Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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The new torch arrived yesterday morning, now I'm able to melt those silver soldered joints that I clip and save from AC evaporators and condensers.
The one pancake has some gold showing, this was left over inside the crucible from another type of melt I did last year. I always wondered where that gold went too.
I also learned that you can not move your pictures on photo bucket without breaking the link to this forum. All my previous pictures are gone. This time I made a separate folder.
Last edited by gustavus; 09-30-2011 at 10:39 PM.
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Thats all silver and gold? How much does it weigh?
Experienced Scrapper
Lol. PTS has $$ for eyes right now
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HEHE yeah I so want to build a furnace like gus has. Im seriously considering building one this winter to play with. I scrap gold and silver all the time I get from ebay and auctions I go to localy.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper
PTS that first copper melt weighs 7 lbs, it does not take much gold to change the color of pure copper.
That crucible with the gold hanging in there gave me an idea, I have a bunch of old plates with gold trim, I broke some up then tossed them into the melt. Copper is a good collector for precious metals.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Total melt for the day 22.05 lbs, because I'm keeping the copper content high in my melts my refining cell will be designed as a copper cell.
By refining the copper the trash gets left behind, in this case traces of gold and silver.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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The cooper pancakes I have made, once installed in the cell the copper pancake will migrate through the electrolyte then affix itself as pure copper to these seed sheets of pure copper leaving any trace amounts of gold and silver which have alloyed into the copper behind as cell slimes.
I learned much f what I know about refining cells from books I have either purchased in hard copy or downloaded digital copies from open library on this subject among others I plan to pursue over the winter months.
As you all know I stumbled onto this forum researching nickel scrap and her alloys, since there is very little information to fill my needs it is time to move on at best I will not abandon you entirely I do like to share my exploits to those willing to read my BS. I just won't be here as often.
The world I scrapped in was so much different than what I have been reading of other members posts. I wish all our forum members the best.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Working the furnace hard, finished up all the silver soldered elbows, now I'm doing a bucket of IC's that I incinerated last year.
My flux is not formulated correctly, ran out of silica sand. Anyhow theres enough gold in that melt to give the copper a nice gold hue. Since I plan on running a copper cell will remelt this with more copper to dilute the gold content.
Because my flux was incomplete the metal did not run and collect as it should have. The small sample is from the same batch, I put a file to it and the colors runs straight through the metal.
Remember though it does not take a whole bunch of gold to change the color of copper or any other metal it has been alloyed with.
The frying pan is my mold that I've been pouring my melts into, just oil the pan before adding the hot metal the oil makes a carbon barrier to the melt will not weld itself to the pan.
Last edited by gustavus; 10-02-2011 at 05:55 PM.
Experienced Scrapper
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Hey Gus I would like to learn a bit more on this furnace you have built. I realize it is not for just anyone to do but I would like some details on this unit you made. You mention a new torch, can I ask what type or model and how many BTU it is rated. Is it a fan forced furnace? Okay I'm sure it is but how are you going about that end of it.
One more question, would you consider putting me in your will? I would see to it this fine collection of tools would be respected and used, maybe even to help teach others.
When the white man discovered this country Indians were running it
no taxes, no debt, women did all the work.
White man thought he could improve on a system like this. - Old Cherokee saying
I did not surrender, they took my horse and made him surrender. - Lone Watie
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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The torch is 700,000 btu's naturally aspirated, manufactured by Flagro in Canada. It uses liquid propane allowing full use of a bottle without freezing up on you.
I commented previously on how I made my furnace, you can find much better designs at http://backyardmetalcasting.com
The crucibles I use are made from silicon carbide, tongs I made myself.
Gladly stick around to answer any questions about the furnace and what I do with it. During the winter months I plan on casting more fishing weight molds, from the scrap cars I recently picked up have a good selection of aluminum rims for this project.
Hopefully form what I' showing will make some ask questions while others will develop enough interest to build their own furnace.
The last of this afternoons melt, poor mix of flux lacking silica sand, metal did not run as it should have. I have beads scattered throughout with some heavy melt located on the bottom. I broke the melt in half so that you can clearly see the gold content. Again this will have to be diluted with more copper to run in the cell.
The crucible was in such poor condition that it would never stand being pulled from the furnace one more time so I decided to get the last mile. I filled it with the material I planned to melt then let it cool down inside the furnace before removing the crucible then breaking it away from the melt.
Feedstock was IC chips.
Last edited by gustavus; 10-02-2011 at 07:48 PM.
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