High voltage fuse

Anybody ever see this before. The fuse was silver plated along with all the screws. What type of metal is the fusable link. They have small round lead based links that look like contact points. I'm just not sure what kind of metal they are connected too.

It's probably worth more as a fuse than the value of any metals. I've seen similar ones on fleabay go for decent Money.

These were non functioning fuses. They weren't totally blown but a few of the lead points were melted. So basically im getting copper scrap prices. I had five of them weighing about 25 pounds. Ill take it. Heavey copper is just as good as a few tiny pieces of gold or silver.

With some of the smaller industrial fuses that look similar to yours, only much smaller, the inside link is Silver. I have never seen any the size you have, those are big fuses!

I'm pretty sure it's silver. I'd say around two ounces. I had to clip some lead points out. Got about a quarter ounce of lead alloy. I melted the links with an acetylen plumbers set up. It lobbed together and never really melted fully. It was glowing red hot. When it cooled you could just tell it was silver. It had some oxidation on the outer layer but I sanded it. It had a nice silver shine. They came out of a building in Manhattan.

Was a fiberglass tube over the middle?

Yup. It was screwed in with about 30 silver plated screws.

i have seen posts here about these large fuses. there was a photo of one with a big silver wire running down the center of the fuse
not sure who's post it was though.

this may be the post

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=16453&p=176753&hilit=fuse#p176753

pimpneightez said:

When it cooled you could just tell it was silver.

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An interesting comment, as there are copper alloys that have been produced to "look like silver".

It had some oxidation on the outer layer but I sanded it.It had a nice silver shine.

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Silver, If pure, won't show discoloration from being heated/melted.

I'm not implying that what you have is, or is not silver. Just that the things you're talking about can get you in trouble, assuming you find yourself in the position where you have to lay down some money, or if you get reckless and melt the wrong elements.

I'm headed somewhere with this, if you haven't figured it out yet.

Silver is one of the easiest of metals to test. All that is required is a small vial of Schwerter's solution, which is not beyond your ability to make. I make mention because with a simple test, which takes but a couple seconds, you can determine if you have silver, or not. Cadmium, for example, can easily be visually confused with silver, and is toxic. You really shouldn't be making decisions without testing.

Harold

Potassium_dichromate + dilute nitric acid.


When dissolved in an approximately 35% nitric acid solution it is called Schwerter's solution and is used to test for the presence of various metals, notably for determination of silver purity. Pure silver will turn the solution bright red, sterling silver will turn it dark red, low grade coin silver (0.800 fine) will turn brown (largely due to the presence of copper which turns the solution brown) and even green for 0.500 silver. Brass turns dark brown, copper turns brown, lead and tin both turn yellow while gold and palladium do not change
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_dichromate


at the bottom of the page under ""External links"" follow the link for:

Gold refining article listing color change when testing metals with Schwerter's Solution

it will take you to Laser_Steve web site

I have taken some fuses that look like this and it was silver but listen to the other please test. Each of my fuses had about 30 grams pure silver as i first tested with recovery with
nitric no copper just clean solution then recovered the silver this was pure because after the silver recovery i put iron to see if there was any other metals nothing.


Rikkiricardo

you may also get info from googling the part number

The pieces in the middle are pure silver. Have melted many of them.

I know it is quite late by now.. but i just got my hands a lot of old fuses of different kinds..

All of the strips i got was made of very high purity (99.9/99.99) silver, except for the preserved melting points, which most likely are coated (one side or full layer) silver with lead or tin, maybe cadmium and others too.. i just cut these points of and add them to silver contact points!

!!BUT!!!

Be careful when disassembling the stripes or wires, especially the old ones (the ones with full silver stripes, unlike new ones), when you see something looking like paper/concrete mix, it is most likely asbestos and you should strongly avoid any mechanical damage to it!!
If you want to further refine the remaining parts (outside connectors and metal base, not the melting points and strips), i guess melting is the first step..

Mine was high purity silver as well. Finally had it tested. If I remember correctly I think it was about 2-3 ounces per fuse. I had about 5 or 6 of them. Best pm recovery ever. Didn't have to reclaim or refine any of it.

All the links I've seen on those were pure silver.

goldsilverpro said:

All the links I've seen on those were pure silver.

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And all the high-voltage fuses like those I have dismantled , have had silica sand inside . Never found asbestos composites or something like that inside. Only ceramics and sand covering the silver ribbons.

machiavelli976 said:

goldsilverpro said:

All the links I've seen on those were pure silver.

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And all the high-voltage fuses like those I have dismantled , have had silica sand inside . Never found asbestos composites or something like that inside. Only ceramics and sand covering the silver ribbons.

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I still have them, i will make pictures within the next week and upload them here, as for now read that: http://www.asbestos.com/products/general/electrical-panel-partition.php

Separating high voltage components, asbestos panels prevented blown fuses from causing fires...Simply replacing a blown fuse on an older electrical supply system can put workers in contact with disturbed asbestos.

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Made a picture now, as the arrows indicate, the big fuse have asbestos paper on the inside, the two smaller fuses have remains of damaged asbestos paper on the outside :idea: