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Will check links soon, thank you! Sorry not a lot here either. I have been busy, and my mom is visiting from New York.

We should start by mentioning your idea of keeping samples off of a large heat sink. I am thinking of suspending samples a few millimeters above a protective surface, like a fire brick? (I'm searching for a fire brick, what are you planning to use?) Obviously a bare strand of copper wire comes to mind first; is easy to shape, starts the range off at a 1083'C melting point, could open a pre-warning circuit, and its cheaper than gold. My second guess is steel wire at 1510'C, and glass from a bottle (common soda-lime glass) at 1675'C.

My real problem with picking elements off a chart is getting a pure sample. Known alloy products with melting point specs from the manufacturer would be ideal. I'm still looking/brainstorming.

I haven't decided anything to use, I just realised a metal saucer wasn't going to work. A fire brick sounds good though. Maybe deciding a set mass for samples might be a good idea, how dose 0.5g sound? I would rather common found elements to ones that would need to be purchased, especially as we are never going to be exact if this is to used outdoors (will you be using this for your solar laser cutter). I suppose the materials would need to be dulled so as not to reflect heat (crushing the glass maybe)

All sounds great! Yes, my solar project will be dedicated to this for
now (problems pending). Metal saucer was funny; I was thinking cast
iron until I realized what I was putting on top of it had a higher
melting point :P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melting_point This wiki article has 3 fantastic links at the bottom, The internet and sun have been unreliable this weekend so not a lot done for my part.