Tin sinkers

[steveonmars]

I just went to Walmart for some sinkers. While I was looking I noticed tin sinkers being sold as an alternative to lead. I bought a small bag of bb size split shot for about $1.50 for 48 sinkers. I dropped a couple in some HCL and they disolved nice with no residue like I was getting with the solder I've been using. I don't have any disolved gold handy so I'll have to wait a little while to test it. I don't know if anyone has mentioned these before so I thought I'd post it for the people who didn't know about them.

Steve

 

[jimdoc]

They have Walmarts on Mars?

Jim

 

[shyknee]

I can't believe it. No one came up with a Uranus joke. :lol: Surprised no one jumped on Uranus. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Harold_V]

Can't address the Mars, or Uranus (grin) issue, but that tin sinkers are available is very good news.

Two reasons.

One need not buy a pound of solder that is priced way over value,
One need not worry about contamination, at least according to the report, above.

Thanks for posting.

Harold

 

[Oz]

Antimony is typically the alloying element found in tin based lead free solders. In making a stannous chloride some antimony will go into solution with HCl but to the best of my knowledge will not hinder the typical tests done for Pms. The bulk of the antimony will be left in your HCl as a black powder residue. If one can avoid the antimony it is best as most antimony by-products are rather toxic.

 

[steveonmars]

They have Walmart everywhere!

When my son was little we were trying to come up with an ebay user name and he said I was from another planet sometimes so we came up with the steveonmars, now I just use it for everything.

After a few days I did notice a very little bit of sediment floating around in the bottom of the bottle but it's a very small amount. I do have some extra sinkers in the soluyion that are still slowly disolving to keep it active. I did disolve just enough gold to test this and it worked just fine.

Steve