To contribute: paypal.me/sreetips?locale.x=e... Shows how to glaze a melt dish from start to finish in real time. Takes about 10 minutes with a MAP gas torch and BORAX.
after a few videos on your channel i must admit, i learned more AND more usefull things than in my education as a chem. lab technician. Hope i can make use of everything i learned in the future, thanks :)
Thank you for this video!!!....I've had my crucible for about a year now...neglecting it...but not now!...your video is clear and concise...I am going to take out my borax and crucible and season it and get to melting!
May I ask if this should be done to large, I believe ceramic, crucibles before going into the foundry furnace? I was left Dad's green-sand table, foundry, and equipment, and of course will take a class so to speak before using it, but your teachings have inspired me to quit being gun shy and go for it. (40 years ago as an 9 year old kid I "independently took Dad's torch to a piece of quartz in a vice...still have the scar from where the unroasted silicate popped and melted into my forearm)
Glazing a fuse silica melt dish, like the one in this video, is madatory. But I don't know about ceramic or clay crucibles in a large foundry. I do know that borax should be kept away from graphite crucibles at all costs.
sreetips Borax away from graphite? I would have never ever thought that and had it in mind to use it as a flux when I got it going. Glad you told me, thanks!
Great video, yes! Thank you for your step-by-step instructions, with appropriate video to add the detail. I underatand what i did wrong thr firat time I attempted to glaze... i wound up with a HUGE pool of glaze at the bottom of the dish.
So I thought I would give this a try, I watched several videos and not one time did any one say the crucible needed to be glazed lol, so I ruined one haha I’ll try again, Thanks !
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge it will be passed on. Unlike others who are selling their seasoned crucible and keeps it in as a secret. I would never do business with people like that. Just saying.
Sreetips, thank you So Much for posting this video! Yes, last week I was one of the idiots who thought the more borax the better... I ruined all my silver and my new 250 gram bowl. I watched other videos and you are the only one that glazes the bowl. I watched your video like 10 times and today, my new bowl turned out Great, not as good as yours but practice makes perfect right? Anywho... I just wanted to say thank you for the lesson and your time making this video. Have a great day!
this video was amazing and very welly done. Im glad you showed the steps so well that some of it was so specific. it helped out so much i really appreciate it.
That was very thorough. I appreciate seeing it in detail. I'm about to do this for the first time. How does one judge how much borax to put in the melt itself? Like for a chunky silver ring and enough for the spur?
just the video i needed right now bout to order a melt dish just filtered out my first ap batch i had sitting for a few months got super busy at work after putting it in. hope it didnt put any gold into solution with it sitting but ordering some stannous supply's as well to find out. but love your content been very helpful on my journey. also found goldrefiningforum earlier this week and that been helpful also but videos help me process the info a lot more easily.
ya ive ran across alot of your posts on there so far. ya for all the different base metals and terminology for the different acid solution for different metals is all a lil confusing make my brain hurt trying to read it all and understand but slowly working on understanding it all.
and havent found a answer tried some googling it. but my "gold" ive separated out from ap solution after ive washed and removed from filter, for storage till i get a big batch for refining how should i store it. dry it out or will i hurt to store it in distilled water in mason jar sealed
Great video thanks...I purchased a graphite 1 oz mold ... should that mold be glazed too? Or does that really matter in the quantity of the surface of the bar?
Hi. Great video. What type of backer board do you recommend using as a work surface? And are you working on a soft fire brick or something else? Thanks.
I think it's 1/4 or 3/8 thick from Home Depot. I had it in my garage and just added it to my melt table to protect the wood. That brick is hard fire brick
I'm a noobie. This was helpful. I've had crucibles suddenly disintegrate on their own when not used - you reach for it and it's cracked and fragile. I think from damp. I fluxed the outside of the crucible also and this seems to help with damp migration. I think.
Am vazut acest video si doream sa intreb la ce temperatura rezista creuzetul?Am gasit la 1100 grade C. M-ar interesa si diametrul exterior al piesei Dv. Multumesc pentru video.
sreetips Yea it was me, I was starting to pour my own silver back in '04 and needed lots of help, thanks for all the help, we spoke and I told you that I had a couple of bars that were formed full of junk and debris, you told me I could send them to you and you'll purify them. I never got around to it and they're still in my drawer to this day.
sreetips Thanks again for this vid, I love your stuff, other than thumbs up and comment is there any other way we can support your channel, do you have an online store where you sell your wares?
Could you do a video on how to clean out a crucible once its full of dirty borax? I've heard of some people using nitric acid to clean it, and others use soda ash. I just tried some soda ash and it seems to be dissolving the borax, leaving a white background, but I'm not sure if that's the crucible material I'm seeing or if that's residue from the soda ash.
Thank you, i did one bowl from watching another video and I have sticky spots in it so I did not try to melt my silver, I have 4 more to do and will be buying some borax tomorrow. The other video said to use flux. It looked nothing like yours when finished. I have black lines and tacky spots all in the bowl.
