small amounts to process

Greetings from Denmark

i've been scouting around at this impressively informative website all night, trying to find a topic on this subject, but it turned out to be without any Luck so far, so here goes!

I an totaly, as in TOTALLY, NEW, to refining en extracting PM!

I have gathered ( not finished ) a Small amount of various items to process, mostly, computer parts as, IC's, CPU's, gold pins and Stuff Like that!

QUESTION?

I have around ( when im finished ) approx in ic's 5-600 grams to process, will it be a overkill to build a fumehood, cause i only have a ( pretty large thou ) shed, at probably about 15x3.5 meters and 3 meters to ceiling, and i hope to continue on processing gathered materials, twice a year, but as said im unsure wether to build a hood or not!

all inputs are appriciated thanks in advance!

Kind regards from

kennet

Welcome to the forum Kennet.

Yes, build a hood. It doesn't have to be fancy. You can always upgrade it in the future if you find you really enjoy this new endeavor.

Dave

I consider a fume hood to be a must have. They are the only reason I don't have lung problems after 20 years of working in various industrial acid and chemical processes.

Even small amounts of recovery and refining fumes can be very dangerous to your lungs, working outside does not always blow the fumes away from you.

You might also want to consider a small scrubber system too.

Like Dave said it does not have to be fancy or large, mine sits in a corner of the shop. Takes up less room than a small writing desk.

If you process small amounts inside a shed without ventilation the acidic fumes will attach to all metal surfaces in the shed. More than one member had to replace all their tools after they rusted.
The main culprit is the hydrochloric acid which actually is a gas dissolved in water, it will attack any exposed iron and then stay in the rust and catalytically eat it's way through the metal. Just imagine dipping every metal object in the shed in salt water and wait for the reaction.

And as other have pointed out, you only have one set of lungs.

For small amounts of refining without a fume hood, do it outside and don't store any acidic solutions that can emit vapors inside the shed.

Göran

About the only difference in running small lots and large lots is the size and cost of the equipment. In general, the processes are the same and, with both, you need fume control.

Gotta have a fume hood or an exhaust that will draw the fumes away from your face and take them out of the building. The only alternative is to do the work outside while standing upwind. This works fairly well until the wind changes direction or it's a very still day. When I've been forced to work outside, I often used a fan. With both methods, fume hood or outside, the fumes end out in the open air. Some, like NOx fumes, are heavy, and tend to cling to the ground, especially when there's not a lot of wind. All acid fumes are noxious. In most cases, I would want to be at least 100 meters away from any neighbors. Also, all acid fumes are corrosive and will readily attack some metals, especially steel and aluminum.

In the US, to be totally legal and also to be a good citizen, environmentally speaking, you need a fume scrubber. It's purpose is to collect the acid (mostly) fumes coming from the fume hood and treat them so they will be absorbed into the scrubber liquid and not enter the atmosphere. The red-brown fumes (NO2) generated when metals are dissolved in nitric acid or aqua regia are very visible, especially from the air.

There are some good threads on this forum that can help you build your own fume hood and scrubber.