Greetings stackers. Since the change on the forum it's been very hard for me to navigate with voice as i'm blinder than a bat on heroin. So please move this thread to the suitable forum if need be. Just looking for some up coming backyard refiners, pourers and anyone who is interested in casting their own bars to share some knowledge, and pics.. Post if you're new at pouring, and have any tips for up and comers, or if you're an up and comer, please feel free to show us what you do. Hell, i'm still learning. Show us how you do and how you cast.. I'll kick it off.. I refine my scrap and other silver with nitric acid / copper method and churn dust for smelt. Here is a new bar I poured a couple of days ago.. Strict oldschool wood pour. http://antbullion.com/2019/05/04/an...ol-wood-pour-fs-999-78-grams-2-5-troy-ounces/
Hi Antalon Great to see you back refining silver, I'm sure some of the older members here would remember your bars. I looked at going down the path of refining the way you do it with nitric acid etc but was put off by the chemicals, fumes and how one mistake could be costly etc. So I have a lot of respect for anyone doing this process because I know what's involved. It must be a great feeling producing 999 silver from scrap. Do you prefer to refine only 925 or are you able to do 80% or less scrap? I guess I kind of cheat in a way compared to you by starting off with 999+ pure bars (10oz, Kg or 100oz bars) which I melt down into shot or smaller pieces by holding the bar with vice grips over an esky full of icewater with an oven tray in the bottom to catch it, then heat with oxy/acetylene torch until the molten silver drips into the esky catching the silver granules. After drying shot out in the oven on low temp and once cooled, I can then weigh the shot into individual sized containers for desired bar sizes (which extra has to be added because of silver lost to the pour and more is lost the larger the bar). Then again melt the shot in a crucible and pour into a preheated graphite mold with a mapp gas torch pointed at the mold for a clean finished surface of the bar (flame pointed at the mold prevents the surface of the bar absorbing oxygen.) Then take the batch of bars to get xrf tested, which im pleased to say have all come back 999+ Then its fingers crossed for stamping then finish with a light touch on the polishing wheel. Its more difficult than I thought and each sized bar has its own technique to master to get desired surface finish. Ill put up a video of my next pour either today or tomorrow. Here is a pic of my pour bench with some of the gear.
Out of curiosity, how do you decide to use a torch+dish to melt vs. using say an electric crucible/kiln, does it matter to the end process? Just a matter of preference?
Cheers sonypony! Am back until I either I don't kill my neighbors with fumes, or I myself die in the process lol. TBH I love to refine buckled and dead coins, this way I know what's in them and nothing explodes or catches fire with god knows what someone has mixed in the silver overseas, or mixed into a chain etc, as this is a very dirty and dangerous process. With this process I am able to refine the smallest percentage of silver as well. I Absolutely love your bars, those ripples destroy me. I have been seeing them around and love the process and finished product. I'll be certainly buying on one when in the near future when my funds allow me to. Keep up the fine work mate! Full pro. As for your shot process you use: How much over weight you lose with every pour compared to my dust. I lose about 2-3 grams during smelt. Love your setup also, way more advanced to mine. Thank you so much for sharing your workspace. Cant wait to see more of your work. Ant
Heya Oddpour. Welcome mate. My setup is embarrassing compared to most hotsteppers.. My main torch for smelting is what sonypony uses to heat up his crucibles hehe. As long as you get that manfeel for silver you can twirl it into a bar. I'd say the minimum to get into it would be a MAPP torch and cheap graphite crucible you can buy on ebay
I’ve had years of experience using oxy/acetylene torches so when I won 5oz of silver shot in an auction here on SS, I thought id give it a try, small bars at a time, then have them tested for purity and they have always kept coming back at least 99.9+% pure. From what I’ve seen of the electric kilns, I don't like the amount of graphite that comes out with the pour and finish on the surface of the bar, they aren't readily available in Australia, they are slow to reach melt point compared to gas torch, a good one is expensive and from what I've read, not very reliable. It is expensive to setup with all the oxy gear and gas is expensive too but you can melt larger amounts with oxy/acetylene quickly or make shot quickly. MAPP gas can be used to melt small amounts of silver so I guess its just what you prefer as my method hasn't affected the outcome of my bars.
You are braver than me brother playing with that stuff. Id be staggering around like an out of it chemist Thank you for the kind words, it has been a challenge to figure out the process required to achieve the surface finish for each size bar and shaped mold because they all behave differently. Lots of re-melts, then id pour a good one but it would be under weight, then a good one over weight but then I would stuff up the stamping If it wasn't for everybody here who has supported me over the last couple of years, I would have quit a long time ago. I use shot up to about 10oz sized bars, losing about a gram of silver on a 3oz bar and around 3 to 4 grams on a 10oz bar. For larger bars, I prefer to use either whole bars or larger pieces of silver in the melt dish as I can control the puddle a lot easier in the dish than try to melt say 20oz of shot. Hard to explain but if I were to make a 20oz bar and I had in my crucible a generic 20oz bar plus 4 grams of shot, the final weight of my poured bar would be just 20oz (around 20.0500oz) But if I were using all shot, id need around 20oz plus 9 or 10 grams to make the same weight. Found out the hard way a lot of times as you would well know.
