# ? preping cruciples & melting dishes before Melting



## firedan525 (May 9, 2007)

Hello everyone. I have a bunch of dishes and I have watched Steves video on smelting, now I just want to make sure I got this right. I have about 7+ grams gold powder and want a good outcome.  I heated them up and then coated them w/ a nice amount of borax. After getting the borax molten I swirled it coated the whole inside. As it cooled it cracked as expected from video. Now at the bottom it is a little thicker. Now I really hope this doesnt sound stupid but with all this borax on the dish and mixed w/ my gold, does the gold melt dogether and come to the top of all this molten borax? How does this all work. Sorry for such a dumb question, I am gaining all this knowledge but for me understanding why and how it works is important to me. Thanks alot yall!!!!!!!!DAN


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## lazersteve (May 9, 2007)

Dan,

This is a very good question, not dumb.

The borax that is mixed with the gold will melt first. As the gold melts the base metal impurities will be asorbed into the borax. This discolors the molten borax. The gold isn't finished until the gold button's surface is free of any film and moves freely around the melting dish with the force of the torch. My avatar was created from a video of the process. Notice how the gold freely moves as the torch pushes it about the dish. The gold will start out adhereing to the borax in the dish until it is fully molten At this point the edges of the gold button will all pull into the button and the button will begin to move. 

Steve


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## firedan525 (May 9, 2007)

Thanks alot again. Hey what part of FL you from? I'm born and raised Sarasota! I think I'm going to get some cell components from ya! Looks like a great thing to keep me busy when at work on slow days. LOL those are really few and far in between. Thanks again DAN


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## lazersteve (May 9, 2007)

I'm in the panhandle, near Pensacola.


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## austexjwlry (Jun 7, 2007)

I use clay/silica crucibles for gold & silver; the ones I buy for platinum are porcelain I believe made by wesgo co. They both have a metal extender handle with wood on end, to make pouring into metal ingot mold easy after first coating with carbon from acetylene-only flame so your metal doesn't stick. You should preheat your metal molds first. I use an old toaster oven. You should not heat metal molds with your torch as can cause condensation inside mold, which, combined with hot molten metal, can cause ejection or eruption from mold. Dangerous!!! I stir the molten metal with a carbon rod or a quartz rod, available from jewelry suppliers. You can just pour directly into graphite ingot mold.

I use these crucibles over & over. I use borax for flux, soda ash for liquidity to help little balls of metal consolidate. If you're not melting much metal you can add metal of same grade to help catch small particles, or even use copper to collect fines but that defeats purpose of refining.

I buy my crucibles and molds from jewelry supplier Rio Grande at www.riogrande.com.


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## lazersteve (Jun 7, 2007)

Wayne, 

That's a really nice assortment of molds and dishes you have there. Harold has posted a way of cleaning the dishes using soda ash and a torch. It works well and you even end up with a tiny bit of metals from the slag as a bonus. The only side affect of the process is that the dishes take a little beating in the cleaning process.

Nice selection!

Steve


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## austexjwlry (Jun 7, 2007)

Steve,
I haven't been able to see your videos yet using my mac! I emailed you, you emailed back in about an hour.Wow!!! I would like to thank you again for your time and all your work on this site.

Having not seen your videos I'm not familiar with the crucibles you're talking about that possibly crack after a few uses. Re-using the ones I use over & over could present contamination problems in a final melt without cleaning. I use one for fine silver,one for sterling,gold etc... 

I'm very grateful for your knowledge and willingness to share. I have learned more and have access to more information here in a couple of days than from years of scratching around for books,online etc.

Thank You All
Wayne


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## lazersteve (Jun 7, 2007)

Wayne,

You give me too much credit. There a several guys here with more hands on refining experience than I. I just happen to be a little more proactive sharing my knowledge than the others, but that doesn't make me any better than any of them by a long shot. We all can learn from one another no matter what our experience level is. Thank you for all your support and participation. You seem to bring a lot to the table yourself. 

Noxx is the forum site Admin and creator. 

As for the videos from my website here's a link to an article that may get you started watching them.

Windows on a Mac

There are two options listed one for Boot Camp, which allows Mac users to install a separate OS partition for booting to windows. The second option is Virtualization which allows you to run Windows at the same time as Os X. Either one of these two should get you up and running for the videos. Additionally, if you update your Apple Quicktime you may be able to play the files on your exisiting setup. Keep me posted on the videos.
My older brother is heavy into Macs so I'll get in touch with him and do some testing of my own in the meantime.

Steve


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## austexjwlry (Jun 12, 2007)

Steve,
I bought Virtual PC for Mac version 7 about 2 yrs ago to try and run Turbo Lister on Ebay with it. Biggest problem was speed and that it is supported by system 9 with mostly old software in that system. Will have to try again, maybe upgrade to newer version.
Will check into bootcamp. 
Each generation on Mac seems to be more compatible with Windows. I've got a lot to learn. Have'nt given up.

Wayne


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## austexjwlry (Jun 12, 2007)

I also upgraded to latest version of Quicktime for OSX! No help there.

Thanks again,

Wayne


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## lazersteve (Jun 13, 2007)

I still haven't got in touch with my brother, he's out of state. I'll send him an email today. He's had some offical Mac training classes so maybe he can help.

Steve


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## lazersteve (Jun 21, 2007)

Wayne,

I talked to my brother last night and he has the same problem. We did some tests and the actual vidoe files will play, just not the sequential playlists. 

We found a Microsoft article on the problem and it is a known issue. The solution involves setting up a Windows Media Server to host the files and tie the playlist link to the media server. Unfortunately my web host (godaddy) does not provide streaming video services as part of their package. Does anyone know of a reasonably priced, reputable (no porn hosters please) media server host that I can get a few gigabytes of web space from. I could set my server at the house up to do this, but I don't want my ISP killing my account if the traffic goes thru the roof. 

I'm open to suggestions.

Steve


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## Noxx (Jun 21, 2007)

Well, my hoster is 110mb.com if it can help.

You can also see this: 

http://www.110mb.com/forum/index.php/topic,1428.0.html


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## lazersteve (Jun 21, 2007)

Thanks Noxx,

I signed up for one of the sites. I'll run a few tests and see if it works with my lists.

Steve


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## lazersteve (Jun 26, 2007)

All,

I've converted a few of my videos to work with Mac OsX. Wayne (austexjwlry) has verified my SMB video works for him now. I have also converted the videos 'Making Auric Chloride' and 'Electrolytic Cell Construction and Use'. Each day I'll convert a few of the videos until they are all Mac compatible. Any members with Mac OsX are welcome to suggest which videos I should convert first.

The videos should all still work fine with Windows operating systems.

Steve


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