Bitcoin Forum

*I will be updating the topic quite a bit while I think of better ways to word things, and as questions come in that help me address concerns, questions, and criticism. Think of this as a rough draft at the moment, but the topic will become more and more polished with time. I tend to write walls of text, so formatting changes will help overcome that.



Hi everyone, this is a pre announcement to something that has been quite a while in the making. I will soon be starting production on quite a few planned projects under the name Vulcanalia Mint. I wanted to first describe what Vulcanalia is all about, and then open it up to questions. As of the date of this post, I expect prototypes of my first projects to be done within a month or so, with sneak previews coming soon.

What this is:

Vulcanalia is its own mint through and through. The entire design and creation process is done in house, no third parties. Because of this, there will be some unique advantages and disadvantages to my work which I'll discuss below.

I'll first start by explaining the process for having Physical Bitcoins made. The creator designs what they would like, fronts the cash for materials and the order quantity, the mint has that design made into dies, the dies press blanks into coins, they are shipped back to the creator, and there you have it. The advantages to this, are that the coins can be mass produced quickly. The disadvantages however come in the terms of under utilizing creativity and material freedom. What happens if you want your coins produced as 1/8th oz parallelepipeds in blue gold? The mint will tell you get lost. What if you want your coins to be something other than coins? Again, they will tell you to get lost.

Vulcanalia will be able to produce non standard sized pieces with a greater range of creative freedom and material choice. If you have wondered why there aren't Platinum, Palladium, Rhodium, Blue Gold, Argentium, or Indium coins floating around, its because mints will not produce them. They are set up to punch out standard size rounds in mainly three materials, copper, silver, and gold.

Of course, there comes disadvantages. There are certain levels of two dimensional detail that I will not be able to achieve due to machinery restraints, and craftsman level consistency problems. Machines with perfectly set parameters will be able to infinitely reproduce the same exact work. introducing the human element invites error. But, with error comes charm, being completely uniform is boring. I intend to make up for the negative aspects of human error by overcompensating in favor of my customers.

What sort of products will you produce?

My setup is sort of a cross between a jeweler's setup and a forge. I can produce cast coins, as well as higher detailed pieces such as statues, or make rings, pendants, etc. I can produce just about anything in any type of non ferrous metal. If my firing kiln was a bigger, I could cast airplane parts.

Custom orders?

I will accept custom orders after I've established the mint a while. I'm going to need to fail a couple times before I'm confident that I can do anything, and I'd like to fail on my own terms before making promises and not being able to deliver.

What sizes and of what material will your products be made of?

You tell me, anything that I can melt, alloy, and cast will be done. Want a peg leg made of hepatizon? I'll let you know!


Why bother making a mint?

There have been a couple of things that have bothered me about the physical coin market for a long time. My introduction to numismatics was with collectors coins in precious metals and old world currencies. When the premium on a 1 ounce silver coin with a Bitcoin logo on it is the same as a 2000 year old silver coin in pretty good condition, it kind of bothers me. I want to reform the idea of Physical Bitcoins. A coin that is worth 1.03 BTC metal included selling for 2 BTC is not something that is exchangeable. Its a collectors piece I suppose, but its not going to change hands in the form of a gift, or to make semi Bitcoin payments to someone. I fully intend to have a line of exchangeable and affordable physical Bitcoins in addition to fancier pieces.

Keep in mind, anything that is made to be collectible usually is not.

This is actually exactly what I've been looking for, and I already know many mints won't be be happy with my request  ;D Looking forward to it!

I certainly plan to offer custom things made for individuals, groups, alt coin communities, who ever.

Awesome Salty! Looking forward to trying out some stuff with you :). Actually just talked to some people about doing something, and this proves to be perfect timing!

Watching closely :)

I'm just waiting on a bit of hardware right now, and finalization of some designs, then I'll have some prototypes out.

I suppose I can at least say this, something pretty high on my list of things to make is an ~5 Oz Argentium Silver Genesis block statue. Debating on whether or not to have an engraved wood base, or to just have the entire thing be silver. I might end up making them in other materials, size might be bigger/larger, but thats on the agenda. As well as a few other things that I will keep quiet for now.

I'm also producing some promo material for a friend's video game. Though that probably wont be of much interest to Bitcoiners.

