# Finally reached my goal



## Goldman94 (May 5, 2020)

After starting my first batch a couple weeks ago, I finally reached my goal of a 1 ozt bar. Very proud of it and if it wasn't for you guys I never would have been able to do it, since some of you may know the issues I had weren't so pretty lol. I think it may have a bit of contamination in it though. The top of the bar doesn't really shine super bright when you're looking at it and the pipe isn't too visible. I've seen other 1 oz bars that have the pipe clearly visible in them. I'm thinking I'll melt it back down into a button and see how that looks. See if there's any oxidation on top and see if there will be a pipe.


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## FrugalRefiner (May 5, 2020)

Beautiful! Congratulations!

While a pipe is a definite sign of purity when it is there, it also depends a lot on how a button or bar cools. The pipe forms when the outside of the button/bar freezes while the inside is still molten. As the inside cools further, it shrinks and sucks the pipe in. If the button/bar cools and freezes more slowly, the whole mass shrinks together and so no pipe, or a lesser pipe forms. So many variables...

Dave


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## Goldman94 (May 5, 2020)

Uhhh I guess my button is tie dyed haha. Should I melt it into a button and put some borax on top of it?


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## Goldman94 (May 5, 2020)

Ookayy so this is what I did. I remelted it twice into a button and poured borax over it after I took the flame off, enough to cover the button. Both of those times made the button look like the moon but it was clean. Then I tried it without borax for the 3rd time and let it cool and then it went back looking like the colorful button before. Then for my 4th and final try I melted it to the point just before it became molten with no borax and qpparenrly it left the bar really clean and smooth. There's probably contamination in there somewhere still but I'll take it lol

And yes I'm about to clean it up as well


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## FrugalRefiner (May 5, 2020)

The "tie dyed" discoloration in the first two pics is slight contamination, but there was still a nice [stt]carcking[/stt] cracking/pipe indicating high purity. The bottom of the button is protected from oxygen as it cools so it is protected from oxidation and very "gold" looking.

When you remelted the next couple times, the borax protected the gold from the oxygen in the air, so it was clean. When you melted it the next to last time and it discolored again, it again oxidized from the slight contamination.

On the last melt, it may have cooled more quickly, so not as much oxidation.

Great looking button in the last pic. I'd take it too.  

This may be a case where alternating pinches of an oxidizer like nitre or chlorate then borax to slag off the impurities might be enough to clean up the slight discoloration. GSP knew the process well. I believe 4metals is well familiar with it as well. Perhaps he'll be able to comment.

Wear gloves. I see those stains on your hands. :evil: 

Dave


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## Goldman94 (May 5, 2020)

FrugalRefiner said:


> The "tie dyed" discoloration in the first two pics is slight contamination, but there was still a nice carcking/pipe indicating high purity. The bottom of the button is protected from oxygen as it cools so it is protected from oxidation and very "gold" looking.
> 
> When you remelted the next couple times, the borax protected the gold from the oxygen in the air, so it was clean. When you melted it the next to last time and it discolored again, it again oxidized from the slight contamination.
> 
> ...



What stains? Thats a birthmark :shock: haha. I know. I kinda slacked a couple times when I was just doing something quickly. 

But thank you for your input, I appreciate it!


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## jarlowski1 (May 5, 2020)

I was going to mention the gloves as well but I see Dave has already "scolded" you. Lol. Gloves really are an important item in chemistry. You may not feel anything now when you don't wear gloves but the chemicals and heavy metals will build up in your body since your body doesn't know how to get rid of them sooner or later you can have major problems. A guy I used to work with was on a construction crew working at a chemical research facility each year you had to take the same test it was a basic test about safety but inside of just 1 year he "aced" the test the first 2 times he took it and the 3rd time he failed really bad. He had so many test done to figure out what was happening. Finally they got his bloodwork back and the said the amount of heavy metals was so high they thought the sample was contaminated somehow so they ran it 3 times just to make sure. He now takes a huge amount of pills every day and he can not eat any gluten (which is in just about everything). Poor guy..... So yeah please don't be lazy about the gloves, safety glasses, and make sure you are not breathing in anything. Your button does look nice though. When you go to sell it you will find out what impurities are in it. I take my bars to a friend who owns a scrap yard he has an XRF gun so it gives me a pretty good idea what to expect when I sell mine.


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## Shark (May 5, 2020)

One thing that will help with that "tiedyed" look. Put the button/bar in some dilute (I use a 50/50 mix) HCl and heat it to a low to medium heat and watch as the off colors slowly disappears. Do this before remelting and it will come out a tiny bit better. As you learn more, you will have that happen less and less. As for the pipe, when I use a thin dish, especially the real thin clay type dishes, the pipe is more pronounced. I have been using a thick dish lately and the pipes are more shallow and less sharp around the edges.

Still looks pretty dang good though.


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