Gold Ingots

Does anyone have some tips on how to make gold ingots that don’t
have air bubbles in them and start to crack when you mill them out?
Thank you!

Are you heatinfg the ingot and using oil or wax after it is hot to
the touch? If not water may form on the ingot (as it sweats)
creating cavities in the metal. Just a thought, Don Wollwage,
Northern Ca

1 Like
 Does anyone have some tips on how to make gold ingots that don't
 have air bubbles in them and start to crack when you mill them out?

I prop the ingot mold up on a pair of tweezers or something so its
not flat. Then I heat up the mold so its too hot to touch, then
touch a little sticky wax to the edge of the hole as a lubricant
(or a little 3 in 1 oil). Have the metal in the crucible next to
the ingot mold and heat it immediately, try to deflect the heat
from the crucible onto the ingot mold to keep it hot. When molten
and very fluid pour down the edge of the hole, not over the center
of the hole. This allows the air to escape. Propping it up really
helps. I have seen it where someone pours it so the top of the hole
is covered with molten metal, the air underneath is superheated,
its expands and blows bits of hot metal all over the room like a
volcano, very exciting.

Mark P.
WI USA

1 Like
    Does anyone have some tips on how to make gold ingots that
don't have air bubbles in them and start to crack when you mill
them out?

You may want to try lubricating the mold with either soot from the
torch or beeswax (motor oil works good too).It also helps to have a
couple of vents cut in the mold to allow air to escape as the gold
is poured in. Tilt the mold frame at a slight angle and preheat the
mold until the wax burns off before pouring your metal. Good luck,
Ken

   Does anyone have some tips on how to make gold ingots that
don't have air bubbles in them and start to crack when you mill
them out?

is the alloy you are using. In 9ct, if you are using old chains
and things, forget it. If you are using casting grain, it needs
to be melted and poured (cast) and then melted and poured again
before rolling. New sheet and wire scraps should melt and roll no
bother at all. BUT, 9ct red is a nightmare! And so it goes on…

Also, you might find that using a closed mould helps.

Yours aye,
Dauvit Alexander,
Glasgow, Scotland.

   Does anyone have some tips on how to make gold ingots that
don't have air bubbles in them and start to crack when you mill
them out?

I am working with 20 students a day (for 15 years) and they are
all making ingots almost each day and I still doing my own ingots
at home. I can tell that I have seen almost every krazy things
about ingots. Personally I do not beleive in heating or tilting the
ingots molds before, but cleaning it with an oily cloth (3 in 1
oil or motor oil) and add a little bit more oil on the lips of the
ingot mold is good. Air bubbles and cracks reveals to me that you
heat to much your metal. Heat the metal, put a pinch of borax, tilt
the crucible until the metal is going to drop in the mold, keep it
there, heat it and by the time you can see the metal rolling on
imself in the crucible, heat it for about 10 seconds more and drop
it as fast as you can in the mold, continuously without jerks. The
problem can also come with old or bad metals. The heat is coming
to fast when you are using an oxiding flame. Vincent Guy Audette

    I am working with 20 students a day (for 15 years) and they
are all making ingots almost each day and I still doing my own
ingots at home.

Guy: Please forgive a question from someone who hasn’t worked with
gold yet. Why are you making ingots every day? What do you do with
them? What are you making them out of? Do you have so much scrap
that this is what you do rather than send the scrap to a smelter?

–kathi parker, MoonScape Designs

Dear Kathi, I am not doing ingots with old metals but with new ones
because, in our school, students must fabricate all the material
they need to do their metal works (plates, bands, wires and tubes)
and they starts with Sterling grains, then they always have to do
ingots, rolling and drawing it. We almost always use the vertical
ajustable ingot molds. The technique I have described the day
before was with this one and not with the horizontal one. We are
using gold in only one course or lesson (I do not know the right
term) it is Jewelry repairs.