Sounds like good stuff! This sure sounds awesome. Looking forward to it :)

I say keep it 100% .999 fine silver.  I've wanted a solid silver statue since I saw the Mount Rushmore statue on Pawn Stars.

I have no problem making fine silver statues (actually its cheaper for me to do so) but fine silver in particular tarnishes pretty badly. I suppose I can do multiple types for those who want fine silver, but for things that don't go in airtites or get handled, I'm a really big fan of Argentium.

I really want to do some nice sized ones too, so I'll probably do 10, 5, 3, 2.5 oz something like that. Whatever ends up looking right anyway.

Salty, this sounds great!  Really looking forward to how this progresses and I can't wait to see a prototype/test item.   ;D

Just a few odds and ends to tie up before the mint becomes at least semi operational. Here is a short list of what has been done or put in progress in the last two days.

• I picked up a new 3D Printer to help with prototyping, it should arrive tomorrow.
• Vacuum casting table + pump should be arriving early next week.
• Purchased Mig Welder, and learned to weld so I'm now assembling various what have yous and a better work table
• I'm nearly finished with construction of my larger furnace, just need to finish building the burner and line with refractory
• New firing kiln should arrive early next week
• One production design is finished, the ones that would interest bitcoiners are still in early stages, but its not an overly long process to complete.
• Vulcanalia brand stamp hasn't begun, but the concept is created. Production may take a while, but its not 100% completely necessary
• Research on laser engraving systems has begun, also not completely necessary for early works
• Various tools should arrive throughout next week
• Alloy research is more or less finished. I still have a couple of things I want to play with, but everything necessary for now is done.
• Website development has begun, not very far along right now, but again not 100% necessary at the moment

The earliest I'd possibly have anything interesting to show would be by next weekend. I'll consider taking a lot of photos and documenting the entire process for those who are at all interested. I was honestly expecting a lot more criticism and questions. I suppose I have things a bit more squared away than I figured I would, that or you coin hungry monsters don't care as long as you get your fix  ;D. (joking)

Thanks for your update!
it looks way beyond cool

Looking forward to see some items go out from this mint,You can count me in for a silver bitcoin statue.


Also do you think you are going to be able to mint some .999 gold coins?
or maybe a set of coins of all the metals could be cool too.
There are many things you can do when you own a mint :)

Yep, I'll be able to do gold and even exotic metals no problem. One benefit to having your own mint, is I could make just a handful of gold coins in any size I desire rather than having to order a minimum quantity from a 3rd party mint in pre determined shapes and sizes.

I'm starting with silver for each of my designs as its not a huge problem if I make a mistake. If I overheat my furnace and vaporize a couple grams of silver, its not a big deal. If I vaporize a couple grams of gold, I probably wouldn't be too happy with myself. I'll make sure to keep everyone up to date.

I also got a hold of some precious and semi precious stones. Mostly to practice doing settings, but if I end up any good at it, thats also something I could add to things I produce.

Sounds really cool.
Do you already have an idea on the premium price?(or it all depends on the product)

I am going to keep my eye on this thread,and I would be happy to be the 1st customer :)
please provide us some pictures when available.

Good luck with your mint.

So I want to go in both directions. I want to offer low premium pieces, as well as higher premium pieces. The pieces that are cast one by one with great amounts of detail actually require quite a bit of work and time to produce. I also want to offer pieces that are relatively quickly cast, finished, and then good to go at premiums lower than anything else on the market. The things that require a lot of time and effort that sell for a higher premium are what is going to fund my mint so that I can get bigger and better machinery to more efficiently produce. The low premium pieces that I envision will just be paying for the material and my time. I'd really like to be able to create essentially Bitcoin pocket change. I want to be able to make BTC pieces that are worth $5 or $10 USD at time of issue, with a premium low enough that you could use it to pay your friend back for a sandwhich they bought you, or use one to pay for a regular common daily thing. Things like Cas coins are cool, but you aren't going to hand someone a coin worth 2+ BTC for a 1 BTC debt.

I've got a lot of things to consider Physical Bitcoin wise. Will I do private keys on coins, or offer them to people to self fund. Will I do the kind of overdone holograms, or will I figure out another way to secure private keys. I have quite a few ideas, but they all require a bit more thought.

