Hello everyone,
I have been in need of a new torch and have been considering acetylene as the fuel. I have read online that acetylene can “contaminate platinum and some gold alloys” does this apply only to certain white golds or all gold alloys period? What about silver? Can I safely cast, anneal and solder with acetylene without fear of embrittlement or contamination? Thank for any input.
Argentum Moon
Palladium will be contaminated by acetylene making it brittle so any alloy containing palladium say white gold will be changed specially if melted with acetylene torch but for all other gold or silver alloys it works pretty well , save for the flakes of carbon flying around you’re shop .
It has a considerable high temp and a very bright flame ( need protection for certain mixes) I started using oxyacetylene but I now use propane oxygen , only when I’m melting high volume of metal by torch I switch to acetylene say over 800 gms of silver , but nowadays I use an electric furnace for more than half a kilo
Thank you, that’s quite helpful.