FYI, Those that scrap old electromechanical relays, contacts and so forth for the silver in the contacts.

Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
xelexo
Advertise with us
Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
justprofessor49

justprofessor49

Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2022
Messages
12
Location
Oregon
Older electromechanical machines, slots, bingo type pinballs, and the like, be aware that cadmium was often used in the silver contacts to help prevent arcing. While most of you are probably aware of this, some newcomers may be unaware of the health effects. Cadmium and its compounds are highly toxic and exposure to this metal is known to cause cancer and targets the body's cardiovascular, renal, gastrointestinal, neurological, reproductive, and respiratory systems.
 
Been discussed on the forum numerous times, but thank you for reminding everyone.

Time for more coffee.
 
There is always room and time for safety reminders. #1 goal of this forum has and always will be how to safely and correctly refine PM's
Thanks for the post.
 
Great....
So how do I refine silver contacts now that we know this?
Any way to get rid of it? How would you treat the solution containing it, what about people who already have it in waste(cement) buckets?

Theres so many questions, everyone here talks of safety, bloody hell we are working with acids, not sugar candy, it's obvious we should wear ppe and follow common sense.

But no one gives solutions, which is just sad.
 
Thirmo21 said:
Great....
So how do I refine silver contacts now that we know this?
Any way to get rid of it? How would you treat the solution containing it, what about people who already have it in waste(cement) buckets?

Theres so many questions, everyone here talks of safety, bloody hell we are working with acids, not sugar candy, it's obvious we should wear ppe and follow common sense.

But no one gives solutions, which is just sad.
Click to expand...
Watch your language.

The reason the specifics are left out is that the specifics vary according to the given situation.
And, that all the answers are in here in the forum for you or anyone to find by yourselves.
 
Yggdrasil said:
Watch your language.

The reason the specifics are left out is that the specifics vary according to the given situation.
And, that all the answers are in here in the forum for you or anyone to find by yourselves.
Click to expand...
I am sorry for offending you but have you ever heard phrase Time is money

People will usually do very crazy or ignorant stuff to get their results
There are many more people like this.


Look
I like that you help begginers who make mistakes on this forum.
But withholding info that isn't trade secret is just unnecessary

I've been doing some digging in this server, and apart from particle and vacuum scrubbers there is no way to get rid of this substance. Unless you want contaminated solution with cadmium in acid.
That is at least from my understanding of it
And I would like to be proven wrong

But still there should be detailed guide listed to get rid of this most common carcinogen in scrap, like seriously this guide would save environment and health of people, while preventing waste.



Screenshot_20231009_122905_com.android.chrome.jpg
 
The best way is to catch it as an oxide when it is melted. This keeps it out of the acid and the resulting sludge which is still toxic. But the bag house type exhaust that catches 99.9% of all particles down to 0.1 microns are costly. Look up the exhaust fume scrubbers welders use to avoid metal fume fever.

The filter cartridge now contains cadmium oxide so it needs to be disposed of properly. But it is a powder and it is contained.

Cadmium is nasty, no 2 ways about it.
 
Thirmo21 said:
I am sorry for offending you but have you ever heard phrase Time is money

People will usually do very crazy or ignorant stuff to get their results
There are many more people like this.


Look
I like that you help begginers who make mistakes on this forum.
But withholding info that isn't trade secret is just unnecessary

I've been doing some digging in this server, and apart from particle and vacuum scrubbers there is no way to get rid of this substance. Unless you want contaminated solution with cadmium in acid.
That is at least from my understanding of it
And I would like to be proven wrong

But still there should be detailed guide listed to get rid of this most common carcinogen in scrap, like seriously this guide would save environment and health of people, while preventing waste.



View attachment 59747
Click to expand...
You misunderstood me.
It is forum rules, we do not allow swearing, foul language, religion or politics in this forum.
And we are not with holding information, of course there are refining specific procedures that are kept secret but as far as I know nothing in the safety section.
There are way to many situations to give an simple answer as you were asking for.
Most of us keep Cadmium and Mercury far away from anything we process.
Orvi and 4Metals have given good advice though.
 
Oh thank you for contribution everyone, I will have to do more research on that.
I am sorry for swearing as well. It's just, well I was quite shocked when I found out that contacts could have such nasty metal in it.
Next time something like this happens I will be more calm.
If I hear yt scrappers talk about precious metals again I will take it with a grain of salt that's for sure 👍
 
Thank you for participating in the discussion. The bottom line is safety and reminders that promote safety are always welcome. As 4metals stated, Cadmium oxide capture is the first defense against exposure, and the easiest to implement. If it were all easy, there wouldn't be controversy, I agree with Yggdrasil that Hg and Cd both are best kept far away from anything we process.
 
The way I look at, if it is of value but contains something very toxic, like cadmium or arsenic for example, I may save it, but send it out to someone with the proper equipment and knowledge to deal with it, while spending my time working on easier or less complicated materials. This way I may make less on the “bad” stuff but it isn’t a complete loss. Of course it all depends on how nasty the “bad” stuff is as well.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top