Melting Gold

G'day all, just wondering if anyone has used a MAPP Gas Torch to melt gold, info on the internet tells me it burns at 2010C and gold melts at 1950C I think! so I guess it would be borderline.
Any info would be great.

Burnie

Gold has a melting point of 1064.18 °C or 1947.52 °F, I think you have confused the gold melting point between the "C" & "F"

Your right about the temp for the MAPP Gas toirch 2,020°C (3,670°F).

So it will do the job with plenty to spare.

cheers dave

Yep burnie. All my crap speccies and unsaleable dregs get smooshed and melted into 1oz buttons.
MAPP gas is all I use in a small crucible with a bit of borax.



cheers!

I seem to remember gold nuggets melt at about Centigrade 1100. I make gold jewellery but I don't melt it if I can help it. I only get it to the cherry red colour for soldering but that is just below melting. I use a small gas torch fuelled with lighter fluid and that provides plenty of heat. Gold can become volatile if heated too hot. If it does it can explode and all your gold will be spread in little droplets everywhere. I reckon that happens up around the 2000 C. If I were you I'd look further into it before melting gold. You will also need a flux on the gold you are melting so it will all come together nicely.

Cheers, Jim

Many thanks guys,
I have made buttons before but I used oxy set then, but thats not an option now.
I will go get myself a decent torch now, I thought it better to ask for advice before buying.
Just as a matter of interest, since I made the posting I found an article showing the simple construction of a furnace made from a hollowed out heeble brick, reckon that would save on gas too!.
Thanks again Guys
Burnie

Gday Burnie
Used to do a fair bit of mashing and melting years ago but had access to the State Battery where I lived so that made it easy.
There was an article on our old MSN site a couple of years ago about melting gold and using a raw potato as the mould, seemed to work very successfully. Mad Tuna's right about the borax too. From memory I think Nightjar (Peter) had the info on that process.
cheers
Brett

For a crucible, contact a manufacturing jeweller, they use them and mine cost me about $12 from a mate who's a jeweller.

Borax I got in a jar from a local chemist for $5. It was the only jar he had and it had been sitting on a shelf for years! I tried about 8 chemists before I found that one.

My MAPP gas torch I bought from bunnings and apart from melting gold they are brilliant for lighting your camp fire in a hurry..even wet wood, cheers freshwater for that tip.

You can get borax from just about any supermarket.

Thanks Tuna,
How did you know I needed a crucible too? I dropped my old faithful just a couple of days ago $12 damn! old faithful cost nothing found six in the bush out from Leonora only one was good the rest went to the dolly pot.
Borax a plenty in Woolies in the cleaning section, great stuff for removing stains the red dust leaves behind.
Take care and good hunting
burnie

thanks for the tip! I am just as lost in a supermarket as I am in my own damn kitchen!

Hey Burnie
try a potatoe instead of a crucible, we are going up to Ians on Saturday to melt ours and thats what we are using.

Mono and Nan

Good onya Peter and Nann, got too much for a spud mate give my regards to Ian whilst your there.
And don't eat the bloody black spuds
So you got away from the place at last, have fun.
John

I have never heard of meling gold in a potato!

What I have read (by Ion Idress) is you dolly your specimens up and collect all the fine gold by amalgamating it with mercury. You then place the mercury in a hollowed out spud thickly cover it with clay and place it in the fire. The mercury quickly boils off and is held in the flesh of the spud for later recovery while the gold is left in the hollow. Very simple physics. Just don't eat the spud.

You then melt the gold into an ingot using a torch and borax.

I suspect trying to melt gold in a spud will result in lost gold - and a badly burnt spud.

Hope this helps clarify the matter, cheers Jim

nah jim it doesn't....done it heaps of time before getting the crucible. I use the crucible only because it makes a neater ingot.. my spud carving leaves a lot to be desired.

cheers!

madtuna, the cheapest place to get borax is at a garden centre or agricultural outlet.
you get ten times the volume at a garden centre, 1 or 2 kg, and 100 times the volume - for the same money - at a ag outlet in 25kg bag. (i am a retired farmer, i used to buy 25kg bags every other month - its a trace element fertiliser, also a bit dangerous if injested, they tried to ban it about twenty years back) ... kev

cheers Kev...theres a big one not far from me!

Good God if you are going to mess around with mercury do it safely. This borax stuff, make sure you have a canary with you and if it looks like it is going to fall off its perch with head spins..... get away from it....

Don't worry Birdie...we is big boys we are..
now toddle off...you have that WA border to man...while you're posting here some easterners might be sneeking through

Well said Tuna....

HueyDuck....

Remember to heat the crucible first if melting fines. So many people have this startled look on their face when the torch blows all their gold out before the liquification commences.

Some pics below that I took of a 1oz ingot - made from melting panned alluvial fines from a gold pan.

Has anyone tried to melt gold with a normal propane torch ? I read that the flame temp for propane with air is 1995C
I guess you could melt gold wire or small bits, but what about an oz or two?
Cheers Greg

Melting Gold in a studio (pretty cool video)




Or risk a Home Microwave Kiln.... from EBAY... CLICK HERE



Don't forget you can use Cuttlefish Bone to act as a crucible.


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