# Pouring silver bars



## ssharktu17 (Dec 16, 2021)

What is the best strategy for pouring 1 ounce bars? Most videos I have watched people are just guessing at the weight. But let’s say you wanted to pour 100: 1 ounce bars and wanted them to actually be 1 ounce exactly so you could stamp 1ozt 999 fine.


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## Elemental (Dec 16, 2021)

If I want to pour exact amounts for my bars, I melt my raw bar into shot/cornflake by slowly pouring it into a large stainless steel stock pot with several gallons of water. I then pull the shot out and weigh out the size I want into beakers. The last time I did this, I had about a kilo of fine silver shot and poured 100g bars. This was mostly to practice technique. I would just pour the premeasured shot into the crucible, melt it, pour it, quench it, weight it, and stamp it. I was usually within a gram or two. 

If I had a front opening furnace, I imagine I would just load the weight I want into the bar mold, heat the whole mold up to melt it, and then pull the mold out to cool.

I had also given thought to buying a little Sherline mill and milling the bars to perfection, but I read somewhere that people get really suspicious about milled precious metal bars. I don't know if there is any truth to it. Best advice I got was, "Just get it close enough and then stamp it. It is what it is."

Elemental


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## Zhazham (Dec 20, 2021)

"Due to the process of pouring and molding the metal, most every poured bar has its own unique and distinct characteristics. Due to this, as well as the bars not being highly polished like their pressed counterparts, it gives them a higher level of aesthetic appeal to some investors and collectors". 
Quoted opinion from jmbullion.com


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## ssharktu17 (Dec 20, 2021)

Zhazham said:


> "Due to the process of pouring and molding the metal, most every poured bar has its own unique and distinct characteristics. Due to this, as well as the bars not being highly polished like their pressed counterparts, it gives them a higher level of aesthetic appeal to some investors and collectors".
> Quoted opinion from jmbullion.com


That makes sense and makes it a lot easier.


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## upcyclist (Dec 21, 2021)

When I pour 1 ozt rounds, I just measure the silver powder (dried after cementation & rinsing). It's super easy to store in bulk as a powder because it takes less space, but it can also get messy. For that reason, I'm considering cornflaking the entire lot (only a touch more than a troy pound currently), so it's easy to move around for either pouring or alloying back down to .925. Although I made some .800 once for replacing bits of some old Norwegian jewelry


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