What type of furnace do you all use to refine?

[The_EE]

I am looking at getting a furnace in the near future. I have several hundred oz of scrap sterling I want to turn into bars for the time being, to condense the lot to better fit into my safe. In the future, I will turn it into shot when it comes time to be refined into .999

The furnace I was thinking about going with is in the link below.

Propane Melting Furnace with Tongs and Grooved Graphite Crucibles GoldRefiningSupplies.com

I am assuming the 2kg means it can handle up to approx 4.4 pounds of material. I dont see a need for the 10kg model they have. I also do not have the time to build my own. I could save money building but that time will cost me more in the long run.

 

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[galenrog]

First thing, a furnace is not used to refine precious metals. Different furnaces are used to assay, smelt, and melt, but not refine.

The short list (leaving out many steps and safety issues) is as follows:

1: Dissolve sterling in nitric acid. Both copper and silver will be dissolved.

2: Recover silver from solution. Properly done should result in .990
or greater purity.

3: Refine in a silver "cell". The resulting silver, if processed correctly should be .999 purity or greater.

As stated above, I omitted many steps and all safety considerations. I am leaving it up to you to study and learn.

 

[cazisme]

schorr or schore company has a silver recover system that uses acid and dissolves silver

 

[bradley1719]

Most people will tell you that there is virtually no benefit to melting/smelting/refining at home. Even if you went through the process of refining your silver into 99.9% pure "shot", no one will trust it. So whenever you try to sell it, the buyer will have to send it to a refiner anyway which costs them (or you) money. Therefore, "home refining" is a wasted step because it is a cost that you won't be reimbursed for.

As for melting metals at home into bars or clumps, again, no one is going to trust that. So there is more value in a marked silver spoon in standard condition than there is if you melt that same spoon into a lump or bar. As a real spoon, metals buyers can easily identify it and know what they are getting. Once you melt it no one is going to trust it without having it refined.

Why not just send it to a refiner today and have them either send you cash or give you an equivalent amount of marked silver bars?

 

[The_EE]

First thing, a furnace is not used to refine precious metals. Different furnaces are used to assay, smelt, and melt, but not refine.

Not sure why I put refine, I meant to put smelt. Could be that I was watching a video on refining at the time.

Most people will tell you that there is virtually no benefit to melting/smelting/refining at home. Even if you went through the process of refining your silver into 99.9% pure "shot", no one will trust it. So whenever you try to sell it, the buyer will have to send it to a refiner anyway which costs them (or you) money. Therefore, "home refining" is a wasted step because it is a cost that you won't be reimbursed for.

As for melting metals at home into bars or clumps, again, no one is going to trust that. So there is more value in a marked silver spoon in standard condition than there is if you melt that same spoon into a lump or bar. As a real spoon, metals buyers can easily identify it and know what they are getting. Once you melt it no one is going to trust it without having it refined.

Why not just send it to a refiner today and have them either send you cash or give you an equivalent amount of marked silver bars?

Refiner takes 10% off the top for cash and 10% off the top plus a small premium for each oz in refined you want in trade. Sorry, but I would prefer not to lose over 60 oz. If the time does come that I have to hit the criminals at NTR to scrap, I will at least have it condensed down into a manageable level that I can easily store in my safe until that time. 6 large flat rate boxes take up a lot more room.