# Shooting Gold



## skeeter629 (Apr 18, 2009)

Could someone (Harold_V) please describe how you "shoot" the gold you have in your famous picture on the following link?

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=4674&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=tired+picture&start=0

I have tried a few ideas I have had, but failed thus far. 

Many Thanks!


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## Palladium (Apr 18, 2009)

To get the general idea watch this vid.
:arrow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BrA1IcABGE&feature=channel_page


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## Lou (Apr 18, 2009)

That cornflakes, it doesn't shot it.


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## Palladium (Apr 18, 2009)

That does bring up a good point. How do you shot it ????


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## butcher (Apr 18, 2009)

how about tumbling the cornflakes ? I thought they just poured into bucket of moving water?


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## Noxx (Apr 18, 2009)

You make shots when you use less height.


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## Sodbuster (Apr 19, 2009)

Go here to see how its done with buckshot 

http://www.traphof.org/shot-towers-2/shot-towers-photographs-1.htm

Ray


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## Harold_V (Apr 20, 2009)

skeeter629 said:


> Could someone (Harold_V) please describe how you "shoot" the gold you have in your famous picture on the following link?


Nothing fancy, skeeter. I use a Sony MVC-FD97 camera, hand held, although it has a steadying feature, so it helps avoid blurring from movement. I think I even used the built in flash for that picture, but I may have lit by side lighting. It's been a while since I took the picture and I don't really remember. 

The camera has zoom capabilities, both by lens and by electronics. I try to stay within the lens capability, so I don't alter the file. It's often difficult to get the item in focus when I zoom too far (it's an auto focus camera), so I balance distance with zoom, which seems to work adequately. 

Hope this helps. If there's anything that perplexes me more than a computer, it's photography! :wink: 

Harold


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## Harold_V (Apr 20, 2009)

Palladium said:


> That does bring up a good point. How do you shot it ????


While this may not sound like it makes sense, you must dispense the gold from an orifice. That is the one and only thing I was taught be a professional refining house. 

To create shot, height is not a factor, or need not be, anyway. Drill a 3 mm (1/8" diameter) hole in the center of a clay melting dish. Because the dish is abrasive in nature, the drill should be run at very low speed, with the dish supported by a piece of wood at the point of contact, to avoid breaking the dish. The clay dishes drill well enough if you use a sharp drill. The drill will be dulled, but drills can be resharpened, so that's not an issue. 

The dish should be properly seasoned and coated with a thin layer of flux (borax). Make a setup whereby the dish can be held in a ring on a stand, with a torch playing on the center of the dish, to prevent the gold from freezing. Melt your gold in a different dish, which is then emptied to the dish with an orifice. The receiving container, which is filled with cold water, should be quite deep, to avoid molten metal hitting the bottom, where it would fuse to a common mass. I used an old stainless steel round sink that had a permanent stopper installed in the bottom. It was about the size of a 5 gallon bucket and worked adequately. 

While molten metal hitting the bottom sounds impossible, it happens all too easily due to the hot stream of metal vaporizing the water, creating a tunnel to the bottom. To limit the possibility, I used to ice the water, and place a circulating pump in the bottom, off to one side, where it would not interfere with the gold stream. That eliminated the problem. I used to place my metering dish about a foot above the surface of the receiving container. 

Harold


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## goldsilverpro (Apr 20, 2009)

We made silver shot, as a commercial product, by elevating a gas crucible furnace about a foot above a stainless tank about 15" dia X 36" deep. The bottom center of the crucible was exposed at the bottom of the furnace. About 4 holes were drilled in the bottom of the crucible with a #56 drill bit, if I remember right. The water in the SS vessel was recirculated from about a 500 gallon reservoir through an inlet at the bottom set at an angle to produce a swirling motion. A basket was hung near the bottom of the SS vessel to catch the shot. We melted 500-1000 oz of silver at a time.


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## leavemealone (Apr 20, 2009)

I would like to add......DO NOT USE A TALL GLASS CONTAINER  
The "molten metal"that harold is refering to,is the fact that the heat is not disipated fast enough when dropped into water.I had a 1 gallon glass container that I felt would have been sufficient in shooting,well I never realized what a full gallon of water "DUMPED" onto the kitchen counter would look like :shock: ,but my wife has all new appliances now.Needless to say I use stainless now.
Johnny


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## semi-lucid (Apr 20, 2009)

Harold_V said:


> While molten metal hitting the bottom sounds impossible, it happens all too easily due to the hot stream of metal vaporizing the water, creating a tunnel to the bottom.
> 
> Harold



Harold

I happened to stumble onto the scientific name for the effect. The Leidenfrost Effect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidenfrost_effect

John


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## Harold_V (Apr 21, 2009)

semi-lucid said:


> The Leidenfrost Effect.


Thanks, John. I had experienced that very thing, but had no idea it had been named. 

Harold


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## 61 silverman (Jul 29, 2009)

On one of those WE WILL BUY YOUR GOLD commercials there is a guy reaching his hand into a large container of water and pulling out a large hand full of silver shot.. If you see this commercial I'm talking about you are able to see a rectangle box just on the outside of the crucibe opening , this rectangle box recievees the molten metal and disperces it through a hole in the front like Harold mentioned..
Mark


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