tin powder

i sure would like to know ow to make a lil tin powder for my stannis, i figured i could just file up a ol tin can....but noooooo of corse it wouldnt be that easy,...can anyone tell me what to do,,..i have a batch ready to go and now im just sittin waiting

Just check for lead free solder, it is usually
95% tin 5% antimony, and that will work.
Just let the black antimony settle and pour
the stannous solution off.
Jim

If you have solid stannous II chloride (SnCl2) you can simply dissolve 1 gram of it in 15 mL of 31% HCl with a little heat.

Once the salt dissolves you should have a good test solution. This recipe won't keep as long as the one using pure tin powder, but should work fine for testing. You can extend the life of this version of the test solution buy storing it in a dark space, covered, and with a small amount of metallic tin in the storage bottle. When you suspect PM's and get a false reading, verify your test solution against a known sample of pregnant solution.

Edit:

I just re-read your post and realized you are looking for a source of tin. I sell pure tin for $1 per gram on my website or you can use the solder Jim referenced above. Sorry for the mix-up, but the tin salt recipe is still valid.

Steve

Someone posted that you can buy fishing sinkers that are pure tin so I went and checked at Walmart. They were being marketed as "green" or some such thing. They were Eagle Claw brand and it didn't say anything about tin but you could see the color was whiter than the lead shot. I bought a bag of the reusuable split shot and tried it out with some muriatic acid - worked like a charm.

WHEW!... it finaly dropped..thanks for the help guys...

I use tin solder i bought from a plumber supply store for about $ 10 for a 1 Lb roll.

Pewter cups work great too, and can be commonly bought from second hand stores for a buck and weigh on average 200grams.
Try and get the 97% or higher value Tin content cups.

ok guys
well its been two days now and i thought after adding the smb i made from my tin sinkers my gold had dropped,
but it appears that after 2 days i still just have a nice dark liquid i cant see threw with very little clearing.
so......have i just made some very high priced weed killer? or should i just let it continue setting, whatever you guys can suggest would be appreciated
thanks ...pat

SMB is sodium metabisulfite.

You do not make this with tin.

What you made is Stanus chloride. Tin metal disolved in HCL.

If you added this to your gold solution, you most likely made a colloidal gold solution.

Pat,
Please, please, please get a copy of Hoke's book and study it. Read the posts on the forum, get copies of Steve's fabulous DVDs before attempting to refine anything else. Mistakes are costly, dangerous and just plain unnecessary, with the info in this forum. Knowledge is power and there are many on here with knowledge and the patience of Job who are willing to share their hard won tech, but you at least have to know the basics.
K

Look below in my sig line for the link to Hoke's book :arrow: :arrow: :arrow: :arrow:

pat1 said:

ok guys
well its been two days now and i thought after adding the smb i made from my tin sinkers my gold had dropped,
but it appears that after 2 days i still just have a nice dark liquid i cant see threw with very little clearing.
so......have i just made some very high priced weed killer? or should i just let it continue setting, whatever you guys can suggest would be appreciated
thanks ...pat

Click to expand...

Someone here will know how to recover from your mistake. Don't throw anything away you can save your gold.

pat1 said:

ok guys
well its been two days now and i thought after adding the smb i made from my tin sinkers my gold had dropped,

Click to expand...

Did I read that correctly, or was the sun in my eyes?

You made smb from tin sinkers?

One does NOT make smb from sinkers, tin or otherwise. If you dissolved sinkers and added the solution to your gold chloride, what you just did was precipitate your gold as a colloid, using stannous chloride. That is commonly known as a big mistake.

but it appears that after 2 days i still just have a nice dark liquid i cant see threw with very little clearing.

Click to expand...

Yes, one that is dark purple to black in color, yes?

so......have i just made some very high priced weed killer? or should i just let it continue setting, whatever you guys can suggest would be appreciated
thanks ...pat

Click to expand...

Well, I was wise enough to never get myself in that position (I read Hoke. Have you?) so I'm not sure exactly how to deal with this mess. One thing you may be able to do is evaporate the solution until it is a thick syrup, then give it a boil in HCl. It would then be diluted, allowed to settle, and then the solution syphoned off. I would expect that by now, the solutioin would be free of purple color. If not, I would repeat the evaporation until the material was fully dried, then I'd melt the solids along with some silver, to act as a collector. Use plenty of borax and soda ash as well. That should recover the lions share of the values, then you can part the silver and attempt the recovery process of the gold.

DO NOT USE STANNOUS CHLORIDE FOR ANTHING BUT TESTING. Smb and stannous chloride are not the same thing.

Harold

No one advocating incineration? Wow, this has to be the first thread no one mentioned it... ooops.

This is just an idea so the more experienced members maybe could give some feedback before anyone tries it.

I would evaporate the big mess to get a dry mass of gold, tin and everything else in it.
Then crush and incinerate it well, oxidise any tin to tin oxide, copper to copper oxide and so on.
Then leach out any base metal soluble in nitric acid. (My guess is that it would remove copper oxide.)
Then finally use AR to dissolve the gold trapped in the sediments.
Filter the gold chloride. The tin shouldn't be a problem as it isn't present as a gel.
Then finally precipitate the gold with SMB.

Comments?

/Göran

Well Göran, if I was to go that route, I would first use hcl after incinerating, so that the tin did not become "gell" ( meta-stannic acid), as it does in nitric.
Randy

ok.....i guess what i have done was a mistake,,so how do i make the smb?
or do i have to buy smb to solitify my gold.
i will look into the book for sure,..but for now could someone give me an idea on how to remedy this situation that i have seemed to have gotten myself into plz
hey...if noting else it was good for you guys to have a laff on the new person.
thanks for your input so far
pat

hey...if noting else it was good for you guys to have a laff on the new person.

Click to expand...

I can assure you that no one is laughing. EVERYONE has been a noobie at some point in their lives.

Buy the SMB. It's cheap and someone can direct you to where you can easily obtain it.

ok.....bought the smb off ebay im sure a lb is pleanty more than enuff for the time being,now i will go snoop for a good recipe for mixing that....anyone have practical experiance witha good recipe you like to use?
pat

If you follow theGuided Tour Link in my signature below I have a list with all of the common recipes used in gold refining.

I use SMB dry.

Steve

g_axelsson said:

No one advocating incineration? Wow, this has to be the first thread no one mentioned it... ooops.

Click to expand...

Believe me, it was one of the things I was considering. I fully understand the benefits of incineration. The problem is having others understand it as I do.

I stand almost alone where incineration is concerned, with many disregarding its advantages, considering it not essential. In that case, they have much to learn.

However, in this instance, it isn't necessary, assuming the process I outlined works. Once the particles are boiled in HCl, traces of tin should be dissolved and eliminated in the decanting process, so the remaining material can then be re-dissolved without the incineration process. That would eliminate the base metals instead of drag them through the entire process and having to re-dissolve them.

A lot would depend on the colloidal gold. It would have to coalesce into larger particles, which is likely to happen with the HCl boil. If they did, they'd settle readily. Dunno----never tried it, as I said. A purple solution after the HCl boil would speak volumes about the veracity of the concept.

Harold