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Thread: A source of pure TIN

  1. #21
    Boolit Master
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    I have run in to that real tin foil recently on a champagne bottle. Did not think to save it.

  2. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by bangerjim View Post
    Not if you have 10-12 people saving them for you!
    I just finished a bottle from 2017. It'd take me a long time to come up with any meaningful amount even if this is true.

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by downzero View Post
    I just finished a bottle from 2017. It'd take me a long time to come up with any meaningful amount even if this is true.
    But is sure fun getting there!

  4. #24
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    Wine industry

    Lead capsules were used many years ago on wine (probably spirits too). Back in the day, wine was tested for lead acetate due to migration of wine through cork and subsequent oxidation to acetic acid (vinegar). Eventually lead capsules were replaced by tin, aluminum and plastic. Higher end wines will have tin capsules - it feels heavier and shinier than aluminum.

    P.S. The Romans added lead salts to sweeten wine. Might explain why children would eat paint chips…
    When you want to fool the world, tell the truth. Otto von Bismarck

  5. #25
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by MarkK View Post
    …lead salts…sweeten…Might explain why children would eat paint chips…
    Yup, though I can’t say I’ve chewed on any windowsills to confirm what I was taught.

    Retired pediatrician.

  6. #26
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    For those that doubted!

    I have been saving the PURE SN foil wraps and cork covers from higher end Scotches and Whiskys and have had friends and relatives that enjoy a good dram that does not come in an aluminum screw top bottle to save all their bottle top wraps and cork covers for me. Well...... harvest time came today when I gathered up about 4 months of them and melted them down in my little Lee 10# pot. After the burning paint had cleared and the melt was fluxed and reduced (beeswax), I was left with around 15 ounces of PURE Sn! It would have gone to the dump otherwise.

    Now who is saying those aren't TIN coverings on those high-end bottles & are not capped with pure TIN?

    Just ask your friends and relatives to save them for you. You can easily pick out the Al by the weight and metal color. Sn has that mellow yellow glow to it, rings like a bell when you drop an ingot, and is always shiny and bright.

    Now I can add this small offering to the several hundreds of pounds of pure Sn I have.

    Keep a weather eye out! It is out there.


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  7. #27
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    rintinglen's Avatar
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    Obviously, I need to hang out with a better class of drunks!
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  8. #28
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    Melt down a known volume of those things and weigh it. You'll know in a hurry if it's tin, lead, or some mix.
    For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Ecclesiastes 1:18
    He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool become servant to the wise of heart. Proverbs 11:29
    ...Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40


    Carpe SCOTCH!

  9. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kosh75287 View Post
    Melt down a known volume of those things and weigh it. You'll know in a hurry if it's tin, lead, or some mix.
    It has been proven to be 100% Sn. They would NEVER use poisonous Pb or any alloy of it in any food packaging. And......hardness (with my Cabine certified tester) is the same as all the hundreds of pounds of pure Sn I have in the stores! And some bottlers state outright they still use Sn for tops.

    Historically, all EU scotches and whisky(ey)s (and some wines) were sealed with pure tin foil caps and wraps. Many of the high-end bottlers in the EU still carry on the tradition. Some wines from France are sealed the same way.

    I do not understand why you people doubt this. Cheap (especially American) whiskey, booze, and wine are all sealed with either plastic cut-off tops or aluminum screw-off tops. And anyone out there (that messes with castable metals like we do) can easily tell the difference.................without any weighing or analysis of any kind!!!!

    Just check around.

  10. #30
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    Oh come on… is there still some question over whether Banger knows what tin is or not?
    ”We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, yet they are still lying.” –Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

    My Straight Shooters thread:
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    The Pewter Pictures and Hallmarks thread:
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  11. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by bangerjim View Post
    Now who is saying those aren't TIN coverings on those high-end bottles & are not capped with pure TIN?
    I'm sorry, I must have missed the part where you shared any evidence of what these are made of?

    Did you measure the melting point? Get an XRF reading? Check the density?

    Because all I see is a post where you say it is tin, then posts questioning how you know that, then another post where you declare yourself correct.

    I'm not saying they aren't. I'm asking how you know they are.
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  12. #32
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    I mentioned that the foils I had melted into known pewter at around tin liquidus temp. I neglected to add that the melt was a large lot of pewter I had analyzed: no aluminum, just tin, a little copper and antimony and a touch of lead that I believe came from an old, non food service pewter item. I’m comfortable saying the foils were mostly if not completely made of tin.

