microwave gold smelter

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Traveller11

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 24, 2007
Messages
281
Location
Sandspit, Queen Charlotte Islands, BC, Canada
Hello
Has anyone seen the microwave gold smelter kit? It sells online for $249 and all you need to go with it is a 1200 watt kitchen microwave oven and an iron mould to cast your gold into. Thirty to forty-five minutes on high and it heats your ore to 2300°.
Check it out.
Regards
Bob
 
ROTFL !!!!
:arrow: DISCLAIMER:

No guarantee is given on the amount of gold or silver obtained from this process, as it depends upon the quality of your material to begin with. The kiln is not a toy and is not to be used by children. IT IS A KILN THAT ULTIMATELY GENERATES TEMPERATURES IN EXCESS OF 2300 DEGREES! Please do not allow small children in the same room when you are firing! Use at your own risk and follow all recommended and common-sense safety precautions! Sellers are not responsible for accidents or injuries caused by hot kilns and your using one purchased from this seller acknowledges that you use it at your own risk. Please remember that a traditional kiln is composed of fireproofed materials and a microwave oven is made of materials that can burn under certain conditions.

I think common sense says don't put things in microwaves that they were not designed for. Will it work ?????
Hummmmm...... Cave Man Gold !!!
 
I knew this Microwave thing was a bad idea from the start. :shock: :shock: :shock:
:p :p :p
 

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I'm just imagining the sparks....have you ever accidentally put aluminium foil in one? :shock:
 
nickvc said:
I'm just imagining the sparks....have you ever accidentally put aluminium foil in one? :shock:

My coffee cups have a gold plated ring around the lip. It lights the microwave up.
 
Palladium said:
nickvc said:
I'm just imagining the sparks....have you ever accidentally put aluminium foil in one? :shock:

My coffee cups have a gold plated ring around the lip. It lights the microwave up.

I think this idea should be shelved.....NOW!
I'm finding the comedy in it but this could be downright lethal in the wrong hands! In the laboratory with all the necessary safety equipment it might be an interesting experiment but definitely not one for the home.
 
Words of wisdom, as is always the case, from Nick. 8)

Harold
 
As much as I hate anything to do with animal cruelty I've just spat my coffee all over my monitor looking at the cat in the microwave. :p :p :p
 
From what I can gather their is a big possibility that microwave melting of gold, has merit, industries use microwave for brazing, and tool making, and from what little I have gathered a man named David Ried developed a process to melt metal in a 2.4 GHZ microwave oven like a domestic oven, by removing the rotating dish plate an taping up the air holes from box to magnetron to eliminate air circulation, he was able to melt gold in lost wax castings and small amounts of gold and silver, I have read where Industrial company's using microwave heating and ceramics are taking much of their information in this field He has lead, into their processes industrially.

There seems to be a lot to this, and it seems like an induction process of heating, some seems to depend on having a susceptor (for microwaves) (heat sink?), to receive the energy, and induce another current to the reflective metal, and since metal reflects microwave energy this susceptor absorbs heat,

Also David seems to have used a type of refractory dome and insulation materials, also coating of washes of susceptors on crucibles in his experiments.

I have not done enough research to understand this completely yet, (even the industy doing this seems to have trouble understanding all of the factors involved, with how and why it works, there seems to be a lot of factors involved, with heating and melting using these electro magnetic waves, skin depth reflection of waves absorption, temperature and depth of penetration, frequency of different substances induction and so on.

But it does look like it is do-able and that these kits may work for small amount of melting gold and silver, if done properly it even seems safe and not damaging to the second hand microwave.

I think we should not discard this Idea too easily, at the cost of fuel and time it takes to melt metal; this may prove a do-able for us hobbyist. And this from first look seems very doable

http://www.ceralink.com/publications/2007_12-Microwave-Heating-Technologies-Heat-Treating-Progress-Mag.pdf

http://www.osti.gov/bridge/purl.cover.jsp;jsessionid=85DABCF9AC3E5B4A0DFEEC4754E09418?purl=/206628-u6ylsR/webviewable/

EDIT--link removed David Rieds method, member suspected trouble from site.

http://www.microwavegoldkiln.com/instructions

I note here (my guess) that the “FLUX” contains the susceptor to convert microwave energy to heat,
From what I have so far this can be silicone carbide, graphite carbon, and magnetite and so on, as an absorber of the electromagnetic wave energy to convert them to heat, some use these materials as coatings for the ceramic; they may also have added common fluxes we use for metals.
The refractory contains the energy that may damage the microwave shell, and may help to contain heat for the melt,
The house hold microwave is modified (tape over hole for air circulation into main chamber, and rotating plate removed,
Note here to they are using ore or black sand as these have suspector materials in them naturally.

