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I have questions...
« on: February 18, 2019, 06:11:37 am »
Good Morning,

I'm sorry to say I'm a newb at pouring.. I have many questions and am sure I'll have many more if you folks wouldn't mind helping me along that would be great. I see some of the greats of pouring in here.

I have purchased a furnace, cement blocks, fire brick, Mapp gas torch, Anvil, Scale, Gloves, etc..

I need to buy a stamping set (A-Z, 0-9). My plan is to pour 1, 2 and 5 oz pours at least to start. What would you suggest? 1/4" or 1/8" stamps?

Do you use borax every pour? Even if the silver is already .999? I assume yes but that's why I'm asking..

Do I need to get a buffing wheel as in something like a table grinder? I like my ingots shiny...

I know silvers melting point is 1,763F but I assume you melt it higher to keep it molten longer. Whats your ideal temperature? I know this is probably different for everyone because of different equipment etc, just looking for ballpark.

I know this will be blasphemy to some here but I like a perfectly smooth surface on my ingots. Is that possible without sandcasting?

That's it for now. I'm sure as I get into it I'll have many more questions but in the meantime thank you for any help you might be able to provide and thanks in advance to anyone that helps!

Rock


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Re: I have questions...
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2019, 11:41:10 am »
Welcome RocksSilver! I've only been pouring a few months myself, but I will try to help you out where I can.

As far as stamping goes, this can be a matter of personal preference as well as what will fit on your piece and aesthetics. I'm cheap so my stamps are in MM ;) - I tend to use 1.5-3mm on my smaller stuff and 6mm on my larger items. I see a lot of larger stamps being used..  I just haven't gotten there yet. My logo stamps are 6, 9.5, and 12mm and I use the largest one that makes sense on my pour.

If you're using a furnace with a graphite crucible, I personally would not use any borax at all. I have really only seen this used with the hand crucibles. I'm sure others will chime in on this.

As far as buffing/polishing, I'm working indoors due to the extreme cold weather right now and have been using a dremel to clean/polish. I've been told a bench grinder with polishing wheels makes easy work of cleaning up pieces and making them shiny.

As far as temperature goes, I run my furnace anywhere between 2000 and 2025 degrees depending on how cold it is in my basement. You'll probably get a half dozen other answers on this one.

I hope I was able to help you out a little bit!
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Re: I have questions...
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2019, 02:14:04 pm »
Thank you so much for responding. Good Info!
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Re: I have questions...
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2019, 02:23:45 pm »
Cant say much more than ZZ. Nailed it 👍
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Re: I have questions...
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2019, 12:48:50 pm »
Thanks for helping out ZZ great answers.
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