Brazing

[olooko]

I read alot about brazing the foil before you use it. Some say it reduces the amount of Al partials you intake. It doesn't make any sense to me, unless I'm brazing my foil wrong.

What i do is i use my torch lighter and heat the foil till it melts slightly. Is this the right way to "braze"?

This makes no sense to me because it melts the foil, which is one phase away from ionizing the metal. Then those Al ions can and most likely will be up taken by me.

Can someone help me out here?

The reason i bring this up is this Al foil and Alzheimers Edited July 30, 2007 by ghostofdavid

[Johnny_D]

Never heard of anyone doing this.

If Foil is safe to cook in i fail to see what issues may arise from covering your shisha in it.

I think your worrying about nothing.

JD

[Xyclone]

I read somewhere that the melting point of aluminum is wayyy higher than the temperature that can be achieved using coals. I might be wrong, but it's just something to consider.

[SafeSearchOff]

i dont know what temp coals reach, but my downstairs oven maxes out at 500, i use it to quick defrost pizza, on alum foil. like JD said, if its safe for cooking, i cant imagine it being unsafe for shisha.

[olooko]

I read somewhere that the melting point of aluminum is wayyy higher than the temperature that can be achieved using coals. I might be wrong, but it's just something to consider.

The melting temp of Al is 933.47 K (660.32 °C, 1220.58 °F) and i don't think coals reach that temp. If i remember right the are under 400 °F. Edited July 30, 2007 by olooko

[SafeSearchOff]

yeah, remember, the shisha isnt necessarily heating that much, its just enough to evaporate the glycerin and honey and such in the shisha, and the boiling point isnt anywhere remotely close to the melting point of Al. By about, 900 degrees farenheight.

[stryet]

I used to worry about this all the time, but just think the shisha is cooking in the foil...it should be safe.

That article says the minute aluminum particles are usually excreted in urine...just remember to hydrate!

[boomhauer]

i get bored after i smoked my bowl and put down the aluminum and turn my mapp gas torch on it and melt it into nothing. torch reaches the following temperatures as Benzomatic says

Flame Temperature in Oxygen (°F) 5,301
Flame Temperature in Air (°F) 3,450

[Rani]

I read alot about brazing the foil before you use it. Some say it reduces the amount of Al partials you intake. It doesn't make any sense to me, unless I'm brazing my foil wrong.

What i do is i use my torch lighter and heat the foil till it melts slightly. Is this the right way to "braze"?

This makes no sense to me because it melts the foil, which is one phase away from ionizing the metal. Then those Al ions can and most likely will be up taken by me.

Can someone help me out here?

The reason i bring this up is this Al foil and Alzheimers

Okay not a doctor here, but repeating what I've read. Aluminum is a metal that your body will latch onto if you're not getting enough of the other metals your body requires. Basically the theory is that your body needs certain metals - iron, magnesium, zinc, etc. but you're body is going to work and do what it needs to do to keep working as long as it can in the interest of survival. So if you are missing consumption of the metals it needs, it will grab any metal molecule it can to fill in the gap. Replacing a iron molecule that should have been there with a aluminum one that is available. Seems logical to me, so I would suggest that the way to avoid the wrong metals being absorbed, is to make sure you consuming the right ones. And then your body can reject those it doesn't need or want.

'Rani

[buttpintoo]

Coal might not be hot enough to melt AL, but what makes you think that AL foil is pure AL? I know for a fact that Reynolds wrap is compound metal. To tell the truth, I would be more concern for the thin plastic backing that is on every single inch of a foil.

[Calcartman]

Coal might not be hot enough to melt AL, but what makes you think that AL foil is pure AL? I know for a fact that Reynolds wrap is compound metal. To tell the truth, I would be more concern for the thin plastic backing that is on every single inch of a foil.

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/phs22.html

FDA has determined that aluminum cooking utensils, aluminum foil, antiperspirants, antacids, and other aluminum products are generally safe.

Get over it guys.

Its better for you than the tobacco and coals.

[MechAnt]

The only thing I braze are Salmon or Tuna Filets and Steaks.

Brazing AL..... strange concept.  When you heat up foil, you notice that it smokes a little bit.  I've never seen that as a good thing

[degs]

I figure the tobacco and coals will kill you anyways, why worry about the foil?