       I am working with 20 students a day (for 15 years) and
they are all making ingots almost each day and I still doing my
own ingots at home.
Guy: Please forgive a question from someone who hasn't worked
with gold yet. Why are you making ingots every day? What do you
do with them? What are you making them out of? Do you have so
much scrap 

Kathy, all I can say is “I want to meet this guy!” You’re comment
is very interesting, I also wonder where “they are getting material
to make gold ingots every day” Maybe, they just work with lots of
casting scrap on a daily basis? Who knows? Wish I could get some of
it! I’ve been thinking of ordering some gold, but I have no idea
how much gold constitutes a “penny weight” . . . I’m used to
ordering sterling by the ounce.

How much “14k gold” could I get if I spent (say . . .)$1000.00
US?(inches of 20G sheet? 20 g wire?) I have, not a clue!

There are 20 dwts (pennyweights) in an ounce.

   I've been thinking of ordering some gold, but I have no idea
how much gold constitutes a "penny weight" . . . I'm used to
ordering sterling by the ounce. How much "14k gold" could I get
if I spent (say . . .)$1000.00 US?(inches of 20G sheet?  20 g
wire?)  I have, not a clue!

A pennyweight (dwt) is the equivalent of 1/20 troy ounce. A square
inch of 14K yellow gold 20 ga sheet weighs approx. 4.4 dwt. At
current market pricing, and depending upon your supplier of course,
that square inch would cost you approx. $46, yielding you approx.
22 sqare inches of sheet for your $1000.

Sounds like Guy is not in the US. I studied in europe for a
semester and we had to make all of our sheet and wire from ingots,
everyone does it. And hey, no milling charge! More than likely
scrap isn’t being used, but grains of pure metal alloyed and then
poured.

Ed Colbeth Metalsmith, UMASS Dartmouth
Taunton, Massachusetts (Soon to be Deer Isle, Maine)
508-823-9704

ICQ# 6247734

   but I have no idea how much gold constitutes a "penny weight"
. . . I'm used to ordering sterling by the ounce. > How much "14k
gold" could I get if I spent (say . . .)$1000.00 US?(inches of
20G sheet?  20 g wire?)  I have, not a clue!

A pennyweight of gold is 1/20 oz. 10 dwt=1/2 0z 15dwt=3/4 oz ect.
A pennyweight is about 1.555gm

When you buy 100dwt (5 oz) of 14K sheet or wire from Rio they
charge .675 X spot or about $222US per ounce.

20 ga sheet is 4.40dwt per sq in. 20 ga wire is 1.330dwt per ft.

Another rule of thumb is that 14K is about 1.25 the weight of
silver. a piect that weighs 1 oz in ster. will weigh about 1.25
oz in 14K(Ballpark figure)

Hope this helps

UFO’s are real–the Air Force is swamp gas!

Bobert
Carmel,CA

A pennyweight (dwts) is a division of an avoirdupois. If you have
your stuff cast by an outside caster she or he will weight your
stuff in dwts (even if it’s silver). Jewelry being appraised or
listed in an auction catalog will be in dwts. Do you have a gram
scale? If so, you can convert grams to pennyweights:

multiply by 0.64301

Rio Grande sells an Indian made dwt/gram scale for 15.95. I just
bought one myself. An electronic scale would be more precise, (out
to the third decimal place).

-Elaine
Chicago, Illinois, US
Midwest

Elaine Luther;

Thank you from the Native American community, but we did not make
the scale that you bought from Rio Grande. Your scale that you
bought Item #116-053 is made in Taiwan, which has nothing to do
with Indians!

Dancinghorse

I fabricate, (using sterling) don’t cast . . . that’s why I have
no idea what 'pennyweight or avoirdupos is . . . I know they are
terms of weight, but have no idea about applying such. I’ll have
to get a gram scale (one of these days!)

Everyone, thank you for your imput. I think I’m starting to ‘see
the light!’

   A pennyweight (dwts) is a division of an avoirdupois.

hi elaine,

i suppose you could use dwt to divide an avoirdupois ounce, but
dwts are part of the troy measurement. there is approx. 28.4 grams
in an avoirupois oz. and approx 31.1 gr in a troy oz… 20 dwt
equals 1 troy oz.

best regards,

geo fox

The Jeweler’s Resource rocks it has every damn conversion table
you could ever want. nuff said.

Robb Mitchell