Help

[Juan Avalos]

I have some material that I need help with im willing to send a piece of it if you are willing to refining it I want to know how much gold is in it.want more info contact me please help.

 

[eaglekeeper]

Pictures of the item might draw more interest.

 

[Yggdrasil]

I have some material that I need help with im willing to send a piece of it if you are willing to refining it I want to know how much gold is in it.want more info contact me please help.

As Eaglekeeper says, images and a roughly position might work to draw interest.

 

[Juan Avalos]

It's from a x-ray tube housing.i work in a recycle center so it's not brass or bronze

 

[Yggdrasil]

It's from a x-ray tube housing.i work in a recycle center so it's not brass or bronze

If you inform the forum of the nearest city and take a few pictures of the item.
People near you can offer their help and the forum can offer insight to the best procedure.

Aren't there Brass and Bronze in this recycling center?

 

[eaglekeeper]

It's from a x-ray tube housing.i work in a recycle center so it's not brass or bronze

If it has a part number, you may be able to look it up on Amazon/google.

 

[Juan Avalos]

Is that good?

 

[Juan Avalos]

Acid test melted a piece

 

[eaglekeeper]

Very important question before you start taking things apart.....Has that x-ray equipment been properly decommissioned?

 

[Juan Avalos]

Yes it is and that's one off the few I have taken apart but this last ones came out gold color

 

[eaglekeeper]

I have no experience with x-ray equipment.

Do you access to an XRF gun.....I wouldn't melt, grind or put acid on it unless you know it doesn't contain something nasty like Beryllium, Cadmium...etc.

It looks like a brass alloy to me or it could just be the picture. When you melted it, did it produce a lot of white smoke.

 

[Juan Avalos]

No on the XRF and negative no smoke at all

 

[Martijn]

I doubt there is any gold there, but you never know. test a small bit in nitric and then AR followed by a stannous test.

I don't get this logic:

I work in a recycle center so it's not brass or bronze

Because you work in a recycle center, it's not brass or bronze? Is that an observation based on your experience?

Anyway, it sure does look like brass, or it's some other alloy. The inside is also yellow, so it's not discoloring from passivation. I does remind me of cadmium color.

 

[eaglekeeper]

No on the XRF and negative no smoke at all

Okay, on the XRF.
Brass will generally produce a white smoke and white/yellow ash in the crucible...pretty toxic stuff.

If you choose to do stannous testing, make sure your wearing protection and doing it outside or fume hood.

 

[Juan Avalos]

It did this when I added the smb is it normal?

 

[eaglekeeper]

I have never seen SMB cause that, Of course I'm very selective on what I dissolve. I hope your wearing protective gear, cause that looks nasty. I wouldn't let that dry out and get airborne, who knows what that will do if you breath it in.

How much did you dissolve??? That looks like more that a small bit.

 

[Juan Avalos]

2g

 

[Martijn]

It did this when I added the smb is it normal?

What did the stannous test say before adding smb?

 

[Martijn]

I really think you have an exotic specific alloy that could be worth quite a bit, which you will know as soon as you analyze it with an XRF.
I don't think there is any gold in it.
Make sure the dataset is big enough to check for all metals.
This recycle center sorts material on sight and maybe magnetism only? They're very likely losing money if they recycle professional equipment where very uncommon and expensive alloys are used.
There are a bunch of different types of stainless steel, aluminum, bronze and brass, etc.

I do not know if any radioactivity the material has been exposed to in the past interferes with the xrf reading.

 

[GoIdman]

It did this when I added the smb is it normal?

The composition of your material may have Molybdenum, Cadmium, Lead, Tungsten an some other material as well...information taken from google when i wrote "Xray tube housing"

Pete

Edit: also found this about the tube assembly. The X-ray tube or http://www.sprawls.org/ppmi2/XRAYPRO/