AP success

[glorycloud]

right now I have completed the first wash with boiling HCL, then water and them the ammonium hydroxide. Tomorrow I will do the second wash. I have been swirling the powder which has gone from the chocolate brown color to the more yellow brown color. It is not sticking to the coffee pot at all. After the next three rinses, should I slowly dry it on the hot plate being sure to not lose any of the powder to steam explosions?
When dry, should it just "pour" the powder out of the coffee pot and into the prepped 3" melting dish provided my thet lazersteve fellow?

 

[Harold_V]

I have been swirling the powder which has gone from the chocolate brown color to the more yellow brown color.

That's exactly what you should expect. As the gold sheds the dragged down contaminants, the color improves.

It is not sticking to the coffee pot at all.

I wouldn't expect it to at this juncture. I thought, from your original question, that you had finished the washing procedure. If that were the case, and you had force dried the gold without swirling it occasionally, residues in the rinse will often glue the gold to the vessel. They don't harm the quality because they are normally not metallic in nature, just the hard substances that come from water. If you used distilled water, that may not be an issue. All depends on how well the gold gets rinsed.

After the next three rinses, should I slowly dry it on the hot plate being sure to not lose any of the powder to steam explosions?

Yep, that's the drill! Start out with a very low heat, so the water slowly evaporates. Swirl occasionally, so the gold will clump up and keep wiping the vessel free of fine residues. The swirling also helps prevent the steam explosions. If the gold is clean enough, when it starts drying, it will all stick together in small clumps. Be advised that on occasion it fails to do so, so you end up with fine powder that is a bitch to handle. Even so, if you can get it to the melting dish, it will melt fine, you just have to use a low velocity flame, which you can accomplish be holding the torch well back until the gold starts to melt. A very light sprinkle of borax can help cause the tiny beads to flow together, but don't overdo the flux.

When dry, should it just "pour" the powder out of the coffee pot and into the prepped 3" melting dish provided my thet lazersteve fellow?

Again, that's pretty much the drill.

One thing on drying. You'll notice that the gold will lighten up in color considerably when it starts losing the last bit of water. Don't stop heating at that point. Allow the gold to get fully dried, with additional heat. You'll notice that smells leave the gold----traces of things that don't evaporate with the water.

Luck!

Show us your button when you're finished.

Harold

 

[glorycloud]

awesome! thanks for the mentoring.

 

[glorycloud]

Here is what it looks like after the second wash. I'm just waiting for the water to evaporate off.

 

[Noxx]

Looks very nice to me

 

[glorycloud]

now, if I can just keep from blowing it out of the melting dish tomorrow, I might be able to post a nice looking "chunk-o-gold" soon!

 

[qst42know]

If you have an old steel cookie sheet and work on top of it, any crumbs that get ejected by the torch from the melt dish are easier to recover.

 

[glorycloud]

great idea - thx!

 

[glorycloud]

OK - here is the first button. It's sadly deformed as we had some trouble with the MAPP gas running out of oxygen and then the propane torch ean out as well. LOL!! A real comedy!!

Anyway, it's in a 3" dish and weighed in at 26" grams. It came from 10 pounds of fingers processed in AP. Thanks for all the suggestions and help along the way. It was a lot of work but watching the powder melt in the button was like (in some small measure) your first child being born. :lol:

 

[lazersteve]

... we had some trouble with the MAPP gas running out of oxygen..

I have found that straight MAPP works fantastic for melting gold indirectly if the dish is set into a hollowed out section of firebrick and covered with a second brick while melting.

After preparing the dish with borax, simply position the torch in the side of the brick just below the bottom of the dish. Cover the dish with a second brick to keep the heat in. You will need a tip that produces a good broad flame.


Here are a few photos:

The parts for the setup.

The torch position.

The furnace position when melting.

The top brick placement.


The rig will melt several ounces of gold in less than 1 hour with no direct flame on the gold. The dish is heated from below and the bricks keep the heat in. When the dish becomes glowing white hot the gold powder will melt and flow together into a button.

If anyone would like a preformed brick for their dish, just let me know and I can provide you with one at a reasonable price. I'm even considering selling a prebuilt 'mini furnace' kit if interest is good enough.

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Steve I have that same torch. Is there a vent that I don't see?

thanks,

Jim

 

[lazersteve]

The air intake vent is the dark spot just above the section with the red igniter push button.

The furnace vents around the edges of the dish since the dish is not fully recessed into the firebrick.

Steve

 

[wop1969]

Congrats, glorycloud

Hopefully I will have a photo of my own to post here also. (soon?)
Life has been getting in the way of finishing mine, I also fear it will not be as big as that but it’s the sense of accomplishment that matters at this point

Steve, I got to hand it to you, have some good ideas.

 

[wop1969]

I have been testing some solutions and just wanted a second opinion on this.

The first picture was right after I put the StCl on the samples, the second picture was the next day after the samples dried.
Also, from left to right I diluted the solution just to see the diffrence, I was kinda testing my StCl making skills and just experimenting.

