Thanks. But I'm actually trying to avoid them! I want to get the smooth top surface that "professional" bullion pours seem to have. More like the top right 2oz bar in my first pic. Blowing a torch over the pour as it cools makes the ripples more prominent. But I think to get a smooth finish, the torch needs to be gentler, and/or the mold needs to be hotter...
I found that it comes down to how fast the silver cools when poured into the mold, I have tried pouring it slower and seems to work. Also with the mold being hot too
Oh man, the ripples give the bars life.. I like them.. Tip to self: Do not put a mold in the freezer again to get more ripples at it will explode in your face
Yes! And also make sure it's dry. Any moisture can turn to steam and blow molten silver into your face. Another reason to heat the mold, at least a little.
Anyone buy some decent molds locally? Made the noob mistake of buying it from a local company and they had sizing in oz not troy oz....
To be honest I have bought most of mine from the usa. Otherwise look for someone with a milling machine and buy an uncut block of graphite
I think I saw a video of someone using a drill press to make there mold. It would take a little longer but you could get your general shape
Who made them? I asked around and they wanted to charge me 500 plus to design then a few Hindi to mill. Also do you need to use something to make them not stick?
For steel or graphite? Graphite is about as soft as wood so with a drill or router you can easily carve any shape you want. Just be gentle as it is more brittle. I haven't graduated to silver casting yet but the same thing happens when pouring lead. To get the smooth top you need to keep it hot (about 100C above melting point) and pour at a constant rate from as close to the mold as possible.
Look up Silverfox on youtube,he only pours a few 1-2oz bars from scrap and they have no swirls. Mind you he puts a "lot" of time and effort into finishing his bars which still look home poured but the reason I dont mind the premium on a few purchases!
I've seen his videos, and yes, he does put a lot of work into polishing his bars. (I think he does get swirls, but sands them off) But he needs to polish his bars because his metal is not very high purity. He claims it was assayed at .999, but I think that's optimistic. (Though his later efforts do look to be much better quality) He only does the first step of refining, which despite the effort he puts into washing the result, won't be much better than 99%. (According to what I've seen and read, and from my personal experience) In my process, I follow that up with two electrorefining steps, and the result should be more like 99.99%. Sreeips on youtube also double electrorefines and gets a perfect result, straight out of the mold. Check out his work here:- [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umg3WSdPWHY[/youtube] That's the quality that I'm aiming for...
Sorry just for my understanding using eletrolysis. I buy myself some 40% coins and throw them into that car battery setup which was posted soemwhere above and all the silver gets sucked out??
Hi milky Basically the battery method is a very sped up process from refining the long way below.. Taken from Silverfox Youtube: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iH0b0SH9Ls[/youtube]
Put the kettle on lastnight and pulled nearly 100 grams of 999+ from various junk Arty Oldschool Wood Pour Ant Bar today.. #006
