A way to shot metals for acid processing

[grainsofgold]

A way that I have found for prepping metals prior to adding acids is to use:

1. Five gallon plastic bucket
2. A stainless steel mixing bowl that is a slightly less diameter than the bucket
3. a smaller stainless steel mixing bowl that when turned upside down will rest in the center of the larger mixing bowl
4. ice and water



What I do is fill the bucket up half way to a little more with ice. I add water til it's below the top of the bucket.

I then gently immerse the larger bowl and place it on the bottom of the bucket facing up. I then take the smaller bowl and place it upside down in the center of the larger bowel that is facing up.

I heat the metals up in my crucible and pour the metals with my torch on it til it drops out of the crucible , close to the surface of the water and in a circular motion in the center area.

The gold drops through the water, hits the upside down bowl and ends up in the larger bowl for retrieval .


Many ways to do this but for me I find this one works best for me-

 

[4metals]

Having the metal hit the inverted stainless bowl is likely working because you are not shotting a lot of metal at once, if you were making larger melts, the molten metal would begin to stick to the stainless.

The thing you have hit upon that makes a big difference is the very cold water. Most shops making shot for processing pour on a wet plank of wood angled into the cold water such that the molten stream of metal hits at or slightly below the water air interface on the board.

 

[goldsilverpro]

With only a few oz of gold, I have just used a plastic bucket. A helper stirred the water, fairly vigorously, while I slowly poured the metal into it. The water was cold water right out of the tap.

I would be careful with gold. If it's molten at all when it hits the stainless, it will alloy with it. That happened to me once. I used some tool to cut the SS around the gold and then dissolved both the gold and the little bit of SS with AR.

 

[patnor1011]

I just did 101g tad over 3oz and also used just plastic bucket. I used enamel coated aluminium round pan-like thing on the bottom at a little angle and nothing stuck to it. Water was just cold tap water, no ice.

 

[Anikatoon]

And what's so interesting about that really wanted to know.

 

[g_axelsson]

Just a spammer, Anikatoon will be removed soon but remains for educational purposes.

Göran

 

[autumnwillow]

Just a spammer, Anikatoon will be removed soon but remains for educational purposes.

Göran

Haha this is funny.


Anyway we have poured about 1.2kgs of inquarted gold in a 5 gallon bucket with a stainless steel bowl on the bottom, no ice and no inverted ss bowl.

The trick is to pour slowly, this will also make your shots smaller and easier to digest. We keep the flame at the crucible while pouring. The pour is also not stationary, we try to keep it in motion so as not to cause the shots from sticking together. The height from the pour is about 1/2 meter high from the bucket, I believe this distance helps to keep the molten metal being poured to cool off with its contact thru air. We also add a bit of dish washing soap to remove resistance from the water. And finally we mix before the pour.

We have had explosions before, but this was done when we poured fast and the pour was only about 10 inches away from the bucket.