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Hi all.

I hope someone can help. 

I'm still waiting for my melting equipment to arrive but before it does I'm trying to get as much theory as possible. 

Does anyone know of any in depth videos about how to prepare a porcelain melting dish with borax? 

I've got a good idea on how to do it but I've seen so many videos with conflicting information I'm a bit lost one who's advice to follow.

 

 

Also, I've decided to use pure silver instead of sterling.

 

Thanks in advance.

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OK, so here goes. 

Last week I did my first pour. I decided to start with bars instead of casting with sand so I can learn each stage of the process in part. 

I like this bar but it needs polishing to get rid of the muck on top (any advice would be great, I do have a dremel but I don't want to lose the delicate lines). It's got lovely cooling lines which are cracked yet as something special to it.

I can't upload my photos for some reason. ?

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Just now, BoredGit said:

OK, so here goes. 

Last week I did my first pour. I decided to start with bars instead of casting with sand so I can learn each stage of the process in part. 

I like this bar but it needs polishing to get rid of the muck on top (any advice would be great, I do have a dremel but I don't want to lose the delicate lines). It's got lovely cooling lines which are cracked yet as something special to it.

I can't upload my photos for some reason. ?

Make the photos smaller then 2mb and try again

Visit my website for all my Hand Poured Silver: http://backyardbullion.com

And check out my YouTube channel 

https://www.youtube.com/backyardbullion

 

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15 minutes ago, BoredGit said:

It's approximately 36 grams.

 

18 minutes ago, BoredGit said:

1524468319720-145104047.jpg

1524468367679490620401.jpg

Looks great! Well done.

My tip for cleaning the top would be to get some very fine sandpaper (search amazon for P7000 sandpaper) and use a little malt vinegar on the paper and gently rub the bar with it. It will clean it up and will not damage the ripples either. 

FYI - looks a dam sight better than some of my first bars!DSC_0044.thumb.JPG.fe5eaa9d16cf210015f32e405a72e86b.JPG

Visit my website for all my Hand Poured Silver: http://backyardbullion.com

And check out my YouTube channel 

https://www.youtube.com/backyardbullion

 

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18 minutes ago, BackyardBullion said:

 

Looks great! Well done.

My tip for cleaning the top would be to get some very fine sandpaper (search amazon for P7000 sandpaper) and use a little malt vinegar on the paper and gently rub the bar with it. It will clean it up and will not damage the ripples either. 

FYI - looks a dam sight better than some of my first bars!DSC_0044.thumb.JPG.fe5eaa9d16cf210015f32e405a72e86b.JPG

Thank you! That's one hell of a compliment coming from the forums resident pouring expert!

I'll get on line and order some. Thanks for the tip. Just an FYI you're probably going to get a LOT OT questions from me if you don't mind. ?

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Now this might be a little out of left field, but here goes, let’s make the assumption that we here at the silver forum Love coins, Silver ones of course and Gold ones as well cant leave numistacker out of the picture. So we know that we have in backyard a skilled silver pourer, well my suggestion is a Silver Forum coin with a limited edition but only for silver forum members, well at first to see how it goes. Design well that could be opened to a group discussion. Personally I would buy but what a thing to have perhaps 1 Troy oz in size proof or bullion.  Now I am just getting ahead of my self. We could even call it “The Precious” what do you think or am I just having a Monday morning day dream. 

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9 minutes ago, Sherabnamdhak said:

Now this might be a little out of left field, but here goes, let’s make the assumption that we here at the silver forum Love coins, Silver ones of course and Gold ones as well cant leave numistacker out of the picture. So we know that we have in backyard a skilled silver pourer, well my suggestion is a Silver Forum coin with a limited edition but only for silver forum members, well at first to see how it goes. Design well that could be opened to a group discussion. Personally I would buy but what a thing to have perhaps 1 Troy oz in size proof or bullion.  Now I am just getting ahead of my self. We could even call it “The Precious” what do you think or am I just having a Monday morning day dream. 

I am sure it is possible and something we could do one day - but it is not something I could make. 

From my limited knowledge if you wanted to get a mint to make some coins it would cost a fair amount in man hours for someone to organise/design/manage the project - you then have to have the dies made (and pay for them!) then there are the mint fee's too. I would be amazed if we could get a 1 oz round made for less than £25 - £30 per coin for a mintage of about 1000 (I am referencing the Facebook silver stackers rounds here) and then there is demand. I have made 200 1 oz bars and they take time to sell - would there be demand for 1000 1 oz coins at £30 per coin - unlikely in my opinion.

