# Hello New to the forum



## ilanpro (Aug 3, 2009)

Hi I am new to the forum, I have been collecting gold scrap for years and I have about 500lbs of the things on the pictures, can I extract the gold at home safely? How much ratio can I get per pound? thanks


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 3, 2009)

ilanpro,

At first glance, that is excellent, high-grade stuff. I don't know the values since there are so many types. The large pieces are hybrid circuit packages filled with good value electronics. I would guess they either came from the microwave or fiber optics industry, neither of which spares any costs on the protection of their circuits and connectors. The lids appear to be attached with a gold/tin braze. If the bottom circuit is ceramic, it is possibly attached to the base with gold braze. If both are present, the brazes can equal half the gold value. However, if the bottom circuit is attached with screws, the gold value of the unit will be considerably less. The gold plating everywhere is probably about 50-60 millionths of an inch thick, which is about $.45-$.55/ per square inch. Figure a little less thick on the connectors. I would imagine the package body is made from copper. If it is magnetic, it is probably kovar. They look heavy, with a lot of copper. If so, although the value per unit is high, the value per pound would not as high as you would expect. 

I would first disassemble the packages, remove everything but the bottom ceramic circuit, and treat the part types individually. If the bottom circuit is brazed in, I would finally heat the bottom to about 800-850F and remove the ceramic circuit with an X-Acto knife.

Processing is another story. I would need to see photos of the individual components to advise you on this.


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## ilanpro (Aug 3, 2009)

Great, I will get to take it apart and post, the bottom part of the top board is not plated gold, is solid, thin piece of gold.


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## Harold_V (Aug 4, 2009)

ilanpro said:


> Great, I will get to take it apart and post, the bottom part of the top board is not plated gold, is solid, thin piece of gold.


Highly unlikely. What purpose would it serve that couldn't be served by a plated copper, or copper alloy piece that cost but a tiny fraction?

Harold


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## ilanpro (Aug 4, 2009)




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## goldsilverpro (Aug 4, 2009)

Harold said:


> Highly unlikely. What purpose would it serve that couldn't be served by a plated copper, or copper alloy piece that cost but a tiny fraction?



Harold is exactly right. At least 99% of all the gold you see in electronics material is plated. Most of the other 1% is gold solder. Although I hear rumors of certain things being made of solid gold, the only thing I know for sure is the gold bonding wire used on chips.

The more I see, the worse it is. The boards aren't much - a little gold and less Pd. The white ceramic circuit is screwed on and not gold-soldered - that's not good. The rim of gray solder around the top appears to be gold/tin - that's good. There is also gold solder around the bottom edge of the lid. The plating on the lid and body is probably worth about $.45-$.50/square inch. I would guess the solder on the rim and the lid make up from 10%-20% of the value. The gold pads and traces on the white ceramic are fairly thick because they are applied as a paste and fired.

If you weigh the original whole package with everything that was in it or on it, make measurements, and calculate the gold plated areas, I've given you enough info to figure out the gold value/pound, within about 10%-15%. You won't know exactly until you refine it.

BTW, is the package and/or lid magnetic?

BTW#2, you didn't pick a very good place to post this thread.


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## ilanpro (Aug 4, 2009)

Is the case gold plated?


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## patnor1011 (Aug 4, 2009)

these are not watch cases so it is plated only. if the body is not made from gold then case or lid will be the same thing.


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## ilanpro (Aug 5, 2009)

Can some one guide me to the best way to recover the gold from this items


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 5, 2009)

Is the case magnetic or non-magnetic?


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## ilanpro (Aug 5, 2009)

all cases and connectors I have are non magnetic

I have 500lbs of connectors boards and CPU's all mixed


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## oldtimmer (Aug 6, 2009)

Looks good. I only wish that I had kept more of the connectors and other items that I had. They somehow got thrown away during a move when we bought out house.

I have been using the gold cell to strip the gold plating off. I punch the center pin and plastic insert so that I can get to the gold on the inside. I then remove the pin and strip them in the same cell using a copper screen basket. Go to lazer Steve's web cite and watch the videos. It is very fast and much cheaper than trying to remove the base metal with acid.

dave


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 6, 2009)

I agree with oldtimmer. I would take the stuff apart and use the sulfuric stripper cell. The other alternative would be to dissolve the base metals using HCl/H2O2


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## Gold Trail (Aug 6, 2009)

I wouldnt do anything until a long weekend of sorting.... (been there done that).... I have now found its easier to keep things sorted from the begining Ryan


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## ilanpro (Aug 8, 2009)

Witch way would be the fastest, I cannot do one piece at a time


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## Anonymous (Aug 8, 2009)

ilanpro said:


> Witch way would be the fastest, I cannot do one piece at a time



Basket!