For example, I have a friend who likes Clam (an alt coin) so I wanted to cast a palm sized clam shell, etch a QR code inside, and then seal it with a layer of molten silver, so that you would have to "shuck" the clam to get at the keys. There would be a few more safety mechanisms than just that, but I'm not super satisfied with the standard tamperproof sticker thing, so I'd like to do something a little outside the box.

I think you should open up a vote thread so you can share some ideas and designs, and people would tell you whats better, so you will know what people likes and more likely to buy and whats not.

Also my suggestion is creating a limited amount of sets that cointains the same design of coin in 5-6 different metals I think people here are going to buy them instantly.
You should also consider minting coins that has private key minted on them (not an hologram,the coin it self has a design of a private key) which can be really cool but I assume that creating those can cost a lot of money.

I will likely take your advice on that. Though, I'll probably just produce a few things even without a poll just because at the very least I'd want one. With the exception of my idea for the Bitcoin pocket change concept, each piece I make will be hand numbered, I'll decide ahead of time on total mintage based on popularity. Typically what mints like Perth do, is they decide a maximum mintage of a certain coin + a deadline, and they will not exceed that mintage. Lack or orders or interest could cause the total produced to be under the maximum mintage, so if you look at the Lunar series silver/gold coins for example, of a maximum of 100,000 some years only 30,000 were minted. More difficult and exotic metals will probably have fewer produced than the universally popular copper, silver, and occasionally gold, but if there is enough demand, maybe not.

Pretty much the decisions that I make will decide if they will be individual pieces worth their value as art pieces, or if they will be funded before shipping and have a secondary market. I'm all for having a secondary market, but I'm not a huge fan of handling other people's private keys.

Should I find a solution that allows it, I would indeed like to have private keys directly on the coins. There are a few reasons not to do that, but I may be able to come up with a solution. I had a 2013 1 BTC Silver/Gold Cas coin go through the washing machine, and that sucked pretty bad. I'm curious to what kind of resolution I could get a cast QR code onto a coin. Thats something I'll have to try to find out.

This is a seriously huge undertaking.

Good luck to you brother!  :)

One quick Q.

Will you accept orders from customers for custom coins? Or will you try and finetune everything until you are happy with the process before opening up to that?

Thanks Smoothie, I have a huge amount of respect for you and Lealana. When I was thinking of a name for my mint, I was thinking about the successful coin producers, Cas, and Lealana. I then decided that in order to be successful, my name must be difficult to spell. Casascius is the most successful physical coins, and no one can spell it, so thats proof enough! Lealana isn't too bad, but that might just be because I've seen the name spelled as many times as I've seen the word, the.


I will take custom orders for custom coins, but I am going to hold off doing so until I've figured out the limits of my new machinery and I have some prior work to show.

Sounds smart. Looking forward to it :D

Damn, definitely going to wait for your custom orders to be up ;)

So its probably way too early to do my daily update as the day is just beginning, but I'll begin it anyway and add to it throughout the day as needed.

• 3D printer arrived today, and setup is beginning
• Legal research underway for my BTC pocket change idea
• Furnace construction is nearing completion

Apparently in the US, you aren't just not allowed to replicate US currency, but there are certain laws in place about producing currency be it that of an existing country or not. Seeing that BTC already exist, and my plans are just to create a more physical medium, along with a few other things, I'm not too discouraged at the moment, but there are a couple of loose ends I'd like to tie up before I accidentally get myself in trouble. That said, the BTC pocket change idea hasn't even started the design process, so I have a bit of time to figure it out.

I've got a very hectic week ahead starting monday, so if I give more updates, they will probably be brief. By the upcoming weekend though, I should have a bit of progress to actually show.


Edit*

3D printer setup and calibrated. Heres the little traffic cone test that I printed. Instead of a traffic cone, imagine thats a coin/statue. It would then be put into a plaster investment flask, fired for ~6 hours until the plaster hardened and the plastic melted out, a crucible of 1700+ degree metal would be poured into the now vacant space, with help from the vacuum casting table, and after cooling finishing procedures would begin.

