# Smart or risky gold melting?



## stella polaris (Mar 31, 2020)

14 min in to this film you can see him melting his gold. Have not seen this variant before but it seems pretty smart. First he compress the gold. I think in order to minimise the risk of blowing away the gold. Then he melts it on a brick.

What do you think? Smart or risky?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2h1OXC7a_g


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## FrugalRefiner (Mar 31, 2020)

Why melt it on a brick? Melting dishes are cheap.

Dave


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## Shark (Apr 1, 2020)

Many poorer countries that have small home gold mining/refining use home made melting torches. Many of them compress the powders to keep them from blowing away. Back when I first started there was a video on YouTube that showed melting gold with a home built torch that used compressed gasoline for fuel. It took quite a bit of pressure so compressing the powders into pellets helped a lot.


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## stella polaris (Apr 1, 2020)

So why most people not compressing? In most films they mention the risk of it get blown away.


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## Shark (Apr 1, 2020)

I have no idea. The only time I have had a problem with it was when I tried to melt using straight propane or mapp as a single gas. Using oxy/propane or oxy/acetylene I have never had a problem. Those gasoline torches needed a lot of pressure since they had no air added into the mixture, much the same as mapp or propane torches. By heating powders from a distance until they start to glow first will solve most problems with powders blowing away. Another cause could be dirty powders. When I have dirty gold and try to dry the powders they tend to dry as a fine, lighter powder, when they are clean, they tend to stick together and dry in lumps. The lump stuff is to heavy to blow away usually. 

He is also melting on the flat side of brick. Without the bowl shape of a dish, blowing powders may be more of a concern as well.


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## nickton (Apr 30, 2020)

if you're using a brick, why not cut or grind a bowl shaped depression into it? The main problem I think you'd have is the brick absorbing too much heat and thus taking too long to get hot enough anyways. Not very efficient. A small crucible sucks up minimal heat in comparison.


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## acpeacemaker (May 1, 2020)

I know I've said it before, but I've used a lump of regular BBQ charcoal briquettes when I had nothing else. Just took a spoon and rounded out a hollow indention. Worked quite well. I believe Geo said once he used a hollowed out piece of wood. I never had a problem with blowback, but I always sprayed it with a fine mist of alcohol from a distance before lighting up.


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## FrugalRefiner (May 1, 2020)

acpeacemaker said:


> I know I've said it before, but I've used a lump of regular BBQ charcoal briquettes when I had nothing else. Just took a spoon and rounded out a hollow indention. Worked quite well. I believe Geo said once he used a hollowed out piece of wood. I never had a problem with blowback, but I always sprayed it with a fine mist of alcohol from a distance before lighting up.



That part is interesting. What was the purpose of the alcohol? Were you intending to ignite the charcoal, or was there a different reason? What kind of alcohol? Hopefully not something I might drink.  

Dave


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## acpeacemaker (May 3, 2020)

FrugalRefiner said:


> acpeacemaker said:
> 
> 
> > I know I've said it before, but I've used a lump of regular BBQ charcoal briquettes when I had nothing else. Just took a spoon and rounded out a hollow indention. Worked quite well. I believe Geo said once he used a hollowed out piece of wood. I never had a problem with blowback, but I always sprayed it with a fine mist of alcohol from a distance before lighting up.
> ...



Good Ole' 151 
It was just rubbing alcohol, as I've used water too. Mainly to dampen the surface area before hardening the outer surface with a torch, and then on to a higher stream.

Andrew


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## Jmk88 (May 15, 2020)

I have melted on a brick before.... and I wouldn’t have commented unless it was for the following safety reasons.

Bricks in the U.K. come in two classes; A and B. If you have class b, which are considerably cheaper, it means anywhere between 25-50% of the brick is hollow via small pockets that form when the brick is formed in a kiln. 

When the pockets get full Of hot air, they begin to obviously explode. I switched to engineering bricks straight away and build a small oven from them on a bbq. The gold melts as nicely on these as in a dish but with a dish you can move things around and mop up all the small bits of gold. But I have melted on a brick in my early days.


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