Non-Chemical Steve's mini furnace

[hoardpm]

Just seen the video of the mini furnace in action. That is a really cool set up. I think that is would be great for someone like me who is just starting out and dosen't have a big torch rig yet. I will definetly be ordering one. But, being a car guy I can never leave well enough alone. I wonder if I could get a much larger settup and use my propane brush burner.

 

[watlarry]

Thanks Steve,
Got a mini furnace form Steve and it works great, just like the video. No need to spend hundreds on an oxy acetylene torch, mapp gas works great. Ron popeil would be proud you can almost set it and forget it. Everyone should have one.
Get one here.
http://www.goldrecovery.us Thanks again, Larry

 

[leavemealone]

I agree mine works like a dream......but whatever you do,DONT use oxy/acet. if you run out of mapp.I wont bother telling you how I know this....lol.
Johnny

 

[bmgold]

but whatever you do,DONT use oxy/acet. if you run out of mapp.I wont bother telling you how I know this....lol.

I was considering doing just that to try to get a little more heat. What is the problem with oxy/acetylene? Too hot? Too concentrated?

 

[leavemealone]

Too hot?

LMAO......ummmm yeh you could say that.Seriously I think it would work if you had a rosebud tip or a tip that produces less heat in such a concentrated area.
Johnny

 

[Gold Trail]

i made a "make shift" mini furnace today. i had good luck with a mini oxy ingection. it worked similar to a BOF. I am considering this as a perminant setup., see i ran outa acytlyne so had to change over to mapp. but it was slow so i ran a tube from the oxy bottle, and bleed in a little oxy and she was done. il be shure to do a tutorial when i mke the perminant setup

ryan

 

[metatp]

Steve,

Does your furnace work well with silver also. do you have a maximum weight that you think is practical for silver in your furnace. I going to melt the silver similar to one of your gold melting video's, but everybody keep raving about the furnaces from you. I have a propane torch (BernzOmatic TS8000) and a total of about 70 troy oz silver cement. I would like to pour into graphite molds of about 1, 5, and 10 oz.

Thanks,
Tom

 

[lazersteve]

Tom,

The mini-furnace will do silver very easily.

The largest mass of gold I've melted in one mini-furnace run was 85 grams. It still wasn't full to the rim, I'm guessing the upper limit of one of the 3" dishes is 3.5 troy ounces of gold.

Steve

 

[glorycloud]

Steve,

I was looking at the top brick on my mini-furnace the other day and I noticed small BB's
of gold imbedded in it. Am I possibly putting too much gold in the furnace or maybe turning the
gas up too high too quickly?

Your thoughts or recommendations Obiwan? (Other than just picking them out and getting over it?) 8)

 

[lazersteve]

That happened to me on my largest batch in the mini-furnace once also.

I think it was because I put the top on before the gold had shrunk down below the top lip of the melting dish. After that I started letting the gold preheat for a few minutes to shrink below the top lip of the melting dish before putting the top on. I also make sure I spread the gold out in the dish so it doesn't form such a tall pile.

All in all you are not losing anything, just saving a few micro BB's for later!

Steve

 

[glorycloud]

Great - I should be melting again before the end of the week so I will give that
a try. Thanks for the help!

 

[Harold_V]

I have melted thousands of ounces of gold by torch. Take note that when you are melting, you often see a flash of light leaving the dish. That flash of light is a miniscule particle of gold, propelled by what, I do not know. It is not necessarily related to the torch, although it is obviously related to the heat produced by the torch.

I did all of my melting in a pan made of asbestos. It was well cleaned before the gold was melted, and cleaned up afterwards. I harvested literally hundreds of miniscule prills from the pan every time I melted. I expect you are experiencing the same thing. I suggest you explore a housing of sorts in which you can melt your values to limit losses. It is well worth your time.

Harold

 

[4metals]

Have you ever used a Wesco high back crucible for torch melting? When melting in a Wesco I have had small beads on the walls of the crucible but rarely outside of it. They are usually used for platinum melting and come in 10 and 20 oz capacities, nothing bigger

 

[glorycloud]

I am pretty much exclusively using Steve's mini-furnace. I just wish I was
having a reason to use it more. :lol:

Thanks for the tip though.