Melt silver: How to do it at home using simple methods

Melting of gold and silver products is a standard service of the workshop in Moscow.

First you need to decide why exactly you need remelting? If you want to subsequently order the production of jewelry, then the cost of melting will be included in the cost of production, that is, FREE !

You can find production prices here.

If you just want to melt the jewelry into an ingot, then the price will be calculated based on the contamination of the jewelry and the number of inserts. On average, the cost of melting 20 grams of gold into an ingot is 450 rubles , and melting silver is around 300 rubles .

Preparatory work for silver smelting

Lunar metal is one of the materials used to make various household items and jewelry. Often, worn-out and obsolete things want to be given a new look or remade.

Silver that is outdated and tired can always be melted down

To do this, you can simply melt them and make another product, using the services of a craftsman or in a home-made environment. Melting silver at home requires strict adherence to safety precautions and the sequence of the technological process.

The silver component can be extracted on an industrial scale using specially developed technologies related to ore enrichment. In order to melt a small amount of metal at home, it is enough to have a minimum set of equipment, including:

metal spoon;
asbestos;
borax;
burner;
scales;
scrap metal;
graphite powder;
microwave or muffle oven;
fireclay clay.

Metal smelting involves a change in the state of aggregation associated with the transition from solid to liquid under the influence of a high temperature gradient.

At home, it is necessary to take into account that the molten material must be cooled. Therefore, before starting work, it is necessary to first make a mold for casting the product. The silver material that is melted is called charge.

If it is necessary to melt a large piece of material, it can be divided into small pieces using a tool.

Making a casting mold is an integral part of the preparatory work. To do this, it is necessary to make a metal box into which a mixture of gypsum and talc will be poured. It is first made from beeswax, which can be obtained from beekeepers. The model of the product is placed in a box and filled with the mixture. After the mass hardens, the mold is heated and the wax is completely melted out of it. Wax residues may cause defects on the product. During the heating process, remaining moisture evaporates from it. The mold is ready for low tide.

To get a shaped product, you need a casting mold

Melting at home

In order for the melting to take place correctly, you need to do some work first. You need to make your own or purchase a crucible (melting container). You will also need a gas or gasoline burner, heat-resistant tongs, scales, and a mold for pouring liquid silver.

Batch preparation

The charge is a mixture of melted metal and borax.
In order to speed up the process of transition of the material from solid to liquid, you must first break the silver items into small pieces using pliers. Then prepare the mixture in the correct ratio between metal and borax. For 10 parts by weight of the charge there should be 1 part of borax. This substance is necessary to protect the melt from impurities of oxides of other metals and from oxidation by oxygen. In addition, borax improves the sliding of liquid along the walls of the crucible.

Melting process

At home, it is especially important to ensure safety. There should be no flammable substances or flammable objects in the workplace. And it is also necessary to ensure effective ventilation. Eyes should be protected with special goggles, hands with thick gloves. And that's why.

Silver in the molten state absorbs oxygen very strongly. For every unit volume of metal there are 20 units of oxygen. When the melt begins to solidify, the gas dissolved in it violently releases out, breaks the hard crust that has formed on the surface and is sprayed around in beautiful and extremely dangerous high-temperature jets and drops.

The prepared mixture is loaded into a well-heated crucible and then heated using a burner until it completely turns into liquid. In this state, the surface of the molten metal should be shiny like mercury. If the surface does not shine, it means that the silver has not yet completely melted.

Receiving castings

The liquid metal can be left to solidify in a crucible, then after solidification an ingot will be obtained in the shape of the inner surface of the vessel.
If you need a specific casting configuration, then before you melt the silver, you need to make a mold. The contents from the crucible should be poured into it. The more sophisticated the casting profile, the more difficult it is to make a mold for it. This requires special knowledge and experience. If the stock of erudition can be replenished from various sources (textbooks, reference books, the Internet), then the necessary skills are acquired only through practical actions.

It is possible to melt silver at home, but the result will depend on how complex the casting needs to be. If it’s just a pig, no matter what shape, then it’s not difficult. And if the end result is an elegant decoration, then it is better not to melt it at home.