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## aflacglobal (Aug 8, 2009)

ilanpro said:


> Witch way would be the fastest, I cannot do one piece at a time



Go to this website and build a stripping cell. Watch the videos. :arrow: :arrow: :arrow: http://www.goldrecovery.us/


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## ilanpro (Aug 8, 2009)

Tried the site, there is a lot of videos not working for me, also what do I do after the cell to recover the gold stripped?


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## aflacglobal (Aug 8, 2009)

The video's will explain it all. I also had trouble viewing Steve's video's today to. You might have to add the plug-in on the site to view them. I'm not sure, Steve ?


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## jimdoc (Aug 8, 2009)

The videos seem alot slower to buffer for some reason, if you just let it buffer it should play. That is if your not on dialup, then your screwed. My settings probably aren't set right either for his videos.
Jim


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## Anonymous (Aug 8, 2009)

I'm on high speed, lazersteve's videos play half ways through then calf on me. I finally gave up trying to watch his videos.


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## lazersteve (Aug 8, 2009)

Which videos?

Steve


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## Anonymous (Aug 8, 2009)

lazersteve said:


> Which videos?
> 
> Steve



Tried this one this evening, Separating Silver from Gold, the video calf's at the point where you are pouring the silver chloride into the filter. After waiting 15 minuted the video does not return, but stays frozen on the screen.


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 9, 2009)

I have watched almost every video on Steve's site and never had any problems, once I learned the ropes. I went through the password thing and got IETab and, what's the other thing? Silverlight? Damn, I hate getting anything from Microsoft.


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## Anonymous (Aug 9, 2009)

goldsilverpro said:


> I have watched almost every video on Steve's site and never had any problems, once I learned the ropes. I went through the password thing and got IETab and, what's the other thing? Silverlight? Damn, I hate getting anything from Microsoft.




I'm using Ubuntu aka Linux with Firefox browser with the moonlight plugin, a silverlight work around. How about you Lou you having any difficulties watching Steve's videos.

Re: Silverlight.

Luckily, Europe won't tolerate closed anti-competitive standards from Microsoft anymore, so Redmond are on a collision course with the EU over this sometime in the future.


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## ilanpro (Aug 9, 2009)

I cannot watch 
*Electrolytic Cell Cathode Construction

**Electrolytic Cell Anode Construction

*Electrolytic Cell Experimental Anode

*Electrolytic Cell Filtering

*Electrolytic Cell Dilution*

I have no problem watching 

**Electrolytic Cell Construction and Use

*Copper Mesh Anode Demo*

I am running mozilla, but I also tried IE and had no luck all in Cable feed so I do have high speed


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## lazersteve (Aug 9, 2009)

Gus,

The silver video ends at that point. I know it's abrupt cut off, but that was one of my first videos before I spent numerous hours editing them down. I need to remake it and will soon.

Ilanpro,

Sounds like you need the IE Tab plugin installed, your media player updated, and to configure the IE Tab Plugin for my site:

Tools-->IE Tab Options--> Add-->http://www.goldrecovery.us--> OK

GSP,

I'm not a MS lover either, but Silverlight offers 10 Gb of free dedicated online video storage with high speed streaming, plus video management and usage reports and that's something I really like.

Steve


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## Anonymous (Aug 9, 2009)

Steve is it possible to save your Silverlight videos locally, then we would have seamless viewing without the buffering. Plus we could watch your videos off line.


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## lazersteve (Aug 9, 2009)

Gus,

Unfortunately no. If you want the video not to buffer you can wait for the video to fully transfer (progress bar) or watch it once with the buffering, and then it should play all the way through without buffering on the second viewing.

Steve


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## Anonymous (Aug 9, 2009)

lazersteve said:


> Gus,
> 
> Unfortunately no. If you want the video not to buffer you can wait for the video to fully transfer (progress bar) or watch it once with the buffering, and then it should play all the way through without buffering on the second viewing.
> 
> Steve



After I asked the question about saving the videos, I got to playing around with my OS ( Ubuntu ) and discovered that I am able to save the videos for later viewing. 

Right click on any of Steve's videos for properties, choose save to tmp/moon-dump/ from your file manager go into root/tmp/moon-dump/ once you find the file be sure to rename it as by default all files are simply named video.wmv


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## lazersteve (Aug 9, 2009)

Saving the temporary copy of the file is one way I guess, but I change my videos periodically and then your offline copy would be outdated. For your purposes it sounds like it may fix your pausing problem.