Visit my website for all my Hand Poured Silver: http://backyardbullion.com

And check out my YouTube channel 

https://www.youtube.com/backyardbullion

 

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10 minutes ago, Sherabnamdhak said:

Now this might be a little out of left field, but here goes, let’s make the assumption that we here at the silver forum Love coins, Silver ones of course and Gold ones as well cant leave numistacker out of the picture. So we know that we have in backyard a skilled silver pourer, well my suggestion is a Silver Forum coin with a limited edition but only for silver forum members, well at first to see how it goes. Design well that could be opened to a group discussion. Personally I would buy but what a thing to have perhaps 1 Troy oz in size proof or bullion.  Now I am just getting ahead of my self. We could even call it “The Precious” what do you think or am I just having a Monday morning day dream. 

It might be a day dream but I love that idea. coincidently I have been looking in to coin dies and presses. I'd love to be able to pour rounds then press them in to coins. The cost of the dies though are insane to get designed and made.

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5 minutes ago, BoredGit said:

It might be a day dream but I love that idea. coincidently I have been looking in to coin dies and presses. I'd love to be able to pour rounds then press them in to coins. The cost of the dies though are insane to get designed and made.

Yes they are - the presses aren't cheap either. @Fossilmetals hand carves his own dies which saves money but is no easy task on would imagine!

Visit my website for all my Hand Poured Silver: http://backyardbullion.com

And check out my YouTube channel 

https://www.youtube.com/backyardbullion

 

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A silver forum bullion coin would be very cool if the economics worked.

due to the costs involved I had to build my own 20tonne press and dies. I certainly haven't mastered the process yet but for the kind of pours I do it's working out ok.

dies are ridiculously expensive and take several weeks to produce. The quality of the strike is also dependent on the design too. A proof finish would be near on impossible without a professional 100tonne plus press.

perhaps a large stamp could be produced and used as a die? Byb has an awesome stamp manufacturer.

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Fossilmetals said:

A silver forum bullion coin would be very cool if the economics worked.

due to the costs involved I had to build my own 20tonne press and dies. I certainly haven't mastered the process yet but for the kind of pours I do it's working out ok.

dies are ridiculously expensive and take several weeks to produce. The quality of the strike is also dependent on the design too. A proof finish would be near on impossible without a professional 100tonne plus press.

perhaps a large stamp could be produced and used as a die? Byb has an awesome stamp manufacturer.

 

 

I have wondered about making an old school style coin stamp with my stamp makers M Shaw Engraving (http://www.mshaw.co.uk/)

Like the old style hammered coins. Pour a round and sit it on the bottom part of the stamp, then hold the top part over the top and give it a good hard whack and hey presto - double sided stamping of a round!

The issue though is always going to be economics of making something competitively priced. A professional coin will cost a lot. A hand poured and stamped plain round will cost less - but will be less desirable than a coin. 

Visit my website for all my Hand Poured Silver: http://backyardbullion.com

And check out my YouTube channel 

https://www.youtube.com/backyardbullion

 

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But just to put it in perspective - the large Silver Forum Stamp we had made cost £200 - so for a double part stamp that is of the right size and weight you are probably looking at £500+ for the stamp - and that is a conservative estimate in my opinion. It would be more if it was more complicated or you wanted the base to be bigger and wider to support the power of the blows. 

Genuinely I think closer to £700 for a big professional 2 sided stamp coin die. 

And that is just for a DIY die - no where near what you would need for a coin die. 

So even if you made £5 profit per silver round (optimistic at best!) you would have to sell 140 of the rounds to just break even on the cost of the dies!

Then factor in all the time to make and pour the silver!!

Visit my website for all my Hand Poured Silver: http://backyardbullion.com

And check out my YouTube channel 

https://www.youtube.com/backyardbullion

 

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I have to agree. This is my latest efforts.

a 100g pretanike round.

for this I had to machine up a collar that the round sits in during pressing so it didn't deform..

2 months went into working this one out.. 

i am of course an enthusiast not a pro though.

IMG_2333.JPG

IMG_2250.JPG

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Right so I take it that the general consensus is nice idea, so what about crowd funding and hammered coins in silver. Marketed through the forum and via Facebook and our guys like Numi and Backyard on YouTube. We could start a thing here. We also have the advantage of an existing mint mark.  I can see benefits all round here. What do you think. 