I actually found a video of someone making jewelry that shows how this will work pretty accurately.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4vSYcYwdNU
of course, some things I'll just be able to cast repeatedly into the same mold rather than having to make each piece one by one. This is just the way to get the most detail.

https://i.imgur.com/b3NeZzJ.png

So as I said, hectic week so don't expect too much in terms of updates, but I will share something today. I received a package of germanium and an Argentium silver spoon. Since I've mentioned it quite a few times, and I doubt many people know about it as its a pretty uncommon alloy, I figured I'd share a side by side picture.

https://i.imgur.com/YmXDXvM.jpg

So the coin is .999 pure silver, the spoon is 92.5% silver, 1.2% germanium, and 6.3% Copper, and the black substance is Germanium. I don't really have much for photographic equipment, the picture was just taken with light from the skylight in my kitchen on my phone (with no flash).

Argentium is 7-8x more tarnish resistant than sterling silver. It is whiter than Rhodium which is what makes white gold white. And Argentium is stronger than sterling silver. On top of that, there are a lot of "types" of Sterling, Britannia, and Argentium silver. Sterling means at least 92.5%, Britannia means at least 95.8% Silver (23 Karat in gold terms), and Argentium is at least 92.5% silver as well.

So that means, a coin marked Sterling silver can be anywhere from 92.5%-99.89% silver. The legal stamp/definition just means a minimum silver quantity. If you think the 92.5% silver 1.2% germanium argentium spoon is white and shiny, just wait until you see the alloy that I use. 97% silver, 2% germanium, 1% copper.

My firing furnace arrived today, however it had a bad PID controller, so the manufacturer is sending me a replacement part. Still waiting for my vacuum casting table anyway, so it doesn't really bump out my timeline.

My larger home made propane furnace is just drying now, so I'll snap a pic or two of that just for giggles. I will really only need to use that if someone wants a 100+ Oz piece.

And, I now have the first design for one of my non bitcoin related projects finished and printed, so I'll at least have something to show in the near future. They are little necklaces promoting my friend's steam game. Highly doubt anyone here would be interested, however it will at least be an example of my craftsmanship.

Sounds good!

Would love to see a 100 Oz piece haha.  What if you were to make a 100Oz piece and then split it in 50 or 100 smaller fractions? So you own a piece of a 100 Oz piece :D

I've seen that done before. Valcambi Suisse makes a 100g bullion bar that is made up of 100 1 gram bars that are supposedly easily snapped off of each other. I'm not 100% sure how that would be manufactured, but even if I can't do something like that, I actually got a completely unrelated idea which is really really cool. A puzzle made of metal, that you can collect the pieces and snap them together to make some sort of picture.

That would be cool too! Could be some sort of series so you can trade with others to collect "your" picture. I like the idea :D

This definitely sounds interesting. This is obviously no easy task. Will you plan on releasing your own run of coins or will you solely be offering mint services?
Once you establish yourself and if prices are competitive then I'd be very happy to work with you.
Best of luck on this venture!

I'll be releasing my own sets of coins and other things as well as offering mint services (TBA). I'm hoping my prices will be competitive, the one thing I haven't really accounted for yet is how much time it will take me to produce everything. I've figured out that I'll have no problem with bottom line, low premium cast pieces, and top of the line fancy higher premium pieces. I've just got to figure out how to do the middle of the road pieces though. I want to be able to produce things that are accessible to anyone.

I think when I reach the point where I can get a professional pottery kiln for the investment flasks, I'll be cooking with oil. Then I'll be able to produce even the nicer stuff more quickly, bringing costs down. They start at $5k + so I'll probably need to hold off for a while. Unless I make my own that is.... hmmm... I'll be back when finished with my sketches.


I figured I'd share my prelim setup with you guys. Still assembling so things are a mess, there are tons of boxes, and things to keep or put away, but heres what I'm starting with.

https://i.imgur.com/cknMzHI.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/N1GvhUc.jpg

Looks amazing.

It actully looks like a small professional mint.
When do you think that you will start taking orders?

Thanks, Its a pretty humble setup, but it will work until I can get larger equipment. With what I have, I can produce things of the same quality as a more sophisticated setup, just not as fast. Id like to say that Ill be producing something by the end of the month, but I can't really say until I have everything I need. I'm getting pretty close to starting production though.

That's a key selling point!!  How will this work out in terms of legality?
Definitely watching your projects!

