Here are some tips on recycling metal in your studio from @susanfauman - “When I first got my rolling mill a few years back, one of my biggest goals was to recycle and alloy metal in-studio. I was able to do small amounts pretty well from the start, but it took some time to get good at larger amounts. Some key pointers:
🏆 Your crucible needs to be pre-treated with a coat of borax. You can buy some pre-coated crucibles, or you can treat your own by melting borax into it and turning it to make sure you have a good coat.
🔥 Make sure you get the metal good and hot to burn out any impurities. A sprinkle of borax powder helps with this. I did it here, but it’s too fast to see.
♨️ Get the ingot mould and the spout of your crucible good and hot too. This ensures that you get a good flow of the metal when you pour it.
🛼 Don’t try to do too many passes through the rolling mill before annealing. 4-6 passes with about a 1/4 or 1/2 turn to your gauge wheel (I don’t know what that wheel on top of the rolling mill is called 😜) in between is a good rule of thumb. Anneal when in doubt (and pickle afterwards).
💔 If you start to see lots of cracks at the edges of your newly forming sheet, you’re either stepping down the gauge too fast or you didn’t heat your metal hot/long enough (or both). That’s ok! Just start over with melting and pouring. That’s the beauty of doing your own recycling!
📏 As you get near your desired thickness, you can measure the gauge of your sheet in between passes through your rolling mill. I like to go to about 20g (.8mm).
🔥 Finally, finish off with one last annealing session so your sheet is easy to flatten and to use for whatever you wanna make!
💗🌈💗 One last thing I’ll say: I am NOT a metal recycling expert, so if I missed a detail, please feel free to add it in the comments! And let me know if you try it. 😊” Thank you for allowing me to share this Susan! We appreciate it! #recyclingmetal #recycledmetaljewelry #meltingmetal
