Noob From Steamboat

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bci

New member
Joined
Jul 10, 2018
Messages
4
Hey all,

Just joined up. I have become very interested in refining as a new and hopefully profitable hobby.

My interest began as an outdoorsman up here in the Yampa Valley of northwest Colorado. One day while mixing water and flour to cook up some bannock, my titanium wedding ring slipped off into the snow. I started doing research on buying a metal detector to go find it. Then I got into researching prospecting. Then I got into researching precious metal refining. At the end of the YouTube hole, I found Sreetips, who led me here.

I still haven't found my ring but I hope I've found my new hobby. Always been interested in chemistry and love performing tasks step-by-step.

Recently built a new house and would like to transform my garage into a mini refining shop. Though, I wish I knew about fume hoods while the house was being built. Thankfully the weather where I live is pretty mild...well, except for winter.

Right now the first step seems to be collecting karat scrap from garage sales and the like. I'd like to start small and use any profits to slowly upgrade and build up my shop. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Excited to start this new journey. Hope to speak to you all on the other sections of the board!
 
Welcome to the forum bci!

There is a lot of less than reliable information on youtube. You've done well by finding Kevin's (Pete's :) ) videos. His user name here is kadriver because he used to fly King Air aircraft.

I wouldn't recommend using the garage. Build a separate, detached building for refining. If you use a garage, you'll quickly find everything in the garage covered with a coat of rust, not to mention the hazard to anyone living in the house. Even with a hood, it's not a good practice.

I like to recommend the Tips for Navigating and Posting on the Forum thread to new members, especially lazersteve's Guided Tour to the forum. It will help you understand how the forum works and help you find the information you'd like.

If you have questions along the way, we'll do our best to help point you in the right direction.

Dave
 
Thanks for the welcome!

I don't have much room on the property to build another building. Was thinking about renting a live-work in town or just doing the reactions outside. Any resources or tutorials on an outdoor setup you could recommend?
 
Thanks for the welcome!

I don't have much room on the property to build another building. Was thinking about renting a live-work in town or just doing the reactions outside. Any resources or tutorials on an outdoor setup you could recommend?
You better not be in the process of melting gold when those drops of rain hit that hot glass. I found that out when i did my very first reaction outside under a hood. Some water got splashed up onto the flash and it blew up on me. The number one thing to do is be extra careful. Number two thing is to re check that you are being extra careful which includes gloves, mask and whatever other protective gear you plan on using. Don't allow acid to get one certain kinds of gloves as they will ignite on fire and burn you before you get them off. Honestly if i had the choice, i would make myself and everyone else take a mandatory class for 4 months on safety because many of men have been killed or injured in irreparable ways by playing around with this stuff. If you don't educate yourself and respect even the slightest action that you take, it can and will bite you in ways you will wish to God you could go back in time and do things differently. Educate, be careful and be even more careful. Can't stress this enough to noobs.
 
As Dave pointed out doing any reactions using the acids needed inside will wreck beyond repair any tools , equipment or motors.
The fumes produced are toxic and corrosive so if you have close neighbors you may make yourself highly unpopular if you recover and refine outside. You can use a closed system but it costs more to set up but id still suggest not doing inside a garage in case of leaks , spills or disasters.
A simple shed can be used as a lab if you are only doing small reactions or lots, keeping kids , pets and wildlife away is a must.
 
You better not be in the process of melting gold when those drops of rain hit that hot glass. I found that out when i did my very first reaction outside under a hood. Some water got splashed up onto the flash and it blew up on me. The number one thing to do is be extra careful. Number two thing is to re check that you are being extra careful which includes gloves, mask and whatever other protective gear you plan on using. Don't allow acid to get one certain kinds of gloves as they will ignite on fire and burn you before you get them off. Honestly if i had the choice, i would make myself and everyone else take a mandatory class for 4 months on safety because many of men have been killed or injured in irreparable ways by playing around with this stuff. If you don't educate yourself and respect even the slightest action that you take, it can and will bite you in ways you will wish to God you could go back in time and do things differently. Educate, be careful and be even more careful. Can't stress this enough to noobs.
He has not been on the forum since January 2019.
So I doubt he will see your post.
 
I'm two children richer and finally have some time to study the hobby more. Looking into DIY fume hoods and trying to figure out the venting situation in my garage/workshop. Need to study!
 
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