The only thing I'm not 100% sure on legally is my plan to make Bitcoin pocketchange (actual name is a work in progress). I want to make essentially physical bitcoins in small denominations at a premium low enough that you wouldn't mind actually making payment with it at face value, or face value + metal value. The US has some strange rules about making metal coins with the intent for them to be used as currency, even if its not trying to counterfeit any existing currency. As far as funding coins and such, I'd continue with the buyer funded model that most physical coin producers are using. I'm not super keen on the hologram thing, so I'm looking for ways around that, but I may end up going that route until I find a better solution.

The rest of it is fine, its no different than regular metalwork. All I need to do is make sure I use proper marks for the purity of metal. If I was making something out of sterling silver (92.5% silver) I'd make it 93 or 94% silver just so I don't have to worry about it.

As a side note, I also had the idea to offer other custom services like electroplating and such. If you want a fancy gold design on a coin that you have purchased in the past, I'd be happy to add it for you. That said, I will not counterfeit any existing things. For example, I will not gold plate your Lealana or Casascius coins into an existing gold piece. If you want a word or design plated onto it, I wouldn't have any issue with that though.

That is a future service however, I'd need a slightly different setup than just the tubs, acid, and gold I use now for tinkering.

Supporting you all the way SaltySpitoon!

Hit us up with a blog or something so we could get updated easier, and maybe get some support from outside the collectibles subforum ;)
I'd love to have a bunch of custom coins minted by you some day, and I hope you do open your mint for custom orders soon!

Good luck with your venture!
Regards

Thanks, I'm considering making a Steemit account documenting all of my minting things. I'm not super familiar with the actual mechanisms of Steemit, but I have a couple of friends who are into it, so if it fits my needs, I'll give it a shot. If it helps me purchase a professional firing kiln while I'm at it, thats just gravy. I'll probably have a traditional blog on my website when I get around to developing it. I've purchased Vulcanaliamint.com but I haven't gotten around to setting it up yet. Getting the mint up and running is a higher priority right now than the platform for the mint.

Actually with any luck, my first product will begin minting within the next 7-10 days. Its nothing Bitcoin related, but it will give me a solid grasp of what is required to get custom pieces minted, so then I'll have a much better gauge of whether or not I can start taking custom orders.

Right now, my main concern which is something that I can't look up, it has to be figured out experimentally, is how long my molds will last. If I have to produce a new two part mold for each thing I create, its going to be expensive and only suitable for higher premium fancy well finished stuff. If they last a dozen casts, then I'll be cooking with oil.

The process of making a detailed mold takes a minimum of 8 hours. A bigger kiln will help me fire more molds at a time, but it sure would be swell if casting quality was kept through multiple uses.

Hey everyone, just wanted to post in here to show I'm helping out too :)

I'll be helping with the 3d printing/design. I've been a 3d artist for years, designing for places like microsoft and cartoon network recently. (I'm also the artist on a videogame - www.burritogalaxy.com )  So if you're looking to work with Vulcanalia I'd be the one designing the thing for you :~)

I've been 3d printing for a while as well (we will be releasing some of my designs as action figures as well... )
https://i.imgur.com/sseF4sS.jpg

First off, we are going planning on releasing some in house designs before doing commissions so I thought I would post here to lay out our plans.

--JEWELRY
Designing and selling a small pendant based on a character from some of my comic books, mainly meant as a test and for ppl who are already fans of my work. We will be casting these in copper and a few in silver as well. A handful will be sold here if you are interested
https://i.imgur.com/RaPjZEnl.jpg

--STATUES
silver statues based around bitcoin events, our first design based around the "Genesis Block" will feature a sort of suspended cube cast in 5-10 ounces of silver. One of our first planned releases.

--COINS
we also plan on selling some funded metal bitcoin, our first will be a "Pizza Coin"

kind of a wacky idea, but I think you guys will like it. The coin itself will be sculpted like a pizza, with little pepperonis, the coin will be funded with the USD VALUE of 41$ in bitcoin at the time of mint (to commemorate the first bitcoin pizza sale - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.0 )

I will keep you guys updated here, along with salty, as we continue making cool stuff for you guys

Confirming that Mush is indeed working with me. Both of our mothers were on TLC's show wife swap, but they canceled the show and didn't tell us, so we switched moms for a couple of years. Now we are pretty much brothers.

