Make Silver thin

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I found this Roller Mill on eBay to flatten spoons, forks and any other Sterling Silver items.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rolling-Mill-Machine-Roller-Metal-Wire-Flat-Jewelry-Tool-Manual-Combination-fast/254467062192?hash=item3b3f6b39b0:g:INYAAOSwvItbY7ht

Why I ask was I didn't know what it was called.
 
$146 for a rolling mill?
How things are coming down in price these days.
There was a time you would not find a new one for under a grand.
Make sure it is of good quality.
I personally look for higher quality used kit instead of cheap new.
 
Why I wanted to use a Roller Mill, then the way they are it would take the Nitric Acid and Distilled Water to work longer to work.
 
If I am understanding you correctly, you wish to increase the surface aria of your material, so it will react more redly in a base metal leach?
Might I suggest a homogenization melt and then quenching to cornflake in a water barrel?
A very good preparatory step.
 
So you say take the spoons and forks and melt then into cornflake then run them in the Nitric Acid and Distilled Water process? That would save me money on buying a Roller Mill. If so thanks for all your help.
 
In this inquartation melt I made a mistake, I let too much of the metal flow out of my melting dish.
It settled to the bottom of the stainless steel water drum, It sat for a second.
And then BOOM!
The Molton metal managed to trap enough water underneath it to cause a steam explosion.
Scared the pants off of me, but that is the benefit of using a good quality drum and lots of water, the explosion was contained with no loss.
An unusual side effect was the very fine metal with the texture of sand that the molten metal being blown apart produced.
DSC01813.JPG
 
Justin, that looks like inquarted gold - and yes, of course it's advisable to cornflake in that scenario.

I believe the OP just wants to dissolve silver items. I'm surprised nobody else has said so yet, I can't imagine there is anything practical to gain by rolling the items thin first. Even cornflaking is more effort and resource than is needed.

Just put them in nitric (~30% concentration) as is. They may need to be bent or cut to fit in a beaker, but that's all. HEAT is your friend for speeding the process. Sure rolling items thin would also speed things up, but that's a lot more effort to roll every item. Just let the acid, heat and time do the work.
 
Homogenization melt and cornflaking can help quite a lot.
Yes you can just put everything into acid, but a melt burns off a lot of impurities and dirt, not to mention increases the surface aria so speed up the digestion on larger lots and produces a more uniform reaction.
 
How big was your stainless steel water drum? How tall and how wide is it? I was thinking of a 5 gallon bucket with a stainless bowl inside on the bottom of it to collect the cornflake.
 
And I was thinking of using a melting dish but I want to drill a hole but not sure what size drill bit to use?
 
jmdlcar said:
How big was your stainless steel water drum? How tall and how wide is it? I was thinking of a 5 gallon bucket with a stainless bowl inside on the bottom of it to collect the cornflake.

Depth is the thing which will let metal cool as it falls, I use a 60cm deep drum, and to be honest you can see on the bottom where metal that was too hot has hit the bottom and almost welded its self.
So if possible use deeper than that.
I would not drill a melting dish as it is quite a shallow bowl may be file the spout a bit to give yourself a narrow valley to pour through, I have a crucible drilled with 5mm holes for silver shot.
 
Would it hurt to put ice in the drum to make the water cold that way it would help cool the Silver down?
 
jmdlcar said:
Would it hurt to put ice in the drum to make the water cold that way it would help cool the Silver down?

I don't suppose it would hurt.
But I can not see it making that much difference for you.
I would like to deepen my quenching drum and fit a pump.
(A) so it can be emptied easily as they can be quite heave.
(B) to run the output spraying into the drum, so you can get the water to swirl like a whirl-pool, so anything entering the water is automatically scattered as it cools.
This would prevent any large bits forming.
I would like to work out a kind of water lock trap at the bottom of the barrel which would let you cut off the bottom most portion.
If it was funnel shaped that would collect all the shot in one place to be removed without the need to drain the tank between every melt, But that is well beyond my welding abilities.
 
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