Bullet casters are probably the most enabled people I know. There peobably isn't another group that will spend so much time and effort getting tin, lead or other alloys just to cast more bullets. I had a buddy who ran a cable splicing school and was fortunate enough to get the bottom of the solder pots after the classes were done for the week. Still have a couple of those ingots. BTW like your post count. 3006 Frank

bnice wrote on Feb 21^st, 2016 at 10:49am:


when I pick up the 'scrap' it is what is scraped off the top of the solder-dip pots.  (Wires are dipped into flux then dipped into the molten solder.)  The top is skimmed on a regular basis with a spoon and that is collected into a bucket.  I empty the buckets once a month and pay them 1.5x the LTL solder dross rate.

Then, to answer your question, I fill a 12qt stainless pot about an inch deep, add borax and heat from underneath with the turkey-fryer and from the top with a weed burner.  Add an inch or two, more borax, more flame from the weed burner.  In 10 minutes I have 20+ lbs of molten alloy.  Then it's stir (stainless spoon) add borax to the top, stir with wooden stick and repeat.  When the crud on the top is fluffy, scoop off and repeat the flux and stir.  3-4 times does it.  Keep the heat generally low - that might be why the copper separates.  Ladle into bread-stick iron moulds.

By weight, usually 90-95% yield.

Pewter is about 96% tin with the rest being copper and/or antimony for strength.

Antimony is easy; as some lead-free solder is 96/04 tin/antimony.