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Southfork said:
Looks like both of you need to look closer that's a rubber tube in the water no blow back and better cooling. Read my post before criticizing when finished the two lines recirculate the water with the pump or a tank. And it worked fine the way it is did not suck water back as it cooled. Look at the jar it's still full of water.
Click to expand...
That is as long as things work as planned.
The cloth tube is a fail safe just in case things do not go as planned.

edit to add:
Maybe a very soft collapsible rubber tube will do.
I have not tested.
Do you have a safety valve on the main chamber?
One that lets air in if there gets vacuum in the tank?
 
If your tube/hose fully submerged, there's a chance it pulls water back into the retort, regardless if it's made of rubber, glass or metal.
If water gets inside the retort and touches hot metal, it will become steam, expand and blow out the water and the mercury off your catch bin.

Hoke is not the only one who is giving this advice.
 
Yggdrasil said:
That is as long as things work as planned.
The cloth tube is a fail safe just in case things do not go as planned.

edit to add:
Maybe a very soft collapsible rubber tube will do.
I have not tested.
Do you have a safety valve on the main chamber?
One that lets air in if there gets vacuum in the tank?
Click to expand...
It has two tubes / outlets that will allow the water to circulate when finished. with a pump and a tub of water no pressure builds in the cooling tank it's not a closed tank. Or I can just make a open vessel water supply with two outlets and let it thermosiphon back into the retort. In my opinion the cloth allows some vapor to escape. This was just a test to see if all the welds were solid, I also poured water over the pipe cap to cool and see if I had a good seal no water sucked back .
 
BlackLabel said:
If your tube/hose fully submerged, there's a chance it pulls water back into the retort, regardless if it's made of rubber, glass or metal.
If water gets inside the retort and touches hot metal, it will become steam, expand and blow out the water and the mercury off your catch bin.

Hoke is not the only one who is giving this advice.
Click to expand...
That's what the first run was for to test for leaks. It's not a closed system
 
It is not about the tubes used in the circulation of the cooling solution. The problem lies in submerging the tail piece into the catch jar, which it clearly is, rubber or solid, it doesn't matter. You have been clearly warned by the numerous posters, advising not to do this. Since you didn't post a picture of the size of the heating pot, I will explain the problem. If your Amalgam pot is of sufficient size, that when the heating source is withdrawn from it, it will create a negative pressure, sucking water back up the condensing tube, into the heated pot. 1 drop of water will expand 17,000 times in volume. If it doesn't explode, it will blow everything out of the catch vessel. If you are going to display such an apparatus, please do it in the proper fashion. Otherwise, you are setting a very dangerous precedent for others.
 
Southfork said:
Looks like both of you need to look closer that's a rubber tube in the water no blow back and better cooling. Read my post before criticizing when finished the two lines recirculate the water with the pump or a tank. And it worked fine the way it is did not suck water back as it cooled. Look at the jar it's still full of water.
Click to expand...
Monkey see monkey do, would hate for others to follow your dangerous practices, read Hoke's for the correct method of using the retort.

The hose should not be submerged, a wet cloth should be attached to act as a siphon break.

IMO your much to arrogant to admit when your wrong, but the forum members with more patience than I will make up for your shortfalls - read Hoke's book to save us the trouble.

water.png
 
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Southfork said:
stoneware I don't think your helping anyone with your copy paste routine that's what banned you from another site. The free gold in the ore we are now milling runs 70 - 90 percent purity same as our placer gold all recovered by gravity separation and melted. If and when I try to smelt low grade ore, I will download the pdf files that pertain to our ore. At least we have been successful at recovering gold for a long time Have you?
Click to expand...
Here's another copy and paste, these are the page numbers from Hoke's book pertaining to the retort.

retort.png
 
Southfork said:
stoneware I don't think your helping anyone with your copy paste routine that's what banned you from another site. The free gold in the ore we are now milling runs 70 - 90 percent purity same as our placer gold all recovered by gravity separation and melted. If and when I try to smelt low grade ore, I will download the pdf files that pertain to our ore. At least we have been successful at recovering gold for a long time Have you?
Click to expand...
More lies. I have not been banned from treasurenet, its by my own choice I no longer participate.

