Royally screwed !

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I have read several threads here on the Forum about this subject, there are a lot of valid points for and against, I filled my first bottle 5ozt
 

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That would work. But for consistency, and ease of use, you'll want a setup with a press pump, moving bolster, cushion pins, control block, accumulators. Incorporate a cutoff switch at the bottom of your stroke to reverse the pump. As far as stroke length, 12in.-15in. to give you enough safe working room, and an adjustable slide for your clearances. Most dies I have set up from small 100 lb. assemblies to 30,000 lb. die assemblies, I set at 50mil. (0.05 in.) Clearance on the lead test.
 
So, I was doing the math on my spreadsheet based on some of the numbers you had mentioned earlier, it never occurred to me to take into account the melting of the copper in the coin silver as you posted
It takes 1.22 ml. of 70% Nitric to dissolve 1 gram of silver.
It takes 4.3 ml. of 70% Nitric to dissolve 1 gram of copper.

For 1 gram of Coin silver - 90/10, Ag/Cu:
(1.22 x .90) + (4.3 x .10) = 1.53 ml of 70% nitric or 3.06 ml of 50/50 nitric
 
So, I was doing the math on my spreadsheet based on some of the numbers you had mentioned earlier, it never occurred to me to take into account the melting of the copper in the coin silver as you posted
It takes 1.22 ml. of 70% Nitric to dissolve 1 gram of silver.
It takes 4.3 ml. of 70% Nitric to dissolve 1 gram of copper.

For 1 gram of Coin silver - 90/10, Ag/Cu:
(1.22 x .90) + (4.3 x .10) = 1.53 ml of 70% nitric or 3.06 ml of 50/50 nitric
Yeah, the copper usually gets you, that's why I just went ahead and included the numbers in the mixture to work with.
 
Yeah that would be good. When you're going with 50/50 ratios, the ideal range for nitric dilution was 35% - 41%. Usually diluting at 41% worked pretty well for me when making silver nitrate. Results were consistent, and it was relatively easy to make sure excess nitric was used up with a little material left to filter out. It was uncommon to a have cloudy solution.
 
Quick question on the stamping you want to do. Have you thought about using an arbor press? It would still be by hand, but it's definitely more affordable than a larger setup.
 
It may be cheaper to just design your own press like you are, and talk to a machine shop. I have some designs I've been working on for smaller knuckle joint type press with higher tonnage limits. They could be modified for your purposes quite easily. The parts would cost around $1500 for the material to make the basic design.
 
That was my thinking as well, it should be possible, I have pondered if it would be needed to heat the bar a small amount just before pressing ? I already wet sand with a couple of different grits (320/400 etc;) after pouring anyway, I may lose a gram or two, but they sure shine up nicely, the bar pictured was when I first started pouring, I was using a low temperature / bare minimum and the pours were not great, I have since adjusted the heat level so that the silver pours and flows like a watery substance, it seems to work better also by having the mold pre heated as well..
 

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Heating it up would help, and would allow to require less tonnage. Since you're just using it to stamp numbers, you could use an impact press.
 
Well I'm back from the work trip, I used a reciprocating saw and did lose a few grams in shavings, I also have about 3ozt still wrapped around the metal piece from the furnace, I might have to get creative and use a chisel as suggested to reclaim that silver, although, I didn't do that bad on the re-melt
 

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Wonderful on the safe travels, reads like you had a productive trip.

Hopefully you collected the shavings, sort that at a later time. You've a picture of the coil?

Good looking remolding.
 
Here is what's left of the old furnace, I am saving it for parts, probably the only thing salvageable is the PID temp control, if I would have taken the time, I doubt it would be any different, the silver hockey puck was attached to the thermostat (I believe), so I was originally going for a kilo bar, I think I would have made it..
 

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Well, it could be an interesting repair, or rig up. That coil itself could potentially still work if you carefully reshape the coil around a new ceramic canister. Could maybe find a ceramic canister at a pottery store, Walmart, Good will. Or, if you test coil and it works, take the coil to a pottery place with very good clay, make your own canister with the coils completely encased. Sometime tomorrow I'll pull out the graphing pad, and draw you up a design to work/toy around with. Could you give me an inside diameter, and height measurement of the steel/tin cylinder? Maybe a better idea of where the connection points are to the base, with measurements inside a circle as a pattern? It would help to have the length of the coil itself, but, maybe use a twine, and follow along it for a length measurement. The less bending of the coil the better. You could just buy a new ceramic canister, and coil for a little more than $100 or so, but it could be cheaper to make with what you have if the coil still works.
 
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