you may have seen my other question about melting aluminum.. but now its tin..?

Question

i did some googling.. and i found out that tin only has a melting point of 400 degrees F and i was wondering how i get tin, and if tin are purely tin cans (like the ones you get peaches in) and if i can use tin cans or are they alloys?

Answer 1

'Tin cans" are not made of tin but are made of iron (steel) with a thin tin coating on the outside and an enamel (inert) coating (usually) on the inside. Some solders and pewter are common alloys of tin. To get pure tin from cans may be very difficult. it would melt at 231.93 degrees centigrade in a kitchen oven but due to its surface tension in the liquid state would not run off. It is attacked by acids such as hydrochloric acid but that would result in its salt, SnCl2, in solution and that would require some chemistry to recover metalic tin from it. When heated in air it oxidizes to SnO2, again this would require some chemistry to recover metallic tin.