Greetings to GRF people, all the way from Suvarnabhumi !

[alkatrash]

Hi Folks,

It's a really big surprise when I login to this forum tonight as a member and found out a modest list of materials and methods and procedures for all to read.
It's like finding my first "gold mine"...ever!

All this while (around 6 months) I have been reading GRF stuff from the Google search result links and found them to be really good, but never thought it would be "this good". :mrgreen:
And thanks to you guys, I can read and read all night long...

BTW, I was a lab-tech with a local ChlorAlkali company in one of the biggest industrial zone in the south of Malaysia. So reading about the cautions being given by members of this glitterful forum will never be taken lightly. I know how bad it is to have liquid chlorine vapors inside my lungs and it does not feel good :shock:

I have read through Hoke's Manual late last month and now I am on my 2nd reading of that manual.
My current interest is on refining 22k jewelry into 999.99% bullion and I wish to adapt the skills needed to be a good refiner such as Lazersteve.
And Lazersteve's videos have been one of the clearest instructions I have ever seen on the web.

So let the game begins!

aLkatrash

 

[nickvc]

Welcome to the forum and I'm pleased to see your reading all the right basic information and checking steves site out, that's a really good start but I fear that your desire to refine gold to .99999 purity may prove to be to hard for you to achieve,.999+ may be possible but much better and it's long processes and quite expensive. I wish you luck in your venture and look forward to hearing your progress in the near future.

 

[goldsilverpro]

Nickvc is right. Saying you want to produce 5 nines (99.999%) gold is very unrealistic. You'll never do that without expensive specialized equipment. Three nines five (99.95%) is very possible with correct procedures. The inquartation method detailed by Harold_V on the forum will consistently produce 99.95%+ gold, if you follow it completely. It's a long shot, but you might accidentally get 4 nines (99.99%) if you do everything perfectly and then re-do it. I wouldn't count on it, though.

 

[alkatrash]

Welcome to the forum and I'm pleased to see your reading all the right basic information and checking steves site out, that's a really good start but I fear that your desire to refine gold to .99999 purity may prove to be to hard for you to achieve,.999+ may be possible but much better and it's long processes and quite expensive. I wish you luck in your venture and look forward to hearing your progress in the near future.

Hi nickvc,
Its great to see that people really care about others in this forum.
I have my fears with this current 'hobby' of mine and I understand that it shall be a long and tough process for myself, to be as good as the old timers in this forum.
Things are beginning to open up for me, most recently. And I will share my experience with you guys and I hope to find much needed guidance from GRF.

Nickvc is right. Saying you want to produce 5 nines (99.999%) gold is very unrealistic. You'll never do that without expensive specialized equipment. Three nines five (99.95%) is very possible with correct procedures. The inquartation method detailed by Harold_V on the forum will consistently produce 99.95%+ gold, if you follow it completely. It's a long shot, but you might accidentally get 4 nines (99.99%) if you do everything perfectly. I wouldn't count on it, though.

Yes goldsilverpro,
Both of you and Nickvc are correct on those numbers.
And getting positive comments from people like yourself is much appreciated.

I can see that Harold_V is very loud with his comments, stern maybe, but nonetheless useful. It's fun to see intelligent arguments between a bunch of people in a lively forum where the reason behind it is always about seeking perfection and minimising loss.

My 1st baby steps shall be the refining skills to achieve 99.95% and then the hunt for the 4 Nines...

Thank you for the very warm welcome!!
alkatrash

 

[nickvc]

I think it's fair to say Harold V is a leading light of the forum and full of knowledge which he is only to willing to share but and it's a big but he expects members to do their homework and will not tolerate bad behaviour on the forum,so do your homework and abide by the rules and you will have a very happy time on here.

 

[goldsilverpro]

My 1st baby steps shall be the refining skills to achieve 99.95% and then the hunt for the 4 Nines...

Sounds like a logical plan to me!

 

[Harold_V]

I think it's fair to say Harold V is a leading light of the forum and full of knowledge which he is only to willing to share but and it's a big but he expects members to do their homework and will not tolerate bad behaviour on the forum,so do your homework and abide by the rules and you will have a very happy time on here.

Thanks, Nick. Very well stated.

Aways the gentleman! 8)

Harold

 

[alkatrash]

I think it's fair to say Harold V is a leading light of the forum and full of knowledge which he is only to willing to share but and it's a big but he expects members to do their homework and will not tolerate bad behaviour on the forum,so do your homework and abide by the rules and you will have a very happy time on here.

Many thanks for your thoughts nickvc.
And I am honored to have Harold_V posting on this thread

These shall be my plans for the next 2 weeks:
1. Rent some space, away from the general population (07/15/2010 done!)
2. Shop for chemicals in bulk and general lab glassware
3. Fabricate a DIY fume hood with a good blower
4. Order some firebrick and anodes from lazersteve. Hopefully his DVDs are in my budget as well :wink:
5. Fire up my HHO torch for the first time and smelt!

