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silverstash119's Last 20 Posts
| Has Anyone Done Home Silver Refining?
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silverstash119
Valued Member
United States
182 Posts |
 Posted 05/02/2021 9:10 pm
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Thought this was worth sharing. Kind of meshing my love of history and precious metals together. Did my first attempt at sand casting copper today. I formed a model out of clay of an "oxhide" ingot, which is the shape of ingots from thousands of years ago when they were tied up on the backs of oxen and transported from region to region as an international metals trade. The originals of these were about 60 lbs, mine is about 1 1/2, so a reduced size replica. Built my clay model, and put foundry sand in a wooden frame with the clay model inside, and after removing the clay model did a sand casting in the space left behind. Probably pretty close to what they would have done thousands of years ago. I'm aging it with a blue/green patina using miracle grow and red wine vinegar. Hard to see but I added my makers mark of an O with a T through it (related to my eBay name). Just a fun project and my first intro to sand casting.
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| | Forum: Precious Metals and Bullion - Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum |
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| Crypto Pushing Out Metals As Safe Haven?
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silverstash119
Valued Member
United States
182 Posts |
Posted 03/30/2021 7:56 pm
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Like anything, diversification is key, and I can't deny that there is money to be made in cryptocurrency. I have money in Gold, silver, 401k, Roth IRA, and yes even cryptocurrency... I don't necessarily want to use crypto as a currency... I prefer tangible assets that don't live on a flash drive, but I don't want to miss an opportunity either... I just won't invest more than I'm willing to lose. So far I'm negative $120, so not going well  |
| | Forum: Precious Metals and Bullion - Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum |
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| A Failed Seed Planting - Morgan Dollar For Cat Watching
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silverstash119
Valued Member
United States
182 Posts |
Posted 03/29/2021 12:12 pm
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@kencat
Yeah I get it. I wasn't comfortable giving him a free Morgan, wanted to test him to see his interest level. I gave him the $1 Utah goldback as a bonus because, well, gold is awesome... especially free gold.
My own kids enjoy coin collecting, so I care more about getting them involved, and they'll be the ones getting more of the free stuff. |
| | Forum: Main Coin Forum |
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| A Failed Seed Planting - Morgan Dollar For Cat Watching
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silverstash119
Valued Member
United States
182 Posts |
Posted 03/28/2021 10:18 pm
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I had grand plans to plant the coin collecting seed in my neighbors son today... we employed him to watch our cats and lizard while we traveled for a week, and after we got back today I went over to his place to give him a couple choices...
"So Jonas, I can give you this $40, which you can spend today, or I can give you this 1880 silver Morgan dollar, which is worth about $40, and it's value will increase over time... the $40 cash will decrease in value over time, or the Morgan dollar will increase in time but you'll have to hold onto it..."
Jonas: "uhhh.... I'm trying to save up for a new Xbox, so, I'll take the $40"
Oh well, at least I didn't lose my Morgan... would have been worth it though to get the kid interested. |
| | Forum: Main Coin Forum |
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| Has Anyone Done Home Silver Refining?
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silverstash119
Valued Member
United States
182 Posts |
Posted 12/30/2020 11:41 am
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My pressure regulator is just a knob that will go from 0-20 psi, so I can't tell exactly what pressure I'm using, but if I had to guess I probably have it around halfway at 10-15 psi. I'm going more now based on the sound of the furnace to know if it's cranked up enough.
I probably load up about 5 lbs of wire per pour. I fill it with wire scraps before putting it in the furnace, lite the furnace on a low flame, and put the crucible in there on low to let everything warm up for about 5 mins, then I'll put the lid down and crank it up. After that initial wire melts down I have some thicker 1" thick copper wires that I stick in there to add to the melt. I try not to get the crucible more than about 1/3 full, so it's not too heavy/awkward.
Using my IR thermometer, when the temperature is reading about 2100-2200F then it seems to be about ready.
I've also found that I can only run one propane tank about an hour before it starts to freeze and flow gets restricted, so I have 2 tanks so I can alternate. Not sure if that will still be an issue in the summer... |
| | Forum: Precious Metals and Bullion - Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum |
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| Has Anyone Done Home Silver Refining?
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silverstash119
Valued Member
United States
182 Posts |
Posted 12/30/2020 01:28 am
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Have made some strides in being able to get more bars and better quality in shorter periods of time. My record so far was this morning - 5 bars in 1.5 hours. Also honing in how to get some of the finishes I want. I'm liking these pour lines. I rigged up a blowtorch to heat the ingot mold while I pour, so it cools a little more slowly and I get these circular ripples, otherwise the top layer cools too quickly and eventually sinks in like a deflated cake.
Have sold one on eBay for $8.50 plus shipping, hoping to eventually be getting more for these, but feeling out what the market thinks they're worth through auction. I have 10 more listed and each of them has a bid with still 5 days to go, so there's definitely some buzz out there.
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| | Forum: Precious Metals and Bullion - Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum |
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| Has Anyone Done Home Silver Refining?
