Boneheaded things you did before you knew better

[geoffbosco]

We all start out at someplace, and we all make beginner mistakes. I've seen random comments on this board of people describing some of their early mistakes, but it might be good instruction for beginners like myself to have a bunch of them in one place, so we don't repeat the same things.

I'll start by saying it was huge mistake for me to start attempting any refining after watching a bunch of YouTube videos and before really looking into this forum to really study and learn the craft.

Geoff

 

[jarlowski1]

While I think your idea is a good one you didn't elaborate into what the result of your mistake was you just said it was a mistake not to study first, which I agree, but explain what went wrong as a result of not studying so those beginners know what the consequence of you not studying was.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

I compiled a few examples a while back in the Why Can't I Ask a Simple Question and get a Simple Answer? thread.

I'll add one of my own. The first time I "refined", I was in high school in the early 1970s. I processed some gold filled scrap, using nitric acid to dissolve the base metal core. There was no internet, I had never heard of Hoke, and the GRF wouldn't be started for over thirty years. My boneheaded mistake was to dispose of the waste solution by pouring it on the ground. :shock: I just didn't know any better.

Dave

 

[geoffbosco]

While I think your idea is a good one you didn't elaborate into what the result of your mistake was you just said it was a mistake not to study first, which I agree, but explain what went wrong as a result of not studying so those beginners know what the consequence of you not studying was.

Yes, you are quite right.

I tried to process some mixed incinerated IC bga lot, and ended up getting all the pm stuck in some kind chemical limbo of hydroxide and chloride salts, that I'm going to have to learn how to deal with in order to get them back.

 

[geoffbosco]

I compiled a few examples a while back in the Why Can't I Ask a Simple Question and get a Simple Answer? thread.

I'll add one of my own. The first time I "refined", I was in high school in the early 1970s. I processed some gold filled scrap, using nitric acid to dissolve the base metal core. There was no internet, I had never heard of Hoke, and the GRF wouldn't be started for over thirty years. My boneheaded mistake was to dispose of the waste solution by pouring it on the ground. :shock: I just didn't know any better.

Dave

Wow...I bet by the time you knew it was a mistake, there was nothing to be done about it. Were you aware of any negative repercussions that happened because of it?

 

[FrugalRefiner]

I'll add one of my own. The first time I "refined", I was in high school in the early 1970s. I processed some gold filled scrap, using nitric acid to dissolve the base metal core. There was no internet, I had never heard of Hoke, and the GRF wouldn't be started for over thirty years. My boneheaded mistake was to dispose of the waste solution by pouring it on the ground. :shock: I just didn't know any better.

Dave

Wow...I bet by the time you knew it was a mistake, there was nothing to be done about it. Were you aware of any negative repercussions that happened because of it?

In truth, I never realized what a mistake it was until I joined the forum.

The visible impact at the time was that when I dumped it, a bunch of worms came crawling up out of the ground. Since we fished, I gathered them up for the next fishing trip. I soon realized it wasn't a good method for getting bait, as they quickly died.

For a while, the grass didn't grow in the area, but the soil was already highly compromised. We lived on the shore of Lake Erie. The local power plant discharged a lot of trash into the lake. From time to time they would dredge it up to keep the channels open, and made the fly ash "available" to anyone who "wanted" it. It was dark and black, so my dad reasoned that it looked like rich topsoil. He had a few loads of it brought in to the lot on our new home. Only when the grass refused to grow did we test the soil (and the fly ash) and find that it was highly acidic. We treated the whole area with lime for quite some time to try to get it back to neutral. So my boneheaded mistake really just blended in with the rest of the brown dirt yard. Obviously, the area was poisoned with copper and other metal salts, but we never knew it at the time.

Dave

 

[geoffbosco]

I'll add one of my own. The first time I "refined", I was in high school in the early 1970s. I processed some gold filled scrap, using nitric acid to dissolve the base metal core. There was no internet, I had never heard of Hoke, and the GRF wouldn't be started for over thirty years. My boneheaded mistake was to dispose of the waste solution by pouring it on the ground. :shock: I just didn't know any better.

Dave

Wow...I bet by the time you knew it was a mistake, there was nothing to be done about it. Were you aware of any negative repercussions that happened because of it?

In truth, I never realized what a mistake it was until I joined the forum.

The visible impact at the time was that when I dumped it, a bunch of worms came crawling up out of the ground. Since we fished, I gathered them up for the next fishing trip. I soon realized it wasn't a good method for getting bait, as they quickly died.

For a while, the grass didn't grow in the area, but the soil was already highly compromised. We lived on the shore of Lake Erie. The local power plant discharged a lot of trash into the lake. From time to time they would dredge it up to keep the channels open, and made the fly ash "available" to anyone who "wanted" it. It was dark and black, so my dad reasoned that it looked like rich topsoil. He had a few loads of it brought in to the lot on our new home. Only when the grass refused to grow did we test the soil (and the fly ash) and find that it was highly acidic. We treated the whole area with lime for quite some time to try to get it back to neutral. So my boneheaded mistake really just blended in with the rest of the brown dirt yard. Obviously, the area was poisoned with copper and other metal salts, but we never knew it at the time.

Dave

I shouldn't lol in the least, but my keen sense of irony can't hold back a chuckle on that one. The 70's were a different time, man-not that I remember it. I was only two on 01/01/1980.

 

[Martijn]

My first mistake was after watching a you tube video about inquarting, I melted a bunch of plated connector pins into shot and just added nitric.
Not knowing that was a waste of acid and would create way too much waste...

Second mistake was treating that shot with way too much nitric, creating a thick cloud of NO gasses which i did not know how to handle. And it almost boiled over.
Not taking the time to study before buying acids and going for the shiny stuff.
Luckily that mess led me to the GRF.

Grabbing the tap water spray bottle to give a silver nitrate filter one last rinse made me feel a bit stupid too.

 

[geoffbosco]

My first mistake was after watching a you tube video about inquarting, I melted a bunch of plated connector pins into shot and just added nitric.
Not knowing that was a waste of acid and would create way too much waste...

I was thinking about trying this at one point before I understood how troublesome tin is, but the better part me went, "Wait, if this was a legitimate way of doing this no one would be waiting three weeks for AP to break down the pins."

 

[Refining Rick]

The one I have done more then once:
I have mistaken my stannous pipet for my solution sucker pipet, leading to a nice black cloud in my otherwise beautiful clear, pregnant solution.
Now my stannous pipets bulb is colored bright red, and I do not leave them both on the table.
I suppose that's more of a bonehead mistake tho.

 

[butcher]

Shipping 17 pounds of mercury as a favor to another forum member who requested some for a vacuum pump without checking the laws was a boneheaded thing I did, that one cost plenty and made all of the lost gold, broken glassware, foam-overs and other spills, a trivial learning lessons in comparison.

 

[Striker33]

1. I poured HCl into a small beaker that was already hot, causing HCl to vaporize immediately. That is very dangerous to breathe, so always start each pour with a cold beaker.

2. Slightly overfilled the Buchner funnel while filtering, and had to sop it up with a wet paper towel and wring it out to recover the gold (small amount).

3. Used an empty soda can instead of a glass beaker full of water to cool off my button after melting powders. One time I accidentally contacted the can with the hot button and it made the surface of the button the purple-gold alloy where it touched, so it was re-refined even though it was a small piece on the surface.

4. Accidentally got a drop of stannous chloride in my beaker of gold solution (doing the test right above the beaker), causing the small dark cloud of precipitate.

5. Broke my corningware dish by trying to use it as thermal insulation on top of my melting dish with the torch, and too much localized heating caused a crack, then a really loud break while cooling down.