Maybe this will help. Pay close attention to Lazersteve’s comments.
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/mini-firebrick-furnace.7387/#post-67143
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/mini-firebrick-furnace.7387/#post-67143
Accomplished nothing so far
- Thread starter Edwin Price
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You gents know a lot more about melting and recovery of gold than me. I spent most of my career trying to ensure zirconium cladding on nuclear fuel rods never got to the melting point. The main equation was Q = m(delta h). Obviously that formula was used for fluid flow in the nucleate boiling range. Is that equation applicable to melting gold as well? I know that insulation was critically important to efficiency on not only primary systems of both naval and commercial reactors, but on the secondary side as well. I have struggled greatly with getting complete gold melting with my TS8000 torch and Map Pro gas. I have subsequently added additional insulation in the form of borax glazed crucible on a 2nd larger crucible on a fire brick on cement surrounded by fibrous insulation material. Now with the covered Gusswein crucible, whenever it arrives, I should have about the best insulated set up available. Wish me luck. So far I have only achieved recovering a few very small pieces of gold. But it’s fun and not intended to be an income source. I just want to refine a collect the gold. ty
Darkthirty
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Well, if sreetips doesn't use it, why should anyone else? To get the maximum BTUs out of any fuel source requires adequate O2. 21% doesn't always do it. Acetylene supposedly will burn in 100% concentration, why use O2 also?
I’m not sure what you’re asking/saying but a B Torch burns acetylene only and gets hot enough to melt gold. BarrenRealms (RIP) used one for a long time and even had a video at one time melting gold with one. My first discussion with him on a one to one basis was about torch's and how to melt gold.
Darkthirty
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Interesting. It doesn't have venturi ports for ambient oxygen? only torch work I've done is cutting or anneal/tempering
If you add oxygen to any fuel, it will burn more vigorously and at a higher temperature. Propane in air burns at 1,980° C. Propane and oxygen burns at 2,820° C. Acetylene in air burns at 2,400° C. With oxygen it's 3,100° C.
Dave
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Exactly this. Smack on the money. Why do things the hard way if there's a simpler way? Financially it's actually better too as you lose the cost of the rig (even a small one) when balanced against the excess gas costs of other ways of doing it if you're doing it fairly regularly.
Investment in good equipment pays dividends over time. There's an old Brit saying that applies here. Buy once cry once.
Then there's buy crap......cry a lot!
kurtak
Well-known member
I have melted many - Many - MANY troy ounces of gold using the TS8000 torch (for pouring 1 ozt bars)
You don't need all of that
IMO - what works MUCH better then "insulating" around the melting dish (to retain heat "around" the melting dish) is to simple heat the dish from the bottom of the dish
I do that by using a single burner camp stove like this -------
https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/bas...p.ds&msclkid=731e43b0499b1aead3172584836b1881
What I do --- instead of using the stove/burner with those small tanks - I instead clamp the burner in my vice (this way I don't accidently tip it over) - I then attach the burner to a 20 pound (5 gallon) propane tank with a hose - I then set a piece of expanded metal screen on top of the burner & then set my melting dish on top of the expanded metal screen
By doing it this way not only am I heating the dish from the top with the torch (to bring it all up to melt temp) but the dish is also being heated from the bottom of the dish by the camp stove burner
Heating the dish from the bottom - instead of trying to "retain" heat with insulation will not only insure good melt results but will also speed the melting up - especially if you are doing multiple melts/pours
Here isa pic of a single burner camp stove clamped in my vise except that I am using it to incinerate something instead using it for melting as described above
Kurt
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Hmmm… that certainly looks an inexpensive and efficient method for melting metals. Thank you!
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Please note; the above set up is for incineration, not melting metals. It is just how he heats the bottom.
Actually found some more gold bearing material while treating and disposing of wastes. I already did a drop last nite with Ferrous Sulphate, but obviously more remains in the solution. Lately I’ve mostly just been treating waste and depopulating PCB’s for new source material. I hope to have several kilograms worth to begin my next campaign. I was definitely using too much nitric acid and too little source material when I first started the hobby back in January. Also liked the switch from using urea and sodium metabisulfite to sulphamic acid and ferrous sulphate. Reducing the use of nitric has facilitated a huge reduction in need for sulphalmic acid too. Thank you all for the advice provided so far.
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Martijn
Well-known member
Got to love those stockpot surprises!
Are those your nuggets you got back from the waste?
Gather those foils until you have at least a couple of grams. Foils tend to vanish into nothing leaving you scratching your head where all it went. They sure look nice, but are so thin, there is not much weight in them.
The foils came from a cheap plated pocket watch that didn’t works. You are correct. They are extremely light. Could easily blow away. The ones on the left have had all copper residue removed by nitric and filter. The others remain to be cleaned and separated from copper remains.
Here’s some of the tiny pieces recovered from waste sludge. I could never get my gold to coalesce back then into a bb. Apparently I threw out some good stuff unknowingly. I’m a little bit better at melting and recovery now. It is nice to safely get rid of waste AND actually recover something in return. 
ty
tyAttachments
What do you gents think of this powder? It came from solution that tested positive for gold, required little de-noxing due to limited use of nitric, was precipitated with ferrous sulfate, washed multiple times, dried and had a tiny bit of sodium carbonate added. This powder doesn’t seem as dark or fine as when I used sodium metabisulfate. The gold particles in this batch came from some panning material and some recovered from ewaste which improperly treated. I suppose I will crush it up with mortar and pestle before melting it in my new covered Gusswein crucible and hope for some gold recovery. 
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Martijn
Well-known member
It may be the lighting, but in the first picture looks like nice pure gold, the second like mud.What do you gents think of this powder? It came from solution that tested positive for gold, required little de-noxing due to limited use of nitric, was precipitated with ferrous sulfate, washed multiple times, dried and had a tiny bit of sodium carbonate added. This powder doesn’t seem as dark or fine as when I used sodium metabisulfate. The gold particles in this batch came from some panning material and some recovered from ewaste which improperly treated. I suppose I will crush it up with mortar and pestle before melting it in my new covered Gusswein crucible and hope for some gold recovery.
