How to melt silver at home?

Most people wonder about the possibility of melting silver items at home. This is not surprising, every year more and more silver items appear in houses, which eventually lose their luster, go out of fashion and simply become unnecessary. Let's take a closer look at how to melt silver at home.

Quite often people have no idea how many silver items they have at home. And we are talking not only about visible things, but, for example, about radio components that are present in various equipment. If you collect all the contacts into a single whole by self-remelting, you get a weighty piece of precious metal, the price of which will turn out to be quite high. You can melt silver with your own hands not only into a solid ingot, but also make a new piece of jewelry. However, before you get acquainted with the methods of smelting, you need to know some details about silver and its properties.

Thanks to the hard work of physicists and chemists, the following characteristic properties of silver have been identified:

• the density of the pure metal is 10.6 g / cm³;
• differs in softness and plasticity;
• has a high level of melting;
• has a high thermal conductivity;
• has high electrical conductivity;
• is reflective.

Having decided to independently start remelting old silver, you need to know the exact temperature at which this metal will turn into a liquid consistency. The raw material used in smelting is called "charge". It is necessary to heat it up in accordance with the approved safety rules and strict adherence to technology.

Industrial mining of silver metal takes place on a large scale using special technologies, due to which it is possible not only to melt, but also to enrich the ore. The following tools are required to remelt silver items at home:

• asbestos;
• borax;
• scrap metal;
• graphite powder;
• fireclay clay;
• burner or microwave.

It is much more difficult to prepare an unusual ebb tide, namely:

• quite often there are alloys in the composition of silver, which is why, when remelting a precious metal, a magnet will need to be used to catch particles of steel and iron;
• it is necessary to make a smelter from sheet asbestos; the prepared structure will act as a crucible;
• to protect the alloy from oxygen, borax or flux is used; the substance is poured into a container that plays the role of a smelter, after the borax acquires a thick greenish mass, a metal blank is laid into it;
• initially the metal turns red, then begins to melt;
• molten metal of bright silver color is poured into the prepared form and cooled.

Today, smelting silver at home involves heating methods such as:

• a special melting furnace that you can buy or create with your own hands, but they must be installed separately from other items, best in the garage;
• the most common microwave oven, stove or gas burner;
• There is one more method for melting silver items, less popular for home use - a blowtorch.

The result of the process of melting silver items at home depends entirely on the complexity of the work. Of course, if any shape of ingot is required, no problem arises. If the idea requires the creation of a beautiful product, it is better to contact the master. Unfortunately, without work experience, it is impossible to create an unusual decorative format for jewelry, especially at home.

Melting silver items by any method presented requires compliance with safety regulations. Even a small drop of molten silver can burn skin to bone. Asbestos must be laid under the hot crucible. It is best to have a fire extinguisher handy for added protection.

The process of melting silver by means of a gas burner takes place in stages, namely:

1. it is necessary to choose high quality silver, it is best to consider products of 925 assay value; if a piece of silver is large, you need to split it into small pieces;
2. to start melting, you should prepare a special crucible made of heat-resistant materials;
3. it is imperative to create a mold for casting the product - you will need to combine 1 part of gypsum and 7 parts of sand, add a little water so that the mass acquires the consistency of thick sour cream; the prepared composition is poured into a separate container, then the object that needs to be cast is taken, smeared with soap and lowered into the uncured gypsum mixture, waiting until the mass begins to harden;
4. now you can start melting a silver item with a burner; it is important to note that the source of the flame should only be directed at the melting product;
5. silver of a liquid consistency is poured into a mold and left to cool completely;
6. it remains only to separate the finished product from the gypsum stone; if the product is firmly held in the base of the form, you can use the tools at hand.

In the absence of a burner and a melting oven, you can melt silver items using a conventional microwave. This method is the simplest and fastest. It includes the following steps:

1. a thermal protective fence should be prepared where the fire-resistant container will be immersed;
2. the crucible is filled with a charge;
3. filled containers are sent to thermal protection;
4. in the microwave oven settings, you must set the maximum power and set the time to 35 minutes;
5. the end of the microwave is accompanied by a characteristic sound, after which liquid silver is poured into the prepared form.

Few people know, but at home you can cleanse silver from various impurities. The mixture, which must be cleaned, is placed in a glass container, after which it is poured with nitric acid and put on fire. As soon as the precious metal becomes liquid, ordinary salt is added to it. In this reaction, silver chloride is formed, which precipitates. Then the resulting substance needs to be washed with water and filtered.

The next stage of cleaning is metallization. The obtained silver chloride is diluted with hydrochloric acid. It is deposited with the help of zinc chips and heating. The resulting sandy mass of dark gray shade is ready for the melting procedure.

For information on how to melt silver at home, see the next video.