Mini gas gold furnace- any user reports ?

[RedDirtDigger]

I'm looking at buying one of the mini mapp gas furnace kits like below for $185 or so for a complete kit . Its good that some of them come with extra crucibles, ingot moulds the whole kit etc.

I could not find any threads on them searching the forum so I just wondering if any members have experience with them. I have watched the you tubes on them.
Or is there some experienced refiner members on the forum would recommend paying more for the electric ones or some other types?

Or is it easier to buy a crucible and graphite mould and make a furnace yourself with cut up fire tiles or similar? i have melted gold in a potato with borax etc but wish to melt a few ounces at a time now.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Gold-Mel...774?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item233ca1ac7e

Cheers RedDirtDigger

 

[dwt]

looks nice and portable, i have only seen the electric ones used that are about $500-$700, from the demo given they worked pretty well.

 

[casper]

I like it.

casper

 

[G0lddigg@]

hey reddritdigger,

This unit also caught my eye i'll be making my own version rather than buying one, I currently use a single crucible and a single can of mappro gas, propane works buy boy does it take a long time. of course with this system two can would be better than one.

The trouble with not putting your crucible into a furnace is whilst pushing hot air down you burn the oxygen in that small bowls atmosphere which reduced the heat in the flame, the above design deals with all elements/issues with smelting so i think its a ripper of a product I would just rather buy some kiln brick and cut my own to my own size.

Map pro gas is the yellow bottle, propane is blue, you can get cheap cans with shitty valves and expensive with great valves, do yourself a favor and get the best valve you can afford they will become an invaluable tool in your shed. ie. warm metal before welding, heat plastic to modify, warm hardened rubber tubes to become mailable again the list goes on.

actually i have one in my boot and use it to light a fire every now and then when all the wood is wet.
this is the best valve i was able to get which has a lock on feature and push button start, many of the valves you have to hold the thing on with your finger and you ahve to light them manually which isn't as easy as youd think.

 

[MJB]

I wish I had the problem of wanting to melt a few ounces of yellow...

 

[RedDirtDigger]

Thanks for the feedback G0lddigg@

I use the mapp gas and flux to melt element79 fines in a potato (and it seems to take forever), but i would like to process a bit more gold.
Hollowing out kiln bricks and drilling holes for the gas tips, and getting a second mapp gas bottle may do the trick.
I do like some of the graphite ingot molds you can buy so i may get one of them from fleabay
cheers RDD

PS I take my mapp gas bottle when camping also. I light the kelly kettle up with it and use it around the camp fire to blast any nasties crawling near my camp chair.

 

[AtomRat]

I've had some experience with making small home foundry forges for aluminium, copper and brass smelting, have not had the chance to try out ounces of gold though.. It is possible to make your own forge from either fire bricks or a perlite / fireclay type mortar, there can be some reading to be done, but feel free to ask here any questions. Check out the Gingery Lil Bertha forge if you are interested in electric forges, we topped one up to 1500'C using Kanthal wire and a PID controller.

 

[rc62burke]

Hey Golddigg

Mate just a word of warning, be careful keeping these cylinders in your car.

You wrote "actually i have one in my boot "

There have been tradesmen killed by doing this.
cheers
Lee

 

[G0lddigg@]

hey mate thanks for the warning! your not wrong mate.
I'm pretty careful back of my GQ Patrol is all custom made drawers with ventilation that goes into the rear body of the car and out the back. Just recently here in Ballarat a young couple passed away after sleeping in their car for the night. so sad. yes propane can kill.

The actual cylinders are very well protected as they have a 1 inch crush tube around them to prevent explosion but if you cheep out on the nozzle you will most likely experience leaks. The nozzle as above you have to turn the gas on, then hold down the release and depress the yellow trigger before any gas will be expelled.

 

[Ben78]

I bought a ceramic dish and tongs and melted half an ounce with map torch. Did an ounce of silver too, didn't take that long at all.

 

[Tathradj]

Very true but what can happen is the torch comes loose on the bottle allowing gas to escape.
I have an expensive one as well.
I remove the torch completely and cap the bottle.

hey mate thanks for the warning! your not wrong mate.
I'm pretty careful back of my GQ Patrol is all custom made drawers with ventilation that goes into the rear body of the car and out the back. Just recently here in Ballarat a young couple passed away after sleeping in their car for the night. so sad. yes propane can kill.

The actual cylinders are very well protected as they have a 1 inch crush tube around them to prevent explosion but if you cheep out on the nozzle you will most likely experience leaks. The nozzle as above you have to turn the gas on, then hold down the release and depress the yellow trigger before any gas will be expelled.