ID' ing Tin

[TimBoothe]

Evening folks,

Gotta question for ya'll. My wife owns a high end day spa and salon here in town. They use a lot of "color" for hair. This "color" comes in these nice metal tubes, just like toothpaste used to.

Do ya'll have any quick tricks that I might could try to see if these tubes are made out of tin? I'm thinking that they are either tin or aluminum and have no idea how to figure out which metal they are.

Thanks fellas,
TimBoothe

[docone31]

Melt em up and see.
If they are aluminum, you will have trouble melting more than one or two. If they are tin, they should just plain disappear in the casting melt.
I bet that hair dye is gonna stink upon heating.

[mtgrs737]

They may be zinc, so don't ruin too much lead if you use that to melt the tubes in. Zinc will not melt below 700 degrees easily so just keep your lead below that, zinc will float on top of the melted lead.

[357maximum]

Malt is alone and pour it into a shallow puddle. If when cool and you bend it and it creaks/ goans when bent it may very well be tin.

[m1garand]

tin looks almost identical to lead when melted so you can't go by appearance

to identify tin -

1st melt it. tin melts at a lower temperature than lead. around 460 degrees F
aluminum which most containers are made of melts at 900+ degrees F. gotta get it very hot. if it melts very easily it could be tin.

2nd pour out a small amount and make a dollar size piece. hold it against your ear and scratch it. if you hear a high pitch screech, it is tin. tin has a crystiline (sp) structure and the crystals make this sound when scratched our bent.

when the salvage yards receive metal they suspect is tin, they bend a piece and listen for this sound.

i have trouble identifying alloyed lead and try holding a piece in my hand and hitting it on an anvil. a "thud" is pure lead or pure tin. a ringing sound is alloyed with tin and antimony or perhaps the dreaded zinc.

lots of luck and keep hunting.

[TimBoothe]

Thanks for the replies fellas. I've tried looking online at the manufacturers website and can't find squat. My wife says that they get a hazmat sheet from these folks that may have some info on it about the squeeze tubes but I'm doubtful there.

I think that I'll try to melt a couple around 500 degrees and see what happens.

Sure would be great if these things were tin, her shop goes through several of these things every week and it would be a great source of tin.

I've been trying to find my perfect mix of pure and WW to obtain the bhn that I'm looking for. I've found that the more WW metal that I add to the mix, the better the boolits seem to look. Seems to pour easier, this I am assuming is because of the tin content in the WW when compared to the pure lead, hence my search for tin to add to the mix.

Thanks again folks,
TimBoothe

[HeavyMetal]

Suggest you google packaging plants in your area and look for one that makes the type of tube the hair color comes in. Heck the packaging might be marked as well, most places buy the pakaging already made because the cost to tool up is high!

Once you find a maker, make a call and ask, for "recycling" of course! With that "key" word you'll usually get a straight answer on the make up of a container.

I think the odds on these actually being tin are astronomical. Most likely a zinc based alloy with aluminum.

Keep us posted won't be the first time I was wrong and won't be the last.

[leadeye]

All the tin I have, two 50 cal ammo cans full of ingots, came from melting "tin tubes" purchased at an industrial sale. The tubes were about 1/2 the size of toothpaste tubes and were in large waterlogged cartons. No idea what they were going to be filled with.:-D

[TimBoothe]

Metal,

"recycling" ...very good idea. The company that makes the product is Aveda..and they are indeed a "green" company. Very "new agey" if you will. I'll call them on Tues and inquire about recycling these containers, but in order to do so, I'll need to get in touch with the manufacturer of the tubes themselves to determine what they are actually made of....hehehe.

In the meanwhile I'll try to melt a couple this evening and I'll let ya'll know what happened.
Thanks a million,
TimBoothe

[TimBoothe]

Well, not sure what these tubes are made of....but I am sure of what they are NOT made of...and that's tin. Stuck a couple in the pot @ around 600-650....notta, just turned black, didn't even start to melt. I'm guessing aluminum.......

thanks for the help folks,
TimBoothe