I quoted Mush's post and put it into my reserved first post.

That's pretty messed up

But cool! If I can help in any way, hit me up! I'm also on Steemit as @emerge!
I can endorse you or whatever in any way to help a fellow entrepreneur and artisan
start up the ladder! ;)

Well, it was a joke somewhat. Every so often I forget that when read as text, jokes don't translate well  ;D

Either way, Mush is on the team, specializing in design. Thanks for your support, I'm reading into how it all works now. I'm trying to figure out if data posted gets saved into a blockchain, and if that data can be viewed straight from the blockchain. That would be pretty useful for saving photos and information about things I make as a secondary means of verification that something is authentic.

That said, I'm not hugely worried about counterfeiters. First, most counterfeits are really bad. Second, counterfeiting factories have presses like what you would see from a traditional mint. It would be a massive hassle for someone to replicate my setup, replicate my designs, and casting methods. And finally, due to craftsmanship inconsistencies, weight should be a huge verifying factor. If I have a mold that is 5 troy ounces of silver, by the time I'm done finishing, sanding, polishing, etc the particular piece, it might be a couple of grams off of the molded weight. So each piece will have a bit of variance to it. As long as I document the ending weight, counterfeiters would need to get that one particular weight in order to fool anyone. Its possible, but again, a huge hassle.

*edit* Steemit requires personal info like your phone number and such. As much as I'd love to have personal info on a database of known cryptoholders, I think I'll pass an go the traditional route. I'll keep logging progress here and on Vulcanaliamint.com when I have it setup.

I forgot to comment on this part. I didn't know if we wanted to let people know about the idea yet, but whatever. Design hasn't begun for this coin, however we have been figuring out a lot of the mechanics around physically building it and our process for selling them. It is planned to be one of our earlier productions.

We will pre-announce when we plan to produce the Pizza coin, at least a week ahead of actual minting. For one week we will mint and sell them. After that, you will have to wait for next year's edition. On day 1 of the week, we will take the weighted Bitcoin average and decide that year's funding amount. As Mush said, it will be $41 converted into Bitcoins to commemorate the sale of the 10,000 BTC pizza. The idea behind it is that as the years go on, the funding amount will decrease little by little. The 2016 Pizza Coin from Vulcanalia would be funded with roughly 0.0651 BTC if minted today. Maybe in 2017 if BTC is $1000/coin during the week of minting, they would be funded with 0.041 BTC, etc etc. Of course the designs will change, and each piece will be stamped with the year, the # it was produced, and the BTC value of $41 that year.

No idea about what materials will be used or the size of the coin at the moment. Probably Copper, Silver, some various neat alloys, etc. Gold probably wont be on the todo list for this year, but the 2017 Bitcoin pizza could end up cast in gold. I'd like to make the coin relatively large so we can get a lot more detail.

Sounds like a great idea.

I think that everybody here would like to own a slice of the bitcoin history. Sterling silver will be great for such a coin.

Is it going to be a limited edition coin?
Keep us updated, really interesting, also a coin of a block reward can be cool too, but only after everything goes well with the first idea of course:).

Yeah, I'm not exactly sure what metals to make them out of, but thats not a big deal. All I know is that I probably wont do platinum/paladium/gold for the 2016 edition. I'm sure I'll offer them in a variety of metals depending on whatever seems suitable. As far as being limited edition, we may decide to set a hard cap on how many are produced, or just stick with the one week thing. If we have 100 orders in that week, 100 will be made, and after that week is over, no more. If we have 3 orders that week, only 3 would be made, and no more. Each piece will be hand numbered, and I'll be able to tell the mintage at the end of the week.

So for today's update, I've sort of been slacking, but I finally got my larger furnace finished

https://i.imgur.com/YeO5ihf.jpg

This one should hold ~5-10 KG comfortably, if I should ever need something that large. My little electric furnace holds about 1 KG depending on crucible dimensions, which is what I intend to use most of the time, but here it is.

My casting supplies are arriving early next week, and at that point I should be able to start making things. I will probably realize I need more finishing tools as I progress, but taking it one step at a time seems to be working.

