1515Art

This was a lot of fun for me anyway and I hope also for everyone else too. The contest is over we had 25 entries and i have the lucky prospectors, every entry was printed on the same size slip of paper and I put all the names in a pot and then drew 3 slips from the pot one extra in case one of the first 2 lucky draws for some reason declines. No more waiting..... drumroll please; Congratulations to, Chris Ben for first place: Kiln and Morgan Dollar 2nd place, Iron Digger: Pen Plating System 3rd place, macumba man : consolation prize coin set With the kiln the silver dollar is taped to the packing material at the top of the box, None of the liquid is included due to the cost and difficulty of shipping hazardous materials if by chance I can ever find a way to pass the plating solution over to we can try to work it out. All 3 of our winners PM me where you would like this shipped and I will send them off to you ASAP

Can you bring a bucket of dirt home?

3 more days to enter if you want the little kiln and the Morgan silver dollar. An update I put my digital temp probe I use for ceramics into the crucible with some high temp fiber to hold the heat in and set the temperature at a couple different points. The good news is the kiln easily reached 2057 F even with the lid up and the make-shift cover, bad news is the controller is constantly on so it needs to be manually controlled and the temperature monitored separately, I shut it off at 2057 F to prevent over-firing so you’d need to figure out what’s wrong the controller (my multi meter is packed up), fire by color or use an external probe to monitor temperature. i was watching some tube videos an this is kind of cool they call this a coffee pot style because after melting the metal you can flip up the lid with your thumb and holding the kiln by the handle with the crucible in place pour the gold like it was a coffee pot.

Makes me sick hearing of this and really sorry you were violated this way, be confident many eyes are open and watching for you anyone trying to offload your property is in for a difficult time.

Ferrite generated a flux magnetic hyper-tuned field polarized the rust into a tightly focused wave of pure energy, it’s a Jeep thing. Good you kept it under 80... not that you’d have a choice😀.

thanks, 1.56 is much better than a sharp stick in the eye anytime in my book. not sure if I will be able to ship the plating solution, anyone ever try to send something like this in the mail, ups or fedx.

The acid I’m not sure yet the container is still factory sealed with the dry acid waiting for the water to be added, the other cleaners go with this ionic cleaner. The blue bottle is a factory sealed one quart bottle of one step 14K plating solution dated from 1992 probably fair amount of gold in the suspension? the little spray bottle’s probably harmless cleaner of some sort in that little pump bottle and the silver foil sealed package is a mystery but feels a bit like the box could hold a respirator of some fashion and that might explain the packaging.

you’re right, I took the bottom cover off and wiggled the wires and returned function for switching modes PV/SV except PV (present value) is just displaying a negative number suggesting a poor connection to the thermocouple, the thermocouple could be bad as they burn out but this hasn't been fired enough for that so I think you hit it right on the money.

See the prize update the kiln might need a part.

Thanks Jason, after all the dust settles and I learn my way around id love the chance to reach out for a little help understanding the new ground that'd be great, but only when you can without causing any issues I'm really interested in the jade project, we are still doing the stuff with China that's more about my wife's friends and her network not the location in fact one of the good things about moving to Vegas is location for her projects and some of her friends live there, some a gonna move there even a new friend in the same neighborhood as the house I might make an offer on she found the place for us. Really amazing news on the jade prospect, was a lot of hard work you earned it congratulations wonderful story and makes me really happy to hear the new deal sounds even better funny how little opportunities and strokes of luck happen keeps life interesting. again really appreciate you reaching out to help, well be in touch and best of luck on everything, clark

Chuck, hardly know what to say except thanks for the very kind words. Any time you are down there, well you know...

Thanks Rick and good luck on your plans to and don’t wait any longer than you have to cause California’s loss is Nevada’s gain. Cooler an greener’s nice I’m gonna miss that so good thing Vegas is the land of illusion. I eye shopped the Reno area and there were a lot of beautiful places for sale that could feel just like home I really like northern Nevada, but the south has a lot to offer and we’re looking forward to it😀.

Thank you everyone I’m relieved it’s game on😀 and thank you Steve for allowing it here. 👍

I could use some advice here, these are somehow associated with what looks like a spot metal plating device but I don't really know anything about this stuff or the chemicals, the stuff sealed in the silver bag sounds ominous and is anybody here familiar with any of this stuff. the little brown plastic bottle where the label has disintegrated has about 3/8 of an inch of dark clear amber heavy liquid, i believe for plating gold???? Im not messing with any of it until im sure what it all is any ideas?

Fred, believe me I am, she swears on a stack of errr.., something very important culturally I'm sadly unfamiliar with "the last house I ever want to live in." nice,, but smaller... less expensive😁, simpler is the one she likes👍

I found the instructions...

See what I talking about it’d be easy to get in trouble.

