Excited to be part of the community

mlgdave · Feb 8, 2011

My name is Dave, I first fell in love with gold when I was 11 years old and my dad took me gold panning for the first time. I found five small gold nuggets in that first pan and as they say " the rest is history". I have been around the world prospecting for gold, dredging, metal detecting, and running big equipment doing a mine cleanup.

I own and operate goldbay.com. I created my website about 10 years ago when I discovered man-made gold nuggets being sold on Ebay. My website has over 4000 members and is a gold nugget and gold specimen auction and classified site.

I started buying karat scraps three months ago and have been getting them refined locally. This last Friday night my little voice in my head started screaming " you're smart and refining doesn't seem like rocket science" I was going to buy the Shor simplicity refining system and then found this forum. I am so glad I did.

I will inquart my first scrap this week and see if I'd truly love refining (I have a huge suspicion that I will)

mlgdave

Palladium · Feb 8, 2011

Dave, from a marketing prospective what was your take on the Shor product? I don't mean now that you know the difference, i mean then when you were looking to buy? Did you see any faults in the product?
Pro's and con's. What attracted you to it? What made you believe enough that you also bought it? What was the hook?
I like to do market research. 8)

Welcome to the forum Dave.

mlgdave · Feb 8, 2011

Actually i did NOT buy the Shor system, what made it attractive was it seemed easy and non toxic and hassle free. Upon closer inspection and reading on this forum I see that there are methods better used, not proprietary and cheaper.

I am going to do inquarting/AR and then develop myself from there. I love the words I read on here "use the tried and true methods and leave the experimenting to those with expertise and time"

I am reading Hokes book and in communication with a lot of people on here, what an amazing bunch!

mlgdave

Palladium · Feb 8, 2011

When you were thinking of buying it did you see value for your money? How big a concern was cost as a factor in the buying decision?

mlgdave · Feb 8, 2011

Cost wasnt a factor. I thought it was more like a leaching system that I could put gold impregnated black sands in and leach, i thought I could just put in karat scrap and basically leave it to its own devices. Upon further reading I quickly talked myself out of that when I saw thats not what it was.

One of my "self imposed" myths was that you shouldnt melt gold in an open dish without heavy fluxes ESPECIALLY with oxy/acetylene, I had thought I would lose a LOT of gold through metal fuming/oxidation, I have since learned differently and dont have those concerns that had me not even look at refining before. I had thought refining was cost prohibitive but now see its exactly the opposite.

I also found out today that I have a friend who orders tech grade nitric by the barrel and will sell me by the gallon for 5 bucks (so much for the 10lbs of sodium nitrate I ordered, lol), so my costs have plummetted doing inquartation/AR. I bought all lab equipment last night on Ebay for about 250.00 including molds, vaccum filter etc

mlgdave

Harold_V · Feb 8, 2011

Hey, Eastern Washington, good to see you here.

mlgdave said:
I also found out today that I have a friend who orders tech grade nitric by the barrel and will sell me by the gallon for 5 bucks

Frankly, that's the largest obstacle you should have to overcome. Your attitude about refining and the process of learning is exemplary.

If you pay attention to Hoke (disregarding her admonition to toss on gasoline liberally when incinerating), you should enjoy complete success. Pay strict attention to proper washing of your gold after precipitation, and lose the notion that you have to put it in a filter after precipitation. That's a waste of time and serves no useful purpose. The only time your gold needs to see a filter is after it has been digested and evaporated, to eliminate traces of solids that would contaminate the precipitated gold.

Welcome to the forum.

Harold