I thought purple to black was normal but black to purple threw me off.
Any info would be great?

 

[peaksilver2012]

...and tried to emulate the prep of the crucible. I don't have oxy/acetylene, so went and bought a MAPP torch. Heated the dish as instructed, but when I dropped in Borax, it just caked off the the upper edges, and puddled into an uneven mess in the bottom. So, 3 questions:
1. Is the dish not hot enough?
2. If so, how do I prep the dish using a home-made mini furnace per Steve's photos without losing the heat when I remove the top brick to drop in Borax?
3. Any way I can clean out the gloop in the bottom of my dish and start over or should I just chalk it up to experience and buy another one?

Finally, kudos to Steve, Harold and others on the list. Your knowledge and xp are invaluable and so very appreciated.

Preston - Peak Silver

 

[qst42know]

...and tried to emulate the prep of the crucible. I don't have oxy/acetylene, so went and bought a MAPP torch. Heated the dish as instructed, but when I dropped in Borax, it just caked off the the upper edges, and puddled into an uneven mess in the bottom. So, 3 questions:
1. Is the dish not hot enough?
2. If so, how do I prep the dish using a home-made mini furnace per Steve's photos without losing the heat when I remove the top brick to drop in Borax?
3. Any way I can clean out the gloop in the bottom of my dish and start over or should I just chalk it up to experience and buy another one?

Finally, kudos to Steve, Harold and others on the list. Your knowledge and xp are invaluable and so very appreciated.

Preston - Peak Silver

Mapp or propane torch doesn't have the flame intensity of an oxy/acetylene torch. With this limitation in mind a little bit of soda ash can stretch the limits of a small torch. It will give you a more fluid flux but is a bit corrosive to the silica in melt dishes. By melting some soda ash you should be able to save your dish. Get it extra hot, tip and roll the fluid around the dish or stir with a carbon rod to dissolve the extra borax while never removing the flame, and pour out the surplus.

 

[lazersteve]

I am working on a short video of me melting gold with only MAPP gas and the mini-furnace. It takes a little less than an hour to heat and melt about an ounce of gold powder.

I prep the dish with direct heat from the MAPP torch and sprinkle in the borax when it gets very hot (slightly red in the middle). The borax will crust up as you found, but continue direct heating and it will darken then go clear and melt onto the dish. Now, while heating, lift the dish with some long pliers and tilt it around while heating until borax coats the dish. You may need to sprinkle a little more borax in to get a complete coating.

After the dish is prepared, place the empty dish in the lower half of the mini furnace and lay your lit torch in the lip of the mini-furnace opening. Be sure the torch tip is just barely inside the opening of the mini furnace or the tip with burn in the intense heat of the furnace.Prop the torch up firmly so it can not move or roll on you.

Place the top half of the furnace on and let it heat for about 5 minutes.

Once the borax in the dish is shiny, lift the top of the furnace off and carefully add your gold powder into the hot dish in the furnace. Do not fill the dish above the rim or beyond the borax coating!

Replace the top of the furnace and let it cook for another 30 minutes. You should see an intense white glow coming from under the dish as it cooks.

After 30 minutes lift the top and check to see if the gold is molten. If not let it heat another 10 minutes and check again. The gold will melt when the furnace comes up to temperature. Try not to check it too often or the oven will cool.

Once the gold is molten and in a nice glowing green rounded button, sprinkle a dash of borax on top to remove any surface debris from the furnace top.

Cut off the torch and let the button cool until it is glowing red.

Lift the button out with a set of long needle nose pliers or stainless steel tweezers.

Quench the button in cold water.

Give the button a 5 minute heating in 10% sulfuric acid and rinse in clean water.

Any soapy borax remaining on the button will easily come off with a quick wash then wipe.

The mini-furnace is now for sale on my website and they are selling fast.

I include a melting dish when you buy one. Each one is hand made by yours truly. :wink:

http://www.goldrecovery.us/pricing.asp

I also have improved my check out process with instant invoicing and payment via paypal checkout and shopping cart.

Keep watching my website videos for the mini-furnace video demonstration!!!

Steve

 

[nicknitro]

wop1969,

wopWorks is awesome, "You had me at paintball minigun" LOL. That looks insane. You are awesome :lol:

Keep On Keepin On,
Nick

 

[wop1969]

Thanks Nick

do you get into paintball? or weapons?

 

[nicknitro]

Wop,

Don't all grown boys I mean men. LOL
I have less experience with weapons, but paintball is cool. I only have like a few walmart staples I take out with some friends weekends, to get out of the house and have some fun, but I don't think I have ever seen anything like your mini-gun. WOW. I'd like to see the expression on some of my friends faces if I whipped that out LOL, yeah you're right, if someone was useing that in a sporting paintball gun match all they would see is the backside of the competition, LOL.

Cool site, I look forward to the final version.

Nick