I've been considering adding DRM to my videos that prevent them from playing offline. Who knows, maybe one day.

Steve


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## Anonymous (Aug 9, 2009)

lazersteve said:


> Saving the temporary copy of the file is one way I guess, but I change my videos periodically and then your offline copy would be outdated. For your purposes it sounds like it may fix your pausing problem.
> 
> I've been considering adding DRM to my videos that prevent them from playing offline. Who knows, maybe one day.
> 
> Steve




For my purpose I really do not mind if the videos are dated. I have limited bandwidth on Hughesnet Satellite Internet, fifteen minutes to down load a video each time I want to watch it is ridiculous. Especially when there is no guarantee the whole file is going to come down. 

Saving the tmp file works best for me, so far every file I have requested has come down as 1 complete file.

Silverlight DRM has already been circumvented


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## lazersteve (Aug 10, 2009)

DRM is meant to keep the majority of the people from wanting to waste their time 'hacking' something they can view on the web for free.

I see it as another means to keep this information free to view, and prevent it from becoming the next eBay copy cat's scam.

There's nothing worse than a con man getting hold of your free material, then selling it and not standing behind your product. It's a sure fire recipe for ruining your credibility. 

Con men are after the quick buck, they are not interested in actually helping anyone. I am interested in providing consistent free material for anyone who want's it. My main concern is that it remains free.

Steve


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## Anonymous (Aug 10, 2009)

Steve the thought of exploiting your videos for profit never crossed my mind. My Internet service is through Hughes Net via Satellite , we have 200 megs bandwidth daily. Once this bandwidth has been exceeded we are reduced in speed slower than dial up for 24 hours.

Yesterday afternoon I watched 3 of your videos on line , and exceeded my allotment of bandwidth for the next 24 hours. Hughesnet calls it the Fair Access Policy. See attached picture, near the bottom you will note fair access policy has been exceeded.

Your videos are huge in size, for example.

Silver from Silver Chloride method 2 is a whopping 47.7 meg for a runtime of 6:13 minutes. fifteen minutes to download and watch with buffering.

With two computers and users networked via satellite, its my job to keep both parties happy. I doubt you have ever had the privilege of living with an avid ebayer who could not place a bid or pay for goods because of restricted Internet access, brought about by her spouse.

This is one of the many reasons we switched over to Linux, windows would arbitrarily download updates regardless of my configuration. We were constantly in the penalty box for having exceeded our daily bandwidth.

Yes you could use DRM to manage your digital media, but would it be fair.

Best Regards
Gill


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## lazersteve (Aug 10, 2009)

Gill,

As a former Hughes Net subscriber (11 years ago) I'm all too familiar with the FAP. Once I found out about it (they don't tell you about it when you subscribe) I switched to cable and have never looked back. I still have all the brand new hardware which is useless to me.

Don't take my previous comments personally as I was making a general statement and not trying to insinuate that I meant you.

I try to keep my video files of a reasonable size to maintain both good image size and playback quality. I realize there are other compression codecs out there that would make the files smaller, but the trade off is that your audience must have the same codecs installed on their machines for proper playback. This creates technical problems that I just don't have the free time to deal with. Silverlight provides an excellent free service with a good cross section of compatibility for my viewing audience. I'm working towards getting all my older videos moved over to the Silverlight site as time permits.

As a side note, all of my Silverlight hosted videos are single files. That's part of the reason I have not yet converted them all to the Silverlight site. Most of the remaining ones are multi-part and will require me to spend many hours editing them into one file that is less than 105 Mb (Silverlight's maximum file size) in order to upload them successfully.

Steve


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## Anonymous (Aug 10, 2009)

Nothing has changed 2009 they still do not inform you of FAP, I have often had my service restricted for more than 3 days. A software glitch I'm told.

The least they could do is email the subscriber a notification when he/she is approaching their limit. NADA.

Thanks Steve for your understanding, for those of us with learning disabilities your videos are a bonanza. A good teaching aid, keep em coming.

ttys
Gill aka gustavus


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## aflacglobal (Aug 10, 2009)

lazersteve said:


> DRM is meant to keep the majority of the people from wanting to waste their time 'hacking' something they can view on the web for free.
> 
> I see it as another means to keep this information free to view, and prevent it from becoming the next eBay copy cat's scam.
> 
> ...




