Re-using palladium

After making a few pieces from palladium I’ve ended up with quite a
few small offcuts. I would like to melt them together and roll out
some new sheet, but I’ve read that Pd will absorb oxygen and hydrogen
when melted and will crack easily when worked. I only have
oxy/propane or oxy/hydrogen torches. What are my chances of getting a
workable lump?

Gary

A fellow jeweler in my area has a casting machine with an induction
melter that uses cover gas. He graciously melted about an ounce of
clean scrap for me and it rolled out perfectly. I think Jim Binnion
presented a paper at Santa Fe symposium on casting palladium, you
might ask him about an alternative, but any gas/oxygen combined
torch will be useless.

Gary- Slim to none. Sorry.

Have fun and make lots of jewelry.

Jo Haemer
timothywgreen.com

I often remelt Palladium and reuse it. The important difference is
that I melt the scraps with an arc, under the cover of argon. I
produced a video that is in the Orchid video files showing how I
make the melt.

Thanks for the info guys, and confirming what I feared.

Now, I’ve got the Argon, if I could make an induction furnace…

I often remelt Palladium and reuse it. The important difference is
that I melt the scraps with an arc, under the cover of argon. I
produced a video that is in the Orchid video files showing how I
make the melt. 

Great job Kevin!

I often remelt Palladium and reuse it. The important difference is
that I melt the scraps with an arc, under the coverof argon. I
produced a video that is in the Orchid video files showing how I
make the melt. 

How do you create the arc?