Biscuit tins

[waggy]

A question for the surface coating experts!

I was on the lookout for some thin steel sheet to use as cylinder wrappers for 46222 when I hit on the idea of using the base or lid of one of those squareish biscuit tins. The steel is lovely and soft and folds around the cylinder block with ease.
The metal is coated with a clear substance that is very difficult to remove with a solvent, don't want to rub off with abrasives as the surface will be marked. What is it?
Cellulose thinners softens it but won't remove, turps, Nitromors and caustic soda are just laughed at! Heat has it worried but even after burning it's difficult to remove.
Cellulose primer sticks very well, no bubbling at all. Whatever it is, can it be bought and used as a primer by us chaps?

Dave.

[Phil Sutton]

It must be some thing that won't clash with food regulations,as buiscuits are loosein the tin.If cellulose thinners softens it,then I would think it is celluose based.I wonder if petrol would shift it?
on the other hand if primer takes to it so well,why remove it at all?It would save you a job.
It has just struck me that it could be a plastic coating of some sort?Sorry not to be much help.

Phil

[waggy]

Thanks for the reply Phil, still no idea what the coating is. Petrol makes no impression at all. As you say, I've left it on, no detriment to painting.

Dave.

[steammadman]

Hi Waggy(and his biscuit tins)
Sorry your having trouble with your biscuit tin
cleading,i've been using the same stuff for all sorts of jobs for years,and i can't recall ever having any problems painting the stuff.
I usually use car spray cans,start off with a coat of red
oxide primer, and then two or three coats of finnish.
I have ,by the way , done both sides of the tin material.
give it a try, if you make a cock up you can always
try on another piece.(and if you run out of tin you can
always buy the wife a tin full of chocolates,that way you get your cleading, and a load of brownie points.)
This usually works for me!!!, but don'nt do it too often.

[Tel]

Hmmmm..... if I started giving Mrs Tel tins of chocolates or biscuits she'd begin to wonder wot I'd been up to - prolly hire a detective.

[waggy]

Aye up lads,
Not having trouble using or painting the stuff, just wondered what it is and is it any use to us as a primer? I get the impression buying buscuits for the wife could land me in trouble, if I bought her enough though, she wouldn't be able to run fast enough to catch me! He He!!

[steammadman]

yeah waggy but think of the times when she finds you
a job when you want to go into the shed,a little bribary goes a long way.any way ,i didnt say buy her a tin FULL of chocs, go round your relations scrounging their empty tins and put half a dozen in ,then you don't have to wait long for the empty tin.And maybe you'l get out of those jobs she keeps lining up a bit longer.
You see after near 50 years wed you aquire a list of
get outs, and excuses.
cheers

[Tel]

Married men don't really live longer - it just seems a lot longer

[steammadman]

yeh thats right tell, seems ahell of a lot longer,
and don't they moan when you bring a little bit
of swarf into the house?.
I keep telling her i like to share it,but then her face goes red ,i run!!!.
cheers lads

[Tel]

Dunno whether I've told this story or not but...

When I built my 5"g LCH coal hopper I made several hundred 'coach head' bolts out of 3/32" rivets. Made a little rivet holder, and a little die holder & I would sit in the chair & thread these things while watching the idjut box.

This went on for about a week, until Mrs Tel sez - 'I don't know where they are coming from, but the chair is full of these tiny metal shavings' - needless to say I didn't enlighten 'er - just moved the sphere of operations to a safer location.

[Phil Sutton]

There you go.Me,I got earache for dropping a hot soldering iron on the cushion floor in the kitchen,and I'm already in hock for a new kitchen table!

Phil