Melting Nickels

What I want to know is how would they know it was a pile of their nickels once its a puddle in the bottom of a crucible. I wouldn't do it wholesale or take out an ad in the paper. One of us melting nickels for guards could hardly do the economy as much harm as the government itself has done. I do not advocate breaking the law (I do notice that in they are calling this a "rule"?????? :rolleyes: I just know that if I decide to melt any nickels I will do it before 2005:D Oh, the quilt would never let me do it.

But, I do have access to lots of graphite arc gouging rods and have a welder. How do you melt with these.
 
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azdave35 said:
if you were going to melt them and pour them into a mold..what would you use for a mold?...could you use damp silica sand?
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Dry Sand, clay, porcelain, graphite, or silicon carbide molds are good to use.
It CANNOT be damp, unless you want molten metal blowing back into your face... :eek:
 
ib2v4u said:
I never was very good with dates.:D Plus I am getting close to 60 so I can always "act" a bit senile and wwith my history it would be easy to believe:rolleyes:
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Just remember you are the one that said that, not any of us. :)
 
Bruce,

Sorry I just found your question about 60/40mix. I got mine from an Ice Cream manufacturer. I did some work for them replacing fruit stirring blades made from the 60/40 monel. As I replaced them I got to keep the leftovers. They were replaced with UHMW. I was told that the orig blades were over 2000/set. It was about .390 thick 4x9". I wound up with about 50lbs. However the source has dried up so I have a bit left and use it very sparingly. Are you going to be at Blade West?? If so I will bring a piece for you...
 
A C Richards said:
Bruce,

Sorry I just found your question about 60/40mix. I got mine from an Ice Cream manufacturer. I did some work for them replacing fruit stirring blades made from the 60/40 monel. As I replaced them I got to keep the leftovers. They were replaced with UHMW. I was told that the orig blades were over 2000/set. It was about .390 thick 4x9". I wound up with about 50lbs. However the source has dried up so I have a bit left and use it very sparingly. Are you going to be at Blade West?? If so I will bring a piece for you...
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Hi Chuck,
I plan to be at BladeWest. Please bring the ice cream blades if you can. Sounds interesting.
 
Bruce,

Monel is a good source for what you want to do. It's a lot easier to deal with than melting nickels. http://www.espi-metals.com/metals/catmonel.htm. Another source is iconel. It's used for stuffing boxes in submarines.

There are a lot of old propellor shafts made from monel. I have some slices of 2" roundstock and have been using it for hardware.

Gene
 
I have some 1/2" thick inconel. It is from the good end of used hangers in a furnace. Inconel is very very red hard and used for all kinds of high heat applications. It is a high nickel alloy (70+%) with 17% or more chrome. I also have some monel, it is about 2/3 nickel and a 1/3 copper. It is very corrosion resistant and fairly soft. Both are very spendy unless you get it scrap or remnant.
 
ib2v4u said:
I have some 1/2" thick inconel. It is from the good end of used hangers in a furnace. Inconel is very very red hard and used for all kinds of high heat applications. It is a high nickel alloy (70+%) with 17% or more chrome. I also have some monel, it is about 2/3 nickel and a 1/3 copper. It is very corrosion resistant and fairly soft. Both are very spendy unless you get it scrap or remnant.
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Is the inconel hard to machine? I'm looking for 1/2" thick nickel plate to make a pistol/knife. The inconel sounds about right with its high nickel content if it machines and is scratch resistant.
 
I have cut it with a saw and drilled it, never tried to machine it. I will bring some along for to Blade West. How big a piece to you need. I think I have some 1/2" thick and 3" wide. I take it the nickel didn't work out.
 
ib2v4u said:
I have cut it with a saw and drilled it, never tried to machine it. I will bring some along for to Blade West. How big a piece to you need. I think I have some 1/2" thick and 3" wide. I take it the nickel didn't work out.
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Yes the nickel did work out but its a pain to have to put it and nickel powder in a canister and weld it together just to make a bar. I'm very interested in the inconel you have. My goal is to make a solid nickel pistol and knife bolsters ect. Right now I'm playing with nickel plating 1018 and its working out but if I can get solid stock it would be cool.
 
Ok, I will drag a chunk down with me when I come to blade west and you can play with it. I find a hanger in my metal pile and get it in the Escape. The wife is used to odd pieces of metal in her car anyway.
 
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Melting nickles is illegal, Due to the fact that currency is technically US property. I personally think that they're not going to hunt you down if you melt a few nickles, though. Nickle that is usually used in knives has a much larger nickle content than that of the coin. Pre- 1982 pennies would probably work better because they almost solid copper, unlike the ones today that are mostly zinc.
 
killteamTRS said:
Melting nickles is illegal, Due to the fact that currency is technically US property. I personally think that they're not going to hunt you down if you melt a few nickles, though. Nickle that is usually used in knives has a much larger nickle content than that of the coin. Pre- 1982 pennies would probably work better because they almost solid copper, unlike the ones today that are mostly zinc.
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Welcome to Shop Talk
I cant believe you found this old thread. Thanks for the warning. I still think nickels would make some killer bolsters and guards for knives.
I will try to post a picture of the one I cast pure nickel powder into a billet and made the guard and pommel from. Right now it is at Tom Ferrys for his artistic touch with the engraving.
 
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