good way to melt gold flakes?

[motoman6669]

i have a bunch of little flakes of gold that i have found in colorado i want to make one little nug out of it any ideas ?

[devros]

Hardware store and get a small propane torch, then find a crucible to melt it in, sort of like a ladle for melting lead. The propane torch will provide enough heat to metal the gold. Then let it cool and pick it out after it's cool and then you have a big nug

[godigit1]

See page two under smelting forge. I beleive you will need a flux. I was just looking at the same thing except my gold has mercury on it.

[ikesdad]

Be careful not to get the heat too high as the gold can vaporize.

[woodstock]

But don't inhale the vapors. You can use quicksilver or mercury to gather up the gold flakes and dust and then burn off the mercury and have the gold left in a ingot.
I think the old timers would place the mercury/gold gatherings in a wet animal skin and then place it in a fire for a short time until the mercury vaporised leaving just the gold.
Of corse today we don't have to use a animal skin but the smelting method remains the same. JUST DON'T INHALE THE VAPORS FROM THE MERCURY!!!
Happy Trails, Woodstock

[ikesdad]

Ditto on the mercury.

Use a small retort to capture the mercury.

[Old Town]

Boric acid is what you want for flux when melting any gold into ingots. It comes in a crystal form at any drug store or you could get a pinch at any jewelry store that does repairs or construction.

Blending gold bits without using flux will leave you with lumpy, bubbled, nasty masses of burned gold. Much of the tiny pieces will oxidize off into space. You need flux.

OT

[woodstock]

Boric Acid would also act as flux, but just like Quicksilver keep away from the fumes.
About the Gold vaporizing, once it's caught in the Mercury in most cases you may lose nothing to be concerned over and it's mostly dust.
My late mother was a lapidarest and made her own jewelry. She showed me how my father did it and her more modern method using pyrex. But she made sure I wore a gas mask. If either method is used you must be careful and keep the heating to a minium. Direct constant heat from a butane torch will burn anything, all metals have a flash point and will burn when they reach there flashpoint.
She never spoke of Boric Acid, probably she never new about it. Woodstock

[steve in so az]

Many times I have burned a circle in a pine 2 X 4 piece and then put the gold in and melt. The charred area acts as a flux. Steve in so az

[Old Town]

Woodstock, as a kid I was trained in a local jewelry store in metal casting and basic jewelry repair. The older jeweler's always melted their scrap gold in blocks of carbon material dished out to hold the molten metal. All they did was use their torches and tossed in a bit of boric acid as flux. This was the same chemical we used in our pickle pots to clean worked on pieces of gold jewelry.

I'm sure there are many chemicals that work fine. Boric acid is all I was ever exposed to. Funny part is I don't remember ever being warned of fumes or taking an precautions other than the overhead fan to draw off fumes. No masks and nobody ever said to be careful.

I'm still alive, so I must have kept my face out of the main draw of fumes. We also used cyanide capsules in a cleaning formula. Again, only overhead fans and the suggestion I wash my hands after handling the stuff we dipped in this toxic mess. Now that I think about it, it's a wonder I'm still alive.

OT

[13rannon]

Originally Posted by woodstock

But don't inhale the vapors. You can use quicksilver or mercury to gather up the gold flakes and dust and then burn off the mercury and have the gold left in a ingot.
I think the old timers would place the mercury/gold gatherings in a wet animal skin and then place it in a fire for a short time until the mercury vaporised leaving just the gold.
Of corse today we don't have to use a animal skin but the smelting method remains the same. JUST DON'T INHALE THE VAPORS FROM THE MERCURY!!!
Happy Trails, Woodstock

Why would you use Mercury? It's hazardous to the enviroment and yourself.

Gold mining is the second largest source of mercury pollution in the environment after burning fossil fuels. Third world gold miners are using mercury to extract gold from soil and subsoil. Adding mercury to the soil binds the gold in a silver pellet which will be processed later to purify the gold.

Not a New Problem
This is a centuries old practice. Romans used to force slaves and criminals to mine with mercury. The mercury method is fast and cheap, creating a cleaner gold product than panning. With gold at over $1000 an ounce, the poor and the greedy find it difficult to stop gold mining in this way.

Mercury is so toxic even when in contact with skin that many miners are dying early as a result of working conditions. Meanwhile, mercury is accumulating in the food chain, so that families and bystanders are being poisoned as they eat meals and go about their lives.



Read more at Suite101: Mercury Pollution from Gold Mining: Small Scale Miners Use Toxic Chemical to Process Ore http://environmentalism.suite101.com...#ixzz0rmtRz9BY

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28596948/

Mercury is probably the most toxic non-radioactive metal in the environment. It is a poison! It is highly toxic to humans and ANY AMOUNT is harmful to the cells and tissues of human beings, according to Roy B. Kupsinel, MD, author of A Patient’s Guide to Mercury-Amalgam Toxicity – A Major Common Denominator of Degenerative Disease. The World Health Organization declared there is no safe level of mercury for human beings – in other words, mercury is so poisonous that no amount of mercury absorption is safe. (1992). Dental amalgams (fillings) are classified as a hazardous material by OSHA and recommend a “no-touch” technique in handling amalgams. A facemask should be used to avoid breathing amalgam dust, and hazardous waste instructions used for disposal!

http://rinf.com/alt-news/latest-news...poisoned/1531/

[Sven]

You may get the gold to melt with a Mapp gas torch instead of propane.
I used to use acetylene/ oxygen welding torch.

You need to make a crucible, easy to make out of plaster of paris.
Take a quart milk container, pour in plaster 2" thick, as it's setting place a large marble into the plaster only halfway. After the plaster sets, put a film of vaseline over the set plaster and marble. Pour in some more plaster to make ita 2" top. Let it cure for about 2 hours. Tear off the milk container, carefully seperate the top and bottom of the plaster mold. Take out the marble, wipe off excess vaseline, now file a small hole from the outside towards the center where the marble was. You will be aiming the torch flame into this small opening. Let this mold dry for two weeks to evaporate the water. If you don't the mold will explode when it heats up.

After it cures, place gold into the center along with the boric acid. Put the mold halves together, use a clamp to hold them together. After the gold and flux melts, let it cool and you'll have a lump of gold.

You can use the same type of mold to melt silver, silver ore and use store bout Mule Team Borax as the flux.

Please do any smelting outdoors, gold will give off mercury vapors if it was used to amalgamate the flakes in the field. When smelting native silver and silver ore, it gives off arsenic vapors, you won't see tomorrow if inhale those.

[woodstock]

First, I guess we all learned different ways and we're all from different walks of life.
When I did it with my mother it was the 60's and back then there was little health or enviromental concerns...heck even OSHA was a pimple on a bug's butt.
Back then even the schools boiler and heating pipes and duct were covered with Asbesos and in the 70's I removed the materials without gloves or breathing apperatus and "no" employer concerns. I guess I'm lucky to still be here.
I guess whatever method's you may choose to smelt your gold you have to take care.
Mercury was used just to gather and cling the dust and flakes to it wether it was or is a flux I couldn't say. But maybe no flux is needed if you use a low flamed torch cause once the gold melts it should act as it's own flux.
Jewlery repairs require flux only as a cleaner so the gold will be able to stick to gold being repaired. I only understand flux as an acid cleaner in gas welding used for brazing cause if the materials being brazed have contamination on there surfaces they will not stick together or be brazed, we used to call it Ruby Fluid cause it was Ruby Red. And you don't want to inhale acid vapors..that doesn't sound healthy to me. Woodstock