Best torch setup to melt in a glazed melting dish?

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OldManSam

Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2024
Messages
20
Location
Tucson
Let me just start of by saying it's DAMN COLD in Tucson, and trying to melt chocolate is hard enough as it is, let alone trying to melt one of the greatest conductors of heat known to man.

In order to make my life as easy as possible I built a fun little "mini forge" for approximately zero dollars today, but even with that and a fresh bottle of mapp pro I still had a hell of a time just trying to melt some silver (I know!)

Basically I pulled the safety grate off one of my cheap Chinese electromelts, stole the dog's water dish, lined it with some ceramic wool, and Bob's your uncle (see the pics!) I figured this would insulate it enough that I would be able to melt silver and/or gold with a traditional Bernzomatic style bottle tip - basically I was trying to get away with not having to use oxypropane or oxymapp or oxyanything else ... but it looks like I'm gonna have to bite the bullet.

I started by looking at this ... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NVQS9D1 ... but it has a little yellow note that states it is "frequently returned" ... and the feedback has a lot of people complaining about leakage, etc.

Then I started looking at the other similar options ... leaky valves, pressure bubbles forming in the hoses, hoses flying off at random ...

I'm not trying to blow myself up, here. Can anybody point me to an actual ***GOOD*** dual fuel torch that is not going to break the bank (think $150 or less?) and which is also not going to kill me?
 

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Martijn said:
You could make one of aerated concrete, its cheap, insulating and pretty fire resistant. Use a propane gas torch. Add a little air flow to increase the temperature.



edited for spelling
Click to expand...

Was wondering how much of the thermocouple needs to be exposed in the furnace, for an accurate reading.
 
Martijn builds really nice furnaces ( I have to build one myself) but right now I use a turbo torch it requires an acetylene B- tank .
 

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OldManSam said:
Basically I pulled the safety grate off one of my cheap Chinese electromelts, stole the dog's water dish, lined it with some ceramic wool, and Bob's your uncle (see the pics!)
Click to expand...

You can not & will not get your metals to melt by lining a dog dish with insulation - putting the melting dish on to of the insulation - & then trying to heat all to melt temps by simply applying the heat from the torch on the bottom of the dish --- you would be lucky to even get lead to melt that way

Kurt
 
Kurt ,
I had the turbo torch from the HVAC trade it’s 25 + years old and still going , works every time and I have those Benzolights also but there at 14 buck a cylinder ( plus a back up ) . I have gone through two of those auto lighting Mapp gas torches . I do agree that they are usefull and cheaper . That turbo torch has been a very reliable tool.
 
BGDOCK said:
Kurt ,
I had the turbo torch from the HVAC trade it’s 25 + years old and still going , works every time and I have those Benzolights also but there at 14 buck a cylinder ( plus a back up ) . I have gone through two of those auto lighting Mapp gas torches . I do agree that they are usefull and cheaper . That turbo torch has been a very reliable tool.
Click to expand...
There are a variety of torches available from Flame Engineering. They have a good line of torches, from small bottle sizes up to multi head units which could drain a 250 gallon propane tank in a day. Check them out. https://flameengineering.com
 
kurtak said:
You can not & will not get your metals to melt by lining a dog dish with insulation - putting the melting dish on to of the insulation - & then trying to heat all to melt temps by simply applying the heat from the torch on the bottom of the dish --- you would be lucky to even get lead to melt that way

Kurt
Click to expand...
I never said I was trying to heat it from the bottom 😅😅😅

Ultimately what ended up working... shockingly well in fact, was making a half dome over the top of the dish as well. Now with my cheapo mapp pro torch I can melt an ounce of silver in about 2-3 minutes... it's blazing fast 🤯 compared to spending fifteen minutes hoping and praying.
 
Even ammonia was used as a refrigerant. Even into the 1980’s some camper refrigerators ran on heated ammonia.

I now return to our regularly scheduled programming.😁
 
goldshark said:
So, how did you melt the thermocouple? Do they still work after the melted ends, accurately? I've never melted one. What temp were they at?
Click to expand...
The thermocouple should be able to go up to 1750 C, but I had them reading 1200 max.
I guess excessive oxygen, and sticking too far in the furnace was the cause. They are not the top range of quality, but at the lower range I must add.
And yes, they still work as long as the wires and weld between them is intact.
You could in theory twist two bare wire ends together and weld the ends together to make one yourself.
 
BGDOCK said:
I had the turbo torch from the HVAC trade it’s 25 + years old and still going , works every time
Click to expand...

I couldn't even tell you how many kilos of gold (up to 2 ozt at a time) I melted in my 10 years of refining with the TS4000 torch

Mostly 1 ozt melts as most of my buyers wanted 1 ozt bars but had one buyer that liked 2 ozt bars

How I melted my gold --- used a single burner camp stove - on top of that set a piece of expanded metal that the melt dish set on --- by preheating the melt dish from the bottom with the camp stove it decreased (sped up) the torch melt time as the torch wasn't doing all the work to get the dish up to temp to melt the gold

In other words - camp stove heating from bottom of dish - torch heating from top = less melt time

Kurt
 

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