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Technological process

Typically, silver in products is found in the form of an alloy with other metals. Therefore, when melting, it is necessary to extract steel or iron particles from the joint using a magnet. This action will reduce the time for the metal to transition to a liquid state and ensure uniform heating of the metal.
Next, you need to build a smelter made of asbestos sheets and consisting of rectangular parts that differ in size. The design is intended to serve as a crucible.
To protect against oxygen entering the alloy, borax or flux is used. It is poured into a container that acts as a smelter. After heating the flux or borax to a thick, green mass, pieces of metal blanks are placed into it.
At first, the pieces of metal turn red, then gradually begin to melt. If during the melting process the metal is covered with a cloudy film, then it has not begun to melt. To do this, you need to adjust the burner flame and increase the temperature.
Liquid molten metal, distinguished by its bright silver color, is poured into a mold. If an attempt to melt or manufacture a product is unsuccessful, the process must be stopped, the material must first be cooled, and then the steps must be repeated from the very beginning.

Characteristics and properties of metal

Silver was discovered more than 6,000 years ago.
This is evidenced by archaeological finds in Egypt, Turkey and Iran. Since ancient times, it has sometimes been called moon metal. In many cultures, the silvery-white color of this material is associated with the cold shine of the night star. There were times when this white noble metal was valued even more than gold. In Latin, silver is called “argentum”, in other words, “light, white”. The density of lunar metal is 10.5 g/cc, that is, argentum is heavier than iron (7.87 g/cc), but much lighter than gold (19.3 g/cc). Silver is a soft and ductile metal that has exceptional characteristics compared to other materials:

highest thermal conductivity;
the highest electrical conductivity;
it has no equal in terms of reflectivity.

The melting point of the noble metal is 962 °C, boiling point is 2212 °C. However, it must be borne in mind that in a chemically pure state, silver is almost never used. It is used in the form of alloys with a so-called master alloy, which improves the technological and operational properties of the material. Copper is most often used as an alloy, as well as nickel, zinc, aluminum and other metals. The sample indicates the proportion of noble material in the alloy. For example, 830-grade silver contains at least 830 g of pure substance per 1000 g of alloy. Depending on the sample, the melting temperature also changes: from 962 °C to 780 °C.

Other metal remelting methods

A significant amount of lunar metal can be smelted using a blowtorch. Accordingly, the work equipment (crucible with charge) will have to be placed in a fireclay clay pipe of larger diameter and wall thickness.
At home, you can melt silver using an ordinary microwave oven, using a stand made of asbestos or other temperature-resistant material.
To melt metal, you can use a special melting furnace, which you can purchase or build yourself. It is better to install homemade or factory-made installations separately in a garage or country house.

Melting temperature

Quite often, people do not even realize how many silver items they have in their home. And we are talking not only about visible things, but, for example, about radio components that are present in various equipment. If you assemble all the contacts into a single whole by melting it yourself, you will get a weighty piece of precious metal, the price of which will be quite high. You can melt silver with your own hands not only into a solid ingot, but also into a new piece of jewelry. However, before getting acquainted with the methods of remelting, it is necessary to know some details about silver and its properties.

The history of silver began more than 6,000 years ago. Evidence of this is archaeological excavations in Turkey and Egypt. Another name for this precious metal is “lunar”. According to esotericists, it is the moon that protects silver. The reflection of the silver stone is very similar to the cold shine of the moon.

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

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

If you decide to remelt old silver yourself, you need to know the exact temperature at which the metal will turn into a liquid consistency. The raw material used in smelting is called "charge". It must be heated in accordance with approved safety rules and strict adherence to technology.

First of all, remelting depends on the composition of additional impurities. If their quantity is small, a temperature of +760 degrees is sufficient. Pure silver becomes liquid at +962 degrees. However, modern silver products do not have a pure composition; impurities are necessarily present. Thus, a temperature of +810 degrees will help to melt 925 silver.

Melting of gold and silver products

Melting of gold and silver products is a standard service of the workshop in St. Petersburg.

You can find production prices here.

