I just bought a reversible ingot mold from Contenti and I was
wondering if anyone knew how much metal (sterling) I need to fill in
the cavity? Or better yet if anyone knew a formula to use to figure
out how much metal I need melt when I want to fill in the 3, 4, 5,
and 6 mm diameters cylinder or the sheet section (70mm X 45mm X
4mm).
Look at a refiner’s wire chart, most should have the weight per
length in whatever given gauge. You could interpolate from their
sheet chart for your ingot. Hoover and Strong’s charts are perfect.
I just bought a reversible ingot mold from Contenti and I was
wondering if anyone knew how much metal (sterling) I need to fill
in the cavity? Or better yet if anyone knew a formula to use to
figure out how much metal I need melt when I want to fill in the 3,
4, 5, and 6 mm diameters cylinder or the sheet section (70mm X 45mm
X 4mm). Thanks :)
weight = specific gravity X volume
→ weight of cylinder = specific gravity X pi X radius X radius X
height Assuming you are pouring sterling silver which has a specific
gravity (density) of 10.4 g/cm^3 and a ingot mold that is 50 mm deep:
→ 3mm cylinder ingot of silver = 10.4 g/cm^3 X.15 cm X.15 cm X
3.1415927 X 5cm = 3.67 g
(remember that radius is 1/2 the diameter and that the specific
gravity is in cm not mm) A sheet section would just be the 3 sides
multiplied together (WxHxD) times the specific gravity.
the formula for calculating the volume of a circle is r[2] * pi * h * s.g.
R= radius in cm
pi = 3.1415
h = hight in cm
s.g. = specific gravity for the metal
Example:
r = 0.15 cm
h = 7.4 cm
(0.15)" x 3.1415 = 0.0706 cm2
0.0706 x 7.4 = 0.5230 cm2
0.5230 x 10.3 = 5.387 gr for STERLING silver
Make sure that you have the exact dimensions because it makes a
different as I’ll show you.
r = 0.14 cm
h=7.4 cm
(0.14)" x 3.1415 x 7.4 = 0.4556 cm2
0.4556 x 10.3 = 4.693 gr for St silver
… and this is only 0.1 mm or 0.069 gram of st silver which is
not a big deal for silver but for other more expencive metals it
matters. This whould be 16.6 US$ without labor costs and alloy
metals. However, it depends on how you look at it and how you need to
do your calculations in order to run your business.
I just bought a reversible ingot mold from Contenti and I was
wondering if anyone knew how much metal (sterling) I need to fill
in the cavity? Or better yet if anyone knew a formula to use to
figure out how much metal I need melt when I want to fill in the 3,
4, 5, and 6 mm diameters cylinder or the sheet section (70mm X 45mm
X 4mm).
I wanted to wait and see what others said before I chimed in with my
flippant but correct answer:
Just use what you need.
I use one of these and have sort of figured out by looking how much
metal I need to fill the mold, but if I add too much it (hopefully)
forms a button on at the top I clip the button off with a bolt
cutter. It helps to have a clean desktop so if you do pour too much
metal you can pick it up & reuse it.