Pewter casting notes
Orlando Giovanni di’ Gilead
All lead free pewters have some mixture of mostly tin (~90%) and other metals. Both bismuth and antimony are used as lead replacements. It’s a good idea to keep your alloys separated.
Tend to have a mixture of tin, bismuth/antimony and copper. Tin, antimony and copper are the most common mixtures.
Similar to the casting alloys accept that it has a nickle component. These pewters are generally used for high durability applications such as bearings.
http://www.rotometals.com/
Alloy name | Tin % | Antimony % | Copper % | Bismuth % | Monel |
A/C (Britannia) Good tensile strength from the copper | 92% | 7.75% | .25% | 0% | 0% |
R-92- Pewter Standard lead free pewter. | 92% | 8% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
R-98-Pewter Low shrinkage and better pickup of details | 98% | 0% | 0.50% | 1.5% | 0% |
RotoNickel Babbit bearing pewter | 89% | 7.5% | 3.45% | 0% | .15% |
You can either use a small cast iron camping pot or get a small crucible here: Foundry Supply
Types of molds
Open Face Molds
Fast one sided molds. Sometimes its harder to get good detail with these.
Two Piece Molds
Two piece molds are more complicated but offer greater detail and two sided work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRj6xzNx7P4