# Kerr Maximelt with new graphite crucible



## san_diego (Apr 4, 2011)

I have a new Kerr Maximelt with new graphite crucible.

I am using it for the 1st time and I am wondering will the crucible fall out when I use the handle to pour the gold?

Also, how do I prepare the crucible before using it.
I have been reading that one should sprinkle it while hot with borax.
For my first melt I intend to turn 24K jewelry into a 24K bar. I do not want to reduce the karat by adding borax. Should I be worried about reducing the karat. Also, when I heated the machine up to 600 degrees F and I added the borax, nothing happened to it. I was expecting it to melt into a glass and I would then try to create a glass barrier over the entire inner crucible surface. Should I do this, and do I simply need more heat.

The borax I am usineg is from my local jewelry supply store and the only label on it is "BORAX POWDER"

Thanks in advance for any help.


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## samuel-a (Apr 4, 2011)

san_diego

graphite melting cups will usually hold up 4-8 melts before start to disintegrate. You keep used old graphite cups as they might hold values absorbed in them or stuck on the inside walls, sell them to your refiner.

Borax will not harm gold purity, vise versa, it will absorb traces of base metals, separating them from the gold.
Sprinkle lightly some borax at the bottom of the crucible and add your metals, once the metals are melted, add more borax and the more metals if you need to.

when stirring the molten metals and borax with graphite rod, the borax glazing will cling to the walls and bottom of the crucible.
alloys of gold doesn't "have" to be melted with borax, it will help clean up a bit of base metals out of it though.

If your intentions are commercial, one got to wonder, why go through the process of melting rather then just sell the 24K jewelry as is?


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## san_diego (Apr 4, 2011)

Is there anything I can do to limit the amount of gold absorbed by the crucible?


In California you can actually sell gold for more money if it is a pure gold bar. Commercial Grade bullion (bar marked 999) can be sold to a dealer and the dealer can resell it right away.

Gold Jewelry can only be sold to a CA licensed 2nd hand dealer (like a pawn shop) then the secondhand dealer must hold the item for 30 days. Since they don't have to hold coins and bars for 30 days, there is less risk for the dealer, and they pay more for a bar than they will pay for jewelry. 


I am selling to a refinery in CA


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## jimdoc (Apr 4, 2011)

24 karat jewelry is rare, because it is so soft. I have seen 22K but not any 24K. Are you sure you have 24K jewelry? The selling of a bar marked .999 for more may be true if it is from a known company, or has an assay done.

There are refiners that will pay 98% of spot without you having to make it into bars. Does the California law stop you from mailing it to a refinery in Texas?

Jim


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## san_diego (Apr 5, 2011)

24k jewelry is the norm in china, hong kong, korea.

i won't mail my gold


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## qst42know (Apr 5, 2011)

> 24k jewelry is the norm in china, hong kong, korea.



And so is fake coins, fake bullion, and fake jewelry.

I wouldn't pay a premium for a bar you produced from questionable jewelery. Melt and have the result assayed. I am certain mismarking bullion is illegal.


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## Harold_V (Apr 6, 2011)

san_diego said:


> I have a new Kerr Maximelt with new graphite crucible.


I'm sorry for you. 

Really!

Do a search on that type of furnace on this forum. Read comments from GSP and me as well. Both of us have experience with that type of furnace, which I wouldn't use at gun point. 

Do not flux your graphite crucible. Better yet, don't use a graphite crucible. They burn away rapidly and are extremely expensive for what little use you will get from one. You are FAR better served to use white melting dishes and a torch. 

Pure gold does not require fluxing---although proper preparation of a melting dish does include a light coating of borax---which will absorb oxides of base metals. Do be advised that fluxing gold that has base metals included will not eliminate base metals---in fact it encourages the base metals to remain a part of the alloy. Borax has an _affinity for oxides _---which it will remove. 

Harold


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## auprecious (Mar 6, 2012)

jimdoc said:


> There are refiners that will pay 98% of spot without you having to make it into bars.



You are right about that! =) I'm one of them.


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