# My first accident



## Profikiskery (Feb 18, 2015)

No need to respond but thought I might share. 

We had a break in the weather and I thought I would take the opportunity to dissolve some silver outside and make a run. It was only my third attempt to refine silver. 

I mechanically cleaned my pieces with pliers and then torched them to redness to remove waxes and whatnot. Was using a coffee pot and trying to follow the directions on I think, Kadrivers two part series (not sure, and its irrelevant) but was taking my time to go step by step. 

I placed the coffee pot in brown glassware that I had used with heat for at least ten years, and put that on the hotplate with coffee pot inside. Added the nitric.. then placed the temp between low and medium and went inside so I could observe the process. Could not have been 4 minutes and boom!! The glass catch pan shattered. The coffee pot was just below half full and the force of the explosion tilted it enough to spill about a full cup of the solution in the coffee pot. The coffee pot landed dead square on the hot plate, I couldn't have centered it better. I was lucky it didn't break the pot itself. I was even luckier I wasn't in the area. Turns out the catch pan was oven safe, and microwave safe, but not to be placed on a stove. 

I was a bit hesitant to share this because I am new and its embarrassing to admit. It rattled me somewhat and made me realize my inexperience. 

I haven't really searched, but I haven't seen to many posts about mistakes or accidents that can happen so I thought I would share. Hoping you guys don't think I am haphazard because I really am trying not to rush and learn all I can. Maybe it was a blessing to happen so early, I don't know...but it sure got my attention.

I regress but am thankful to be in this forum where we can share with each other. 

Craig


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## Geo (Feb 18, 2015)

We have all made rookie mistakes. I was drying refined gold powder in an anchor hocking loaf pan on an electric griddle. When the powder was nice and dry, I moved the glass pan to a rag on the piece of plywood the griddle was sitting on. No sooner than I let go, the glass exploded. It sounded like a gunshot. Even though the bottom fractured into pieces, the sides went in all directions. Luckily, the powder moved very little and I was able to salvage almost all of it. About a year later, I was force drying gold powder in a pyroceram dish and walked inside. I came back out and the powder was dry, what was left of it. Instead of the flat surface where the powder was, there was huge holes where the powder had been. I didn't cover it because I was wanting it to dry faster. The steam explosions blew my gold powder all over the place. I found some on a satellite dish some 15 feet away from where I was working. I blew up almost a half ounce of gold that day.


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## FrugalRefiner (Feb 18, 2015)

Craig, do a search for pyroceram. It's made by Corning and is the recommended material for your secondary catch container. Read through some of the search results and you'll know what to look for at yard sales and thrift stores.

Dave


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## rickbb (Feb 18, 2015)

We've all been there done that of some kind. At least no injuries and you did learn something.

That one moment of not thinking can happen at anytime. I needed to heat up some NaOH a few weeks ago and did not want to put my expensive Pyrex beaker cold on the hot plate. I knew what that would do. So I put it in an old pot, it worked really well, until I noticed that it had eaten a hole in the pot and the now hot NaOH was leaking out all over the place.

Yep, I had put it in an aluminum pot, sigh.  

The moral of the story is to make sure you only have gear that is compatible with what your doing. That way when you reach for that pot or other vessel it won't be the wrong thing to use. I should never have had an aluminum pot in the shed to begin with.


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## Palladium (Feb 18, 2015)

Mistakes are how we learn! God knows i've had my dumb share.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyhdMa1ikKM[/youtube]


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## kurtak (Feb 18, 2015)

Some how when it comes to glassware I have never had any actually break on my - at least not when in use (pure luck I'm sure) though I have had a few that developed cracks

But other opps  what was I thinking mistakes - oh ya - I've made some :!: 

The last one was a few months ago when I was washing some silver cement - instead of grabbing a jug of water I grabbed a jug of nitric (which should have been on the self of acids & not on the work bench) & poured the nitric in on top of the silver cement :roll: needles to say as soon as I saw the brown fumes & the silver cement starting to foam up --- well lets just say I can't post the words coming out of my mouth & things I started calling my self at that time here on the forum :lol:  

Kurt


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## 4metals (Feb 18, 2015)

Unfortunately, they kept the good reputation that Pyrex had and switched the borosilicate glass to common everyday soda lime glass. It is much cheaper than borosilicate glass. So you think they would change the name to Pyrex knock off. That would have been the right thing to do but today companies are more concerned with what is legal over what is right. Would right and legal be such a stretch?



> Corning no longer manufactures or markets Pyrex-branded borosilicate glass kitchenware and bakeware in the US, but Pyrex borosilicate products are still manufactured under license by various companies. World Kitchen, LLC, which was spun off from Corning in 1998, licensed the Pyrex brand for their own line of kitchenware products—differentiated by their use of clear tempered soda-lime glass instead of borosilicate.


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## Profikiskery (Feb 19, 2015)

Some great suggestions and some great shares. Dave I know you don't know, but I am a yard/estate sale inferno! That idea is right up my alley.

Thank you guys,
Craig


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## patnor1011 (Feb 19, 2015)

Steel pan.


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## FrugalRefiner (Feb 19, 2015)

Craig, be sure to read through the posts about CorningWare and Pyroceram to learn the fine points of identification. Not all CorningWare is created equal. 

Dave


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## Palladium (Feb 19, 2015)

FrugalRefiner said:


> Craig, be sure to read through the posts about CorningWare and Pyroceram to learn the fine points of identification. Not all CorningWare is created equal.
> 
> Dave



The first part of the video explains Pyroceram.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh1wA-MkLDg[/youtube]


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## Palladium (Feb 19, 2015)

This is a good video also.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWdvQIBAzhk[/youtube]


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## Profikiskery (Feb 20, 2015)

Thanks ya'll....I'll take all I can get. Its much appreciated.

Craig


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