WE HAVE WINNERS See post 47 for the results. This is a terrific spot to hang out and learn about the hobby and everyone here is so nice and helpful it’s feels almost like family and in the spirit of just having good family fun I wanted to propose another give away. Ridgerunner has done this a few times I think and it’s a lot of fun for everyone. So, digging through stuff and I have this little kiln my wife bought a while back for refining gold scrap, I picked it out because I thought just about everyone on this forum might want to have this and really what could be a better fit on a gold related forum, OK gold but I don’t have much of that to give away. It’s an electronically temperature controlled electric kiln made by Kerr called an automatic electro melt, I believe has a 1kg graphite crucible that will fire automatically to just over 2000 f. This is an older model, I haven’t tried it yet but don’t think she used it more than a couple of times. I didn’t see this exact model on eBay but the 3 kg ones they were selling for around $800. i was thinking something simple and easy, the escrow closes on the house I just sold on September 30th, and if you would like to win this little gold scrap refining kiln just add your name to this thread with “I want this or something similar” and every entry I get prior to mid nite September 29th I’ll put in a hat and draw the winner. I’m going to limit my free shipping to the lower 48, but if you are outside the 48 and want to play that’s fine you’ll just have to cover the shipping due to the cost. I’ll do the drawing as soon after the 29th as I can and post the results as soon as possible, good luck. I realized the way I worded my contest entry it sounds like there should be a second place, “or something similar” ok I’m going to include the little pen plating system Steve was so kind to provide the video information for. Looks like the chemicals I had pictured with it in the earlier post are for something else and shipping chemicals is problematic, so no chemicals are included but I see all the cables and clips with the main unit and the power adaptor, the glass is in good condition and there is a little bag with felt tips. I just did a test with the little gold refining kiln and it turns on and I can feel the chamber getting hot on the outside but the controls are not responding like they should. it may need hopefully something minor the instructions suggest a couple of things, no doubt parts are available the company is still around and if nothing else still good source of material for a dyi kiln. Because of this I am including in first place with the kiln a 1900 Morgan silver dollar no mint mark, pictured along side the little kiln to make up for not checking first. UPDATE You can still buy the plating solution online, I’m not sure how to ship chemicals and don’t want to commit to paying a lot to do so but if we can arrange it some how I’ll include the factory sealed quart of plating 14 KY Bright acid plating solution I have should keep it in gold for a little while.

Hard to believe almost an even trade for the little 1126 square foot place I sold in a planned unit development in Santa Clara, I’ve looked at places that range from exactly as you describe to something out of Miami Vice and am struggling to not do something I know I’ll regret. These places are all around or slightly under the million dollar range, the median price in the San Francisco Bay Area, None of them on my list just to expensive to maintain.

The way the real estate market is in Las Vegas I could get in trouble easy buying more home than I can afford to maintain and there’s so many choices its challenging keeping my eyes from being in control and bitting off more than I can swallow. I can only guess what reroofing or painting one of these places would cost and some of the water bills for landscaping in the middle of a desert have to be astronomical. No, we’re being reasonable but, ya... she’s gonna buy new furniture😳.

I realized just how much my wife hates an empty space when we moved out of the house we were renting so my daughter could go to a better school, then into the smaller home and the stuff we’ve given away, taken to good will (5 trailer loads) and the land fill although downsizing the home and studio contents for the move south is a big part, still stuff I don’t want to take with me. I brought so many loads of furniture and household stuff my last trip the intake attendant at good will hit me up for cash supposedly the truck was full... not from my stuff it just happened to be full that day, cost me $20 (they are volunteers, not paid) to donate two almost new hydraulically operated garden recliners from Lowes. Volunteers, he said community service more likely I’d guess😒 reminds me I’ve 3 of those large Rubbermaid bins of tools I’ve collected over the years, large pipe cutters, hammers, some antique type carpenter drills, antique nail puller type stuff and all sorts of odds and ends. Really I’ve forgotten what in them except they have a variety I dig through whenever something comes up and I don’t have the tool I need. Might be a few things someone here on the forum might be able to use, or just a fun way to give it away here? I had a old 7 hp Troy tiller I gave a guy in Hollister on Craig’s list he’d had the same one and his engine blew, only thing I didn’t count on was the thousand other emails, texts and phone calls. And Two ceramic kilns I’m giving them away too, although I’m still using one a couple more times for now, I have a 5x8 utility trailer I had built a long time ago I probably won’t have a place for. I’ll take some pictures and ask for suggestions, could all just be junk?

Smooth sailing, good luck on the island.

If it was just me I’d do the same and it would be on gold producing ground with detectable gold and as much land as I could swing. That’s not gonna happen, I wonder what my friends friend wants for his Opal mine? lol, something I could see regretting as it sounds epic just getting there.

Mitchel, the house my wife likes the most might be a issue for a trailer although it has a 3 car garage i was hoping to use the third bay for a ceramic studio, may have to rethink that as i don't see any vehicles in the google earth shots parked outside hmmm and going to need a trailer or something... wife, trailer better keep the wife happy or ill be living in the trailer. my tax guy says the only thing I can defer on the principal residence is the 250k my wife and I each get, the roll over was done away with in 1997 so only the first 500K is tax free the remainder subject to capital gains and is available to use again after a couple years, and the houses we are considering are about the same price as the one I just sold. the one I just sold I was able to do a little better on the cost basis but will still pay around 60K as an investment property federal and state in capital gains. the 1031 exchange didn't fit for me so i couldn't use it in my situation.

Brian, thanks i can hardly wait there's a place in the southern highlands ill probably put an offer on fairly soon I need to establish residency before selling another place in the bay area to avoid getting hit with California capital gains. freak and Mitchel, thanks for the recommendations ill be joining booth clubs soon, I may even at some point pick up something of my own to play on and share if something special ever comes available and its not to overpriced. and Mitchel don't think I won't, next time you are planning a trip up north send me a message and ill PM you some numbers of a couple spots I've found a few bits one area in northern Nevada's at a club you belong to, but don't be too happy even though I found a little the picking were slim although your skills are better than mine and the story might be different after a patch is patch till its not.