How to melt your own gold

[sususydney]

nice vid thanks for sharing it.

 

[mbasko]

For those interested Hobo's Gold is looking at making some of these furnaces for sale.
http://golddetecting.4umer.net/t22629-gold-furnace
Sounds like he had a busy weekend at Laanecoorie! Melted 35 ounces for punters to sell to the gold buyer that was there.

 

[AtomRat]

acids are used to up karat(Nitric acid)melting wont remove all forein metals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqua_regia

That s correct. Several stages of cleaning and seperating of solutions will get you close to 99.9% depending on how thorough you are with your chemistry and also help collect the other rare metals for further refining as more by-products are thrown from the aqua regia like platinum, copper and silver. Mercury amalgam and retorting is another option to purify as we know but only reccomended for those with the correct knowledge and apparatus to prevent environment and man's health risks.

Then you would smelt in a crucible like the vid, but if you were to make your own, all I can say is get to a pottery or refractory brick supplirr and get the highest possible temp and probably most expensive refractory cement as nearly all crucible / smelters we've made have cracked at some point. Being a very wet area here doesn't help either. A lot of moisture gets into the cement and very slow heating by placing it near a fire to dry off the moisture to prevent cracking is just one of the steps we have to use to prevent collapsing and failure of the cements over long term use. We have made charcoal, gas and oil burners over the years..even if some didn't last long, they were cheap and did the job what we needed them for

The best, cheapest furnace to make can be done using a couple of hard refractory / pizza oven bricks, a drill and a file. Remember to use these outdoors or under a fume hood. Many vapours, gasses and funky colors can come out of a molten solution and be toxic. Always handle crucibles with a tool that fits correctly, face protection ( full ) as bubbles and pops can shoot molten metals straight up metres high. Foot protection essential for spills or pattern failures, gloves, cut off valves on any fuel source..etc. I highly reccomend the carbon crucibles from ebay as shown in this threads vid as they are cut from a solid structure rather than a pressed mold and perfect for gold smelting.

There are more expensive options in terms of flux and removing impurities through smelting rather than borax, but it does the job and 'safer' and cleaner environmentally.

 

[Pirate pete]

My son sent me this link and said this would melt your gold (when I find some lol) was interesting don,t know if i would be game to try it but thought i would post it for the adventurous among us lol. Still very interesting to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTzKIs19eZE

 

[casper]

A top link PP..... thanks to your son.

casper

 

[XIV]

Going to have to try this.

 

[Heatho]

Apart from being extremely dangerous, seems an efficient way to do it. I think a microwave smelting kit would be easier and much safer though.

 

[kurrajong]

We have done this a few times, using old crucibles, carbon rods and a Tig inverter.
You need to have the arc well above the gold, otherwisw it becomes plasma and is infused/splattered all over the inside of the crucible.

I don't know why it would be considered dangerous Heatho. The main issue is you can create a shitload of extra work if the gold does go into the crucible. Crushing and panning it all takes time.

No different to using carbon rods to gouge out bearings or bushings. Like everything it takes practice.

 

[Heatho]

We have done this a few times, using old crucibles, carbon rods and a Tig inverter.
You need to have the arc well above the gold, otherwisw it becomes plasma and is infused/splattered all over the inside of the crucible.

I don't know why it would be considered dangerous Heatho. The main issue is you can create a shitload of extra work if the gold does go into the crucible. Crushing and panning it all takes time.

No different to using carbon rods to gouge out bearings or bushings. Like everything it takes practice.

Probably not dangerous if you know what you're doing. Electricity, extreme heat, molten metals, recipe for disaster for the inexperienced.....

Same as messing around with fireworks as a kid, I never had any trouble and still to this day can't understand how a mate blew all his fingers off one hand..... Still perplexes me.

Not having a go though humans are always good at screwing some things up.

 

[Sa_bogan]

Just buy a MAPP gas torch and some crucibles off eBay. Unless you are melting steel or 10plus ounces you won't need to make this

 

[Pirate pete]

Well here,s another one for the melting pot lol this looks good my son and i are in the process of making one,as he is into black smithing in a big way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHD10DjxM1g&index=32&list=PLbDYIZ0o1HPJScdEdZ-39n6Am4HyJnmve

 

[Moneybox]

1) Thanks Pirate pete. I found the carbon pole system interesting because I have a few original copper coated carbon rods that are made for the job and I have the welder as well. I only ever used them with compressed air to gouge welds more than thirty years ago. They've just followed me around all these years with some of those things that just never get thrown out.

I'm got to give it a go simply because I have the gear and I have a couple of ounces of gold that are just lots of little nuggets that aren't much to show off.

2) I think this setup is more practical for the average guy as it looks a little less hazardous. However he never gets to explain the source of the airflow.

Come to think of it my mother-in-law has a Little Beaver spray gun (and a Big Beaver) that she wants to get rid of. For those who were not around in the sixties, the Little Beaver and Big Beaver were a couple of spray painting systems marketed for home painting. The Little Beaver runs a low pressure airflow from a vacuum cleaner style pump. It has very low pressure but a lot of airflow. The Big Beaver has a diaphragm compressor supplying less air flow at a higher pressure. I think the Little Beaver might be the perfect air supply.

I like the inventiveness that has gone into the furnace design

 

[bazza2210]

I found Map gas a bit slow till I got one of these.

Cheers
Barry

https://www.tradetools.com/product-...and-mapp-gas-torch-kit-bernzomatic-1-2mt-hose

 

[Sa_bogan]

i have the Largest tip on my mapp gas bottle and its pretty decent - i like the double

 

[AtomRat]

If your after electric you will want to go the PID controller way and Kanthal wire coil rated at 2500c. You need to be careful of the exposed coil as oxidation and drips of metal will snap it, so best to keep spares nearby

Grants arc smelter is kinda safe...but MOTs are not. Look up his 'Scariac' variable power controller for dangerous...

 

[Pirate pete]

thanks for the feed back guys ,must say i will not be trying this I like the way i look lol but we are putting together a blast furnace as my son is into making knifes swords and other weird stuff lol.

you can find this on one of my other posts

Do It Yourself (DIY) Projects / blast furnace

 

[Moneybox]

These are the carbon rods that are made for a carbon-arc gouger.

As you can see I have many more than I'll ever need. If somebody wants a couple it'll only cost you the postage.

 

[AussieGamer_Ben]

how does everyone melt their gold. I have tried a culinary torch but it doesn't seem to work. any ideas

 

[DropBear]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb91nETfaqg

something like that...

I need to find enough gold first haha

 

[shivan]

I use a propane torch from bunnings, a crucible and some borax. You must get a torch that can burn hot enough.
Making a small furnace/oven out of heat bricks helps.