# Electrolytic Recovery Part 1.c:Cell, Setup, Use, and Storage



## lazersteve (Mar 10, 2007)

This one was a major undertaking. I had to clean my bench you saw in the previous video, setup a second cell, and get it all edited for the forum.
It was a pleasure to make this one, I'm very proud of it. 

I've also started working on a mini-tutorial on separating silver from gold and precipitating the silver.

Don't forget to post your replys, comments, and suggestions.

Follow this link and click I Agree when you get there:

http://www.goldrecovery.us


Please report any problems to me via PM. 

Steve


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## Noxx (Mar 10, 2007)

These are really great vids !
Well detailed too !
Thanks again and again.


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 10, 2007)

STEVE NICE JOB ON ALL THIS 

3 QUESTIONS

1-IS THERE AN ODOUR OF ANY KIND

2-SULFURIC ACID WHAT WOULD BE THE BEST DRAIN OPENER FOR THIS 

3- SULFURIC ACID WHAT OTHER ITEMS CAN REPLACE DRAIN OPENER
CAN I USE BATTERY ACID FROM AUTOZONE, OR USE Sulfonic Acid


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## Noxx (Mar 10, 2007)

I think I can answer those questions 
-Sufulric acid smells something but it's not that bad. 
-Try to buy a drain opener who has the purest sulfuric acid. Sometimes they add inhibitors and it's not good. Mine has only a colorant but it is +90% Sulfuric acid.
-Car battery acid is surfuric acid but it is too weak. Buy drain opener liquid instead.

Voila !


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 10, 2007)

THANKS NOX

I HAVE MINE COMPLETLY SET UP 

NOW ILL WAIT TO SEE HOW IT IS PARTICIPATED 

WOULD IT BE THE SAME WAY AS AQUA REGIA

AFTER WE PUT UREA IS IT SAFE TO ADD WATER


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## lazersteve (Mar 10, 2007)

Great job on the reply Noxx! I have a small bit to add.

PM,

If you have the cell covered for some time it will emit an egglike odour for a short time after you open it. I just open the balcony door while I work.
Also, if your anode arcs at all you can get the same odour.

Steve


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## socorban (Mar 10, 2007)

PM,

there are differant teqniuqes to precipitation, if you using a cell you wont need urea. An easy way to do it is diulte the eloctrolyte in water, 5 parts water for 1 part electrolyte (generaly, you could probably get away with ten cups water for 3 cups electrolyte). Do this in a ventilated area and in a jug or something that can hold up to a little heat because water and sulfruic acid react and heat up slightly.

Let it sit still for around 24 hours and the go into filtering it slowly, once filterd check the filtered solution for remaining gold either using test liquid or refiltering for good measure. Steve said 5 coffee filters works best and i trust his judgement and have upped my filters content to 5, The rest steve has listed in a video clip in the section.


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 10, 2007)

OK SO YOUR SAYING MIX 10 CUPS OF WATER FOR THE 3 CUPS OF SOLUTION, LET IT SIT FOR 24 HRS AND THEN RINCE WITH 6 COFFE FILTERS.


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 10, 2007)

ONE MORE THING IF I HAVE PINS WITH PLASTIC IT WONT WORK RIGHT.,
THE PINS NEED TO BE TOCHING THE ALIGATER CLIPS RIGHT


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## lazersteve (Mar 10, 2007)

PM,

The electrolyte is only diluted AFTER you finish filling your cell. Your cell will not fill very rapidly unless you spend a lot of time stripping scrap in it before you process it to retrieve the gold. The gold is in the cell as black powder and NOT dissolved in the electrolyte. The reason the electrolyte is diluted after the cell fills is to slow the acids attack on the filter and to make it thin enough to pour thru the filter in a timely manner. I usually run a cell for 12-20 hours of actual operating time before diluting and filtering. Of course the amount of gold obtained in this time depends on the quality of the scrap processed.

This is a snapshot of a fresh empty cell:






I will be filtering my full cell on video for the forum as part of this tutorial. It is pictured here:






This 'loaded' cell should contain between 15 and 30 grams of gold if my estimates are correct. I'm debating trying a new cleanup process based upon some on the forum posts by Harold. He mentions soaking the black powder in nitric acid before the final smelt. We'll see how time permits.

steve


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## Noxx (Mar 10, 2007)

The nitric acid soak is a good idea. Maybe you could also try to soak it in ammonia to get rid of other metal oxides ?


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 10, 2007)

thanks steve cant wait to see your filtering video

so far all your videos are explained to the point

good work

thanks for being on this forum


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## socorban (Mar 10, 2007)

PM, 
that for precipitating, but yes your rite. Steve is gonna post a vid its seems so if you wanna see it step by step he'll get you takin care of.

I think Harold plan of nitric acid is ingenious and I olan to incorperate it into my next batch to see how it goes, that will definiatly make things cleaner.


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 10, 2007)

HOW TO MAKE NITRI WOULD BE GREAT .

BUT DOES ANY ONE KNOW,

WHATS THE DIFFERTS BETWEEN, NITRIC AND ACID TO MAKE AQUA REGIA,

AND SODIUM NITRATE AND ACID TO MAKE AQUA REGIA

WOULDNT IT BE THE SAME 

IT BOTH BECOMES AQUA REGIA


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## Noxx (Mar 10, 2007)

Yes both becomes Aqua Regia. The difference is, you have two differents salts.