I'll try and post some pics of my bling-bling adventure on a suitable thread somewhere in this forum when I progress through each step.

It's good to have great people around here.
BTW I hope you guys dont mind me asking lotsa questions! :wink:

alkatrash

 

[Harold_V]

5. Fire up my HHO torch for the first time and smelt!

Will you be working with ores?

Harold

 

[g_axelsson]

5. Fire up my HHO torch for the first time and smelt!

Will you be working with ores?

Harold

:lol: alkatrash, I knew someone would get you for that. Better watch your language as one small error in a description can be the difference between success and failure. Anyone that have mistaken sodium meta bisulfate for sodium meta bisulfite can attest to that.

A short explanation.... smelting is to extract the metals from an ore and create metal while melting is ... well to melt a metal.

To make things more confusing for us Swedes, melting is spelled smälta which also means smelting. :mrgreen:

Don't you worry, you'll learn the language in time.

/Göran

 

[alkatrash]

5. Fire up my HHO torch for the first time and smelt!

Will you be working with ores?

Harold

Hi Harold_V

I think that most of my time in the workshop shall be spent refining 22k jewelry into 24k (using which method? still studying all available options...)

But most recently, I have received a sample ore (500 grams) which I sent for XRF analysis and it came back 95% Lead, 0.2% Silver and 0.02% AU. I believe the XRF is only a simple guideline in determining the surface value of that ore and I'm guessing that a cupellation is needed for a much better, if not clearer picture. And that ore will be submitted to a lab this coming Monday when I am running around buying jewelry, as usual (full time job).

I'm still looking into the smelting process and if it is worth the money spent, I MIGHT be doing it too with a good furnace in place.
I'd appreciate if someone with smelting experience can share his/her thoughts with me :mrgreen:

Currently I am reading the Chemical Processes thread and I will get to the Prospecting, Mining, Ore Concentrates & Geochemical hosted by Rick "The Rock Man", to learn more on that subject.

:lol: alkatrash, I knew someone would get you for that. Better watch your language as one small error in a description can be the difference between success and failure. Anyone that have mistaken sodium meta bisulfate for sodium meta bisulfite can attest to that.

A short explanation.... smelting is to extract the metals from an ore and create metal while melting is ... well to melt a metal.

To make things more confusing for us Swedes, melting is spelled smälta which also means smelting. :mrgreen:

Don't you worry, you'll learn the language in time.

/Göran

Oh I will surely mind my language of course.
But I can always expect you to correct me when I slipped my tongue over something

Tack sa mycket!
alkatrash

p/s Maybe I should go hunt a dragon in Sweden and keep it as a pet to melt my glitter!

 

[Palladium]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/32591739/Metallurgy-the-Art-of-Extracting-Metals-From-Their-Ores

http://www.scribd.com/doc/17426009/You-Can-Smelt-Too

 

[g_axelsson]

Oh I will surely mind my language of course.
But I can always expect you to correct me when I slipped my tongue over something

Tack sa mycket!
alkatrash

p/s Maybe I should go hunt a dragon in Sweden and keep it as a pet to melt my glitter!

Just because of my forum picture. That is how we keep warm in the long cold winter nights. :mrgreen:

Right now it's summer time and where I live it never gets really dark for two months. We have +25-30 C and full summer. It's almost to too hot. We spend eleven months complaining about the cold and one month complaining about the heat. :lol:

Looking forward to hear more about your smelting adventures.
Btw, is that ore already reduced to metal? If you have 95% lead then someone have already smelted the led ore.

/Göran

 

[alkatrash]

Oh I will surely mind my language of course.
But I can always expect you to correct me when I slipped my tongue over something

Tack sa mycket!
alkatrash

p/s Maybe I should go hunt a dragon in Sweden and keep it as a pet to melt my glitter!

Just because of my forum picture. That is how we keep warm in the long cold winter nights. :mrgreen:

Right now it's summer time and where I live it never gets really dark for two months. We have +25-30 C and full summer. It's almost to too hot. We spend eleven months complaining about the cold and one month complaining about the heat. :lol:

Looking forward to hear more about your smelting adventures.
Btw, is that ore already reduced to metal? If you have 95% lead then someone have already smelted the led ore.

/Göran

+25 in the summer is so cool!
Early this year we had a heat wave coming, and the temperature went up to 37 degrees celsius and all our Belgians friend got roasted. LoL.
I will not complain if the temperature outside is minus zero just as long as there's some heat to warm me up.

BTW, I knew that the ore contains 95% lead from the XRF printout.
I will be sending the ore to the lab for cupellation this Monday and hopefully there are enough gold in it. But still, IMO the silver content is quite impressive.


Thanks Palladium for those links.
Now I have more than enough to read for the next 7 days

alkatrash