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JS47
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Solder Question
Apr 15th, 2017 at 12:59am
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I have a stick of bar solder marked American Automatic Wiping.
Does anyone know what the lead/tin ratio is? Google was no help.

JS
  
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Kevin B.
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Re: Solder Question
Reply #1 - Apr 15th, 2017 at 7:03am
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Googled "wiping solder" and there were several hits. It seems there were several different ratios available. This doesn't help answer you original question but you might find something if you keep digging.
  
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frnkeore
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Re: Solder Question
Reply #2 - Apr 15th, 2017 at 11:55am
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Your best bet, is to take it to a metal recycling yard that has a "X-ray gun" (I forget what they are called) and have them test it. They are very accurate devices.

Frank
  

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bnice
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Re: Solder Question
Reply #3 - Apr 15th, 2017 at 9:25pm
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If you have other bars of certified solder you could do test impressions against this to check relative hardness. To do this use the ball bearing between the two pieces known and unknown and squeeze in a vice and compare impression depths. Again this still only gives you a relative idea of hardness not elemental make up. Just an idea.
  
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JS47
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Re: Solder Question
Reply #4 - Apr 15th, 2017 at 11:10pm
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Thanks for the replies. What I'll probably do is just treat it like 50/50 and cast up a few bullets for plinkers.

JS
  
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uscra112
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Re: Solder Question
Reply #5 - Apr 21st, 2017 at 10:12pm
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I've always believed that wiping solder was 60/40.  According to a poster on Cast Boolits, during WW2 the tin shortage was so bad that the substituted silver.   That's all I can remember.
  

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rgchristensen
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Re: Solder Question
Reply #6 - Apr 22nd, 2017 at 6:43am
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    Wiping solder was formulated to have a fairly wide temperature range where it would be kind of "slushy".   60-40 would be too close to the eutectic for that, so it was more likely nearer 40-60  (tin-lead).

CHRIS
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ten-mile
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Re: Solder Question
Reply #7 - Apr 22nd, 2017 at 6:57am
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All the "body solder" or wiping solder I have is 30-70 and so marked on the bars.  Before Bondo that's what you used to fill in seams and dents you couldn't hammer out.  30-70 has a wide slushy range and you pushed it around with maple paddles, adding a little heat from a torch as necessary.
  
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George Babits
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Re: Solder Question
Reply #8 - Apr 22nd, 2017 at 9:37am
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I have a bar of "Castomatic" which is marked .63 SN (tin) and .33 Q.  Now if I had any idea what "Q" is I would know what the bar is. I am guessing that is lead.  The scarey part is what is the other .01?  junk or zinc?

I don't think hardness will tell you much.  I read somewhere that after 10/1 lead/tin, it starts getting softer.

George
  
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desert-dude
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Re: Solder Question
Reply #9 - Apr 22nd, 2017 at 10:12am
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Instrumental name:

Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy sometimes called energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA).

The other candidate is: X-ray fluorescence. 

You might try melting point but the actual melting point may be rather subjective. Smiley

Just using those bars as a source  of Sn might be the best approach. Formulate a small batch until you get the hardness you want then commit the rest to a final batch. 

as with everything like this YMMV.
  
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Kurt_701
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Re: Solder Question
Reply #10 - Apr 22nd, 2017 at 1:03pm
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I am retired from Southwestern Bell. I was a splicer back when we wiped sleeves. I was later a Repeaterman & a Special services Technician. Here is a page from Bells specs.
Kurt
  

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