Help with a Burmese Silver Bowl

[Harold_V]

I'm no help with rhodium--but I can assure you, you won't be successful using a beaker for melting. For starters, it most likely won't tolerate the rapid heat change and will shatter. Beyond that, and assuming it didn't shatter, even if it's borosilicate glass (they usually are) it will melt before rhodium does. All in all, a lousy idea.

Harold

 

[Platdigger]

Let's see, rhodium, glass, and perhaps what? Some fluorspar? Yea, might work.
Perhaps you could cut the beaker near the bottom with a glass cutter then crush it up with a mortar and pestle and into a melting dish.
Naw, if you want to use it for plating you will have to put it back into solute.
And it may not be pure enough for a plating solution as is.
Therefore it will need to be repurified, and that most likely more than once.
So, I guess just save it for later in case someday you come across some more.

 

[justinhcase]

Thanks for the input's..
The HO torch is quite good on old broken glassware.It let's you cut them up and weld them back together.just for a proof of concept and I have not constructed any glassware I intend to use.
I would not think normal glass would be as robust to thermal shock as the Pyrex beakers.
The Rh has been put up and back down in solution four time's by the time I worked out what was going on and how best to handle it.(Well as best as I could work out with my limited ability's)
I still have not had a positive result from my D.M.G. so will have to try and find a clean sample of Pd to experiment with,If I can afford it after it's resent Rally..