Empty Paint Tube: Soldered Sheet Lead, Rand 1841

John Rand's 1841 patent names grain-tin, lead and pewter for paint tubes. The metal only has to be thin enough to yield to pressure and stay collapsed. His own tube was drawn tin about 1/75 inch thick, but he writes that a tube of sheet metal with a soldered seam works as well. This is that route in lead: roll a strip round a former, solder the seam, close one end, and leave the other open for filling. Source: J. Rand, US 2,252 (1841). The sheet thickness, former, flux, size and tools are ours. The picture is the patent's drawing sheet.

متوسط

1 hour

التعليمات

Cut the strip

Cut a strip of thin lead sheet as long as the tube and wide enough to go once round the former with a narrow overlap. Rand asks only for metal thin enough to yield to pressure and stay collapsed; ours is Ure's thinner cast sheet, 1/48 in (0.5 mm). Longer tubes need somewhat thicker metal.

المواد لهذه الخطوة:

صفيحة رصاص1 as required

الأدوات المطلوبة:

مقصّ صفائح

مسطرة

Roll it round a former

Roll the strip round a round wooden dowel so the edges overlap, and press the seam flat. The dowel and the overlap are ours.

الأدوات المطلوبة:

وتد خشبي

Solder the seam

Join the edges by soldering, one of the two ways Rand gives (the other is melting the edges together). Ours: a little rosin flux and tin-lead solder run along the seam with a hot iron, on the dowel. Slide the tube off.

المواد لهذه الخطوة:

لحام قصدير-رصاص1 as required

معجون تدفّق للحام (أساسه الصمغ الراتنجي)1 as required

الأدوات المطلوبة:

كاوية لحام

وتد خشبي

Close one end

Press the edges of one end together with flat pliers (Rand used forceps that leave a groove along the end). Close it by adding a little solder with a hot iron. Leave the other end open: the tube is filled from there and then closed the same way.

المواد لهذه الخطوة:

لحام قصدير-رصاص1 as required

الأدوات المطلوبة: