Is pewter safe for stills ?

[snapperhead]

Hi all

Asking if anyone knows if its safe to use pewter in a still. like mostly used as 21st beer tankards and the like.

pewter used to be a Tin/Lead alloy, but it was regulated long ago to be a Tin/Antimony mix for food safe conditions.

Would make a bling soft solder if it was safe in the vapour stream. it melts at soft solder temps too (between soft and silver anyway)

[blond.chap]

Can't say for sure, but I'd be worries about it deforming during a run, its melting point is around 179degC, though it won't get that hot, it will be more malleable and might not hold the weight of the PC. Old pewter also contains quite a not of lead, so don't use that stuff.

[crow]

No, no no no

might be better if you used lead pipe. Antimony dissolves in ethanol , antimony is not an accumulative poison like lead and you body will past is but you only need a very small trace amount to acutely poison you seriously damaging organs and possibly causing death, I can't remember high much is a fatal dose but it ain't very much and once poisoned there is no cure, your body either gets rid of it quick enough or you die . Maybe google Antimony poisoning :sad-suicidepills:

[snapperhead]

Thanks for that, I will flag that plan for the darwin awards.
Big thanks

[Andy]

i wouldn't bother with pewter. it wouldn't contribute to the process like copper and as said when heated will be fairly malleable.

think antimony toxicity would be from inhalation not ingestion. cant imagine it being absorbed too well- we probably get a nice dose in our tap water.

[crow]

Well if you had pewter water pipes and were running ethanol through them regularly yep you might be ingesting more than using pewter on your still but then again I doubt if. Antimony and the fact that it is soluble in certain alcohols is the reason is is very unwise to use PET bottles for ethanol storage. If ya want to drink the "cool aid" fine but don't go saying its safe just because inhaling might be slightly worse
Wikki
Precautions

Antimony and many of its compounds are toxic, and the effects of antimony poisoning are similar to arsenic poisoning. The toxicity of antimony is by far lower than that of arsenic; this might be caused by the significant differences of uptake, metabolism and excretion between arsenic and antimony. The uptake of antimony(III) or antimony(V) in the gastrointestinal tract is at most 20%. Antimony(V) is not quantitatively reduced to antimony(III) in the cell (in fact antimony(III) is oxidised to antimony(V) instead[77]).
Since methylation of antimony does not occur, the excretion of antimony(V) in urine is the main way of elimination.[78] Like arsenic, the most serious effect of acute antimony poisoning is cardiotoxicity and the resulted myocarditis, however it can also manifest as Adams–Stokes syndrome which arsenic doesn't. Reported cases of intoxication by antimony equivalent to 90 mg antimony potassium tartrate dissolved from enamel has been reported to show only short term effects. An intoxication with 6 g of antimony potassium tartrate was reported to result in death after 3 days.[75]
Inhalation of antimony dust is harmful and in certain cases may be fatal; in small doses, antimony causes headaches, dizziness, and depression. Larger doses such as prolonged skin contact may cause dermatitis, or damage the kidneys and the liver, causing violent and frequent vomiting, leading to death in a few days.[79]
Antimony is incompatible with strong oxidizing agents, strong acids, halogen acids, chlorine, or fluorine. It should be kept away from heat.[80]
Antimony leaches from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles into liquids.[81] While levels observed for bottled water are below drinking water guidelines,[82] fruit juice concentrates (for which no guidelines are established) produced in the UK were found to contain up to 44.7 µg/L of antimony, well above the EU limits for tap water of 5 µg/L.[83][84] The guidelines are: