Tektronix Ceramic Tube help

I have 51 broken Tek Ceramic tubes that are plated. I have read every post I could find on this site about the plated tubes. I thought I was ready to go, but ran into a couple of issues. First my process:
I started by removing all of the metal and as much of the non plated ceramic as I could. Then I made a small bowl of 4:1 31%HCL:67%HNO3 AR and in a well ventilated area where I am sitting up wind of the solution, I dipped the shards into the AR until the plating is gone. On some that is 3-4 seconds and on others with thicker plating it can take a couple of minutes. The process had been going really well, and the AR is beautiful.



I have a lot more to do and I realize as the AR gets more and more saturated, I need to be careful about rinsing the shards as I remove them from the AR. I have been putting them in a second empty dish for draining, but I need to rinse them.



and it is here that I have my question. I am looking for some advice on how to minimize loss from AR sticking to the ceramic. I could spray each down with water in a spray bottle, but that would be messy with concentrated AR. I could dip each in a second bath of water, which will leave me with a VERY dilute gold baring solution. Any suggestions would be helpful.



The second issue has to do with getting the items out of the AR. I don't like sticking my gloved fingers in or even all that near the AR. I have been using a glass rod to retrieve the pieces, but over time I will break the rod and/or the ceramic scraping against the glass is not going to do well over the full batch. I am looking for suggestions for how to get the shards into and out of the solution.

Thank you in advance for your help.

pokermandown said:

and it is here that I have my question. I am looking for some advice on how to minimize loss from AR sticking to the ceramic. I could spray each down with water in a spray bottle, but that would be messy with concentrated AR. I could dip each in a second bath of water, which will leave me with a VERY dilute gold baring solution. Any suggestions would be helpful.

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I would set up a series of two or three rinse containers. As the parts come out of AR, I would rinse them through the series. By the time you get to the final rinse there should be very little value left. Check the final rinse with stannous from time to time and if you start to see appreciable values, you can add another container. It should generate less waste than spraying all the parts down.

The second issue has to do with getting the items out of the AR. I don't like sticking my gloved fingers in or even all that near the AR. I have been using a glass rod to retrieve the pieces, but over time I will break the rod and/or the ceramic scraping against the glass is not going to do well over the full batch. I am looking for suggestions for how to get the shards into and out of the solution.

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Plastic tweezers. Pet store sometimes carry large tweezers for feeding pets. Lazersteve also sells some and I believe he says they're better than the typical pet store versions.

One extra suggestion; you need to do your processing farther away from your car and your garage. The fumes from AR will soon coat everything made of steel with a coat of rust. If that's your neighbor's driveway I see, you should find somewhere else to work.

Dave

Sorry that i steal your thread, but i have a same question: If i spray and dilute my AR too much can i simply evaporate extra water ?

stingray said:

Sorry that i steal your thread, but i have a same question: If i spray and dilute my AR too much can i simply evaporate extra water ?

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If you mean spraying and rinsing into the AR, I wouldn't suggest it. As you say, you'd be diluting your AR. Better to rinse into a separate container. You can combine them when the AR is exhausted and you're ready to precipitate. You can't simply evaporate extra water from AR because as you do some of the acids will also evaporate.

Dave

I knew a guy that processed several tons of those Tektronix CRTs each month. Also, Tek stripped a lot of them in-house. In both cases, they used cyanide in a tumbler.

Great idea. Thank you!

I got a pair of plastic serving tongs at walmart for picking out large peices from my solutions. Just dont leave them in the solution when you're not using them.

One other thought is to rinse the pieces in your stock pot so any values can be collected later.

So simple but great idea Nick ! That is precisely why this forum is so great. 8)

Don’t load too much in at a time and make sure the solution washes over all the pieces and flows off just do it at your leisure and make sure you have plenty of copper in the stock pot.