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Best place to procure 1oz slabs of silver?

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LAN_403

Adam Munich

Wed Oct 12 2011, 04:25AM

Registered Member #2893 Joined: Tue Jun 01 2010, 09:25PM
Location: Cali-forn. i. a.
Posts: 2242

From the looks of it, everyone buying silver on ebay is dumber than a bad of rocks. The metal trades at $32/oz, yet people are paying $60 for a "1oz rare ingot".

Of course investing in silver is a bad idea for it is a relatively worthless metal application-wise. It's real value is likely around $2-5/oz, yet speculation by idiot investors drives up the price dramatically. Hell, if the economy did in fact explode, silver would be completely worthless while seed, food, wood and minor metals would soar in price...

but I digress. Basically I just want to launch the stuff as high as I can with induction. Silver is 2x as conductive as copper and ought to go 2x as far.

Turkey9

Wed Oct 12 2011, 04:50AM

Registered Member #1451 Joined: Wed Apr 23 2008, 03:48AM
Location: Boulder, Co
Posts: 661

You might be able to buy scrap silver from a jeweler's shop. A very large amount of jewelry uses sterling silver wire. A lot of shops keep the scraps to sell as scrap (of course at only a fraction of what it's worth), and if you are willing to pay the current price I'm sure they would sell it to you. You then melt it down into what ever shape you want.

Adam Munich

Wed Oct 12 2011, 10:31AM

Registered Member #2893 Joined: Tue Jun 01 2010, 09:25PM
Location: Cali-forn. i. a.
Posts: 2242

Problem is, Stirling silver isn't exactly pure and thus has a lower conductivity than 'real silver'...

Sulaiman

Wed Oct 12 2011, 12:11PM

Registered Member #162 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3140

Resistivity of copper 1.68 E-8 (Ohm.meter)
Resistivity of silver 1.59 E-8 (Ohm.meter)
less than 6% difference.

Density of copper 8.96 (g/cm3)
Density of silver 10.49 (g/cm3)
about 17% difference.

Maybe copper is better than silver ?

StridAst

Wed Oct 12 2011, 03:50PM

Registered Member #3623 Joined: Sun Jan 16 2011, 10:13PM
Location: Utah, USA
Posts: 11

This is a link to a jewelry supply wholesaler. Expect to pay above spot price (the current market value) no matter where you go for silver.

You can filter results to include only fine silver (99.9% pure) or to include sterling. Most sterling alloys are close to a 92.5% silver 7.5% copper alloy. However the 7.5% part can change. for instance their "Argentium" brand silver contains some germanium for tarnish resistance, as germanium oxide is clear and will provide a barrier against sulfer compounds that tarnish silver. All sterling alloys are 92.5% silver. any less and they can not market it as sterling silver.

You will find that silver bends much easier then copper, "dead soft" is annealed for maximum softness. this might be desirable or might not be.

You won't find many jewelry stores willing to sell any "scrap" silver. At the end of the day, even the dust on the desk gets swept up, and the vacuum bag gets emptied and every so often all the various waste types gets sent to the refinery. Anything solid and tangible can simply get melted together then pressed into sheet with a rolling mill. Given the high value of the scraps, it all gets recycled. Jewelers that don't do this tend to not stay in business very long.

I do not know what kind of difference you will see with silver wiring. I notice a difference in thermal conductivity with silver vs copper. But while I am a jeweler, and am fascinated with HV, I have yet to feel the desire to invest in silver wires in electronics. yet.

Sulaiman

Wed Oct 12 2011, 09:07PM

Registered Member #162 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3140

StridAst, Due to the 'skin effect' silver plating is used a lot for rf circuitry and components also corrosion affects silver much less than copper.
With enameled copper wire, corrosion is prevented,
so for almost all uses enameled copper wire is better than silver (plated).
I sometimes use silver plated copper wire
for air-core inductors for vhf for experimenting
because it looks good and it's easy to solder to.
As a jeweler I'm sure you appreciate how quickly and ugly silver tarnishes due to fingerprints etc. ..
a good reason to NOT use silver.
30+ years old silver plated air variable capacitors do clean up nicely though.

Forty

Wed Oct 12 2011, 09:51PM

Registered Member #3888 Joined: Sun May 15 2011, 09:50PM
Location: Erie, PA
Posts: 649

I think launching silver disks would not be worth it. All the time, money, and effort that would go into procuring some pure-ish silver and forming it into an appropriate shape would only net you a slight increase in launch height.
I think it would be more exciting (and about as time consuming) if you bought or made some cooled superconducting ceramic disks to launch such as

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