Lesson to be learned

To all newbe's like me,

I did not know where to post this so mods feel free to put it where it needs to be.

After two days of work, I started to denox my pins, I was using a baking dish.
Here is the pics of what happened - needless to say I am sick now but will prevaile the next time. In short make sure you use the right type of glassware for your process. I have already ordered pyrex.

Thanks
Ken

I think most of us have been in the same position and feel your pain. There is still hope wash everything into another dish and continue on. Even some of the stufff in the rock's can be salvaged. And keep your head up.

Thanks for the encourgement, I am headed to that now - after a cup of coffee. I will continue to learn, even by mistakes. So I will put on my happy Face and move forward with the project.

Ken :mrgreen:

Except for coffee pots and labware, such as beakers, Pyrex won't take direct heat at all. Even beakers will break if there is a tiny scratch near the bottom or if it is heated too much, too fast. For this reason, if you do use coffee pots or beakers, I would still strongly advise ALWAYS placing them inside a "catch" dish that will take direct heat. Regular ceramic or Pyrex baking dishes or ceramic crock pots are worthless and will definitely break with direct heat. The only new dishes I totally trust are those presently made by Corning under the names Pyroceram and StoveTop. They're not cheap. I use the new 5 quart (or, 5 liter) square white ones and they cost about $60 each. Corning stopped making them in 1999 but started again in 2009. There are lots of the older ones (1958-1999) made of the same material that work. In this link, I know the old Spice of Life and Cornflower styles work, but I haven't used the others. Also, the transparent amber (or, cranberry) colored Visions style in the link will work.
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=corning+5+quart&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=

I just bought 4 of these new ones and they work great. Very easy to clean. Read the interesting Product Details on the link. They're on sale now ($10 off) and sometimes they are 2 for the price of one. If you want a lid, it must be bought separately. Most of the older ones on eBay come with lids.
http://www.shopworldkitchen.com/corningware/stovetop-just-white-casserole-jw-5c-b

Thanks GSP I will go and order a few.

Ken

I have been using a sand bath. I have seen it before and thought it was worth a try. I also saw the hot plate in a cat litter box just in case of spills.

I did invest in some expensive glassware that can take direct heat, but it still needs to be handled gingerly. I have broken a few 30 dollar boiling flasks because I was impatient. I would almost rather get a kick in the groin than see the flask and gold spill out everywhere.

chefjosh77 said:

I would almost rather get a kick in the groin than see the flask and gold spill out everywhere.

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Me too :lol: I think I would feel better....

I will build me a sandbox... :mrgreen:

I normally use sand baths for only very hot solutions such as strong sulfuric. What I don't like about them is that the hot dry sand tends to cling and crawl up the outside of the beaker and it's hard to keep it out of the solution. Static electricity, I guess.

GSP, would it be better to build a box out of wood and line it with EPDM rubber, I have some of that left from a roofing job i done. It is 60mil thick.

Ken

The main purpose of the sand bath is to apply heat to the bottom 3/4 inch, or so, of the beaker, uniformly, so it is less likely to break. I just put about 1 - 1.5 inches of sand in a thick skillet, put the bottom of the beaker down into the sand about 1/2", pack a little sand up around the bottom sides of the beaker, add the solution I want to heat, and put the skillet on the hot plate.

This will generally keep the beaker from breaking but, if it does break or, if you drip some values into the sand, it's very difficult to recover them. About the only time I use a sand bath is when I want to get concentrated sulfuric very hot, say, 300-400F. However, hot sulfuric is very dangerous and is not something a newbie should ever mess with. For routine hot acids, such as aqua regia, I would suggest simply putting a beaker in a Corning dish, as discussed in my previous post. It's much simpler, you don't have to deal will the messy sand, and, if the beaker does break (rare), it's easy to clean up and collect all the values.

Thanks GSP i do the dish thing it sounds better then the sand.
Thanks again
Ken

Awww, sorry to see that, that sucks.

