Non-Chemical quartz dishes.

[glondor]

Hey all. I bought 2 nice quartz dishes and would like to use them for melting. Question. Do they prep the same as other dishes? Should they have a borax coat? Thanks.

 

[Geo]

borax flux is used to remove the minute amount of impurities that might be in the sponge. too if you melt with a torch it will collect the contamination from the torch. i would use borax.

 

[glondor]

Thanks Geo. I was just concerned that it might not be compatible with the dish. I will treat one with borax and give it a go.

 

[lazersteve]

If the dishes are clear fused quartz and you are going to use them for calcining PGMs don't coat them with borax.

If the dishes are silica quartz (opaque white dishes) and you are using them for melting gold or silver, a slight glaze of borax is ok. If you are using this type for melting PGMs no borax is required.

Steve

 

[glondor]

Thanks Guys. They are the opaque dishes. Melted some pure gold I made and it worked great. Just a thin coat of borax. I am attempting my first bar. I will let you know how it goes.

 

[Lou]

Try not to use fused silica to melt platinum in--it has a significant vapor pressure at the melting point of platinum and can lead to silicosis. Use alumina or zirconia..