Tin smelting help needed · AditNow Community

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threewheeler
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

13 years ago

Hi to all.
I am having trouble trying to smelt tin, i have tried twice with no results, firstly i crushed some ore from Cligga and panned it out to what i reckon was quite pure, it was all black with no remains of any lighter colour quartz?
i then dried it and mixed it with charcoal about 50/50. I placed it in a steel pot and covered it and heated in a charcoal fire with compressed air being blown into it from the underside. After about half an hour it was hot enough to melt the steel pot away leaving the ore looking just the same. Can anyone tell me what i am doing wrong.

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scooptram
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

got the same problem trying to find information is hard ,how fine was your tinstuff,was it tin or wolfram? the stuff i got is 40-50% tin

threewheeler
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

13 years ago

tinstuff was very fine i ground it until it went through a bakers flour sieve, i hope it was tin not wolfram, I think they look very similar so i could have, if so i need some proper tin ore to start again

Tamarmole
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

Talk to the chaps at King Edward, they should be able to help.

scooptram
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

had a long chat with Kingsley up at kem today got some pointers will just have to try it and find out

sparty_lea
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

If you got it from cligga theres a very good chance its mostly wolframite, especially if it looks very dark when crushed. The wolfram is blacker looking than the cassiterite.

There are 10 types of people in the world.

Those that understand binary and those that do not!

mistericeman
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

Not sure how much help these are ....BUT have you tried searching on youtube for smelting tin ???

Might fill in some blanks or be worth a message to the original maker of the clip ???

somersetminer
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

"mistericeman" wrote:
Not sure how much help these are ....BUT have you tried searching on youtube for smelting tin ???

Might fill in some blanks or be worth a message to the original maker of the clip ???

the guy doing the smelting, Geoff, is on here occasionally, definitely worth a message

threewheeler
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

13 years ago

Thanks for all the info, have just taken delivery of graphite crucible and realized it was mainly wolfram that i had been collecting, so i'll go and have a look for some cassiterite and perhaps have another go, third time lucky.

davetidza
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

#10

Might I suggest you have a perusal the website of the Historical Metallurgy Society. They are 'the' Society which deals with such things.

somersetminer
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

#11

"threewheeler" wrote:
Thanks for all the info, have just taken delivery of graphite crucible and realized it was mainly wolfram that i had been collecting, so i'll go and have a look for some cassiterite and perhaps have another go, third time lucky.

I have some fine tin that I want to try out, I will put some in a measuring jug and pop it on the scales, will put a photo up so you know roughly what to aim for.
good luck!

somersetminer
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

#12

[photo]Personal-Album-11449-Image-77103[/photo]

pretty crude but gives an idea. the jug is 570g

stuey
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

#13

Gra, I had a go at smelting copper from ore which I burned to the oxide and it was a royal pain.

You can do a thermite reaction, where you mix the metal oxide with aluminium powder and then set alight to it with a sparkler.

This has the added bonus of "reducing" everything to it's elemental form. The snag is when you are smelting stuff that you lose a lot of it, assuming you are using a mega blast of air.

I found it quite difficult to get a satisfactory result. Nevertheless, I obtained a nugget of cornish copper. The yield from wet ore to metal was about 4.5%

carnkie
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

#14

The subject reminds me of an article by Brian Earle and K. Aslihan Yener.

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/documents/Personal-Album-272/Tin-Smelting-at-the-Oriental-Institute.pdf

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

davetidza
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

#15

'An Analysis of the Processes for Smelting Tin' by Richard Smith

Bull PDMHS 13-2

http://www.pdmhs.com/PDFs/ScannedBulletinArticles/Bulletin%2013-2%20-%20An%20Analysis%20of%20the%20Processes%20for%20Smelting%20Tin.pdf

scooptram
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

#16

getting the stuff i got asseyd by a ex jane lab bloke should know the results next week!

scooptram
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

#17

got the assay results back 20gram sample 11.3 g tin 4.5g iron 3g copper rest unknown

geoff
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

#18

"threewheeler" wrote:
Hi to all.
I am having trouble trying to smelt tin, i have tried twice with no results, firstly i crushed some ore from Cligga and panned it out to what i reckon was quite pure, it was all black with no remains of any lighter colour quartz?
i then dried it and mixed it with charcoal about 50/50. I placed it in a steel pot and covered it and heated in a charcoal fire with compressed air being blown into it from the underside. After about half an hour it was hot enough to melt the steel pot away leaving the ore looking just the same. Can anyone tell me what i am doing wrong.

I've been away.

don't use a steel pot. You need a crucible, clay graphite will work although not perfect.

if the concentrate contains sulphides then before attempting to smelt, heat to dull red and expose to air to oxidise then re-pan. Then run a magnet through it.

You'll need to be at least 1000C higher is better, if it's working the material will fuse and bubble. Once the whole contents is fluid and the bubbling almost stops it's ready to pour. This needs to be on something completely dry to avoid covering yourself in very hot stuff. The tin should run away from the slag and more will be revealed by breaking the slag up. Remelt the the tin MP 232C.

Start with a small crucible and work up.

stuey
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

#19

This sounds hugely interesting. I'm usually around in the evenings from 6 onwards. I'd like to come and have a look/yap.

http://www.amazingrust.com/Experiments/how_to/Thermite.html#SnO2

Smelting will give you a better result if your gunge has quite a lot of impurities.

Dolcoathguy
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

#20

I wonder how much one of those instant XRF analyses guns are? Would be very useful in this case!

Is it safe to come out of the bunker yet?