Thank you JA ND/MN

Jewelers of America North Dakota/Minnesota flew me to Minneapolis Technical college to present the very latest on palladium. This was a great place to present, with excellent AV and a good bench to use. We went through it all casting, setting, video, power-point slides, you name it! We also chose this venue to officially debut the new 950Gold mentioned below when we committed to the development side.

Thanks Todd & Nancy & all who attended. You folks rock! What a wonderful friendly place you have.

Pd Video-Induction casting demonstration

Thanks to Don Briscoe at Artistry of Gold!

950 Gold for Palladium Two Tone

We at PM West have decided to develop a gold for use in two tone jewelry designs. This gold is 95% pure just like Palladium jewelry. This gold matches the hardness of palladium, with a very rich gold contrast. We are working with designer Lisa Krikawa on this project. I am proud to announce that Lisa will be one of our Kraftmasters at Kraftwerks in 2008. Two tone palladium is her topic. We will bi metal cast this gorgeous combination of metals. Testing is ongoing. wish us luck! the image you see is a Mark & Lanie Mann design on 24kt and 950 palladium.

Testing Palladium from Platinum from white gold

Hello,
Thanks to Mark Mann at PAI, we now know how to test these metals for identification. Iodine will blacken palladium, slightly darken white gold and will not effect platinum at all. I am wondering if iodine will do for palladium what liver of sulphur does for silver.... seems an opportunity to play with metals again. Boss?.... I need some palladium again...

Torch casting Success?

Many casters just do not have advanced induction equipment. One example is a retailer in the west who has a few stores. Each of these casts for the customers. They torch cast in small shop style. They refused to give up on torch casting Outcast, and have found success. Propane torches, Doc's investment, a flask temperature for casting of 1100 F. This very hot flask temperature combined with flawless sprue systems have brought 950Pd torch casting into practical reality. This is not what we suggest but, hey, only a fool argues with success. Congratulations to some very dedicated casters who found the way. Is that not how we get most of our successes? A tip of the hat to those guys!

Daniel hits the road for palladium and JA!

Hello all. The next palladium seminar is well in the planning stage. You can see and hear just aout everything you need at this event, put on by JA. The title is 950Palladium-The Beginning of the End Of White Gold. Saturday, October 27th from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College, 1501 Hennepin Ave S, Minneapolis

Outcast degassing instructions for casting

Palladium is a strange element that present certain unique problems to the jewelry caster. Unlike gold, silver, copper, and platinum, palladium can absorb hydrogen for later release as porosity or other major casting flaws. Outcast does not contain volatile elements.

As a result, Outcast (or pure Pd) can be degassed by placing in a casting machine that has a vacuum pump. Pull full vacuum, then heat the metal to full flow temperature (usually indicated on a SEIT optical pyro at about 1380C). After the palladium is at full molten temperatures, shut off the heat and allow the palladium to freeze. Repeat once. This will also allow you to see how your pyrometer reads Outcast. Use your safety lens protected eyes to establish how your pyrometer reads Outcast. Each pyrometer is set for a different emissivity. So, palladium readings are only consistent on a given machine. After this process you may cast.

To cast-Flood the casting chamber with your neutral gas, (argon may be best) place the crucible, close up the machine, reheat to full flow temperature, and cast. We suggest full torque. We suggest substantial sprues. Experience in Los Angeles suggests a very good results after three casts without fresh metal. One caster says the second or third time around is the best. This might indicate the degassing process works.

A phenomenon we see is that the gases tend to move to the last part to freeze. So, sprueing is critical. Whatever is the last part to freeze happens to be, voids and shrinkage will often be found. It is not uncommon for large voids to show up in the button.

Questions? Call daniel

800-999-7582

More rhodium input from users-

Thomas from Karen Jewelers in Tennessee called me and he described some issues about plating 950Pd.

I then spoke to Mark Mann (The official tech guy for PAI) and he mentioned good results with lower voltages, warm rhodium solution and extra care in the electro-cleaning stage. He may have worked out the oddities of rhodium plating 950palladium. This post has an important caveat-All 950palladium is not the same alloy. Only Outcast from PMWest was tested by Red Sky Plating successfully. I made no attempt to test TruPd or any other alloy. There are unknown variables here. The real answer as to why palladium is tricky to rhodium plate is not yet clear.
Thomas's note to Mark Mann used by permission-

"Dear Mark,
I surely appreciate your call to me today; real conversation beats email in every way except to convey an image. The conversation may be beneficial to both of us. I did contact TechForm and that was a helpful contact.