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silverstash119
Valued Member
United States
182 Posts |
Posted 12/15/2020 7:39 pm
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Jskirwin-
So far it's not cost effective, but a lot of that has been due to initial trial and error. I seem to have spent about $17 on propane so far for about maybe 3 pounds of copper melting, spread over three weekends. Now that I'm dialing it in I think this will get better. First couple weekends I had didn't have the gas flow high enough (mostly out of fear of the furnace capabilities), so I was just spending a long time skirting the melting point. This last weekend I had it cranked up and from start to being able to pour was about 45 minutes. After the initial warmup, I was able to pour, then add more to the crucible and have it quickly melt within about 10 minutes. So for cost effectiveness I'll need to spend a good chunk of the day melting, as I burn a lot of fuel just warming up.
Right now I'm more concerned with the fun of it and the hobby than being cost effective, but eventually I'd like that to change. |
| | Forum: Precious Metals and Bullion - Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum |
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| Has Anyone Done Home Silver Refining?
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silverstash119
Valued Member
United States
182 Posts |
Posted 12/15/2020 12:59 pm
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This was just an extra one I squeezed out after pouring the two larger bars, been trying to focus on after-pour cleanup... turned out a little messy at first but ground it down to a more reasonable shape and tumbled in my rock tumbler overnight.... currently have these on eBay seeing if there's a market....
I do need to figure out how to make it a little smoother so I don't get these little holes/pockets in it....
Original:
After some cleanup:
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| | Forum: Precious Metals and Bullion - Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum |
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| Has Anyone Done Home Silver Refining?
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silverstash119
Valued Member
United States
182 Posts |
Posted 12/12/2020 9:07 pm
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This weekend, blew through some more propane, managed to get something in a bar shape, need much more practice with my stamps though... maybe a stamp press would be helpful, they tend to slip.... also, note to self, make sure the "D" is facing the right way...
Did some cool toning afterwards with a blowtorch to make it a little more pretty.
Will get more propane and try again tomorrow, starting to understand how hot to crank the furnace....
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| | Forum: Precious Metals and Bullion - Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum |
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| Has Anyone Done Home Silver Refining?
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silverstash119
Valued Member
United States
182 Posts |
Posted 12/06/2020 4:39 pm
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Been experimenting with the furnace and trying to practice on copper, but can't quite seem to get it hot enough to fully melt all the material I put in there... I know copper has a higher melting point than silver, but I should be able to melt it.... IR thermometer was showing around 2000F in the furnace... I got tired of blasting through all my propane today, just got a little nugget melted yesterday... not much to look at but it's a start... more experimenting on fuel/air mixture to come.... apparently this is harder than it looked!
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| | Forum: Precious Metals and Bullion - Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum |
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| Has Anyone Done Home Silver Refining?
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silverstash119
Valued Member
United States
182 Posts |
Posted 11/23/2020 8:15 pm
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Just a status update, wanted to post what I've acquired so far. Might be hard to see everything with all the other junk on my workbench, but from left to right is my furnace, about a kilo of sterling, my beaker, my IR thermometer, my Buchner filtering flask apparatus, and the appropriate filter paper. So, I'm working on it! Just taking some time and money, both of which are short supply. Few more things to get before I can move forward.
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| | Forum: Precious Metals and Bullion - Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum |
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| Has Anyone Done Home Silver Refining?
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silverstash119
Valued Member
United States
182 Posts |
Posted 11/18/2020 11:53 am
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@fist
Well, that's a bit of a problem. They do make precious metal verifiers that cost about $1,000, and I would hope most LCSs have them. If I got real serious about this I'd probably buy one so I could take photos of the bars/rounds reading .999 on the verifier. I'd probably have most luck selling on eBay/private sale rather than at a LCS.
For now I think I'd just use this as a way to have fun and refine silver to add to the stack. |
| | Forum: Precious Metals and Bullion - Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum |
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| Has Anyone Done Home Silver Refining?
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silverstash119
Valued Member
United States
182 Posts |
Posted 11/18/2020 11:24 am
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Quote:
So there could be a business opportunity down the road
Yeah, my thoughts as well, but approaching it for now as "sounds like fun" rather than a business. But, who knows, maybe it could be a retirement gig in 20 years...
Quote:
My wife would kill me if I sent in the silverware
Keep your silverware, we need you here!
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No , but I did melt Chocolate for a bunch of different molds
Put me down for a kilo bar! |
| | Forum: Precious Metals and Bullion - Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum |
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| Has Anyone Done Home Silver Refining?
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silverstash119
Valued Member
United States
182 Posts |
Posted 11/17/2020 6:46 pm
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Got my beaker today, and just ordered a 5000ml Büchner funnel apparatus/filter paper for filtering the silver nitrate. Not a cheap hobby and will definitely take awhile to recoup the costs of all this....I'm almost $1,000 in already with everything... got most of the big items out of the way though, last big items that I'll get maybe next month will be the hot plate, couple of HDPE buckets, and some tubing.... oh, and nitric acid....maybe by early 2021 I'll be able to actually start refining...
So in other news, if anyone has sterling silver they want to part with, let me know. |
| | Forum: Precious Metals and Bullion - Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum |
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