treasure.png
 
goldshark said:
It is not about the tubes used in the circulation of the cooling solution. The problem lies in submerging the tail piece into the catch jar, which it clearly is, rubber or solid, it doesn't matter. You have been clearly warned by the numerous posters, advising not to do this. Since you didn't post a picture of the size of the heating pot, I will explain the problem. If your Amalgam pot is of sufficient size, that when the heating source is withdrawn from it, it will create a negative pressure, sucking water back up the condensing tube, into the heated pot. 1 drop of water will expand 17,000 times in volume. If it doesn't explode, it will blow everything out of the catch vessel. If you are going to display such an apparatus, please do it in the proper fashion. Otherwise, you are setting a very dangerous precedent for others.
Click to expand...
The heating pot is clearly in the first photo. How can it explode the condensing tube is open / clear all the amalgam was wet the small amount of steam bubbled out into the jar. The condensing tube will be kept cool by circulation in the retort tank. I had a piece of cotton material on the end of a short plastic tube it was wicking water up, so I tried the rubber hose instead.
 
stoneware said:
I call BS, not long ago you were smelting your amalgam to recover the gold.
Click to expand...
It was melting one gram of gold covered with mercury. And you were given a long time out not banned. That mercury was recovered when I was dredging for gold in the 70s and has been retorted before.
 
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Southfork said:
Stoneware you have serious problems. This has nothing to do with me trying to retort some mercury.
Click to expand...
I personally know one of the people who took the time to scan both of Hoke's books, her companion book Testing Precious Metals was actually purchased with donations made by forum members,

The purpose of making her publications publicly available was to benefit members of this forum, refusing to read Refining Precious Metals Wastes is insulting to those who have taken the time to enrich themselves.

Harold_V would have insisted, with your refusal and the needless conversation were having on retorting more than likely would have led a reprimand to all party's with those refusing to take head immediately banned.
 
Let's not revive your personal squabbles again. I believe I've said this before, but I'll say it again. STOP IT. You're free to disagree with each other, but you are not free to disrespect and insult each other.

Stoneware, comments like "Stupid is as stupid does", and "your much to arrogant to admit when your wrong" are over the line on this forum. Do NOT do it again.

Southfork, saying "you have serious problems" is equally over the line. STOP.

If you two can't control yourselves, I will. I'm very short on patience right now. Do NOT push it!

Dave
 
FrugalRefiner said:
Let's not revive your personal squabbles again. I believe I've said this before, but I'll say it again. STOP IT. You're free to disagree with each other, but you are not free to disrespect and insult each other.

Stoneware, comments like "Stupid is as stupid does", and "your much to arrogant to admit when your wrong" are over the line on this forum. Do NOT do it again.

Southfork, saying "you have serious problems" is equally over the line. STOP.

If you two can't control yourselves, I will. I'm very short on patience right now. Do NOT push it!

Dave
Click to expand...
Wrong choice of words, my apologies.

What I don't understand is the effort made in defending a mistake.
 
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Looks to me the retort uses gauze on the discharge side, this would in my opinion act as a siphon break but in Southfork's arrangement it appears to me he is using a solid tube submerged in water.

gauze.jpg
water.png
 
Southfork, it seems to me you're misunderstanding what people are warning about. There is no issue with the cooling portion of your condenser. The issue is with the discharge pipe that runs inside the condenser from the retort to the beaker that catches the mercury.

When you heat the gold and mercury in your retort, everything gets hot, including the air which expands. When the heat is removed, either intentionally at the end of the run, or unintentionally if your burner should happen to run out of propane, the air inside the retort chamber is going to cool and contract. That causes a partial vacuum inside the retort chamber. It's that vacuum that is of concern. With your discharge tube immersed in the beaker of water, that vacuum can draw water back up through the tube. If enough water is drawn it, it can make its way into the very hot retort chamber. If it does, you can have a very serious problem. That's what everyone is trying to warn about.

Having said that, by the looks of your particular retort, you may or may not experience this problem. Your retort chamber appears to be pretty small, and the tube that leads from it through the condenser and into the discharge beaker seems to be of a fairly large diameter. I'm guessing that the volume of the tube is probably sufficient to keep any water sucked back in as the retort cools from ever reaching the retort chamber. But to be safe, and more importantly for anyone who may look at your pictures in the future and whose retort setup does not provide that safety margin, you really should follow the advise of keeping the end of your discharge hose above the top level of the water in your beaker. Attach a short "tube" of fabric from the end of the rubber tube into the water in the beaker.

That's all I can type for now.

Dave
 

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