Hi all and happy new year,
I am also working in 22K gold, and have been making my own granules.
I am using a gem sifter, which is OK for larger sizes, but the
smallest size is 000, and I need to go much smaller. I contacted a
few companies, (wire cloth, etc.) but I don’t know exactly what to
ask for, and having sieves custom-made seemed expensive to experiment
with when I don’t know what I’m doing. Many thanks for any links,
Mary
Contact a university near you with a geology department. Ask if they
can give you a contact to a company for sieves used to seperate
sediment grains by size. In my sedimentology class, the lab had a
vibratory sifter to sort the sand grains in a rock by size. Then we
could determine the proportions off the sizes to determine what type
of rock we had. The point is that we had to buy sieves somewhere.
John
You can purchase sieves with exact mesh sizes from a variety of
scientific apparatus companies. They can be pretty pricey. The finer
the mesh the more expensive the sieve.
The Wikipedia article on mesh has a handy table with size
comparisons.
Here’s one supplier:
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep81pv
Amazon also carries them:
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep81pw
You can also get less expensive sets of larger size mesh through
Amazon.
Elliot Nesterman
Hello,
A great source for lots of things, and sieve mesh at reasonable
prices, is McMaster Carr.
Here’s a link for stainless steel mesh:
And brass:
And copper:
Buy the mesh and install it in any short length of tube, like
plastic yoghurt containers; pvc pipe; plastic drinking cups; etc.
You can use silicone caulking to join the mesh to the outside of any
tube. You get the idea.
Hope this is useful,
Linda Kaye-Moses
Have you looked at sifters for enamelists? They come is a variety of
mesh sizes.
Mary Almost any prospecting supply has what are referred to as
classification screens. They are classifies in mesh size, IE 50 mesh
is 50 holes per inch. You can get them down to 100 mesh…I use
them to sort out my gold nuggets
Steve Wandt
You can get mesh for making sieves from Thompson enamel. They come
ina large variety of sizes, from 80 mesh to 325. I make my own
sieves by using PVC plumbing pipe in various diameters which I saw
into 2 inch lengths. I then cut a square of the mesh, heat it with
my torch, being careful not to melt it, and then quickly press the
plastic tube on the hot mesh which melts the plastic and becomes
permanently attached to it. I cut off the excess making it round. It
is easier and neater than using glues or epoxies tojoin them. Alma
Many thanks to everyone who responded! I’ve been reading all the
links and educating myself on the different standards for mesh sizes,
etc. I like making my own tools anyway, so will probably do that. In
my own searches I did find a "Scienceware Mini-Sieve Sieve Set"
offered by several vendors in the $150 range. It had different mesh
sizes, 25, 35, 45, 60, 80, 120, 170, and 230, with 4 polypropylene
holders that you could swap the screens in and out of, in case anyone
else is interested.
Next up: make a small guillotine for chopping the 30 ga gold wire in
more uniform sizes. The idea I have in mind is based on how a pill
splitter works. It would have a razor blade (like the ones used in
scrapers) that could be swapped out when it gets dull.
Many thanks to all who responded!
Mary
You can get mesh for making sieves from Thompson enamel. They come in a large variety of sizes, from 80 mesh to 325. I make my own sieves by using PVC plumbing pipe in various diameters which I saw into 2 inch lengths. I then cut a square of the mesh, heat it with my torch, being careful not to melt it, and then quickly press the plastic tube on the hot mesh which melts the plastic and becomes permanently attached to it. I cut off the excess making it round. It is easier and neater than using glues or epoxies to join them. Alma
That’s very ingenious. Did you come up with that or passed down to
you. I love making solutions to problems like that.
Shannon, The method is commonly used by many who do enameling. I
learned how to make the sieves many years ago when in college and
was taking an enameling class. I am not sure who originated the
idea, but it sure is a useful one. Alma
I bought the “Diamond Sieve Set of 21 plates 50mm Jewelry Tool” on
eBay for just $42.88 on eBay. Works for me!
Will be making granules tonight before it gets too cold in my
basement. Cold temps coming to the deep South!
Betsy
Hi.
Shown by Patricia Tschetter in a granulation workshop: take one or
several washers the hight of the wire needed to make your granules,
hold the wire vertically, line up wire cutters on top of the washers
& snip. Very easy.
Jo in Philly where it’s going to snow.
Esta Jo Schifter
I was in the 99 Only Cent store the other day and found a faucet
aerator that had a pretty fine screen on it. I bought one and when I
took it apart, the screen was already embedded into rubber washer, so
half my work was already done. Then there was another rubber washer
that I glued on top of this one. It fits snugly on the bottom of my
finest enameling sifter, so I don’t need to fashion a handle for it.
This is probably one of the easiest tools I’ve made! Now I can
further winnow out the really tiny granules. (I work with random
sized granules and make them by dropping molten fine silver into a
container and letting it disperse.)
As Esta Said,
...take one or several washers the hight of the wire needed to make your granules, hold the wire vertically, line up wire cutters on top of the washers & snip.
And when you do this, you don’t need to do it one wire at a time.
You can be holding several wires, as many as your snips will
simultaneously cut, so each “snip” generates multiple bits of wire.
Hi Gang,
The trick I was taught for getting similarly sized granules was to
draw the wire down as fine as you possibly could (=B130ga) then wrap
it around a very small mandrel, like you were making jump rings.
Then clip off the teeny little rings. They’ll all be the same size,
and thus contain the same amount of metal. Yielding granules of the
same size. Want different sized granules? Just change the size of
the mandrel.
Quick, simple, and relatively painless.
Regards,
Brian