This is not just get microwave and melt metal which could prove a fire hazard idea,
But with study this has merit, and nice possibilities.

I will not bore you with more links on this, as anyone interested will do their own research.
 
Microwave technology has a place in mineral and metal processing, but the microwave frequencies used are not the same as employed in a standard microwave. The way i understand the concept of the consumer microwave oven is that it is set up for a certain resonance frequency, the frequency is that of the vibration of the H2O molecule and that is what does the heating. The heating of metals is a whole different story.
 
Butcher I'm not against the idea been discussed as it might well have some merit but I feel trials need to be done by a knowledgeable careful and experienced person. My view was taken as a safeguard for the varying abilities and knowledge of the readers of the forum and for whom I feel at present this would not be something I would want to recommend.
This is still not something I feel should be tried by the general membership of the forum and if that point is stressed I see no problems in having discussions on it and thanks to the moderators I'm sure that will happen.
 
Given the least bit of thought, it becomes painfully obvious that an induction furnace is much like a microwave---the chief difference being the frequency at which each operates.

In order to heat non-metallic objects, frequency must be increased, so microwave ovens operate at extremely high frequencies. Reflecting on that notion, it should be clear that a microwave oven would not be tuned to operate at an effective level for metals, although if the lot is small enough, that may not be the case. As induction furnaces get larger and larger, they operate at lower frequencies, even as low as line frequency. Conversely, as the capacity decreases, frequency increases.

My induction furnace is a 50kw unit, motor generator type. It is capable of melting up to 200 pounds of material, and operates @ 3,000 Hz. It is an Ajax Magnethermic, and was offered in the same size, but one that operates @ 10,000 Hz.

When melting, lower frequencies are less able to produce enough heat to begin melting. A heel is required, an object that is large enough to create the required heat. The size of the heel is reduced as frequency increases, so the application intended for a given furnace often dictates the frequency required.

There is a chart that details acceptable operation levels for a given frequency. Furnaces operate above and below the projected parameters, but with less efficiency.

Harold
 
I was not suggesting anyone try to this, much research is needed, at least understanding the safety factors involved and the dangers, some of which can be unseen (microwave leakage).
Just as with anything we do, we must learn about it and its dangers.
I do suggest studying. And research,

AS of yet this field of microwave technology is in it's early stage of development, and it's use in metallurgy is just beginning to be explored and used, and the possibility's for its use are yet to be realized, some advance's are being made, but much progress will come in the future, with experimentation we will see this used more in the future, and I would not want to stop Thomas Edison from trying to see if he could make that piece of wire glow brightly.

Microwave technology is young and still in infancy, it was not that long ago the man working on a radar tube had a candy bar melt in his pocket, and thought he would put that radar tube in a box and cook dinner, most of us would warn him that is too dangerous.

Fact is for many many years I would not use a microwave to cook anything I ate, I did not want my food (NUKED) cooked (from the inside) with electromagnetic waves bashing water molecules un-naturally I did not trust it to cook any of my food, and I would not have one in my house, and I had some experience with microwave, working with communication towers, they told us the high power frequency's we were working with were cooking us from the inside,

Metals can be melted at 2.45 GHZ. As well as glass. But not without using another material to accept the electromagnetic wave, and induce (current?) into the object being melted (susceptor). Yes sometimes industrially the frequency is different and the chambers are different, but 2.45 GHZ is also used industrially for processing metals in sintering, brazing and other processes, some very much like the home microwave.

Although different frequency works for different materials, this also changes as the temperature changes, here with small amounts of metals
This cannot be done directly, as metals reflect the electromagnetic wave.
Although metal powder will absorb microwave energy directly and begin to heat.
Metals absorption of these waves depend on temperature seems once molecules are moving in the metal they start accepting the electro-magnetic waves easier.

Just as some type of food does not cook well in an electromagnetic wave of 2.45 GHZ, advancement in this field has made progress, and packaging microwave Susceptors (package to cook in, made to accept microwave and convert to heat) example hot pocket package to (bake bread).

I do not think the kits available, or the techniques available as of now are reliable, as the kits rely on (special brand name flux, or material sheets)(me thinks Shore), or relies on material to be melted to contain microwave susceptors, and special boxes containers or refractory shells (refractory again Shor type products), much research needs to be done to find a crucible coating, or flux ingredient (susceptor) which is reliable for this process, and also more study is needed to find a refractory that will allow electromagnetic waves to pass through shell and also contain heat of the melt reflecting the unabsorbed energy back into the melt.

If people who are interested in experimentation give up we will never invent a light bulb, yes electricity is dangerous, and what if Edison and Tesla Quit (because?).

no harm if Edison study's. it is only when he plugs in his lamp will he get fried.

We may have to wait for it but we will see it, a microwave gold melting furnace.
 
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