notehunter494
Active member
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2020
- Messages
- 35
Hello and I want to thank All involved in the set up and maintenance of this forum, it is Excellent! I have been going through it for the past 2 months on and off and learned a lot.
So I guess I am coming to you all with two questions, first how to prep my material so I can get it into a button or ingot form and, second how do I separate the metals from each other.
I'm just an old retired jeweler looking for guidance before I start. I had a small mfg. biz doing start to finish production and custom work in primarily 18k yellow gold and platinum. Early on I set up a separate bench for platinum only, but there is platinum in the lot from before I did this as well as some silver from model making and a little "who knows what" from repairs etc. on mostly fine karat stuff. I have approx. 1200g of jewelers' bench tray filings. All the "good stuff", clean metal sprues and prong clippings, have been removed and are long gone. There is a lot of rubber abrasive and pumice wheel dust and the abrasives associated with them along with emery paper dust etc., anything used to clean up castings and assemble jewelry.
I read in Hoke's book about the lye method and the fry pan incineration. She said chose one or the other but not both. The setters I knew would do the lye method monthly, as I recall their material was cleaner than my stuff, so I am leaning towards the fry pan method. I remember reading somewhere you can do both but need to do a mild acid rinse in between the treatments?? From "4metals" post from 9/22/16 they say to rinse the ash with nitric acid and distilled water. Would that be a mixture of the two (diluted acid) or a one, two step process, and can that be done in the frying pan. Would it be to my advantage to do this in several smaller lots? I have a small casting burn out oven, could this be useful? I have read that the sweeps may be laid out on small stainless-steel trays and stacked in the oven for a burn out. I am working in the garage/outdoors, l have no fume hood but I do have a good fan and I am using a map gas/oxygen Hoke torch. I have a BS in biology with some chemistry background and experience melting buttons from the "good stuff" 20-40 DWT, to bring to the refiner. My goal is more to recover than refine. I just want to be able to separate the gold from the platinum group metals and the silver. I would rather use the salt water method than acid refining. Yes I know I am no fun but you see I have experience using acids and believe me I am not set up for the use of concentrated nitric acid and AR.
I have not seen it mentioned here and I am almost afraid to bring it up as it seems to be the elephant in the refining room but is anyone familiar with the "Ishor International" refining systems? I knew a master jeweler who bought one in the early '80's using the salt water method and it worked great for him, the only reason he quit using it was he was making so much money as a jeweler he just didn't have the time to do anything else. Many of the "chemicals" they use have been updated and I put chemicals in parenthesis because you really do not know what you are dealing with, it is sort of a kids easy bake oven system for adults. Does anyone here recommend this salt water and electricity system? I know it's about a grand to buy but looking at what I have to get through I am thinking it might be the way to go, especially to curtail the losses that come with inexperience, and the fact that this is a one-shot deal and not an emerging vocation for me.
I am hoping this forum can give me the kick in the pants I need to get started as my family is tired of me talking about it for the past 20 years. Many thanks in advance.
So I guess I am coming to you all with two questions, first how to prep my material so I can get it into a button or ingot form and, second how do I separate the metals from each other.
I'm just an old retired jeweler looking for guidance before I start. I had a small mfg. biz doing start to finish production and custom work in primarily 18k yellow gold and platinum. Early on I set up a separate bench for platinum only, but there is platinum in the lot from before I did this as well as some silver from model making and a little "who knows what" from repairs etc. on mostly fine karat stuff. I have approx. 1200g of jewelers' bench tray filings. All the "good stuff", clean metal sprues and prong clippings, have been removed and are long gone. There is a lot of rubber abrasive and pumice wheel dust and the abrasives associated with them along with emery paper dust etc., anything used to clean up castings and assemble jewelry.
I read in Hoke's book about the lye method and the fry pan incineration. She said chose one or the other but not both. The setters I knew would do the lye method monthly, as I recall their material was cleaner than my stuff, so I am leaning towards the fry pan method. I remember reading somewhere you can do both but need to do a mild acid rinse in between the treatments?? From "4metals" post from 9/22/16 they say to rinse the ash with nitric acid and distilled water. Would that be a mixture of the two (diluted acid) or a one, two step process, and can that be done in the frying pan. Would it be to my advantage to do this in several smaller lots? I have a small casting burn out oven, could this be useful? I have read that the sweeps may be laid out on small stainless-steel trays and stacked in the oven for a burn out. I am working in the garage/outdoors, l have no fume hood but I do have a good fan and I am using a map gas/oxygen Hoke torch. I have a BS in biology with some chemistry background and experience melting buttons from the "good stuff" 20-40 DWT, to bring to the refiner. My goal is more to recover than refine. I just want to be able to separate the gold from the platinum group metals and the silver. I would rather use the salt water method than acid refining. Yes I know I am no fun but you see I have experience using acids and believe me I am not set up for the use of concentrated nitric acid and AR.
I have not seen it mentioned here and I am almost afraid to bring it up as it seems to be the elephant in the refining room but is anyone familiar with the "Ishor International" refining systems? I knew a master jeweler who bought one in the early '80's using the salt water method and it worked great for him, the only reason he quit using it was he was making so much money as a jeweler he just didn't have the time to do anything else. Many of the "chemicals" they use have been updated and I put chemicals in parenthesis because you really do not know what you are dealing with, it is sort of a kids easy bake oven system for adults. Does anyone here recommend this salt water and electricity system? I know it's about a grand to buy but looking at what I have to get through I am thinking it might be the way to go, especially to curtail the losses that come with inexperience, and the fact that this is a one-shot deal and not an emerging vocation for me.
I am hoping this forum can give me the kick in the pants I need to get started as my family is tired of me talking about it for the past 20 years. Many thanks in advance.