On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 20:19:35 GMT, "Harold and Susan Vordos"
wrote:
(No snipage due to non propagation of original. See note to Harold at
bottom)

"Frank J Warner" wrote in message
news:200420081037568634%warnerf@veriSPAMMERSDIEzo n.net...
snip----

I've melted and cast small gold parts before, but only from gold that
was 100% identifiable in terms of alloy. This is a different situation.
I have no way to know what's in this amalgam. I'm afraid to put a torch
to it.

Smart man!

Speaking as a person that refined precious metals for well over 20 years,
there's nothing wrong with using dental gold for ornamentation as long is it
does not require any rolling. It is hard to roll, by design. Otherwise it
wouldn't serve well for the intended purpose.

If you intend to cast a given configuration, go for it, with caution.
Be advised that it is not uncommon for a tooth that has an amalgam filling
to be capped with gold, so when you melt the alloy, you may get an emission
of mercury vapors. That can ruin your day if you breath them.

I recommend you break up the teeth by using a hammer and anvil. If
there's any silver amalgam, do remove it mechanically, otherwise you risk
the fumes of which I spoke, but more importantly, you'll contaminate the
gold alloy and render it pretty much useless because of the other
constituents of the amalgam.

The color of dental gold isn't necessarily pretty, but it will serve well
for ornamentation if well polished.

Should you find any of them in the lot you received, do not mix any of the
white alloys with the yellow gold. Separate them before doing any melting.
Some of them are alloys of the platinum group, but the typical white metal
found in the mouth is a high temperature alloy that contains no precious
metals. If you melt gold with the metal, it will get coated and you'll lose
the amount that sticks. It's typically very hard, and breaks instead of
bending. It is also quite blue/white as compared to platinum alloys,
which tend to be colored more towards yellow----much like nickel.

My tooling includes a heat-treating oven that can reach 2200° F, a
propane torch and an AO rig. I have crucibles for precious metal
melting.

Melting gold alloys with anything but an oxygen assisted torch can be a real
challenge. What I'd suggest is to clean the gold well by mechanical means
(anvil and hammer, as I suggested earlier), then go to a jewelry supply
house and ask for a small melting dish. They're made of a white clay (don't
buy one made of brown clay-----they aren't very good quality). Before you
attempt to use the dish, it should be heated slowly, to drive out residual
moisture. Once it has been heated above 212 degrees and it appears to be
stable, play your torch on the dish uniformly, until it is at a dull red
heat. At that point, sprinkle borax over the entire inside surface of the
dish, and melt it. Do this until the dish has a light coating of borax
glass----but not enough to puddle. That way when you melt the gold, it
won't stick to the dish---and will pour easily from the spout. Make sure
the spout is covered even beyond the inside of the dish. Melting with your
furnace will work, but it's much slower, and isn't a requirement.

Any questions? Feel free to contact me on the side.

Harold

Sorry to not add anything, but I know very little about this subject.

Harold, TDS is no longer propagating out to the rest of usenet. I
reported this in tdsnet.general on the 12th and have received no reply.
(Also switched my posting to Easynews / Forte APN.) Saw a post by you
and remembered to look at it more closely *before* I downloaded the
body. It never made it to either NSP I have configured.

Might want to check for your recent posts on Google groups. I think TDS
was broke for over a week before I noticed.
--
William