Non-Chemical Melting Sterling issues

[ilikesilver]

Hey I have been trying to melt sterling rings and other jewelry, and for some reason i can only get it to lump up, not actually melt to a fluidic state. Ive use propane and also map gas. Neither which for some reason i cant seem to get to work. I am using one of the silica melting dish's i bought from laser steves shop. Borax also. Ive got it sitting in a small firebrick outdoor oven i built, so i know its holding the heat. any thoughts. thanks. tim

 

[Geo]

not enough heat for sure. add an oxidizer to the fuel. small oxy/mapp torches can be had from Lowes for about $60 or at least you can from here. it shouldnt be too much more anywhere else.

 

[rickbb]

You also may need to play around with your air flow as well. I have to put my propane torch almost against the crucible and use a small fan to blow extra air into the inlet where the torch is and open up the top as needed to get a red hot, roaring flame in the fire box. You almost want it to act like a blast furnace. I started off trying to hold in the heat which was choking off the air too much. After I opened up the top some and used the fan, things started to melt right away.

I've also lined my fire brick overn with cermic wool to help hold in some heat, it also gets red hot.

While I don't melt sterling, (I do silver oxide powder from various sources), I've found I get faster and better melts with a graphite crucible, my siclia clay job just does not want to get hot. (Or maybe I just haven't got the right oven setup yet.)

I guess I should mention that my torch is one of those large roofers or ice melting wand styles, not a small plumbers type.

 

[ilikesilver]

thank you both for the information. tim