And heres the furnace in action  ;D

https://i.imgur.com/gwd3t54.jpg   https://i.imgur.com/4vAHNJy.jpg   https://i.imgur.com/4oZEnWz.jpg



One piece I poured too fast, and it turned out really really strangely though I have no idea why. I might finish it up and see if there is a market for fancy paperweights.
https://i.imgur.com/JvX5t4H.jpg

That's fine man, mistakes are a learning experience

Well the only mistake aspect of it, was that I poured the liquid copper too fast and it formed a large piece that isn't super useful for casting. Thats not a huge deal since I can just remelt large pieces. I'm trying to figure out how to replicate the iridescence, its really neat looking. Apparently its called flame coloring, though I have no idea how it occurred.

In my experience anodizing,  I've seen that patina on flamed and melted copper before.  What liquid/temperature are you using for quenching?

Ah, interesting. I don't have a huge background in processing my own copper, so I had never seen it before. Just using water, probably ~60 degrees or whatever temperature it was outside. It only occurred on that one piece though.

I would be interested in some hand poured coins like this:



https://i.imgur.com/lCJaD5P.jpg

There will be plenty of hand poured pieces to go around! Thats actually the simplest to do, so those will be incredibly affordable.

Excellent... I would be interested in some silver goodies then. I prefer larger sized pours so 5oz+

That can very easily be arranged. Everything I make will be in multiple sizes/metals, so those who want something large to toss around like a frisby can, and those who want to spend as little as possible and still have a piece can partake as well.

I can do fractional stuff, or I can do 10Kg stuff. No need to order multiple sets of dies or other complicated things, just scale and create molds.

Its looking like I'll be producing my first pieces within the next week, so look forward to some previews.

Very cool, thanks for the info and looking forward to your finishing techniques!

I am glad to see that everything is going right for you,also  glad to see that you had your first mistake happend with copper which is considered to a cheap metal.


Poured coins are really special and I would also like to have some :).

Did you already make the designs or are you going to use some ready designs for your first productions?

The designs for the first Bitcoin related productions are not complete, no. However, since all design related things are done in house, and not outsourced at any point, the timescale for design to completed project is nowhere near as long. I could conceivably come up with a design for something and start casting it in metal the same day. The first three things I'm making are the necklace/keychains for Mushroomized, the Pizza coin, and the blockchain statue. I still need a bit more machinery in the form of laser engravers and such before I can physically put Bitcoin addresses on things. That is pretty much my only limiting factor at the moment.

So today's update. I'm just waiting on a replacement PID for my firing kiln, the vacuum pump for my casting table, and a couple of crucibles, and I'll be all set. Everything should arrive this week, so by this weekend, I'm hoping to have something made, even if its just some tests to mess about with. I've got a temporary hand stamp, as it will take a while to have my custom one made. I just got something sort of generic to mark what I make until I have the Vulcanalia branded one to my satisfaction.

Looking toward the future, I'm looking at laser engraving or diamond drag systems, custom holograms if I need them (bleh), and I'm starting research into fancy printers that can make little COAs. Plate forming and bending machines, 50 ton hydraulic presses, and all sorts of other goodies will probably be obtained if I can find some local shop space.

Let me know if you need any custom parts machined/created for your setup. I have access to a machine shop that is fairly large.

Cool, I greatly appreciate it! This is something I planned on doing for myself later, but I figure I'll ask. Have you machined graphite before? I need a better CNC Mill before I'm able to make my own graphite molds. If you are able to make a few things, that might actually move my progress along. If not, its not a big deal, I've planned my releases around my own mechanical capabilities, with things requiring additional setup to come in later batches.

So I've neglected my daily updates for a couple of days, but things were happening!

• Vacuum pump/casting table all set up.
• New crucibles arrived, tempering them tonight
• Furnace repairs made, apparently most refractory isn't rated to 4,000+ degrees
• All finishing materials arrived, probably missing some hand tools, but it is what it is, I'll get them when I realize I need them
• Electric Furnace Display still hasn't arrived, but thats but a minor inconvenience at this point

All of that said, theres a nearly 100% chance I'll have something made this weekend. A slight chance I'll have something made today. Assuming I can fire molds over a fire rather than in my electric furnace, I'm all set and ready to start casting. If I do need to fire my molds in the electric kiln, then I'll only be able to cast one of whatever I make, the mold wont be reusuable. Either way, that doesn't change that I'll be able to make at least one of something now.