I would get my vacuum cleaner and put a paper towel or tissue on the end, turn it on and suck the gold onto the tissue, turn the vacuum cleaner off and wipe the gold off and keep doing this until you've picked most of it up off the ground then add water and float off the organic matter then incinerate some of the heavier organic matter and float off with water again and you should have a fairly clean mix of gold after that.

Remember the Vacuum cleaner trick, it works like a charm as long as what your trying to lift/suck is not too heavy...

stihl88 said:

Awww, sorry to see that, that sucks.

I would get my vacuum cleaner and put a paper towel or tissue on the end, turn it on and suck the gold onto the tissue, turn the vacuum cleaner off and wipe the gold off and keep doing this until you've picked most of it up off the ground then add water and float off the organic matter then incinerate some of the heavier organic matter and float off with water again and you should have a fairly clean mix of gold after that.

Remember the Vacuum cleaner trick, it works like a charm as long as what your trying to lift/suck is not too heavy...

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That's a great idea! :lol:

stihl88 said:

Awww, sorry to see that, that sucks.

I would get my vacuum cleaner and put a paper towel or tissue on the end, turn it on and suck the gold onto the tissue, turn the vacuum cleaner off and wipe the gold off and keep doing this until you've picked most of it up off the ground then add water and float off the organic matter then incinerate some of the heavier organic matter and float off with water again and you should have a fairly clean mix of gold after that.

Remember the Vacuum cleaner trick, it works like a charm as long as what your trying to lift/suck is not too heavy...

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I would have...but i used my shop vac on my fume hood to suck the fumes out...BTW it works Great!!

Ken

jeneje said:

stihl88 said:

Awww, sorry to see that, that sucks.

I would get my vacuum cleaner and put a paper towel or tissue on the end, turn it on and suck the gold onto the tissue, turn the vacuum cleaner off and wipe the gold off and keep doing this until you've picked most of it up off the ground then add water and float off the organic matter then incinerate some of the heavier organic matter and float off with water again and you should have a fairly clean mix of gold after that.

Remember the Vacuum cleaner trick, it works like a charm as long as what your trying to lift/suck is not too heavy...

Click to expand...

I would have...but i used my shop vac on my fume hood to suck the fumes out...BTW it works Great!!

Ken

Click to expand...

You have the possability of it taking your motor out.

Barren Realms 007 said:

You have the possability of it taking your motor out.

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Barren, it probably will but the way i made it - it is protected from the fumes with 12 filters in the first tank you see beside the hood, the second tank has the plastic packing in it and is being scrubed with water and soda. On the inside of the hood you will see a circle of holes for the intake along with two 4" pvc Ts to help remove the air. At the bottom in the front is a grove to replace fresh air after it is scrubed. All this sets outside of my shed. On the inside there are 10 5gallon buckets that I use to leach with using AP. So far knock on wood it has not failed. :lol: but as my luck has been today who knows. The woodwork I done myself along with piping the tile andeverything else you see. The only costs were the plumbing and the five gallon buckets total I have about $350.00 in the setup, not bad for a newbe. I learned all this from the site and for that I am grateful.

Ken

Pic are in reverse order sorry.

That is a nice work area. And you should be ok then. Do you have a way of drining the condensation from your vent piping in the low areas?

To tell you the truth I had not though about that, do you have any ideas I am open for any suggestions that will help.

Ken

Where you hub of your lowest fitting is you can drill a hole and tap it and screw a plastic valve to drain it. Make sure it is in a hub so the hub and the pipe together will give you extra threads to screw into.

Barren Realms 007 said:

Where you hub of your lowest fitting is you can drill a hole and tap it and screw a plastic valve to drain it. Make sure it is in a hub so the hub and the pipe together will give you extra threads to screw into.

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The fitting should be like a drain cock for an air compressor or bigger.

Ken

BTW thanks Barren for all your help today.