I use my outdoor weed burner to heat the crucible when glazing. Definitely get hot enough with just propane… if your btu output is high enough. I do work it in though with MAPP gas afterward
Nice video! I have a couple questions: do you always glaze new crucible and for how long does it stay (how many time you can melt different metals before reglazing it again)?
Hello again, When making a silver shot crucible do I need to drill the holes before or after I glaze it? A side note: I recovered my missing 600+ grams of cemented silver. I just diluted my big mess and there it was!
Hey Sreetips. Love your videos. I just finished my first gold button after watching your stuff and it's awesome. I was wondering if you know how to get copper out of my silver powder. I think I had too much nitric in the solution when I added the copper to precipitate and now it's red silver. Any ideas? Thanks again for the videos.
I get that my self from time to time. You're right, probably too much nitric. When dissolving your sterling/925 silver always make sure that there is still a little undissolved silver left over in the vessel when your reaction is done. If you have undissolved silver, and if you've got the solution hot, and if there are no more fumes being produced, then these are all good signs that most of the free nitric acid has been consumed by the reaction. If these conditions exist then you should be able to cement the silver on clean copper and not have to worry about excessive nitric consuming your copper and redissolving your cement silver as fast as it cements out. The cement silver will be about 995 pure. Also, I've added sulfamic acid until foaming ceases to kill excess nitric with some success. But make sure the container is inside another catch container in case it boils over on you.
Thanks. I was thinking I'd make this red silver into shot and then put it back through the process, making sure I use up the nitric this time. Anyway, good stuff. Keep it going, we're all learning a lot.
So I guessing the red in my filter paper is red silver? I tried recovering with some scrap silver and I think I used too much 70% nitric acid. I still got plenty of silver precip but it is super fine. The rxn was pretty "lively" no overflow though! Seemed to take forever adding copper to use up the nitric. Didnt know what else to do with that. I also reclaimed the copper solution using sodium bicarb. Have lovely turquoise precip of copper carbonate but still have light blue fluid that does not respond to additional bicarb. Is that still copper? Sorry for all the long questions.
The only graphite I use is the ingot mold. If borax gets anywhere near it when pouring a gold or silver bar, the borax will glue the freshly poured ingot in the mold. I've had to break graphite molds to get the ingots out because of the molten borax pouring over with the metal.I suppose a crucible made of graphite may be a different story.
The top of the rim and the inside, the outside should not be glazed. If any gets on the outside then the dish will get glued to the ceramic wool that the dish sits on during a melt.
I have zero experience melting gold in a graphite crucible. I melt gold in a fuse silica open-face melt dish like the one in this video. I pour molten gold into a graphite mold. If even a tiny bit of molten borax gets into the graphite mold then it will glue the ingot into the mold. I've actually had to break molds to get the gold ingot out because of this. For this reason I recommend that borax be kept away from a graphite mold. Using borax in a graphite crucible may be a different story.
Great video! Question, though: When I tried doing this, the little pinches of borax I applied would just blow away when I brought the map gas to it. I brought each part of the crucible I was applying the borax to to a dull red just like you did, but it still blew away. How to I avoid that?
Hi. So I'm the person who added way too much borax and now my ceramic crucible is a red mess. Is there a way to burn off the borax to start over? Thanks!
The adiabatic temperature of your MAP [sic] gas, which is actually propylene gas, is only marginally better than propane (3730F vs 3600F). I've read that the inner flame temperature of propylene is hotter than propane, but from the looks of your torch tip you're not taking advantage of that; you seem to be using an old MAPP torch and you're getting a wide/wobbly flame due to that. It's been ten years since real MAPP gas was available in the United States.
Even a new Mapp torch has the same Turbo circular fat flame. Its design is fat to heat copper plumbing fittings, keeping a large area hot enough to draw 95/5 solder into the fitting and keep the opposite side of the fitting from cooling. It might not be the proper tip needed but its age has nothing to do with the flame produced.
Ok that’s what I was wondering too.Thanks for addressing the issue because I believed propane would work due to the temp being well within the needed amount for melting.
If you've used too much borax and it flows with the molten metal, how do you get remove the excess of the metal? You mentioned using sulfuric acid in another video. Is there anything else that could be used?
Just seasoned my first dish, I have one or two dark almost black marks, Will this interfere with my metal and how can I avoid in future? Thanks! Great vid!
did you mean a table spoon? a few of your pinches looked like half teaspoon alone.. great video just wanna make sure i dont overload the borax on my first pour!
No, I meant teaspoon. I use just enough to lightly coat the dish with borax. Too much borax will cause molten borax to pour with the molten metal. The excess borax will adhere to the ingot. Then it must be removed with a 5% solution of sulfuric acid (5ml concentrated sulfuric acid in about 100ml water) with some heat.