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 10, 2007)

HI 

DOES THE SALT HAVE ANY DIFFERENTS IN WHAT IT DOES

AND SECOND QUESTION WITH THE CELL FORMAT CAN YOU DO GOLD FILLED,


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## Noxx (Mar 10, 2007)

-No, salt doesn't affect the acid.
-I'm pretty sure you can process gold filled too. Give us the results you get.
Good luck !


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## Anonymous (Mar 10, 2007)

Noxx said:


> I think I can answer those questions
> -Sufulric acid smells something but it's not that bad.
> -Try to buy a drain opener who has the purest sulfuric acid. Sometimes they add inhibitors and it's not good. Mine has only a colorant but it is +90% Sulfuric acid.
> -Car battery acid is surfuric acid but it is too weak. Buy drain opener liquid instead.
> ...



I need to use car battery acid on one of the final steps to wash the gold before it is melted, can you recommend a over the counter brand of drain cleaner that only contains sulfuric acid or has the least amount of other chemicals?

This may be a stupid question but ammonia is used as well to wash the gold, is there different strengths that are available or is the ammonia you will get in the grocery store pretty much pure?


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## Anonymous (Mar 10, 2007)

Rooto brand. In liquid form.
Try Ace Hardware, True Value Hardware, or a hardware store that sells the "Do It Best" line of products


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 10, 2007)

NEED HELP VERYFING I JUST BOUGHT DRAIN OPENER WENT THROUGHT DOZEN OF THEM BUT NONE STATES SULF ACID THERE ALL SODIUM HYDROXIDE AND POTASSIUM HYDROXIDE WHAT BRAND WOULD HAVE SULFERIC ACID


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## Noxx (Mar 10, 2007)

I buy Clear-Line and It is +90% sulfuric acid.


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 11, 2007)

WHO SELLS THAT HOME DEPOT ,ACE,OSH 

ALSO CAN THE ANODE BE STEEL OR IT HAS TO BE STAINLESS STEEL


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## NaNO3 (Mar 11, 2007)

Rooto Pro Drain Opener 







liquid fire





Crystal Power
Instant Power


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## lazersteve (Mar 11, 2007)

All anode items should be stainless steel, the higher the grade the better at least 300 series, but 400 series is better.


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## Noxx (Mar 11, 2007)

Why Stainless steel ? They must not corrode ?


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## lazersteve (Mar 11, 2007)

Stainless steel does corrode, but not as rapidly as steel. The anode items will wear out over time, especially if they are not well maintained by rinsing and proper storage after each use.


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## Noxx (Mar 11, 2007)

Ok I understand !


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## lazersteve (Mar 11, 2007)

PM,

Store bought ammonia comes in several varieties. You never want to buy the scented type only the clear ammonia. The percentage concentration can be anywhere from 1% to 4%. This is not concentrated ammonia. Concentrated ammonia is 28% and is very dangerous stuff. It can burn your lungs very easily. Ammonia should always be handled in a well ventilated area.

Steve


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## Anonymous (Mar 11, 2007)

Is concentrated ammonia needed to clean the gold for that step, or will 1-4% do the trick?


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## lazersteve (Mar 11, 2007)

The store bought stuff will work.



The products formed from ammonia and some base metals and substances (ie: copper, nitric acid ) can be explosive.





Steve


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 11, 2007)

hey steve following your steps just found drain opener at osh containes consintrated sufuric acid and water 

would this be fine ,i remember you saying that be careful not to add any water ,

but if sufuric comes already mix with water it should be fine right


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## Noxx (Mar 11, 2007)

Yes should be fine 
In the future could you please post smaller pictures ? You can resize them when you upload them at imageshack.us

Thank You


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 11, 2007)

yea i didnt notice will do next time thanks


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 11, 2007)

hey steve wondering if part 4 of the live video will be out soon .

getting the gold out of the acid


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## Noxx (Mar 11, 2007)

Well you could update the picture to resize it. But I'll do it for you.


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 11, 2007)

thanks a bunch still learning how to up load 

hey will it be possible to upload videos like we do the pics in the futher 

of this furom,, is so that would be great and fast


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## Noxx (Mar 11, 2007)

Yes you can upload vids if you want. File not must be smaller than 15mb


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## lazersteve (Mar 11, 2007)

PM, 

I took a day off from gold to visit with my sister-in-law's family. They are in town from south Florida. I'll get to the smelting video this coming week after I post the filtering video.

Steve


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## jmelson (Mar 12, 2007)

lazersteve said:


> This one was a major undertaking. I had to clean my bench you saw in the previous video, setup a second cell, and get it all edited for the forum.
> It was a pleasure to make this one, I'm very proud of it.



Thanks, Steve, this was the one I had been waiting for! Very interesting process. I think combining this with Socoroban's SS mesh basket is going
to work well for me. I just weighed 576 g of sheared-off wire-wrap pins and connector fingers from old computer backplanes. The backplanes with "press-fit" contacts are easy to salvage. You shear the pins off the back with a standard wood chisel. This may need a little resharpening every whole backplane or so. Then, you use pliers to pull off the plastic connector housings on the front (board) side, and repeat the process. I can strip a 12 x 12" backplane board in 20 minutes or so. Those pins look awfully small, but there are thousands on each backplane.

Thanks,


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## lazersteve (Mar 12, 2007)

Thank you Jon,
I'm really glad that these tutorials are helping you guys out, otherwise it would be a real waste of time for me. I'm trying to keep them interesting, educational, and entertaining. 
I've been using the 'mesh basket' for some time now, but there is a better way. I'll post more about it when I get some extra time. Be sure to read my post on Anode X it may give you some ideas of your own on designing custom anodes. Always use SS when you design an anode.

Steve


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