Our experiment.

This week we will be trying very hard to create an Alloy, whilst at the same time teaching others about how and why we would do this. The Alloy we have chosen is Solder, created from a mixture of Lead and Tin.

We will be using:

• Charcoal
• Lead
• Tin
• Carbon Powder
• Casting sand
• Crucible
• Tongs and heat resistant gloves.

The experiment itself should look like this:

• We make a very hot fire using our charcoal.
• Secondly we must prepare our casting sand for the Alloy.
• Placing 1g of lead into our crucible (terracotta pot i found at a garden centre) we heat this in the fire until the lead is molten.
• Whilst this happens we can explain how things melt.
• We then add a spoon full of Carbon powder, this will prevent the lead forming a skin.
• Next we must add 1g of Tin and allow that to melt.
• When everything is molten we move the crucible out of the fire and stir our metals together.
• Before it cools we must then pour the metal into our casting sand.
• When the Solder cools we will be able to demonstrate its increased hardness and reduced density.

The result of our efforts will hopefully demonstrate to the group that 'working with metals' is possible in a Forest environment.

                                                         Lead
      Solder wire.
Tin

Rob Jones