# First button using sulfuric acid cell



## Amber (May 6, 2013)

Hello everyone. Today I melted a 1 gram button from 1,146 grams of gold plated jewelry that I processed using a sulfuric acid cell and copper mesh baskets. If I didn't find this forum before I began, I would have wasted a lot of nitric acid to get the same result. Thank you for all the information. Every time I was ready to go to the next step I found lots of posts full of tips and nuggets of wisdom. I am now planning on processing 4 or 5 times the material before cleaning out the cell. Some of the things I learned along the way:
* Don't dip the copper basket in the rinse tank. Dump the de-plated items into a separate basket to rinse. I figured this out as I likely created a dilute sulfuric acid in the rinse tank and began dissolving unwanted metals into the rinse tank.
* Run the cell in the cool months - this helps against overheating.
* Too much SMB can give a false positive when tested with stannous chloride. I wasted some SMB before I figured this out.
* Read everything on this forum.
* Stop and read the forum some more as soon as you question your results.
* Save the items that may have values for later. I think I left some gold behind in my casserole dish that I will claim the next go round.
There really is so much more. I have many notes to help me remember next time.

Here's a question - Once washed and ready to dry and melt, is there any reason not to move the wet gold powder into a prepared melting dish and let it dry there? I think I lost a little getting it unstuck from the evaporation dish.

Cheers,
Amber


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## philddreamer (May 6, 2013)

Howdy Amber!
That's a nice looking button! 
That's how we gain expirience; a little trial and errors, but learning along the way! 8) 

Take care!
Phil


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## Claudie (May 6, 2013)

Those look great! :lol: 
As for the melting dish, I wouldn't put any moisture in it, you want it completely dry when you melt your Gold. I try to avoid any risk of a steam explosion no matter how small it may be.


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## kkmonte (May 6, 2013)

I actually thought of this just yesterday, however then I thought, if my wet gold powder is in the dish, how can I flux my dish with borax and heat it up first (to get rid of any moisture, etc). So I scratched that idea! There is a youtube video on an aluminum steam explosion which shows just how serious/dangerous they can be.


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## Jhuff8181 (May 6, 2013)

Great job Amber. I've seen so many posts stating that processing gold plated jewelry was a waist of time. Thank you for the encouraging post and picture.


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## Amber (May 6, 2013)

Jhuff8181 said:


> I've seen so many posts stating that processing gold plated jewelry was a waist of time.



As a bonus, I found two pieces that were unmarked 14K gold. When they came out of the basket still gold, I put them in again. Still gold, so I tested them. A happy discovery and worth it to me.


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