Does anyone melt their own gold or silver?

[Beachkid23]

Into bars. Or know anyone who does? I got a phone call to go look at a furnace tomorrow and I kind of want to try it out but I've never done this. the guy who selling it said he would walk me through a couple times to show me how to use it! So if I decide to buy it a couple questions...

1. Is it pointless to Something like this and melt a couple bars a year?

2. Is it a fire hazard to keep in my garage I was being used?

3. Do I officially become a redneck if I have this at my house and do this as a hobby?

Also if anybody is in the Fort Myers area and would like to come trying out your more than welcome! However you must bring your own precious metals to melt! Lol

 

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[Omega]

I melt my own, I use a 60 dollar rig, no furnace or anything. My bars come out beautiful and perfect in shape almost all the time.

 

[randazzo1]

Hey Beachkid - do you want to refine the gold to 999 or just make alloy bars? If you're not refining, it's relatively safe and easy.

I think our setup is like Omega's. Oxy/Acety torch, crucible with some flux in it, loaf mold. Cheap and it works well for small batches. The little bars make awesome gifts if you hammer names / X's etc in them.

All that said- I'd buy that furnace because it sounds like it will be fun.

If you want to refine, then in my opinion not so safe. After just a month of it, my business partner developed all sorts of respiratory issues. I seemed to fare ok, but it was a nasty dangerous process

 

[Sandman]

In my opinion this is not practical unless you just want to have more work with the hobby. If you are interested in selling your gold, a refinery like ARA is set up for this and they pay 98% of spot plus send you back any stones.

 

[nathan104]

I would NEVER buy gold ingots or bars someone made themselves. There is just no way to know what is in them and what all is mixed in. Too easy for someone to put a lead fishing weight in the middle or mix in some extra alloy, or melt a bunch of 10k gold and layer it with a higher kt. Id rather keep everything in the form of broken jewelry or whatever it was, even if its not marked.

 

[Beachkid23]

Well, it is in the back of my car. First my neighbor and I are going to try some Sterling bars and some of them funny foreign copper coins from other countries. If I Melt the stuff down in the bars if I'm going to sell it probably just send them to a refinery anyways but I think it will just be a hobby for now. My neighbor son is 17 and he has been making them with a torch. they have a pressure washing company so I told him if they wash my house. They can use the thing whenever they want to! So it just paid for itself! I don't know if I don't melt any gold but that because I was silver scrap is going to go!

 

[theekman]

I would NEVER buy gold ingots or bars someone made themselves. There is just no way to know what is in them and what all is mixed in. Too easy for someone to put a lead fishing weight in the middle or mix in some extra alloy, or melt a bunch of 10k gold and layer it with a higher kt. Id rather keep everything in the form of broken jewelry or whatever it was, even if its not marked.

When i was melting silver bars this was my idea.

Its fun to try a few times, but i got bored with it quickly.

I ended up selling the bars to a refiner and it took them a day or two to get back to me with money since they had to melt it and see what it was. They bought all the scrap silver i bought it on the spot tho

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I'd thought of this as well. Even have a cruicible saved on ebay to try out. randazzo's post does give me the heebie jeebies though.....

 

[Red James Cash]

Do I officially become a redneck if I have this at my house and do this as a hobby

The true definition of a redneck is "a hard working union man" you'll have to unionize

 

[dejapooh]

The true definition of a redneck is "a hard working union man" you'll have to unionize

I guess that makes me a redneck. Union for 27 years... And counting.

 

[JustinNH]

Not worth it, unless you refine and sell to an end user.
Scrap jewelry is marked and of a known purity. Not many people will accept a melted bar unless it has an assay with it and even then, it is hard to show they relate. If you refine it first, you could sell to an end user (jeweler, etc).

Option 1:

You'd have to inquart the scrap so that it is 25% gold (6k). Silver is the best to inquart with. Copper works, but requires more chemicals. Melt that all together into an alloy and put in a 50/50 mix of nitric acid and distilled water. It will eatt he silver and original base metals leaving a 99% pure gold honeycomb (willlook brown probably)
Take that, wash it witha few chemicals and distilled water.
Put it in AR (nitric and HCL). Neutralize excess nitric with urea or evap.
Drop out gold with SMB (used in wine making, I think)
Wash gold powder. If 999 pure, will be a light brown
Melt borax into a melting dish, add powder, melt, cast ingots
send to refinery/assay office

OR

Option 2:

Take scrap gold.
send to refinery/assay office

haha

 

[dumpsterdiver]

I can't say if its worth it or not. But I have smaller kilns I've melted glass batches in and I've used many different glass furnaces.

If its a small kiln and you have control of the temp ramp it up slow the first time or two you use it. If its been used recently don't worry about it.

Removing the moisture slowly is important for the crucible.

Probably not a fire hazard but it does happen and its usually on furnaces that have run for a long time near wood. I would keep it at least 4 feet from wood since its small.

There are so many possibilities for how its set up I really couldn't say much beyond don't get burned and Use good ventilation. Read up on health info on melting mystery metals (I don't know if its dangerous) and the dangers of inhaling modern refractory materials are pretty suspect.

Probably a redneck. But once you get it set up post a pic and maybe we can make more suggestions.

 

[Beachkid23]

Any chance my silver bars will look like this one?

 

[bigcaddy64]

Beach kid,

I've been looking into messing around with melting my own silver down but was a bit surprised with the cost of a furnace. I guess I'll need one eventually but have you ever looked into refinement by electrolysis?

I'm familiar with the method from my tool/vise restorations as a way to remove rust but with a different electrolyte, the silver is dissolved and crystallizes on your silver anode. The other impurities dissolve in the solution leaving you with pure silver

There are a number of videos on YouTube that explain it better then I did but it's pretty neat to look at. If I vpever get a chance to get my setup started, I'll let you know and post some pictures

 

[willis7]

one thing you may want to keep in mind if you are going to melt silver jewelry is that your final product more than likely won't be 925 because of all the solder that is used in a lot of it

 

[DigginDownUnder]

If i end up with enough silver plated and half silver coins, and when the price of silver goes up enough, I might refine it.

Here is a good guide on doing silver.
Dummies Guide to EASY silver bullion refining at home as a long term precious metal investment , page 1

 

[JustinNH]

If i end up with enough silver plated and half silver coins, and when the price of silver goes up enough, I might refine it.

Here is a good guide on doing silver.
Dummies Guide to EASY silver bullion refining at home as a long term precious metal investment , page 1

Of note, that may work for coins that are copper and silver, but for scrap jewelry that may contain palladium or other PGMs, the copper will cement out the PGMs with the silver as well. Essentially any metal lower (or higher, not sure which way it is worded) than the copper will cement out in the solution

I did not know about the potato... kinda interesting haha

 

[Keppy]

If i end up with enough silver plated and half silver coins, and when the price of silver goes up enough, I might refine it.

Here is a good guide on doing silver.
Dummies Guide to EASY silver bullion refining at home as a long term precious metal investment , page 1

Well if you have to use acid to me that is not easy…And if you enjoy melting it down go for it … but for me i will just sell it .. To much work for me and not fun for me ..

 

[Keppy]

Any chance my silver bars will look like this one?

View attachment 1057184

​…NEVER ….

 

[Beachkid23]

​…NEVER ….

Lol. I didn't think so. But who here if they have their own furnace wouldn't play with it either. I had everything ready to go sitting there knowing to be tempted to go melt their own stuff. I don't believe that for a second! Your wife leaves for the day and says do something have fun and sit there watch TV or go outside and take something metal melted down into a mold and make something fun!