stripping gold fingers without chemicals

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blackwolf365

Active member
Joined
Nov 26, 2017
Messages
43
a thought occurred to me earlier today. what if you were to load a bunch of gold fingers into a pressure cooker and cook them under max pressure? would that strip the foils of or would it ruin the fingers? or would it do nothing but water-log the pcb board?

i havent tried it myself. i was wondering if anyone had tried this and if so, how successful it was.
 
We could work hard to come up with a whole new box full of magic tricks, and try a few of the thousands of other tricks.

Well, I would rather spend my time learning the tried and verified methods.
 
You have to remember that the gold visible on the fingers is only a very small percentage of the metals that make up the fingers as the first metal used I believe is copper then nickel and finally gold which is plated very thinly in most cases.
We have had members who peeled the metal off, shaved it, filed it but it still is a mix of metals which you either have to remove the base metals from or dissolve the gold and most likely the base metals, why bother when Hcl and an air bubbler gets the same result.
 
i know that gold isnt the only metal in the foils. only a lame-brained goober would think otherwise. gold is to valuable and useful to use in its pure form for these foils.

but that begs the following question: what about the nickel and copper? do they get ignored/forgotten here?

i did a quick search on the web for scrap prices of nickel and copper. copper goes for $1.45 to $2.30 a pound. nickel goes for $0.10 to $0.35 a pound.

one has to wonder how much money in nickel and copper gets thrown away because they just dont get thought of.
 
out of curiosity if nothing else, is it possible to use an electrorefining cell that has one anode and 3 cathodes to refine out the metals in escrap? or would to much of the other metals combine on each of the cathodes?
 
blackwolf365,
If you do just a little bit of research you will soon find all of those questions answered, the forum is full of new members with all of these "new ideas" and seek to find a better way of doing things, before they even learn how the chemistry works, or much at all about the subject.

Before inventing the wheel, how about you doing some study to gain an understanding of the subject, so your questions are at least somewhat intelligent...
 
Butcher words that very well.

Learn the basics and THEN look at ways to improve things. Once you've nailed the chemistry behind what you do, you can tweak things to your own needs, but mostly you'll find that the most effective ways to do things are already presented here.
 
no worries there. i plan on doing just that: starting with the basics. experiment with what you know, not with what you dont. i was just curious if it was actually possible of if it was just a pipe dream.
 
butcher, i wasnt trying to 'improver' persay. just hoping to find a way to make it easier to extract gold, copper and nickel alike.

even if i cnt do it with 3 cathodes, theres got to be another way to get the nickel and copper.

when i ab able to do this finaly, id be a fool to pass up the chance to make more money by getting the copper and nickel out as well. even if i have to disole the pre-refined block of metal into solution and precipitate them out one at a time.
 
and please dont think i wont do any research into things. many a time, random questions just pop into my head, so i ask them. and, if nothing else, i hope to get pointed in the direction of what data i need to find.
 
You can recover some metals through separating them mechanically, copper aluminum ...
but to try to recover or refine these metals on a hobby scale through chemical or electrolysis means is a losing proposition for the home refiner.

You will spend more time energy and money than the metal is worth to get it to a saleable form that a scrap yard would buy.
 
blackwolf365 said:
and please dont think i wont do any research into things. many a time, random questions just pop into my head, so i ask them. and, if nothing else, i hope to get pointed in the direction of what data i need to find.

Are you planning on all the proper toxic waste disposal? That is usually puts ideas out of reach.
 
blackwolf365 said:
i know that gold isnt the only metal in the foils. only a lame-brained goober would think otherwise. gold is to valuable and useful to use in its pure form for these foils.

First off all - that is a total assumption on your part - gold plating used in electronics is VERY NEAR pure if not pure --- it ALL falls with in the specs of 24 karat - which is considered pure

There are 3 "types" of gold plating (used in electronics) depending on the application - such as solderability - resistance to wear - low voltage conductivity - etc.

