saving precious metals

[Dani Girl]

Hi everyone.

I have been given a couple of gold rings to engrave, which is becoming more common, and I want to start saving the precious metal I am cutting out. Has anyone got any ideas on how to do that? I'm setting up a shed to move my engraving studio into so I'm open to ideas. Has anyone got any ideas or pictures of how they do it?

Regards

Danae.

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

Dani, this is my jewelery work bench on the left, it is made to collect all particles of precious metal. Hope this help

arnaud

 

[Dani Girl]

Thanks Arnaud

I'm thinking of making a bench with a concave curve cut into the middle and having a draw like a keyboard shelf that slides out I think I'll combine this idea with that.

Anyone else have anything to contribute to this thread?

Thanks.

Danae.

 

[Marrinan]

Danae, It will depend on how your vise is mounted. If you utilize the Arnaud method of the vice in the jewelry bench drawer the collection is fairly straight forward. Old school benches had leather collection aprons called a sweeps apron into which all the metal fell. These benches had a larger cutout in which you work. this would allow you to have some arm support and the vise set on the bench top. as you work the sweeps fall into the apron or on the bench top and are sweep into the apron. Most of the aprons attached to the jewelers body with a lace to keep it curved up on the front or edge closest to the engraver. I have a large aluminum pan that I modified to fit my vise stand under the turn table to catch the sweeps. In big and small production shops they often use lattice work floor mate made of wood with holes about 3/4 inch square and just let the chips fall. This lattice mate is lifted and all the material swept up and sent to the refiner dirt and all a time or tow a year.

If you have decided on a vice stand method someone might have better ideas on collection. Fred

 

[clocksdr]

Danae,
You've got the right idea with the drawer. The drawer doesn't need to be deep unless you're planning on sawing through several gold logs:biggrin:. By having shallow drawers 1" deep maybe you could have several drawers to catch different metals, gold, silver, platinum. If they're all mixed together the smelters will reduce the amount normally paid for the metal. Of course if you have only one drawer you can clean up before switching to different metals. Remember, Separating gold chips from steel is easy- just use a magnet.

 

[Ed Westerly]

I'm too cheap to invest in a drawer, and I don't want my engraving setup to be any more cumbersome to work around, so I just cover the vise with double sided tape and catch most of the shavings that way, and then crawl around on the floor looking for anything I missed! (also, I have a small glass vial with a screw-on lid that I keep my gold bits in. When it's full, that is one troy ounce or a little bit more.

 

[silverchip]

I sweep all my shavings up and save them in a 55 gal plastic drum.Someday I might have something!!!!!!!!!! I also have a bench with a frame with a piece of tanned horse hide stretched across to catch any filings and sawdust. that also goes in the bin. Unless you can keep it all separate,the refiners usually consider these sweeps anyhow.

 

[monk]

silverchip : you better buy a forklift to move it when full.

 

[dogcatcher]

I have just started, so all I play with is brass and aluminum, but I sweep up the pieces and every so often I spread them in a little creek I know about. One of these days somebody is going to find "gold" and/or "silver" and create a "mining" panic in that little town.

 

[tbear]

You guy's need to get one of those new Gold and Silver magnets, I think they are rather inexpensive.

 

[JOSIAH HANLEY]

i use a small shop-vac that is just for the repair shop keeps all scrap and metal fillings in one spot

 

[rod]

Dave,

Good idea to have that 55 gallon drum. I have been very casual about collecting my silver cuttings, etc., as for a long time you got half of spot, which worked out to $2.50 an ounce, so a lot of it went out with a mix of steel, brass, aluminum, and wood chips. But recently I sent in my silver scrap for the first time, and they gave me $4,400!

As an aside, what is the origin of the phrase..." the whole ball of wax" ?

Rod

 

[truehand]

I've always used a leather "bib" that goes around my neck and attaches to the front edge of my bench.

 

[LVVP]

Arnaud,
You are very creative guy, I like you working place, thanks

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

Thanks Vlad, thing is that a goldsmith or stone setter can't do the job in an environment that isn't "clean and organized" If for instance I drop a 1 mm diamond (cost 3$) I can't search for it longer than 3 minutes.
Believe me, sometimes you work on something small (3mm x 3mm) for more than one hour, then a customer comes in and after half an hour you could forget were it is or not find it anymore when the working environment is chaos.
So the floor may not have cracks and so on.

My favorite book is " Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance". I recommend it to all who do work with their hands!



arnaud

 

[Dani Girl]

My Dad's favorite book