Yes they can do it, but it depends on the parts complexity. Some pieces they send to be water jetted. Send me a drawing and we can go from there. Graphite sucks to work with...big time. I am sure we could just trade some custom work for some custom work  ;)

So I've been sick since the weekend. That has certainly slowed things down a bit, for some reason pouring molten metal just doesn't feel right when you are under the weather.

Anyway, I'll probably be over it in the next couple of days, and I'm hoping this weekend will be a productive one.

Running a bit behind schedule, finals, final projects, and preparations for finals are hitting me like a sack of hammers. Who had to make nuclear physics so damn time consuming? This is why I wont do preorders. Anyway, my expected November timeline is starting to look more like a mid December timeline. I've done a bit of metal experimentation in the free time I've had, but haven't really had 8+ hours to dedicate at any one time to get molds fired up.

I'll be sure to post any progress I make if I find a chance to do so before finals end.

Was starting to wonder about updates :D.

Glad to hear you are still being active, focus on the important stuff now so that we can have fun later. Looking forward to updates, and no need rushing for me at least :).

Great. I think a great deal of us are eagerly awaiting to see what you may come out with.   If you could make nice looking coins like you said with a low premium, your mint will be a huge success.

So I know its late for a daily update, but I had some buddies over for a fire, a few cocktails, and some blast furnace action, and I surprisingly made a lot of progress today.

I printed out this:

https://i.imgur.com/wPFJFjm.png

Alloyed a kilogram of Argentium 97% silver, 2% Germanium 1% copper:

https://i.imgur.com/3nBGuRC.png


And I made a mold out of jewelry grade investment casting powder, essentially fancy concrete. Placed the 3D printed Seahorse inside of it, and set the mold in the fire overnight. Tomorrow morning, the mold should be fired and ready to use. The plastic has already melted out of the mold leaving a perfect seahorse shaped crevice in the plaster. Just need to pour it in the top and see how it goes!

I'd have a picture of that as well, but my phone died, so I'll post it tomorrow morning. What this is is a proof of concept. Custom molds are very very expensive. The investment powder is expensive as well, but its fairly workable and would be super convenient for mold making. However, when lost wax casting - A jewelry creation method that I'm essentially doing, the mold is normally cracked open, so its a one time use. If I can pour multiple seahorses before the mold degrades and loses detail, that is a proof of concept that I'll be able to produce low premium high detail pieces. If I have to make each coin one at a time, they will be higher premium and I'll put a lot more effort into making them SUPER high quality to justify the price and time spent making the molds. If this works out, my options are greatly widened.

Mold didn't turn out too bad, will update this post after I pour, hopefully get the piece out without breaking the mold, and then how it looks when its done/finished.

https://i.imgur.com/mvAy9u8.png

Sweet, I will keep an eye out on this, good luck on your venture! :)

Looks cool.
Glad to see that everything worked  out for you.
Keep us updated, and remember to take everything slowly as no one is in rush here

This kind of a mint can really make the premium on physical bitcoins much lower!
Cant wait to see it happens.

That looks absolutely amazing :D

Can't wait to see how the final one looks like

As expected, the mold didn't hold up too well. It kind of lost detail before I could even make casts in it from stress fractures. That said, I didn't follow the proper heating procedures of the investment plaster, so its not a huge surprise. I'm working on casting a silver ring right now, I'd show pictures, but the mold is in my furnace already. Hopefully tomorrow I'll actually have something to show. Currently working on finalizing a design for a semi Bitcoin related thing that I want myself, so others may as well. Will post pictures tomorrow.

Thanks for the update.  I can't wait to see.   I'm hoping this idea works as I'd like to have your mint make a few things for me down the road.   

Any updates to this salty? I'd love to see if you've perfected this now since it's been a couple of months since the last update. Hope you are doing well!

I'd love to hear a status update as well!  Hopefully the equipment has been put to good use in the past couple months.  :)

Friendly bump to see if any progress has been made as some users recently brought this up in a slack discussion.   :)

From what I can tell SaltySpitoon has gone missing :(. I've sent him a couple of PM's regarding this topic and his sales thread for silver/gold without a reply..

Would be cool though if he came in and just dropped some awesome products made from this :D.

Was discussing this thread yesterday. SS has stopped by recently. Would be great if this were to happen.