The attached images are smaller file sizes than I could have sent but do show how we duplicated the "orange peel" or erosion of the palladium when rhodium plating is attempted. Remember, originally we duplicated the results with water and table salt as the bath.

Richard Knight did the odd formed piece of metal today and shot those photos. We had to violate every rule of jewelry photography to get the defects to show properly. Difficult was this with our "studio" of one desktop fluorescent lamp. Oh my, what a set up.

Details: This test was to duplicate the damage. Since there are many variables, the only definite conclusion is that damage did occur. Both the odd formed piece and the Hoover stock were polished to remove any traces of surface defects similar to the results shown. The odd formed piece is unknown PD950 alloy. We had one ring cast from wax by Platina and another cast from an "in-house" design by Unique Settings. Both of the castings were quite workable and nicely done. Unique did an extra fine job with theirs. The metal for the test today was taken from scrap of one of the items but we do not know which. We have no clue as to the alloys used by either Platina or Unique.

Rhodium was warm from previous use and temp was right at 100f. The Hoover stock was in the bath for 15 secs. at 2 volts. The odd piece was in the bath for 1 minute at 4 volts, a common time and voltage when we want a heavier plate on white gold.

I emphasized shadow detail a slight bit in Photoshop to allow the damage to be more clearly viewed. To the eye, the surface is cloudy and the pitting is not openly obvious. There is an obvious dull appearance due to the surface irregularities, an unacceptable condition for any item leaving our shop. You may let anyone you choose view or have copies of these photos for in-house use.""

One picture is attached of a failed attempt. Tip of the hat to Thomas at Karen's Jewelers, Oak Ridge, Tennessee for taking the time to submit the pictures of their attempts. I am very reluctant to name names of pictures of failed processes. Particularly until we have real confirmed answers to the mystery. It seems to me

Rhodium Plating-The Mystery

I just got off the phone with Neal Bell. No special problems were found or special procedures needed to plate the palladium ring. Very puzzling. Since we have not duplicated the problem, we can only guess at what it might be. One thing is for certain-Rhodium plating requires a very clean surface, and all normal procedures must be strictly adhered to. Please post what your results have been, successful or not. If you simply want to send out your plating work I highly recommend Red Sky Plating. You can contact Neil@redskyplating.com.

http://www.redskyplating.com/

Rhodium plating 950 palladium./Kraftwerks

Some reports have come in that 950palladium is proving difficult to rhodium plate. What happens is a sizing is done with solder that leaves a gray line. This is a good reason to get solders made for 950 palladium. Like our PD-E here at PMWest.

The reported problems have been a cloudy look to the rhodium. Not wanting to let something like this go unsolved, I called my best connection in the plating world-Neil Bell of Red Sky Plating. We spoke and he kindly agreed to try a sample I sent to him. This was a very busy time for him, as he was preparing for the Santa Fe Symposium.
I have received the sample ring back and it looks great.

Soon (today I hope) I will talk to Neil and get the details on what he does to get good results.

Kraftwerks is this weekend. its your best chance to get to see and work with 950 palladium.

How we can work this together...

As the Palladium experience blog gets started, please keep in mind that the blog is set up as a place for users to send us reports of how it’s going out there. We hope to interview major players in the market for hints about what’s to come.

Of course to avoid blog spamming all posts go through me. I assure you posts will all be included short of way off topic or hostile. Later as we develop some regular contributors we will assign them passkeys.

I want to mention that one of the demonstrations at Kraftwerks is all about fabricating with palladium. Rob Fainberg, one of the early fans of Alabaster Pd will be working at the bench for us at Kraftwerks. The dates are September 30^th and October 1^st, 2006.

This is your best chance to see palladium be worked on and to have a chance to work with it yourself before the next shows. If you want to work it sooner, you'll have to buy some.

If you know of an event featuring palladium, just let me know.

How to Stamp Palladium Jewelry

A common question-How should I stamp or "hallmark" palladium jewelry?

The FTC guidelines about palladium are intended for use with platinum, and might be out of context for use. However, Pd and Pall are commonly recognized abbreviations for palladium. There is no minimum palladium content guideline from the FTC. To my knowledge all the new palladium jewelry is 950Pd or more.

According to a recent article in the MJSA Journal PAI is working on a guideline from the FTC. What we suggest for now is to stamp all palladium jewelry either 950Pd or 950PALL.

This will avoid any confusion on the part of the jeweler or the consumer.