Trouble casting white gold ingots

Hi all,

Perhaps someone can tell me what I’m doing wrong. I cast a bunch
(480g!!) of ingots from scrap gold yesterday, mixed 10 and 14k from
(clean) bench scrap, 1.75x1.75" and 1/8" thick. I cast all my yellow
ingots first, then when the ingot mold was good and warm I tried to
cast a white gold ingot. Instead of a nice square one, I got a "T"
shape: the top bar of the T being at the bottom of the mold, then a
column of metal leading to a big old clump that spilled out over the
top of the mold. I sighed heavily and cast it again, with the same
results. One would think that the mold or the metal were too cool,
but I feel certain that they were not. Any ideas? I do this to save
my company the expense of ordering sheet and wiRe: I saw the ingots
into strips and mill them into sizing stock and wire. I am excited
about trying out the hydraulic cutter at my welding class next week
to see if I can cut the strips on that, as the sawing is hard on my
arms and hands and produces a lot of waste gold dust. Does anyone else
do this, or am I just a sucker??

Yours, Julia Newton
A “jewelry repair technician” at work and a “designer-craftsman” at home

Julia, sounds like your asking for trouble mixing scraps of white
gold. Could be that your gold isn’t homogenous and not melting at
the same rate. May have a trapped piece of unmelted gold in the pour
or possibly the mold isn’t vented? Here’s how I do it.

http://home.hot.rr.com/jwlrymkr/ingot.html

Ken

Hi There,

Do you have a kiln? One way to assure an even heating is set the
kiln, and simply put the mold in the kiln. At least you reduce the
variables- You can get the metal to the right temperature, and count
on the oven to heat the whole thing evenly.

Daniel Ballard
WWW.Pmwest.us