Helpful hints courtesy of trials and tribulations: I left my crucible out in the rain one day; guess what?- the hardened, glass-like borax dissolved allowing me to easily get the beaded up gold out w/ a pair of tweezers. One thing though; the crustified black crap[your melted impurities] will not dissolve. Another helpful hint; use the force of the torch[Mapp gas!] to push the gold towards the center; a deep crucible is handy, the gold will start pooling. good luck!
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Ash isn't something I usually associate with melting metals. Most oxides are absorbed by the borax flux.Alj said:
Maybe zinc boiled off and burned into white zinc oxide when it met the air. If you were melting old jewellery or pieces with a lot of solder joints then it might also contain some cadmium.
Hmmm.. electric furnace? Are you using a graphite crucible? Then it might be ash from the degradation of the crucible.
Is this a recurring phenomenon or is it a one time event? Any picture of the ash?
Göran
Hi everyone I'm new herei have a question with regards to refining
Gold.
I used borax poder to smelt the gold dust that I collected from my water filter.
But now I need to refined it.
I have tried using borax again and smelting further so the button reduced its weight from 14.8g to 8.2g but the colour looks reddish and I see some green mixed to the melted borax aswell... So I want to know does burning for longer period using borax purify the gold?
Gold.
I used borax poder to smelt the gold dust that I collected from my water filter.
But now I need to refined it.
I have tried using borax again and smelting further so the button reduced its weight from 14.8g to 8.2g but the colour looks reddish and I see some green mixed to the melted borax aswell... So I want to know does burning for longer period using borax purify the gold?
Borax will collect some of the base metal oxides into the borate glass slag.
Borax is more to help the melt flow, than it is an oxidizer in a melt, it can help to remove surface oxides helping to clean the melt, and covering in molten glass which can help with atmospheric oxidation, helping the molten metal come together in the melt easier, it can help to coat a ceramic melting dish or crucible in a glass glazing helping to keep metal from sticking to the fired clay during the melt.
Borax may be helpful in a melt or even in a smelting operation with other fluxes chosen for their chemical reactions during the smelting operation .
Borax and melting will not refine a metal.
Fluxes can be used oxidize or reduce base metals in smelting operations, but these are generally used for recovery processes, not for refining metals to a high purity, for this we use wet chemistry operations.
When you melt pure gold in borax the borate glass will be clear or at the most colored with a pink hint of colloidal gold.
if when you melt your gold and the slag glass borate's are colored (besides a hint of pink) then your gold needs refined.
Borax is more to help the melt flow, than it is an oxidizer in a melt, it can help to remove surface oxides helping to clean the melt, and covering in molten glass which can help with atmospheric oxidation, helping the molten metal come together in the melt easier, it can help to coat a ceramic melting dish or crucible in a glass glazing helping to keep metal from sticking to the fired clay during the melt.
Borax may be helpful in a melt or even in a smelting operation with other fluxes chosen for their chemical reactions during the smelting operation .
Borax and melting will not refine a metal.
Fluxes can be used oxidize or reduce base metals in smelting operations, but these are generally used for recovery processes, not for refining metals to a high purity, for this we use wet chemistry operations.
When you melt pure gold in borax the borate glass will be clear or at the most colored with a pink hint of colloidal gold.
if when you melt your gold and the slag glass borate's are colored (besides a hint of pink) then your gold needs refined.
If I am melting gold or silver I normally only use a sprinkle of borax to glaze the dish.
If smelting the flux can be twice as much as the volume of the melt.
If brazing, or welding, I will just heat the welding rod and dip it into the borax, about the same amount of borax as rod in melted into the weld, or clean and sprinkle borax over the area to be welded previously preheated with the torch, only enough flux is used to clean the metal and enough to cover the weld with a molten glass shield to keep the metal from oxidation from the atmosphere of the weld or brazing.
If smelting the flux can be twice as much as the volume of the melt.
If brazing, or welding, I will just heat the welding rod and dip it into the borax, about the same amount of borax as rod in melted into the weld, or clean and sprinkle borax over the area to be welded previously preheated with the torch, only enough flux is used to clean the metal and enough to cover the weld with a molten glass shield to keep the metal from oxidation from the atmosphere of the weld or brazing.
