Melting gold the traditional way

[Rotor888]

Hi

I am curious to know how this works. Is it really just blowing extra air into a charcoal hearth, thereby raising the temperature to 1064 degrees C?

 

[Munroast]

looks like coke, and yes blowing air through it increases the oxygen supply which means it burns faster and hotter

probably get up to about 1200c, proper blast furnaces (well controlled environment) 1900c and if you pumped pure oxygen through it (AND DO NOT TRY THIS) may be 2500c

in a nutshell -carbon + oxygen is the chemical reaction that releases heat., so coke and pure oxygen = a lot of heat very quickly

Burning coke reverses photosynthesis. The ancient trees used the energy of the sun to take in CO₂ and split it into carbon and oxygen, keeping the carbon for their structure and releasing the oxygen. When you burn coke, the oxygen in the air combines with the carbon again to form CO₂ — and all that stored solar energy from millions of years ago is released very rapidly. (hence fossil fuels)

 

[Rotor888]

looks like coke, and yes blowing air through it increases the oxygen supply which means it burns faster and hotter

probably get up to about 1200c, proper blast furnaces (well controlled environment) 1900c and if you pumped pure oxygen through it (AND DO NOT TRY THIS) may be 2500c

in a nutshell -carbon + oxygen is the chemical reaction that releases heat., so coke and pure oxygen = a lot of heat very quickly

Burning coke reverses photosynthesis. The ancient trees used the energy of the sun to take in CO₂ and split it into carbon and oxygen, keeping the carbon for their structure and releasing the oxygen. When you burn coke, the oxygen in the air combines with the carbon again to form CO₂ — and all that stored solar energy from millions of years ago is released very rapidly. (hence fossil fuels)

Could this contraption be used with coal instead of coke to melt gold?

 

[Deluks]

Make sure it's not worth more in value unmelted.

There was the story of that bloke that sold £15k worth of nicked brass instruments to the scrap dealer for £61!

Or find a dodgy pub and ask anyone if they want a cheap Christmas present for the missus.

 

[Munroast]

depends on the quality of the coal, you could possibly try and make your own coke, fill the pan with coal, put lid on pan and cook the coal on an open fire, lid must be loose to allow all the gases to escape. but you should (i have never tried this) end up with coke and that should burn at the temperatures you need. Coke is just coal with the impurities removed,

of course, if you have enough gold to melt, then buy a proper furnace (type of thing for aluminium) you clearly have the funds to affoard it.

But yes, I also love the DIY approach - I made something similar years ago out of an old air compressor cylinder, I used anthracite (smokeless coal) and an old hairdrier to blow air into the bottom, it got seriously hot. I was heat treating old carbon rich files so as I could turn them into wood turning chisels - had to 'normalise', them first, annealing was probably better, then fashion them into chisels, then re-harden and then temper - all fascinating stuff