I'm also so used to using it on food that it doesn't seem dangerous to me.

[olooko]

sounds good to me.

[Sonthert]

Oh, this conversation.

Aluminum is found in the brain in Alzheimer's victims. To assume that using aluminum foil causes Alzheimer's is along the same lines as believing hats cause baldness. The linked Alzheimer's site says that there is a link (aluminum is found in the brain of Alzheimer's victims), but "No causal relationship has been found." That is, aluminum doesn't cause Alzheimer's. In other countries (I believe France is one of them), they use aluminum hydroxide and/or aluminum sulfate for water purification in rural areas. Those people often have aluminum intakes of 20-30 times the amount of aluminum that the Average American does, yet there is no increase in Alzheimer's or brain damage or aluminosis or anything aluminum related. If there was a causal relationship, people would more or less, have higher rates of Alzheimer's as they drank more and more aluminum entered their bodies. It doesn't, so, I would think aluminum is safe. Ironically, the logic that aluminum is dangerous and the mechanism for its introduction into the body by smoking works would make a steel screen far more dangerous. Iron is poisonous and is far more amenable to vaporization than is aluminum.

One of my new theories is that either Pro-Nazi skin-heads or anti-smoking nut-jobs invented the aluminum myth...or somebody else. I don't know Edited July 31, 2007 by Sonthert

[olooko]

Oh, this conversation.

Aluminum is found in the brain in Alzheimer's victims. To assume that using aluminum foil causes Alzheimer's is along the same lines as believing hats cause baldness. The linked Alzheimer's site says that there is a link (aluminum is found in the brain of Alzheimer's victims), but "No causal relationship has been found." That is, aluminum doesn't cause Alzheimer's. In other countries (I believe France is one of them), they use aluminum hydroxide and/or aluminum sulfate for water purification in rural areas. Those people often have aluminum intakes of 20-30 times the amount of aluminum that the Average American does, yet there is no increase in Alzheimer's or brain damage or aluminosis or anything aluminum related. If there was a causal relationship, people would more or less, have higher rates of Alzheimer's as they drank more and more aluminum entered their bodies. It doesn't, so, I would think aluminum is safe. Ironically, the logic that aluminum is dangerous and the mechanism for its introduction into the body by smoking works would make a steel screen far more dangerous. Iron is poisonous and is far more amenable to vaporization than is aluminum.

One of my new theories is that either Pro-Nazi skin-heads or anti-smoking nut-jobs invented the aluminum myth...or somebody else. I don't know

OMG Thank you so much for this. I feel better now, I was freaking out about Al so I went out of my way to buy a screen. To tell the truth I really don't like the screen, yea it convenient, but it has too many holes and they are too big.

[symptom CY]

I never exactly bought into the myth of aluminum being in some way dangerous, but I've still always wondered why it seems to emit a distinct odor and sometimes even visible fumes when heated. It seems to give off some kind of gas...

[SafeSearchOff]

i always thought those fumes were my shisha burning >.<
time to take off a coal for a while...

[Evil_Spork]

I read somewhere that the melting point of aluminum is wayyy higher than the temperature that can be achieved using coals. I might be wrong, but it's just something to consider.

you need a few thousand degrees F to melt aluminum. coals burn at like 900*f

[Sonthert]

I've noticed that, too, I think that a fine layer of hookah juice gets on the foil and then boils real quickly...does it do this off the hookah, too?

[symptom CY]

Yeah, that's what I mean -- I've noticed it several times when simply holding a clean piece of aluminum foil over a flame. It also seems to melt -- it remains solid, but it sort of drapes downward suddenly, as if it were a piece of thin cloth. It's not actually melting of course, but it might seem that way at first.

[Sonthert]

Oh, I know what your saying. Metals will expand and get softer as they are heated up...like jelly or something. The real question is, as they get softer and expand, do they vaporize more? The answer for aluminum is no. For steel, its yes. Edited August 2, 2007 by Sonthert

[MechAnt]

Another reason not to worry about aluminum!  Although it may not hold as much ground as some other arguments it's still somewhat valid.

Calphalon is a line of high-end cookware that is made from aluminum.  Its taken into the body a little differently and the metal is purified differently but either way, its a safe cookware that doesnt hurt you anymore than foil does with hookah.