jamthe3 said:
Okay, so the palladium was dragged down when the gold precipitated...it was precipitated also w/ the SO2 and the second time around there's so little left that drag down isn't as much of an issue, if any at all.
Yes, that's my assessment, but remember that I am a person without education and lack knowledge in chemistry. They are conclusions I've drawn by deduction, and are just as likely to be wrong as right. One thing is sure, though, when palladium is mixed with gold, you can expect to deal with both of them, even with selective precipitation.
Beautiful picture, did you melt the powder in your furnace & pour as shot? Absolutely gorgeous.
Thanks!
I've posted it so many times that I sometimes hesitate to do so again, but there are new readers on a regular basis, and it's a great picture to encourage others to concentrate on quality. That was my greatest concern, bolstered by one of my very first customers who had used some poorly refined gold and ended up with a large number of custom carved rings that had been cast with brittle gold alloy. He turned to me to have the gold refined quickly, and became one of my most steadfast customers. I served him until the day I sold the business.
I didn't melt by furnace. I found it to be less than convenient, even when I had a large volume of gold to melt. The last time I re-refined gold, just before selling my humble business, I melted just over 400 troy ounces (part of which is in the picture you saw), all by torch. That was the exception, however. I normally melted somewhere between 70 & 80 ounces in a single lot, which was the typical amount of gold I re-refined as a batch. All of the gold I dispensed was refined two times, to insure quality.
I melted in roughly 10 ounce lots, using a large Hoke torch. The melting dish was then poured to a second dish that had an orifice in the bottom. That dish dispensed the molten gold in a fine stream (1/8" diameter) to a deep stainless catch basin in which I had a circulating pump to stir the water. That prevents localized areas from turning to steam, allowing the molten gold to hit the bottom of the container.
A second torch played on the second dish constantly, keeping the opening from freezing over with gold. In order to pour shot instead of cornflakes, you must not pour over the lip of a dish.
BTW, thanks for taking care of that other thread...it was disturbing;
I had already concluded that it would die, while mulling it over as I worked on my house today. The response is unusual----rarely do I encounter someone that must win the battle, even at the expense of losing the war. I am not a very forgiving type of person. Once set off, it takes a great deal to get me to come around. If often never happens.
I thank you for your comments (in regards to the thread in question), which were very appropriate, and to the point.
& thanks for all the generously dispersed "gifts" you & so many others provide with ya'alls posts. Its greatly appreciated.
On behalf of the others that give so generously, you are most certainly welcome.
I derive a great deal of pleasure from trying to help others. I remember all too well how no one would provide the smallest bit of information when I was trying to learn how to refine. That includes a local refiner that laughed in my face and told me I'd never learn. I eventually gathered all of his customers as my own. The bulk of my learning came at the expense of constant research, and reading Hoke.
Because it was illegal to refine prior to '75 (a federal license was required), and the secretive nature of the refining world, very little information is available in a format that can be used as a learning tool. Most of the information I uncovered was technical in nature, with little or no information on the actual process of refining. Hoke's book is truly a treasure, although many don't grasp the significance. Hers was the only act in town until the late 70's, as I recall.
Harold
