Pouring Metal [Was: All Cracked Up]

 does anyone have a good tip on how to pour that big shiny
blob of hot metal down that teeny little hole in the
vertical ingot mold? 

Last week, I was demo-ing pouring ingots (and trying some of the
beans, pasta and other ideas that Orchid had been discussing… )
I also had trouble aiming the pour at that little opening. I
found that the most fool-proof method is the no-pour method.
Carve an ingot shape into charcoal (make sure of good
ventilation) and do the melt right in the depression.

Cindy

Cynthia Eid
http://www.silverhawk.com/crafts/eid
http://www.silverhawk.com/ex98/eid-c

Cindy said: I found that the most fool-proof method is the
no-pour method. Carve an ingot shape into charcoal (make sure of
good ventilation) and do the melt right in the depression.

There are many dvantages of heating metal directly in a charcoal
block with a carved depression:

-we all have charcoal lying around.
-you can carve any shape, depth and size you want using burs.
-there is no chance of spillage.
-you avoid the cost of an ingot mold.
-absolutely no chance of air bubbles being trapped.
-the reducing atmosphere created by the charcoal is very helpful in absorbing 
 oxides and keeping the metal clean.

Here is a tip on charcoal ingot making: to create a piece of
flat sheet, carve a flat bottom trough a little too wide for the
metal you are heating. When it is molten, remove the torch and
immediately take a chasing hammer and push the flat face onto
the metal for a few seconds. The metal will freeze very quickly.
This forces the top to become flat, not bubble-round which is
its natural tendency, so now top and bottom are flat.

Alan Revere
Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts
San Francisco

http://www.silverhawk.com/crafts/eid
http://www.silverhawk.com/ex98/eid-c

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Last week, I was demo-ing pouring ingots (and trying some of
the beans, pasta and other ideas that Orchid had been
discussing... ) I also had trouble aiming the pour at that
little opening.  I found that the most fool-proof method is the
no-pour method. Carve an ingot shape into charcoal (make sure
of good ventilation) and do the melt right in the depression. 

This does work, but the metal will be solidifying much more
slowly, and will thus give you a much larger crystal size in the
resulting blob of metal. With some alloys, you can even get some
dissociated of the alloy componants, so the alloy is no longer
uniform from one part of the ingot to another. Plus, the shape
will be a bit rougher, and you may a bit more dissolved gas in
the metal. All these can give you crackier, poorer metal to work
with. I’ve found I can get away with this with high karat golds,
but that’s about it. And of course, with platinum, this is the
routine way I make all my ingots, except I’m not using charcoal,
I’m melting in a groove carved in a wesgo soldering block or
crucible…

peter Rowe