Scrapper-aw-
Active member
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2009
- Messages
- 34
There seemed to be some interest in the methods we use to "shot" our metal before digestion.
When we first began wet refining we would make cornflake shot by simply pouring molten metal from our induction furnace crucible into a large stainless pot full of water. That material works fine for karat scrap and even for alloy batches containing <10% Ag. But in order to quickly and completely digest by inquartation methods smaller shot is better; no greater than 3mm to be exact.
So our solution was to construct a spray nozzle aray in the shape of a doughnut. It is constructed of steel, is about 2.5 inches thick, hollow, and about 12 inches in diameter. It sits nicely in a hole cut in the middle of the top to the pot mentioned above. There is a water inlet on the outside of the doughnut and there are four fan spray nozzles located on the bottom pointing towards an imaginary spot below the middle of the center of the hole in the doughnut. Our water is pumped by a pump similar to the kind in the self serve car wash places. It provides 750 psi of water pressure per nozzle. When the molten metal is poured into the converging streams of water it is cut into sand size particles. Some particles are so small that they remain suspended in the water for quite some time.
Once the batch is completly shot all water is filtered and containers are rinsed into the same filter.
Below is a link to a few pictures of a batch we will begin to refine on Monday. This was a starting weight or 177 troy ounces of assorted karat scrap. I'll get a picture of it when it's dry next week.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3358180/Our Shot 1.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3358180/Our Shot 2.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3358180/Our Shot 3.jpg
When we first began wet refining we would make cornflake shot by simply pouring molten metal from our induction furnace crucible into a large stainless pot full of water. That material works fine for karat scrap and even for alloy batches containing <10% Ag. But in order to quickly and completely digest by inquartation methods smaller shot is better; no greater than 3mm to be exact.
So our solution was to construct a spray nozzle aray in the shape of a doughnut. It is constructed of steel, is about 2.5 inches thick, hollow, and about 12 inches in diameter. It sits nicely in a hole cut in the middle of the top to the pot mentioned above. There is a water inlet on the outside of the doughnut and there are four fan spray nozzles located on the bottom pointing towards an imaginary spot below the middle of the center of the hole in the doughnut. Our water is pumped by a pump similar to the kind in the self serve car wash places. It provides 750 psi of water pressure per nozzle. When the molten metal is poured into the converging streams of water it is cut into sand size particles. Some particles are so small that they remain suspended in the water for quite some time.
Once the batch is completly shot all water is filtered and containers are rinsed into the same filter.
Below is a link to a few pictures of a batch we will begin to refine on Monday. This was a starting weight or 177 troy ounces of assorted karat scrap. I'll get a picture of it when it's dry next week.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3358180/Our Shot 1.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3358180/Our Shot 2.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3358180/Our Shot 3.jpg