Hi eng-tippers,

So my hobby is turning my wife's and my sister's sketches into actual fine jewelry. It's fun as heck!

I've been refining scrap gold from everything you can imagine, and also occasionally we hit a chunk or some flakes in a stream with a pan, just like the forty-niners. NOTE: The stream is a different state than my house, so don't come looking.

Anyway, the acids stink and they're a pain to work with, but I deal with that. I also have an environmental conscience that forces me to deal properly with spent fluids.

If my stuff is already known to be reasonably pure, though, I have fun smelting it and pouring it into shot in a home-made crucible and fixture. A frustration is that I am not good with a skimming spoon. I either leave too much debris in the melt or I allow too much gold to harden on the spoon, or I spend too much time staring into the little pot and reduce myself to a puddle of sweat.

What I'd like is a sieve with the smallest holes that will let gold pass through. It would look something like a small tea strainer. I understand the concept of surface tension, but the terms and calculations are like alien beings to me. I don't know how to calculate the range of hole sizes in my proposed sieve, and my considerable Google kung-fu has failed me.

I WOULD like to learn how to calculate same, if I can. A reference would be great.

Otherwise, if I had a rough idea of hole or mesh size for gold, silver, and aluminum, I'd be set. One day I'll get into the hotter-melting stuff like platinum, but no need right now.

Summing up, with other questions I have:

Is my sieve idea practical, or am I all wet?

If practical, what mesh or hole sizes will do the trick?

Does temperature of the melt make a difference? If hotter makes it runnier, I can do that to some extent.

Is there a surface prep for the sieve metal that might help?

Is one sieve metal better than another?

Thanks to anyone who can give me ideas.

Best to you,

Goober Dave

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