Not sure if this is the right place for noobs to post. If not, please advise.
UncleBenBen's beautiful photo has gotten me hooked on gold refining !
It will take a long long time to collect enough e-scrap gold to end up with anything like a gram, never mind an ounce, so i decided to build a cell to strip and collect gold foils as/when i find them. Foils will be much smaller to store than a big pile of PCBs !
The idea is to use 8% white vinegar and table salt with an aquarium bubbler to dissolve the copper under the foils, then use the 'wier effect' to collect the foils in a small pot.
The trick is to get the liquid level to be just under the lip of the collection cup. The rising bubbles kind of push the foils over the 'wier' at the top of the pot.
This was built using a 5L water jug and 6 disposable plastic cups out of the bin. Turns out that all of these can be shaped and welded together with just a knife and a soldering iron. This is 3 cups welded/shaped/have holes poked in them, all with a soldering iron, to form the 'Stripping Cell' and 'Bubbler Chamber'.
The black pen marks are where i cut out the rim of each pot to form the 'wier'.
With the pump on, air bubbles up through the stripping pot, (slowly) dissolves the copper and frees the foils, which get carried upwards by the bubbles and eventually spill over into the collection pot where they settle and cannot escape1. Any that do escape are caught in the outer container. If they are stirred up, eventually they get sucked into the liquid inlet to the bubbler chamber and carried back up towards the collection pot.
After a couple of days, most of the foils have been stripped and wound up in the pot.
The solution is a nice blue from the dissolved copper.
Besides being very cheap and easy, this rig takes up very little space and smells only faintly of vinegar.
1 the foils can all get out of the collection pot if cap'n bumblefuk picks up, then drops the pot, like i did, twice.
UncleBenBen's beautiful photo has gotten me hooked on gold refining !
It will take a long long time to collect enough e-scrap gold to end up with anything like a gram, never mind an ounce, so i decided to build a cell to strip and collect gold foils as/when i find them. Foils will be much smaller to store than a big pile of PCBs !
The idea is to use 8% white vinegar and table salt with an aquarium bubbler to dissolve the copper under the foils, then use the 'wier effect' to collect the foils in a small pot.
The trick is to get the liquid level to be just under the lip of the collection cup. The rising bubbles kind of push the foils over the 'wier' at the top of the pot.
This was built using a 5L water jug and 6 disposable plastic cups out of the bin. Turns out that all of these can be shaped and welded together with just a knife and a soldering iron. This is 3 cups welded/shaped/have holes poked in them, all with a soldering iron, to form the 'Stripping Cell' and 'Bubbler Chamber'.
The black pen marks are where i cut out the rim of each pot to form the 'wier'.
With the pump on, air bubbles up through the stripping pot, (slowly) dissolves the copper and frees the foils, which get carried upwards by the bubbles and eventually spill over into the collection pot where they settle and cannot escape1. Any that do escape are caught in the outer container. If they are stirred up, eventually they get sucked into the liquid inlet to the bubbler chamber and carried back up towards the collection pot.
After a couple of days, most of the foils have been stripped and wound up in the pot.
The solution is a nice blue from the dissolved copper.
Besides being very cheap and easy, this rig takes up very little space and smells only faintly of vinegar.
1 the foils can all get out of the collection pot if cap'n bumblefuk picks up, then drops the pot, like i did, twice.