Question About Pewter

[edbanger]

Hi All

I see some of you make use of pewter I'm thinking of trying something with it as it looks to set of some pieces so.

Do you just melt down old bits of junk, if so does it matter what type of pewter you use, I see some that is lead free. Also is it tunable before I have a mishap.

Anything else I should know.

Thanks

Ed

[bodrighywood]

Little pewter you get nowadays has lead in it. It can be melted down in a milk saucepan (one with a pouring lip) then either made into small ingots (I use a little steel bowl)  ready to be melted for use later or directly into your mold. It can then he turned much the same as wood, textured etc. I use scraps of oak for themolds. As it can chat the wood so soft wood isn't really suitable IME.

Pete

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Hi Ed,
        try to avoid pewter with a lead content as the fumes are not good for you. I melt it down in a saucepan on my camping stove in the garden. I cast it into round ingots, I drilled 2" holes in dry plywood for casting my ingots into.Whatever you cast into ensure there is no moisture present or it will spit out, I wear a protective mask and welders gauntlets. Cast into a mould and when cooled apply CA glue to hold it whilst turning. I find that it turns easier than wood as there is no grain direction to worry about. I would scrape to begin with but as you progress you will find that you can turn it rather well with gouges etc. but I advise getting "a feel for it" first.
  Clean up before you start turning it as you can save the shavings to reuse.Be careful though when sanding as it will warm quite quickly which could lead to damage of your workpiece but also the pewter oversand(??) can stain your work , to avoid this I sometimes cast, turn, finish and then fix it onto my work, depends on what I am making.
Hope this helps.

[bodrighywood]

Pewter hasn't really used lead since the late 1700's at least the stuff made in the UK. If you want a bit more info have a look here If using (as I do) old mugs etc made in the UK and bought at charity shops and boot sales, the chance of getting any with lead is small enough not to be a problem. I did a bit of research when I started using it. If you buy lead ingots then it will definitely be lead free. As John said, when turning it clear the decks first and save the shavings. I have found that buffing the finished piece with tripoli wax gives it a totally clean, polished finish and a coat of Micro-crystalline wax will hold back any fingerprints etc afterwards. It can also be textured using one of the smaller texturing tools and gives really crisp finish. When filling a mold, do it slowly as you can get little bubbles of air in it sometimes which are annoying if you find them when turning the work down. I have found that adding pewter to any already set won't work so if this happens you will need to re cast, can't just fill with more pewter. Also like John, I tend to make the piece in pewter to a finish then add to the wood as the stain is impossible to get out of the wood rom sanding. You should be able to start sanding at a lowest grade of 400 if not higher by the way, If you need to sand at all. The piece below was sanded at 320 and left deliberately to have the sanding marks on the finial, just to show how soft the stuff is.

Pete

[Paul Hannaby]

Pewter used for tankards and the like will be lead free (if it is less than a couple of hundred years old!). There are casting metals that do contain lead and these are generally used for things like those little toy soldiers.

I just stick to new pewter so I know exactly what I'm dealing with.

[edbanger]

Thanks All

That great help and save me a bit of time, I'll start collecting some pewter and have a play.

All the best

Ed

[Bryan Milham]

Paul,

I've seen your excellent club demo using Pewter.

It's well worth anyone who wants to have a go for the first time getting guidance like Pauls, likely to save so many pitfalls and mishaps.

[malcy]

I've used pewter with my turnings in two ways. I first used it as a flat disc about 1mm thick and spun it into shape on a hard maple former on the lathe. I made the former by turning hard maple, and the spinning tools from scrap lengths of steel from a steel distributor. If you do a search for Terry Tynan and the Metal Spinning Workshop you can see all about this. For the second way, I have melted down the spinning off cuts and trimmings and poured it into a plywood ring mold and cast a band for another turning. You can see this on one of my postings here as an open segmented ear ring stand and ring bowl using both techniques. Hope this helps. Malcolm.

[David Buskell]

Simon Hope used to do a good demo on using pewter.

You can check out John Wessells site as well - he uses both pewter and silver on his work.

David