Craftsmanship > Accoutrements

leaky cups

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Bigsmoke:
Or, you could do what I have done.
You got the cup, drink really strong, nasty coffee out of it, and never rinse it out.  It will seal itself.  Plus, it make for an interesting lab experiment, sort of like a tin Petri dish.

wwpete52:
The 3 cups that are leaking are not the cheapo kind of cups.  They are the heavy hand made tin cups.

Three Hawks:

--- Quote from: "wwpete52" ---The 3 cups that are leaking are not the cheapo kind of cups.  They are the heavy hand made tin cups.
--- End quote ---

In that case sealing the leaky place(s) should be a cinch.  Get some low temp lead free solder from the hardware store and simply solder from the inside  of the cup with it using a propane torch.   I did my replica Hudson's Bay 1 qt copper kettle that way and haven't had drip since.   It took all of a minute or so.

Most of the low temp lead free solders are around 94% tin with some other metal in it to make it flow more easily.  None are harmful to the greater primates including most of the humanoids.

Three Hawks

wwpete52:
That sounds like a winner! Thanks Three Hawks!

Mike Ameling:
There are also differences in the style of construction of tin cups that nobody has talked about either.

What does that bottom seam look like?  When most people talk about a "tin cup", they are generally talking about those with a machine rolled/crimped bottom seam.  The bottom kind of looks like that on a modern bean or coffee can - recessed a bit with that rolled/crimped rim sticking slightly down.  Well, many of those rely upon that machine rolled/crimped seam to seal themselves up.  They may or may not have been soldered inside.  But many just seal the bottom with that hand-cranked mechanical seal as they roll and crimp that seam.  That mechanical seal is faster and easer to make, but can lead to failures.  But it also starts to date that tin cup to around 1840 and later - after those hand-cranked tinsmith machines started to become available for use.

The older style of bottom seam was a flat disk with the outside edge turned up 90 degrees, and then the sides of the cup set straight down into it.  Then the seam was soldered to bond it and seal it.  
Or they used a "tabbed" bottom.  The bottom edge of the sides of the cup were cut into tabs, with every other one bent in.  Then a round disk was set in flush, then the other tabs bent down over that bottom locking that disk in place.  And then the whole thing soldered to seal.  

But most "tin cups" you see, even by some of the better tinsmiths, have that hand-cranked machine rolled and crimped seam.  They do it for the savings in time and energy when manufacturing a cup.  Those mid 1800's and later hand-cranked tinsmithing machines were made to speed up production and cut manufacturing costs.

Just something else to ponder.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

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