Non-Chemical Looking for tips on melting

[Thomascorley]

Evening all,

I Have some gold powders freshly dropped from solution (Dropped with SMB) . Now I want to melt it!
I have been searching for a good half hour and been struggling to find some instructional stuff.


I had planned to use:

Graphite crucible
Tongs
Borax
Map Gas

Any thoughts?

Be gentle

 

[etack]

Lots on here about melting gold.

One thing is rid yourself of the graphite crucible as you will not easily heat it up enough with just map gas to melt your gold.

You need a melting dish.

Eric

 

[bmgold2]

Insulating your melting dish will help keep you from loosing too much heat when trying to melt your gold with a Mapp gas torch. I have read that even regular fiberglass insulation (without paper backing) can be used under the dish but haven't tried it. Perlite like is used to lighten potting soil can also be used. Just make sure you don't blow it into your dish and contaminate your gold. I used ceramic wool but that might be harder to find in small quantities to build a shield around my dish and also under the dish to keep as much heat as possible from escaping.

Lasersteve probably still sells a small insulating firebrick melting furnace that works great, doesn't cost a lot and included a melting dish. You probably have to PM him to request it since I don't think it is still listed on his website.

 

[Thomascorley]

Thanks,

Will look for a melting dish, insulating sounds interesting. I have witnessed gold flakes being melted by map gas. Seemed to work okay.

 

[philddreamer]

I Have some gold powders freshly dropped from solution (Dropped with SMB)

Hi Thomas!
Just wondering... Did you rinse the gold powders properly? Are the gold powders thoroughly dry? If you didn't rinse properly, you might loose some of your gold when it starts to "pop"! If they still have moisture, you might loose most of it when it POPS!

Take care!

Phil

 

[bmgold2]

There are alternatives to the melting dish depending on how much gold you have and how serious you are about the whole thing. A cupel can be cheaper (a little bit) than a melting dish but is not good for as many times. Maybe only once and it doesn't hold as much and can be easier to blow the gold powder out of.

Other things can also be used but are probably not recommended. Things like a hollowed out piece of charcoal, a charred piece of wood or even a half a potato with a dish hollowed out in it and then charred a bit might work. I think Noxx even melted some gold powder directly on a piece of ceramic cloth. Using anything except the properly prepared melting dish risks contaminating or even loosing your gold but it all depends on if you are just playing (I mean learning) or if you are doing this for real and how much you are willing to spend.

 

[Thomascorley]

I washed the gold powder in Hydrochloric acid, its been air drying for at least a week. The picture shows 6.7g.
Hummm, popping gold powder doesn't sound very desirable. Apart from the gold physically being thrown out of the melting dish, is lost in any other way? due to poor washing.

Cheers

 

[etack]

Your gold looks good.

Go to a jewelry supply store and get a melting dish.nick might be able to tell you some places.

or order one 6.7g will melt pretty quick with map just start up high and work your way down slow. you will see it glowing red then move down some more.

Eric