  13. #33
    Boolit Master BNE's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BattleRife View Post
    I'm sorry, I must have missed the part where you shared any evidence of what these are made of?

    Did you measure the melting point? Get an XRF reading? Check the density?

    Because all I see is a post where you say it is tin, then posts questioning how you know that, then another post where you declare yourself correct.

    I'm not saying they aren't. I'm asking how you know they are.
    If you question Banger, you are probably going to be wrong. BUT, I will make this offer:
    Banger- send me a sample and I will XrF it and report the results here. (The foil does not have to still be attached to the bottle-unless you want my opinion of the contents!)

    BNE
    I'm a Happy Clinger.

  14. #34
    Boolit Master
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    I sense an ulterior motive here!

  15. #35
    Boolit Master
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    Not at all, just a more spirited test protocol.

  16. #36
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    I seldom buy high end whiskey for my own consumption. I was blessed to be able to appreciate and enjoy the taste of cheap whiskey. Bottle of Kesslers and a campfire is as good as it gets. Now I don't mind a bottle of the "good stuff" but never "educated" my pallet to care. Have had some 12 year old Canadian stuff that sat on a shelf for another several years and it was I must admit very smooth and drinkable.

    Might even buy me a bottle of something good next time I go over to Canada and can get it duty free. Or visit nephew who has PX access in his retirement. Lord knows he gets a good deal on bourbon his pain killer and snake bite medicine of choice.

    I have found some of that beverage cooling lines and it was pure tin when tested, has as described the golden hue, hard, easy melting. But having found I'm pretty successful at scoring pewter I have accumulated that as my reserve tin of choice. Lot of other tin has showed up in scrap yards and garage sales over the years and made its way to my supply.

    If I was just starting out I might find purchase from supplier like rotometals to be an advantage. Known alloy avoids any guess work. On the other hand over time I find I have learn to tell tin alloys by hitting them with a mapp or propane torch and watching them melt. Heck of a difference in that melt temp and the resulting bead when there is tin present. Do the same for pewter. Stuff almost disappears from under the flame when it is pewter.

    I have one or two pounds of pure tin that I might use for binary alloy or to tweak a batch of casting alloy but I generally make 100 pound or larger alloy batches so solder from bulk scores or pewter are my go to for those mixes. I'm using printing lead to get to a higher Sb & Sn place then usually adding to up the tin to match the antimony. I think I recall Banger more often does smaller batches for what alloy he wants to cast at the time.

    Speaking of binary alloys. I think the brass cartridge historical shooting requires only lead tin alloy so store bought may be the best option for people casting for those competitions. Other wise us paper punchers and berm killers we take it where we find it.

    I need more friends that buy expensive booze. Or to keep finding pewter at Salvation Army or Garage Sales. I'm up 8# over the last two weeks. Would be if I didn't decide I like that one pitcher and put it on the dust collector shelf. Matched a small one I already have for wife to put small flowers in.
    Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.

    Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.

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  17. #37
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    So my employer's handheld XRF unit made a rare week-long trip into the office for calibration not too long ago. When I found this out this thread came to my mind, and I arranged with the equipment manager to do a little government work.

    I went to my scotch shelf and pulled the remnant of foil seals that seemed to have the right kind of soft, greasy feel from a few bottles and took them in.

    All samples were prepped by pressing flat and dressing a test spot with 220grit SiC paper immediately before testing. I am happy to report that Bangerjim is correct, at least in part.

    The results:
    Oban 14-year old: >99% aluminum
    Dalwhinnie 15-year old > 99% tin
    McClelland's Islay Single Malt >99% aluminum
    Talisker 10-year old >99% tin

    The McClelland's is the cheapest of these 4, the Oban the most expensive, at least in my part of the world.
    The most surprising thing about the results to me is that Oban, Talisker and Dalwhinnie distilleries are all owned by the same parent company, Diageo PLC, and are among their flagship brands. Apparently standardizing the foils on their bottles isn't something they have worried about.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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  18. #38
    Boolit Master
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    BattleRife, did the aluminum feel much different from the tin?

  19. #39
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    I wouldn't say much different. The tin foils felt softer, they folded readily, the best comparison I can make is to soft deerskin leather. The aluminum felt stiffer, and like it would crinkle and crease if folded. The tins also had a duller sheen.

    The 2 aluminum foils actually felt rather different from each other. The McClelland felt a bit plastic-y. The Oban foil was a bit thinner than any of the others, and brighter.
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  20. #40
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    The cost of the tin is part of the price you pay for the spirits.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check