Newb In Pennsylvania

[Anonymous]

Hello All,
So obviously I am a noob but I figured I would tell you all a little bit more about me.
I graduated from Penn State about 5 years ago, as a pre-med major and a metalsmith. I am 29 and currently halfway through medical school, but have decided to take some time off before finishing. During my time off, I built a forge and starting doing some knife work and some other blacksmithing. I then decided that since Christmas was coming and I was broke (still am) that I would build myself a cheap burnout kiln and do some silver lost wax casting for gifts. I built my burnout kiln for about 3 dollars and then used my forge to melt some fine silver. The first try was an utter failure, but my second try was quite a success. It was my first time casting (psu's metals dept didn't have casting equipment and the program no longer exists), and my first time setting stones. Doing all of that reminded me how much I love working with metal. Hence, my interest in this forum. Because I want to continue to do metal work while finishing med school, I have to do it on a budget (I'm already in debt up to my eyeballs). And I'm hoping that maybe I can even make some money on the side to possibly finish the engagement ring that I designed and ran out of money to finish. So I am interested in building either my own thum cell or mobius cell. Even when I was in school, I built many of my own tools for metal work, it is just something I like to do. So building my own equipment to refine silver and maybe even some gold or platinum down the line is right up my alley. I actually have some high grade silver nitrate to get me started to use in the electrolyte.
I have a lot of hobbies that generally revolve around pretty much anything DIY.
I haven't really looked at any posts but I have a feeling that I may have finally found a site worth spending some serious time on...that is when I'm not studying for my massive exam for school.
Thanks in advance for all that knowledge that I will likely gain from you.
I hope that I may have something to contribute.
Thanks,
Andre

 

[Palladium]

welcome to the forum. You sound like you would get along good with Mark. He does the lost wax casting's. He made the golden Mickey Mouse. Check him out. His name is 61 silverman. http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=983

 

[Oz]

If you have some high grade silver nitrate, leave it as high grade silver nitrate. You can make electrolyte with a lessor grade silver if you want to build a silver cell.

You mention possibly wishing to graduate to refining gold after trying silver. Oddly enough it is less work and education needed to produce fine gold than what is required to make fine silver.

Enjoy the forum!

 

[Anonymous]

Hey,
thanks for responding to my thread.

Oz, as usual, I am starting out kind of backwards, being more interested in silver refining than doing gold right now, though I may reconsider. It is just that I am so much more familiar with silver, I've never actually worked with gold in my metalsmithing, due to the expense, it was usually copper, brass, nickel, titanium, aluminum, and steel. (though compared to today's costs gold was cheap when i was in school) Thanks for letting me know about the silver nitrate, cause it will definitely save me from using up some very valuable chemical. I look forward to future interactions.

Palladium, I checked out the link that you accompanied. Holy cow...mind numbingly cool. Mark is a guru, and I but a poor pathetic tramp. The stuff I did was primitive in comparison to what Mark has done. The casting and the burnout were both done with coal as my fuel, all in homemade contraptions in my back yard with below freezing temperatures. I had to stand by and constantly monitor air flow and fuel levels for the burnout kiln using a cheap thermocouple that came with a multimeter from lowe's. I knew I was doing it caveman style, since my budget was super low, but Mark's Mickey Mouse just leaves me in awe. Thanks for pointing me toward's Mark.

Thanks again,
Andre