Antique pot still and brass.

[handlebar]

I recently aquired an antique pot still identical to this one http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 1977wt_708. I thought the top elbow was brass as it was much heavier and more rigid than the rest of the still. The inside had a sort of reddish rust look to it but it is definately not ferrous. I began cleaning it while reading many of the posts here about the dangers of brass which made me super paranoid about using it. I took the elbow off and put some of the vinegar peroxide solution in to see what would happen. While the solution was there, it started to look very golden but as soon as I dumped it out, all of the exposed areas had the rainbow coloring effect.
Is this still safe to use? Has anyone else used and antique like this?

[olddog]

If it's the same size, it would be too small to be of any use. Also you would have to de-solder all of the joints and clean back to metal, then resolder with silver bearing solder.


OD

[Pikluk]

a while ago i saw a post of someone trying a bunch of copper cleaning method/product
there was a bunch of different color result.
brass can be bad cause in the manufacturing lead could be leaf on the surface
i don't think something that have be used a lot can still have some left
but it seem with a simple treatment could be removed.
there another possible problem it could have lead solder.
but theres lead home testing kit available and not too expensive from what i gather.

you got a nice piece there i would hold on to it.
could alway use it for a thumper of stove top still.

I thought the top elbow was brass as it was much heavier and more rigid than the rest of the still.

thats just because of the thickness because the mass of copper and brass is not far from each other.
from the way i see it the way it i wouldn't be surprised that it is brass.looks like it.

[Ayay]

The elbow, lid and the little handle appear to all one casting. That's why it's heavy because castings need to be thicker so they can be cast. There should be no joints in it so all that matters is what metal is it casted out of. Pure copper is hard to cast so it will be either brass or bronze, probably with a high copper content because it looks like copper.

If it's well used then any lead in the alloy may have already been leached out. Another way is to tin the inside of the cast piece.. Clean the inner surfaces to bare metal, flux, then heat it up until pure tin or lead-free solder will melt when pressed against the surface. The molten tin can be smeared around using a rag soaked in flux (Baker's Fluid / killed spirits / zinc chloride) on the end of a stick...gives lots of steam and acidic fumes!

[handlebar]

The boiler looks to be about 2 or so gallons. The elbow looks to be a plumbing street elbow that reduces. it fits in to the top collar either by threads or sliding and is then welded in place. the bottom collar is welded the boiler. These three parts seem to be brass as they turn "gold" when buffed up. i've seen several of this exact still on ebay. almost as if it were a commercial model.
My concern is that the "rust" on the inside of the head is actually lead oxidation.

When I first opened the lid, I could smell the remnants of a whisky wash. There is a bunch of caked residue in the bottom that was probably the last mash this still saw about 70 years ago.

[dragonfrog]

You might also consider electroplating the part with copper.

It's pretty easy to do, if the existing piece is brass or steel. In a bath of copper sulphate (in Canada, it's sold as a root killer for clearing drains), submerge the part you want plated, and a source of copper (an offcut scrap of copper pipe works great). The part you want plated should be suspended, not touching the bottom of the bath, so all parts are exposed to the bath. Connect the two pieces to the electrodes of a little wall-wart power supply, around 5-10 volts DC, and leave it for a day or so. I don't recall offhand which piece needs to be connected to which electrode, but it's easy enough to look up if you're considering doing it.

[Ayay]

Send from = +

Receive = -

Copper anode or saturated copper sulphate sol is (+), the part to be plated is (-).