If you just want to melt the jewelry into an ingot, then the price will be calculated based on the contamination of the jewelry and the number of inserts. On average, the cost of melting 20 grams of gold into an ingot is 350 rubles , and melting silver is around 200 rubles .

How to remove silver from contacts?

You can remove silver from brass and copper parts using a mixture of solutions of sulfuric and nitric acids, taken in a ratio of 19: 1.2, heated to 80 °C. Silver can be recovered from this solution by reducing it with an equivalent amount of zinc dust or turnings.

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Silver smelting - cost

There are big questions about whether this event is profitable. Usually, the best option is to take your old jewelry to a pawn shop and order a new one from the store. The price of the work will be much more expensive than the price of the metal itself. For example, melting and subsequent production of 1 cm of silver chain costs 200-250 rubles . The length of the chain is 50 cm. It turns out 10,000-12,500 rubles for melting down the chain. Buying the same silver chain in a store costs 1,500-2,500 rubles .

There is only one caveat. Stores often sell chains of poor quality (not soldered, blown...). You need to understand the chains a little and choose carefully, otherwise the money will be wasted.

In workshops, chains are made by hand, firmly and reliably. In addition, you will know who to ask if you find any defects in the chain.

Melting down simpler silver products will be cheaper, but still more expensive than buying a finished product. For example, a bracelet or cross made of your silver will cost 150-200 rubles per gram of silver . You can buy a silver bracelet without stones at the same price of 150 rubles per gram of silver .

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In the microwave

If you don’t have a burner or a melting furnace, you can melt silver items using a regular microwave. This method is the simplest and fastest. It includes the following steps:

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

Physical characteristics of silver

Having many advantages, silver also has its disadvantages. In particular, rapid oxidation when interacting with hydrogen sulfide, which is in the air. With such a reaction, silver becomes covered with a dark coating.

This is the primary cause of blackening of cutlery. When purchasing material for further melting, it is important to know what characteristics it has:

Silver melts at a temperature of 961.9 degrees. The boiling process begins at a temperature of 2210 degrees.
The high reflectivity of silver and its malleability when forged make the metal an excellent material for making jewelry and other products.
Silver is used in various technical industries due to its thermal conductivity. Clamps and microcircuits are made from it. However, noble metal is often replaced with other materials due to its high cost.
Silver has a density 10 times greater than the density of water.

If you decide to melt this metal yourself, it is important to know that the melting point of silver is directly related to its purity. It is this indicator that makes it clear how much pure metal is contained in the alloy, and is determined as a percentage.

If the alloy contains less than 90% silver, then the metal will melt at a temperature not exceeding 770 degrees. The most common silver samples used in the jewelry industry are: 750, 800, 875, 916, 925, 960. The 999 sample is extremely rarely used by craftsmen, since this material is too soft.

Important - The truth about melting down!

Some clients believe that after melting down and then ordering jewelry for themselves, they will receive a new product made from the same metal that they gave! It is not true! If the workshop promises you that they will make it from your metal, then they are blatantly lying!

It is possible to make exactly from your metal during melting only when the work is done entirely by hand from wire. At the same time, there should be enough metal in reserve!

In all other cases, the metal is sent for refining and then new jewelry is cast from the purified material. Yes, exactly new, virgin, purified metal.

And we’ll repeat this again! If you need to melt down gold into a ring, or even melt down an old ring into a new ring, then 99% of the time you will have a piece made from brand new, purified metal.

Important - The truth about melting down!

It is possible to make exactly from your metal during melting only when the work is done entirely by hand from wire. At the same time, there should be enough metal in reserve!

In all other cases, the metal is sent for refining and then new jewelry is cast from the purified material. Yes, exactly new, virgin, purified metal.

And we’ll repeat this again! If you need to melt down gold into a ring, or even melt down an old ring into a new ring, then 99% of the time you will have a piece made from brand new, purified metal.

Melting of gold and silver products

Melting of gold and silver products is a standard service of the workshop in Chelyabinsk.

You can find production prices here.

If you just want to melt the jewelry into an ingot, then the price will be calculated based on the contamination of the jewelry and the number of inserts. On average, the cost of melting 20 grams of gold into an ingot is 350 rubles , and melting silver is around 200 rubles .