silly question about pewter

[jonjon1885]

its soft, it malleable, it can be hardened with antimony, low meltpoint similar to lead.

I was just playing around with some really old pewter toys and realized that "hey this stuff is very similar to lead".


so the question would be would pewter be a viable alternative to lead in reloading/casting.

would it work, would it be cheaper. if so does any one use it and how would you load for pewter bullets?

 

[rcmodel]

Pewter is traditionally between 85 and 99 percent tin, with the remainder consisting of 1-15 percent copper, acting as a hardener, with the addition of lead & less tin for the lower grades of pewter.

Tin costs several times more then lead, about $15.00 a pound I think, so there would be no cost advantage if it did work.

I also don't know what the shrinkage factor would be.
Bullet mold cavities are cut to allow for the % of shrinkage using traditional lead/tin/antimony bullet alloys, and if pewter shrank more or less then that, you would be casting the wrong size bullets.


rcmodel

 

[Sunray]

"...really old pewter toys..." They can be worth a sizable chunk of money. You should think twice about destroying what could be valuable. Even 'tin soldiers'.

 

[mrwilson]

I was thinking about this the other day. What else could I mold with my casting equip. After pewter toy molds available? Anyone do this?

 

[jonjon1885]

the pewter toys i was talking about were junk udderly worthless.

mrwilson, yes there are molds for toys an what not. try ebay, or crags list you never know.i

 

[Chawbaccer]

If you want to keep on casting check out DO IT molds for fishing sinkers and lures.

 

[peterotte]

You could just use the pewter as a source of tin for hardening lead.