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5 minutes ago, Sherabnamdhak said:

Right so I take it that the general consensus is nice idea, so what about crowd funding and hammered coins in silver. Marketed through the forum and via Facebook and our guys like Numi and Backyard on YouTube. We could start a thing here. We also have the advantage of an existing mint mark.  I can see benefits all round here. What do you think. 

Im not sure you can say 3 people on this thread commenting is a consensus ;)

I personally cannot see this taking off any time soon - the amount of work required for the hammered coins I cannot see myself doing this. Just not worth it when you consider I already do the hand poured forum bars which fill the niche required for the forum branded items. 

Personally I think the only possible way would be to get a professionally minted coin made - but I really doubt the appetite for £30/oz silver rounds/coins. Especially when you would have to sell at least 1000 of them to make it even worthwhile/breakeven. 

I just cannot see it happening. 

Visit my website for all my Hand Poured Silver: http://backyardbullion.com

And check out my YouTube channel 

https://www.youtube.com/backyardbullion

 

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1 minute ago, PansPurse said:

Oh @BackyardBullion you pragmatic minded sensible one you.

I know I know - I would love to do it, but seriously £600 - £700 for the stamps at least I have no doubt at all.

If you think that on average I could pour 15 - 20x 1 oz rounds per day It would require 10 days to make 200 of them. After manufacturing costs (graphite, electric etc) Hallmarking costs (legally required) let's say for ease of maths that the profit is £5 per round (quite optimistic!) then 200 rounds makes £1000 and yields £300 - £400 profit. Then, if we are making a forum branded piece the forum would rightly want to take a fair share. Possibly leaving £200 in the pot as profit for old muggins here. 

10 days work = roughly 80 hours - that means £2.50/hour for my time. That doesnt even factor in the time it takes to market it, design it, film videos promoting it, keeping track of who ordered what, packaging them all up. All in probably about 150 hours+

So you are probably looking at about £1.33/hour for me to make this happen. 

And that is assuming we sell all 200 of course!

So you can see why I am pessimistic/pragmatic etc ;)

Otherwise sounds a great idea!

Visit my website for all my Hand Poured Silver: http://backyardbullion.com

And check out my YouTube channel 

https://www.youtube.com/backyardbullion

 

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Why would the forum take a cut on this. Look at the sheer kudos this would bring. Potentially a world first. This could increase our membership exposure far beyond our shores. Surely the mould would be a round and a press or hammer. The costs could be offset by membership contributions specifically for this. Once the set up costs were over the molds etc would be BYB property. An annual coin could be minted,due to the limited edition factor the cost could carry a premium..This could be used to increase the income for the master minter. If you look at the premium Royal Mint puts on its piedfort’s the cost could easily include a larger renumeration to reward the effort involved. Just a thought. 

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We could even call it “The Precious” what do you think or am I just having a Monday morning day dream. 

I think I should refer you back to your original post regarding this - it is a Monday morning day dream. 

 

 

Visit my website for all my Hand Poured Silver: http://backyardbullion.com

And check out my YouTube channel 

https://www.youtube.com/backyardbullion

 

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5 minutes ago, BackyardBullion said:

 

I think I should refer you back to your original post regarding this - it is a Monday morning day dream. 

 

 

i can see your point. its a lot to put on your toes,just because you work with silver.

a better question may be.....is there a forum member who is an engineer?

someone with a little time to spare and a huge press lying idle?

pressing( or hammering) and engraving seem a different speciality

if someone else could handle this side, then maybe backyard could supply silver rounds at a fair price ,ready for stamping?

just a thought 

 

 

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5 minutes ago, greendragon said:

i can see your point. its a lot to put on your toes,just because you work with silver.

a better question may be.....is there a forum member who is an engineer?

someone with a little time to spare and a huge press lying idle?

pressing( or hammering) and engraving seem a different speciality

if someone else could handle this side, then maybe backyard could supply silver rounds at a fair price ,ready for stamping?

just a thought 

 

 

Still I just cannot see there being an appetite for selling them - hard enough selling forum bars as it is!

Visit my website for all my Hand Poured Silver: http://backyardbullion.com

And check out my YouTube channel 

https://www.youtube.com/backyardbullion

 

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