# Sulfuric cell tutorial with photos



## kjavanb123 (May 18, 2013)

All,

Interesting link showing steps used in sulfuric acid cell. 

http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/550-gold-motherboard-chemistry.html#comments

Regards
Kevin


----------



## necromancer (May 19, 2013)

i do not see a tutorial, just lots of comments, do i have to signup to see the tutorial ??

thanks


----------



## g_axelsson (Jun 7, 2013)

It's on top of the page. Scroll up or use this link instead.
http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/550-gold-motherboard-chemistry.html

Göran


----------



## Bigwood247 (Jun 7, 2013)

Where is this tutorial all I see is comments no sulpheric instruction


----------



## g_axelsson (Jun 7, 2013)

Bigwood247 said:


> Where is this tutorial all I see is comments no sulpheric instruction


Did you try the link I provided?

It works for me.

Göran


----------



## jmdlcar (Jun 7, 2013)

Hi,

This might help everyone out with Sulfuric cell. 

Delete it if needed.

Jack



> Sulfuric cell
> ========
> First time electrolyzer de-plating
> 
> ...


----------



## bswartzwelder (Jun 8, 2013)

Thank you for that fine post. Steve has certainly spent a huge amount of time writing it and has put much thought into the content. Many people on the forum have or will benefit from the writings of Harold, Steve, Butcher, and Patnor to name just a few. I think you guys could write a book similar to Hoke's which would be more up to date for the various types of scrap we are enountering and the differences in chemicals and processes we use today.


----------



## butcher (Jun 8, 2013)

bswartzwelder, you are also part of that book being written, it is called the gold refining forum.


----------



## Bigwood247 (Jun 14, 2013)

im having trouble when i run my sulpheric cell i hook up the the positive to the basket of copper mesh filled with pins and the negitive to a lead cathode i used rooto drain cleaner and i go to power on and it turns on for like 2 mins then cuts out and i noticed a copper covered cathode im using a 12 amp 6 volt manual power supply the electrolite is also got a clear bluish tinge to it so i thought mabe its dilute for some strange reason so i boiled it for a cpl hours and it lost like a littile liquid but not that much at all say like a 1/8 so i know that its concetrated enough does anyoone know whats wrong ive tried everytihng i can think of and im only running like 100 grams of pins at a time im using lazer steves directions form his web sight and i got apprx 3 - 3.5 inches between anode and cathode somone please help ive ordered over a lb of 1960s military airplane heavey 50u gold plated scrap and it will only run for like 2 mins then cuts off and a green light turns on saying to check politary and then it will turn back on for another 2 mins then cut out agian


----------



## Marcel (Jun 15, 2013)

As usual, Tom´s hardware did not cover this process very well. The article is missing important information and simply skips parts just to get their story. I have seen this with their tutorial for processing CPUs as well. From the wording I would assume that they read through GRF copied the process and put this article together in a haste.
Let me just take a few points:

The HCl plus bleach step:
The say that the filter contains metals. We know there are basemetals and gold after using the cell in the sludge.
By simply adding HCl + Cl, copper and other BMs will lead to zementation and stop the disolution.
Basemetals would have to be removed prior to dissolving the gold. I miss that step.

The yield/ result:
I doubt that the button is the result of those few pins that they have harvested from the motherboards. We see they are contaminated with tin, and only partly plated. In addition those pins yield very, very low.
So what the did is take some button (maybe the leftover from the CPU processing?) and made a picture that will give a viewer the impression, one could harvest a small pure gold button just by harvesting a few motherboards. This is not true.
In addition there are no yields. This is no proper documentation. How much raw material went in, how much gold came out? What was the purity? How about other PMs like Pd that are present as well?

I really dont like the way they tread this subject, because it remains on the surface and will create more myths about this process.
Also they should have referred to GFR and name it as source, because I strongly doubt that this idea has come from any other place.
If you need a proper tutorial on the goldcell the only place in the internet that I know that covers it 360° is here at GRF. As a good journalist you should credit and name your sources.

Just my 2 cents...


----------



## g_axelsson (Jun 15, 2013)

Bigwood247 said:


> im having trouble when i run my sulpheric cell i hook up the the positive to the basket of copper mesh filled with pins and the negitive to a lead cathode i used rooto drain cleaner and i go to power on and it turns on for like 2 mins then cuts out and i noticed a copper covered cathode im using a 12 amp 6 volt manual power supply the electrolite is also got a clear bluish tinge to it so i thought mabe its dilute for some strange reason so i boiled it for a cpl hours and it lost like a littile liquid but not that much at all say like a 1/8 so i know that its concetrated enough does anyoone know whats wrong ive tried everytihng i can think of and im only running like 100 grams of pins at a time im using lazer steves directions form his web sight and i got apprx 3 - 3.5 inches between anode and cathode somone please help ive ordered over a lb of 1960s military airplane heavey 50u gold plated scrap and it will only run for like 2 mins then cuts off and a green light turns on saying to check politary and then it will turn back on for another 2 mins then cut out agian


Your blue tint of the acid and the fact that you got copper on the cathode is a sure sign of too weak acid. I haven't tried to concentrate sulphuric acid via boil down myself so if your boil down was enough or not I leave to someone else to tell.
The problem with the charger cutting out is simply a too smart charger. It detects that you're not trying to charge a battery and turns off. Use a simpler charger or a general power supply.

Göran


----------



## Bigwood247 (Jun 15, 2013)

Thanks alot that was a helpful comment and I was wondering y the acid that used turned blue and now I realized that my chemical supplyer sold me 37% and. Told me that it 93% I'm never using him again and will be buying rooto direct from the supplier iwas also wondering y when I tried to boil it down it didn't evolve typical white fums and now I know that Must of not boiled it long enough to get all the water out


----------



## bswartzwelder (Jun 16, 2013)

Nice power supply. I didn't look real close, but I only saw a voltage adjust knob and no current adjust knob. Does it have separate current adjusting capabilities? If not, the current will be controlled by what voltage you apply to your load. The higher the voltage, the higher the amount of current you can pump through it.


----------



## Bigwood247 (Jun 16, 2013)

bswartzwelder said:


> Nice power supply. I didn't look real close, but I only saw a voltage adjust knob and no current adjust knob. Does it have separate current adjusting capabilities? If not, the current will be controlled by what voltage you apply to your load. The higher the voltage, the higher the amount of current you can pump through it.




No it only has the one knob u think ill be better off buying one that u can adjust the current seperate from voltage or will this one work for deplating in a cell that's the same as lazersteves setup ??


----------



## Bigwood247 (Jun 16, 2013)

I just tried concentrating my sulfuric acid and it was fine until I got near the end the acid turned a dark brown but I still haven't seen those white fums did I screw it up it started clear blue from the copper but when I boiled it down its now a real dark brown


----------



## butcher (Jun 16, 2013)

At this point I would not worry about the solution turning a dark color like brown, just be careful, wear your Personal Protective gear.

Keep a catch under your reaction vessel just in case it breaks, if it is a glass vessel and you hear it crack do not try and lift or move it, if this happens it is best to leave the vessel sitting and transfer liquid from it, trying to move a cracked vessel many times when you go to move it that is when the bottom falls out, spilling the contents.

Sulfuric acid has a very high boiling point compared to many of the other acids, the black can be from metals like iron or some inorganic, some drain cleaners will add inhibitors which can also color the acid, after you get it concentrated you can then see how it reacts in your cell.


----------

