 March 2022
vito DeAngelis posted this 12 March 2022

I've been using 63/37 solder (67% tin/37% lead) for the tin content to sweeten COWW.  Several months ago I learned that this solder can contain as much as 0.005% zinc.  I know zinc is bad to have in CB alloys and mixing with WW will further dilute the zinc concentration.  I acknowledge that this will result in a very small number, but when I was still gamefully employed as a tribologist I learned that a specific fluid contaminant as small as 2 to 3 ppm (parts per million) would drastically change the performance of the base lubricant.  So this makes me wonder if the 0.005% zinc is still too much and the use of 63/37 should be abandoned.  In the meantime I've switched over to using linotype to get tin.  Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

John R. DeAngelis

vito-deangelis

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Shootingfun posted this 13 March 2022

If it matters I have not noticed, I have used it for years. But Ill add it to my excuse list, Thanks. 

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Little Debbie posted this 13 March 2022

Nope been buying solder of all types for 30 years at yard sales and auctions at bargain prices as my source of tin (and flux if it is rosin core) with excellent results. Use it with confidence.

Worst part of buying solder is that it’s less and less available at yard sales. Gone are the days of every household having a soldering iron and someone who knew how to use it.

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GBertolet posted this 13 March 2022

I have used solder to enrichen casting alloy for years. As long as it is lead/tin mix. The scrapyard I buy lead from, considers linotype, solder, wheel weights, all the same as lead.

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TRKakaCatWhisperer posted this 15 March 2022

You raise an interesting question.  At what point (percentage) of an alloy would zinc make any difference?  I have a batch of WW that is about 3% Antimony, about 97% lead and 0.3% zinc.  1/3 of 1% in my GUESSING won't make any difference.  AND I would think that the 0.005% zinc of the solder you have wouldn't either.

 

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Little Debbie posted this 17 March 2022

As Dean Grinnel once said if scrap looked “plumbous” he’d cast it. That’s been my policy, I’ve been lucky the last 50 years, never being caught by all the unknown “lead” I’ve scrounged and purchased. It all would cast well, sometimes requiring addition of tin, but no other trouble. When zinc wheel weights started showing up I’d carefully sort and then melt in small batches to make sure I didn’t dissolve zibc in my alloy and ruin a batch. I then learned that if I kept my temperature reasonable the zinc wheel weights would float, just like the steel ones. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any data on what it takes to alloy zinc and lead. Hasn’t there been some experiments casting zinc bullets?

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Lee Guthrie posted this 17 March 2022

Zinc will dissolve in lead alloys at significantly lower temperatures than zinc melt temperatures.

A lot of people tried zamak bullets in the past, and quite a few have recently tried them, out of desperation.

See Fouling Shot articles:  #25-2, 27-2, 212-12

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Eutectic posted this 18 March 2022

Little Debbie,

I have accidentally left some zinc weights when I melted batches of wheel weights. By keeping the temperature just over the melting point of the lead weights the zinc weights were recovered whole floating with the clips. It takes a much higher temperature to get the zinc to alloy. Once in the lead it is impossible by home methods to remove it.

Search the Alloy and Metal section for ZAMAK for information on casting zinc alloy bullets. It has been done by many shooters,I think once there were zinc alloy bullets sold commercially.

Steve 

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Little Debbie posted this 18 March 2022

Steve,

Thanks for the information. Zamak bullets were a thing! Wow and some people have cast zinc. I will start keeping my zinc wheel weights and might try it (in a separate forever furnace and a mold I can live with damaging) maybe.

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