# Help Gold stuck in melting dish



## goldenfrog (May 29, 2017)

My first attempt to melt my gold and the butane ran out!
Mr. Murphy would be proud!
I would love to hear any ideas on how to recover this mess Please!
And
I need advice on types of torches I should be considering instead of the cheapie I used here. 

Thank you so much for any thoughts you all may have


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## justinhcase (May 29, 2017)

Leave it until you have a better torch.
map torches are meant to be quite good for small quantities without haveing to get an Oxygen setup.
butane by itself might not be hot enough.
Maybe look for a little more to bulk up your button.


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## goldenfrog (May 29, 2017)

justinhcase said:


> Leave it until you have a better torch.
> map torches are meant to be quite good for small quantities without haveing to get an Oxygen setup.
> butane by itself might not be hot enough.
> n.



Just to be clear, What is the difference between Map torches and propane/butane?

No dumb questions right?


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## Topher_osAUrus (May 29, 2017)

Mapp has a higher combustion temperature.

It is better than just propane, and better than butane by far. But, a decent oxygen setup is best. Whether its oxy acet, oxy propane, oxy and city gas, doesnt matter for gold, all are fine. Mapp is what I use for small amounts, and it works well if you have a bunch of insulation around it to trap the radiant heat in.

I think i spent 50 or 60 on my mapp setup.

As far as that bit of gold, there is a couple things you can do, depending on how bad you want it out.
Wait, and melt it when you have a proper torch
Or, you can remove it chemically from the dish with a bath in hot dilute nitric, which will eat the borax and liberate the gold. This is kind of a pain though, as the melt dish will soak up some of the nitric and water, and will break upon next use unless properly treated.

I usually let it dry for a few days in the sun, then on a hotplate for a few hours, under my heat gun for half an hour, then hit it with the torch, lightly. I start to add pinches of borax, which turn brown/black (im assuming from the nitric trapped in the pores of the dish), after so many small additions to the dish, it starts to clear up. I dump off any excess borax by tilting the crucible vertically and hitting it with a good strong flame, as you only want a very thin layer of borax when melting gold.

That can be used to clean up old grungy melt dishes, but, i now prefer to use alternating pinches of borax and soda ash to renew old and tired crucibles. I save all of the slag from these dish cleanings as it contains small prills of metal. One day I will melt them all and reclaim the metal.


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## anachronism (May 29, 2017)

It's not a mess mate. Your gold is still there so don't worry. It's shouldn't need to dry but you should get yourself a MAPP gas torch. Then melt it again and happy days! 

Jon


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## goldenfrog (May 29, 2017)

Thanks guys! 
I will be looking for the MAPP!


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