Making Silver Shot

This is my first attempt at making some silver shot. If you have any questions leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer it.
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[@armarmo964]

Great video, I have some advice if you wish to accept it, a classic tip for reducing residue in your melting crucible is to pre heat your melting chamber to 100F bellow the target temperature then insert the crucible with the dry silver in the chamber and wait for the temperature to hit the target temp, doing this will give you a rapid melt vs waiting for your silver to melt which cause the silver to oxidize in the crucible resulting in residue left behind, the faster the melting process the cleaner the metal will be, also if you choose to have smaller shot grain the method is to pour the molten metal through a stainless steel mesh that has been lightly oiled, you can also add a bubbling tube with compressed air running through it to bubble the water as you pour this will give you consistent sizes, good luck

[@MrBeardedJeweler]

Thank you so much! I had no idea the metal could oxidize when put in early. I do it like you said from now on and hopefully it helps improve the results. For the shot, I just needed smaller pieces that I could break apart to weigh. That makes sense with the oiled mesh. I had seen some videos and it stuck to their mesh because they didn't oil it. I might try that later down the road. You have been very helpful and I really appreciate it!

[@armarmo964]

@@MrBeardedJeweler Thank you, your progress is entertaining and fun to watch, when it comes to pouring the metal on the oiled mesh which must be stainless steel,what you want to do is a slow pour and utilize the surface of your mesh by not pouring in the same spot, so you don’t get the metal to fuse and stick to the mesh resulting in large chunks of silver that did not make it through the mesh, the motion of your hand when you pour with the slow pour will give you constant results that will not clog your mesh. Good luck

[@phazyy]

Do you have a recommendation on where to get flasks at a good price? They seem kind of expensive to me.

[@MrBeardedJeweler]

I got a 3 inch by 4 inch flask on Amazon for about $25. I thought that was really cheap compared to most of the other equipment and consumables that I use.

[@danielbermudez1552]

Hello My friend, your videos have been really helpful to me, i'm starting to be a dental Technician, and a Lot of things that jewelers do are the same for dentistry, i bought the same 3 in 1 vacuum casting machine, and it says it can get to 1250 c, but ive been Able to put it to 1160 c, you have any recomendations?

[@MrBeardedJeweler]

Hello, that sounds awesome! I'm not sure why it wouldn't be getting hotter. I intended on only melting silver and some gold in mine for now. I wasn't even expecting it to work as well as it has been so far. If you're good with circuitry, you might be able to swap out the controller, heating element, and thermocouple to get way higher temps at a lower price point. Just try to be as safe as possible if you decide to go that route. Good luck!