Hello,
I have a fair amount of scrap dental gold. I have no idea as to the exact chemical composition or purity. I have been working on some personal projects and I have been struggling with proper annealing. I have heated to dull red and air cooled, I have heated to dull red and quenched, I have heated until sharpie disappears. Unfortunately I have been unable to solve the problem. Do I just send it to a refinery and get some casting grain?
I would send it to a refiney if you can find one that will take it. The latest volitility in the precious metal market has made some refiners decide that they can’t take any more. They also will only base their payout on the spot price of precious metals the day that they process it. I use Hoover and Strong and have an account at Elemental but have never used them. Good luck…Rob
Dental gold is 16 karat and alloyed to be hard as it is used on grinding surfaces. You may have better luck raising the karat to 18 or higher and if not you can always recycle it.
Raising the karat won’t change what was alloyed to make it hard, just dilute it. I had a couple come to me with their class rings to see if I could make them into something new. I told them that, while the rings were 10K, the alloy would still be there and possibly interfer with how the gold behaves. I told them that I couldn’t do anything for them. I suggested that they take them to a refiner in Buffalo as the rings might be worth a fair amount in the current market just as scrap…Rob
That’s true, you are right. Dilution is a matter of quantity. I’ve worked with some pretty hard, white gold alloys. I remember when earning my degree 20+ years ago that some people brought in dental gold and other students worked with it. Of course we were pushed to try and make things work for our customers pretty hard.
I hate working with white gold and whatever it is that makes it both white and hard…Rob