Silly question about AU rather that PB

[EOD3]

Hi Folks,

Has anyone here ever "cast" gold bullets or know why it's not feasible?

No, I have absolutely no intention of shooting gold boolets... [smilie=l:

[zxcvbob]

The melting point is too high to be practical.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

Kinda pricy too!

[Digger]

Kinda pricy too!

Just a little bit !..:roll:

[shooter93]

Dr. Mann cast quite a few bullets from gold which he fired into a trap to recover them. He was testing to see if gold would be more accurate and it wasn't. However.....we all know that Silver bullets work well on Werewolves and bandits the Lone Ranger was chasing.

[river-rider]

Had a friend who cast a 44Mag boolit. Two men , two torches, killed mold. Looked good for a short time, but scratched easy. They melted down several class rings.

[EOD3]

Thanks guys, looks like a job for a hobby lathe.

[JIMinPHX]

Kinda pricy too!

Around $1,350/oz these days... You'd have to be a real Thurstan Howell to go doing that.

[EOD3]

Don't worry guys, I'm only considering a couple of 10 Karat necklace charms for Christmas.

HO HO HO

[ReloaderFred]

Back around 1973, several of us were smelting lead in my garage in a pot that would handle about 150 pounds. The neighbor across the street wandered over to see what we were doing and his wife had left him two days before with his "best friend", so he was pretty much down in the dumps. He asked if the pot would melt gold and I told him it might, but I wasn't sure. Before anyone could stop him, he took off his big wide wedding ring and tossed it into the pot, where it immediately disappeared.

We watched for it as we poured ingots, but it never showed itself and when I cast bullets from the ingots it never showed. As far as I know, the gold went downrange with the lead. I know the wife never came back, either.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[felix]

The lead or whatever was in the lead acted as a solvent to that gold, whatever that was. Moral of the story is to try it and see if it works. If not, add different stuff to the melt including various fluxes which themselves can become part of the mix. Who knows what is going on unless we deal with assayed materials, which we don't. ... felix

[JIMinPHX]

I've herd of silver coins disappearing into the mix to. Never tried it myself though.

[docone31]

If you are only going to make a couple of charms, a jeweler who does casting can do the mold work, and cast them.
It is involved. It can be done though.

[EOD3]

If you are only going to make a couple of charms, a jeweler who does casting can do the mold work, and cast them.
It is involved. It can be done though.

Yes but, then "Grandpa" didn't make it...

[docone31]

Well then, Grandpa has a lot of schools to go to.
I understand what you are trying to do.
If you are serious, I can help you with answers. I cast gold.
PM me if you want. We can figuire something out.

[AggieEE]

If you want a couple of bullets for a necklace go to your denist or goldsmith and get some carving wax. It is a high carnuba wax base. Cast a couple of wax bullets take them to the goldsmith and he can do a lost wax casting and you're good to go. By the way about lead disolving gold, any metal that can be soldered with a tin/lead based solder will disolve the base metal to some extent it is part of the soldering process. You end up with the base, copper for exanple, then a layer of copper disolved in solder then solder. My boss is a retired toothfairy assistant and he said the weight of the wax times 13 for silver and 15 for gold will give you the weight of the casting. Time to make a hollow base bullet I think.
AggieEE

[Wayne Smith]

A while ago there was a thread on casting ilver boolits. Ducone is a jewler and did a relatively good job of describing all that is involved in lost wax casting because he does it. You might search for that thread before you try anything, or PM Ducone.

[TCLouis]

Ya just knew here was a but in there didn't ya??

get some wax for lost wax process.

Carve he boolit shape you want out of wax.
The amount of water displaced in a container is the same for gold or wax so you can estimate the amount of gold needed.

jewelery gold should be a little harder. Get a jeweler, dental lab, or Jewelery class to cast it or assist you to cast it.

I'll take all you want to send me.

[Digger]

Few years back .. had about 3/4 ounce , maybe a little more , of nice placer gold .
Mostly fines and a few very small nuggets in my possession and was looking for gift for the wife for her birthday.
Quite by accident came across a local jeweler that did the "lost wax process" and had several mold designs in his display case , had never seen them before or heard of the technique .
Didn't like any of the usual items you always see out there and we got to talking ..
Found one of his designs I liked and we haggled a bit and did the deal ... he got my gold I got the finished pieces.

Turned out to be a beautiful pendent and earring set , one of a kind as we have never seen any thing like it since , 18 carat , heavy in your hand with her birthstone embedded .
Her most prized pieces in her meager collection ... the lost wax process is most impressive if done right.
digger

[snowtigger]

Several years ago, I added six ounces of silver to six pounds of WW/lead alloy. I brought the melt to a little over 1000 degrees F and watched the silver slowly disappear into the alloy. This resulted in a 6% +/- alloy. This resulted it a very hard, but ductile allpy. I can't tell you what the hardness is, I just used the 2pound hammer test.
Never tried gold.(At current prices I probably won't, either)