Thank you. Should I toss this new crucible and purchase another one? It has "borax" that is chipping and flaking off taking a little of the crucible with it. I am also concerned the temp in the air is working against me. It's an unheated garage, almost freezing. The propane torch has major difficulties. Should I run two torches or try acetolyne?
That is the other option I was looking at. Would mapp gas get hot enough in a freezing environment if I build a tiny fire brick enclosure around the crucible?
No, after the initial glaze it can be used over and over. For gold melting, I use the same dish many times. But I only melt pure gold in it. After cooling down, I put it up so I can use it again. After several melts tiny gold balls will cling to the side and not flow down to the bottom. When this happens I add a pinch of fresh powdered borax and the gold balls release and flow to the bottom. I'll probably use it 20 or 30 times until it begins to show signs of pitting, then I retire it to melting karat gold and glaze a new dish.
Ive tried copying what you are doing, but my borax gets really bubbly blows around and wants to clump into balls that run down to the bottom of the dish leaving gaps, Ive had to go back with a graphite rod and spread it around to get the results you have. Any advice on what I might be doing wrong?
yesterday i went in blind with a crucible and a propane torch . i made an on the fly smelter with stove pipe and inserted the nozzle into the side . even though it had a steel cap it did not get even close enough heat wise . im going out today to buy the map gas . i have about a regular half ounce of gold i pulled from cell phones etcetera . do i need to add any borax as i smelt or is the glazing good enough?
Map is about 150 degrees F hotter than propane. I have seen dual propane torches inside an insulated enclosure work for melting small amounts of gold and silver
that`s super helpful i wrote it down thank you . i just melted about 2 ounces of silver and half an ounce of gold using the white dish like you have . i have cylinders but cannot generate enough heat to make them worth while . as such i can`t seem to pour the metals into this mold i have . i will certainly get that , awesome.. if it helps you any i`m a retired union carpenter and non union electrician and will happily help in return in any way i can. should you have questions.(i was very good)
sreetips thank you very much for the answer.... thank you for the huge effort and time you put into all your videos. I do have one other question, I wish I could include a pic but the dish I’m trying to glaze did not come out anything like yours. I have the same torch head and gas but the borax is spotty I guess is best description and the black spots are everywhere?? Not enough heat maybe? I have re-watched your video a couple times the only thing I think I maybe doing wrong is not holding the torch close enough ,then again maybe I am... I just don’t know...
The black spots are normal. I get them too. I think it is carbon that mingles with the molten borax. To get then to disappear just continue to heat the black spots until they go away. But be careful, you can scorch the dish if you get it too hot. Keep the flame moving.
sreetips thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question. I was smiling when I seen you had replied. I’m really trying to figure it out and from what I can tell I’m doing it right yet it just doesn’t look right to me. Thank you again.
I attempted to glaze my crucible but no matter what, it would pool up. I attempted to melt down a silver dime for a test run and the borax glaze would slowly engulf the dime. What should I do? Buy new crucible? Attempt to slowly grind it out?
Notice that I heat the dish to redness BEFORE I add the small pinch of borax. That way the borax sticks to the hot part of the dish. Then I use the flame to spread the molten borax evenly. I do this sides first and save the bottom for last.
@Sreetips Sir I just want to say thanks. I’ve learned so much from your videos. I’m gathering all the stuff needed but I’m in South America and is not easy/cheap. I don’t have much gold, and that’s why I don’t want that the supplies to melt and purify end up costing more than the gold itself. I want some ideas on what to use as a “poor man” crucible. Here is very easy to find clay pots. Can I use those? I would love the proper supplies but is very hard. Hopefully you can give me some “sreeTIPS” 😉.
if you can afford to buy an amazon kit , it doesn't cost much more than 80 bux for the mold, torch, fuel, and crucible together. i looked around coin shops and mining stores but nobody wants to touch your gold to melt it down. they want to sell you their own gold and trade in your gold for a certain amount of theirs. their excuse is " we need to send it to the refiner" so unfortunately you may need to do this process yourself. gold melting point is 1064 degrees Celcius. if you have any clay pot that can stand up to that kind of heat, you can definitely do it in there. i would say get a map gas torch then experiment burning different types of clay pots and the one that survives the heat will be the one you can use. from there you can season it as per this video and go from there.
Could someone please tell me how long you could safely leave that primed crucible before it is unusable? E.g could you prime it on monday and do your pour on tuesday?
I'm wondering if you could use a saturated solution of borax and distilled water and wipe or paint it on and let it dry before torching? Would be a much more even surface and quicker. If you give it a try sometime let me know. :)
No, it can be used up to ten or twelve times before the dish itself begins to melt. Or it gets to dirty. When that happens I retire the dish to inquarting gold.
Alloying silver with karat gold to for a low karat alloy of roughly 25% pure gold and 75% silver and base metals. Inquartation - one of the most valuable refining techniques that I’ve ever learned.