Type 1 = minimum purity of 99.7 %

Type 2 = minimum purity of 99 %

Type 3 = minimum purity of 99.9

In the type 1 & type 2 plating cobalt is used as a hardener - but if you look at the numbers - that means even in the type 2 there is ONLY 1 gram cobalt in a 100 gram gold bar ( 100 gram bar = 99 grams gold/1 gram cobalt) = 24 karat gold = pure gold

In other words - high purity of gold is needed/required - first for "low volt" conductivity - as well as durable/reliable solder connections - & in the case of where parts are removable/replaceable a VERY small amount of cobalt is added (for hardener) without effecting conductivity (which runs at such a low DC voltage it is considered a "signal")

You can read about it here

:arrow: http://proplate.com/gold-plating-services.html

but that begs the following question: what about the nickel and copper? do they get ignored/forgotten here?

i did a quick search on the web for scrap prices of nickel and copper. copper goes for $1.45 to $2.30 a pound. nickel goes for $0.10 to $0.35 a pound.

one has to wonder how much money in nickel and copper gets thrown away because they just don't get thought of.

Per the underlined - again - you "assume" these metals get ignored/forgotten --- if you follow "proper" waste treatment procedure those metals are recovered by a process called cementing wherein you use iron to drop (or cement) those metals back out of solution --- those meals can then be smelted & poured into bars & sold as the copper alloy known as nickel brass --- once the copper/nickel is cemented out of the solution - you end up with a solution of dissolved iron - that solution is then treated with sodium hydroxide which drops the iron out (as a hydroxide) which can be filtered out & sent to the dump & the filtered solution dumped down the drain


That's the short story --- to do it "right" you need to do MUCH more research on "proper" waste treatment because if not done right you will be throwing away & dumping down the drain toxic AND corrosive waste

Did you get what I underlined there - I said --- toxic AND corrosive ---- if you are going to do this - you need to understand the toxic AND corrosive nature of this & how to deal with that FACT so that you don't put your self & OTHERS in harms way

That means you NEED to start doing more reseach --- MUCH more research --- it's ALL here on the forum

Kurt
 
blackwolf365 said:
many a time, random questions just pop into my head, so i ask them

Bad idea

Maybe refine your questions first:
Filter 1: search button
Filter 2: common sense

It's really the least you could do to pay your respects to this community and you'll find folks becoming much friendlier if you do that...

Totally off topic there was this saying that "someone" could ask more questions than a hundred wise man could answer...
 
ok now. before we go further down this road that leads to unpleasantness...

im not trying to be a smartypants here, guys. i started this thread on the idea that there might just be an easier and cheaper way to refine gold fingers. at least in the initial few stages of the process.

if pressure cooking can actually pop the foils off the boards, then its a simple matter of washing the foils with some nitric or hydrochloric acid.

being as the gold is, as was stated in an earlier post on this thread, a high level of purity already: then this idea just might save one at least a few bucks during the full process. maybe even some time as well.

as for cementing out the remaining nickel/copper, i haven't before heard of any way to do that. thats why i assumed that not to many people even thought about them. and when it comes to assuming, as i have so 'eloquently' proven here...
 
I wouldn't be totally opposed to the idea of trying to dislodge the foils with wet heat like a pressure cooker. The Copper on a PCB is glued to the fiberglass with a glue that is definitely heat sensitive, I have peeled tracks of PCBs while heating the board with a desoldering station.

I think you would have to somehow mechanically peel the Copper while heating, so not sure how you would do that, but it is an easy enough experiment to do with a handful of trimmed fingers, so please try it and let us know how it goes.

Other than that, I have to generally agree with the group, asking questions that is a thousand miles ahead of where you are creates the perception that you are very young. The best advice will come when you try something on a small scale, note down what you expect to happen and what actually happened, then ask for advice.
 
kernels said:
I wouldn't be totally opposed to the idea of trying to dislodge the foils with wet heat like a pressure cooker. The Copper on a PCB is glued to the fiberglass with a glue that is definitely heat sensitive, I have peeled tracks of PCBs while heating the board with a desoldering station.

I think you would have to somehow mechanically peel the Copper while heating, so not sure how you would do that, but it is an easy enough experiment to do with a handful of trimmed fingers, so please try it and let us know how it goes.

Other than that, I have to generally agree with the group, asking questions that is a thousand miles ahead of where you are creates the perception that you are very young. The best advice will come when you try something on a small scale, note down what you expect to happen and what actually happened, then ask for advice.

no need for that. theres a guy that has a vid on youtube where he uses his soldering iron to scrape the foils off. not a bad idea for a small amount of chips, but a royal "B" if you have a large amount to do.
 
Yep, a search will show that that has also been dealt with on the forum, conclusion was that it wasn't a good way to go for the amount of time that it takes. I think I even gave a yield on that thread of how much Gold you would get per gram of soldering iron removed foils. I processed some for a guy once upon a time that removed them like that.
 
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