| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
Somnophore
Penny Pincher Member
United Kingdom
161 Posts |
 Posted - 03/09/2009 : 18:59:50
|
|
someone on here must make their own bars/rounds by melting down scrap silver jewelry/cutlery or whatever, how do you do it? is it easy, do you find it easy to sell un assayed silver
|
|
|
natsb88
Administrator
USA
1850 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 19:13:28
|
Market Harmony joined the forum a few weeks ago. He makes silver, gold, and copper products, some from scrap jewelry. I don't have any problem selling them on my website  |
Nate
The Copper Cave
|
Edited by - natsb88 on 03/09/2009 19:13:48 |
 |
|
|
Market Harmony
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1274 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 19:31:44
|
Yes, I do that. I plan to move away from jewelry and non-pure scrap for the future. I'd like to only work with .999 gold silver and copper.
Overcoming the trust factor with buyers takes time and consistency. I decided to approach the issue with a professionally made makers mark stamp and a "999 fine silver" stamp. I also gaurantee purity. Some folks only want name brand makers, and I understand that, but silver is silver, no matter what the stamp looks like. Assay guns cost more than 15K USD. I plan to acquire one in the future years, and will then certify all my products as an assayer as well. It just takes time and money to get things rolling along.
I've already got well into 5 figures invested in the business, so be prepared to commit yourself to the long run if you decide to do it too. Basic equipment includes a crucible melting furnace, molds, and processing equipment.
I'll help you along at a consulting cost if you're interested. |
goto the new and improved realcent: http://realcent.org |
|
|
|
Somnophore
Penny Pincher Member
United Kingdom
161 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 19:39:27
|
| Its not for me right now, just looking at it as a possibility for the future, ill bear that in mind if i do want to start doing it, how do you get your scrap then? i assumed you could melt less pure silver down, and refine out the other metals so it was .999, is this not possible, i like the look of those buffalo rounds on the copper cave, nice and generic, and a shape that buyers recognise and trust |
|
|
|
jadedragon
Administrator
Canada
3788 Posts |
Posted - 03/10/2009 : 15:23:30
|
| It is possible to refine - but specialized work - and not really an operation for the garage. There are reletively few refiners out there. |
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard Shaw.
Why Copper Bullion ~~~ Interview with Silver Bullion Producer Market Harmony
Passive Income blog |
|
|
|
Saul Mine
Penny Collector Member
USA
343 Posts |
Posted - 03/13/2009 : 14:22:34
|
I took on a project to cast some custom bars for a forum. That was in November. I figured I would do sand casting and ship the bars about the second week of December. First I spent $60 on fire clay and stuff for a furnace. Then I spent $150 on a propane torch. The biggest problem was my instructions were from a guy doing a different sort of work. The furnace was for 10 lbs of aluminum, not 10 oz of silver. The torch was supposed to work without a blower, and it took a while to figure out it needed a blower. "A while" means I wasted two tanks of propane! I found better instructions for designing the furnace and by that time I was up to the third version and had to buy more materials to build another one. The guys who designed the forum logo went to professional engravers, first one then another, and they didn't quite understand that the engraving had to be angled, not straight sided. For any other purpose, engraving has straight sides, but straight sides won't release from a mold. It took a while to figure out why the system didn't work. By now we were into January. Another thing to be learned was exactly what treatment a crucible will tolerate and what will make it break. (If water touches it you have to bake it to dryness before using it again.) Cheap crucibles cost $15 each, good graphite ones cost $35 each. I gave up on the sand molds and spent $50 on graphite molds. Then I learned that "10 ounces" means gold capacity, not silver. So another $65 for a 20 ounce mold to make 10 ounce silver ingots. I finally got the ingots poured the first week of February and paid $180 for a custom steel stamp with the forum logo. But graphite molds usually have some weirdness that makes bubbles in the casting. Nobody knows why, but I figured out how to bake the crap out so they would make a smooth surface that would take the stamp. Then I remelted and repoured all the ingots.
Three and a half months and $800 on this first project. |
A penny sorted is a penny earned!
Please use tinyurl.com to post links. Long links make posts hard to read. |
|
|
|
natsb88
Administrator
USA
1850 Posts |
Posted - 03/13/2009 : 15:13:26
|
quote:
Originally posted by Saul Mine
The guys who designed the forum logo went to professional engravers, first one then another, and they didn't quite understand that the engraving had to be angled, not straight sided. For any other purpose, engraving has straight sides, but straight sides won't release from a mold.
The magic word you're looking for is "draft." 
It's a standard process for any injection mold. Go to a mold maker and they'll know exactly what you mean. Go to an engraver that is used to etching designs on flat surfaces and it's probably not something they have dealt with before. |
Nate
The Copper Cave
|
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
anyone here melt your own rounds/bars
Forum Locked