Amen !!!!!

I have done any video conversions in awhile. When i wanted to compress my vid files and convert them i use to use a program called DR Divx.The program is a couple of years old, but is still available for download. Even though it's older when you install it it will update with the newest codecs. As far as i know the divx codecs are pretty much universal and will play with most players. I may be wrong, but i always was happy with it.


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## ilanpro (Aug 14, 2009)

I wonder is AP safe and how much quantity can I do at once?


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## ilanpro (Aug 18, 2009)

anybody??, for the chips that I have I cannot use the Electrolytic Cell right? only for the all metal connectors also can I do it at a bigger scale? I have a lot and I want to get it done as fast as possible. Please If you answer can you tell me were to get the chemicals too. Thanks


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 18, 2009)

ilanpro,

What chips do you have? Photos?


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## ilanpro (Aug 18, 2009)

Here are the some of the chips


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## ilanpro (Aug 20, 2009)




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## ilanpro (Aug 20, 2009)

Will this charger work??

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SCHUMACHER-12-AMP-BATTERY-CHARGER-CAR-MARINE-SC-1200A_W0QQitemZ390081648500QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories?hash=item5ad2ad9774&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245


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## jimdoc (Aug 20, 2009)

I think you should be looking for a manual charger, not an automatic.
An automatic shuts down on its own when it thinks the battery is charged. You want it to keep working because you won't be charging a battery. Every time it kicks on and off will get you annoyed at the least.
Jim


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 20, 2009)

ilanpro,

You're right. They aren't practical to run through the cell. Even the lids might cause a problem if they are attached with Au/Sn solder.

BTW, technically, those aren't chips. They are chips enclosed by a package. The package protects the chip and enables it to be plugged or soldered into a circuit. The packages are bought by chip manufacturers from package manufacturers. The same exact packages can be used for many different chips and, I suppose, the opposite is true. Occasionally, a specific package is designed for a specific chip.


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## ilanpro (Aug 20, 2009)

What is my best approach? also to do the connectors


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 20, 2009)

> What is my best approach? also to do the connectors



Talk to lazersteve. Better still, search the forum for the many times they've been covered by lazersteve and then talk to lazersteve.


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## lazersteve (Aug 20, 2009)

The most direct route is a combination of GSP's controlled nitric additions and Poorman's AR.

Here's the post for what I call "Modified Poorman's AR".


Modified Poorman's AR

As the reaction progresses you will need to remove the saturated solution (dark and thick with no bubbling at medium heat) and start with fresh HCl. Keep a close eye on the spent solution with stannous testing to be sure that none of the values get tossed into the waste barrel. Using this method I can dissolve a few kilos of scrap in a four liter beaker with minimal fumes over the course of a day, swapping out the saturated solution three or four times depending on the type of scrap. 

The gold will need a second refining to get it pure, but the method works wonders on many types of low grade scrap (less than 5% by weight yield).



Be sure to remove the bottom lids and the circuit boards from the gold plated hardware where required. 

Steve


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## ilanpro (Aug 21, 2009)

Thanks Lazersteve, I hope this works for me, also with the processor chips all that gold wire inside the silicone wafer, will it get dissolved?


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## ilanpro (Aug 23, 2009)

Were do I get the HCL ??


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## Palladium (Aug 23, 2009)

ilanpro said:


> Were do I get the HCL ??



It's Muratic Acid for cleaning bricks. 
Lowes Home depot.


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## ilanpro (Sep 5, 2009)

Ok I was watching steves Video, on the poor man AP it mentions heating up on the ap video there is no heat. can I just do it like that??


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## metatp (Sep 5, 2009)

If you only want a gallon of HCL, I found it cheaper at a pool supply store.


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## ilanpro (Sep 5, 2009)

Some of the aluminum cases dissolved on the AP mix, I got some slush type on top too, It has only been 30 minutes, I believe it takes about 24 hours for it to strip all? I will check again tomorrow













this is just a test run with a few pieces


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## lazersteve (Sep 6, 2009)

You should avoid processing aluminum and iron objects in AP as they tend to foul the AP and make it useless.

Use straight muriatic if you want to dissolve aluminum.


Steve


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## ilanpro (Sep 6, 2009)

I don not want to dissolve the aluminum Just strip the gold


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## ilanpro (Sep 6, 2009)

overnight I got this


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## lazersteve (Sep 6, 2009)

ilanpro said:


> I don not want to dissolve the aluminum Just strip the gold




The presence of Aluminum will foul the AP and stop the reaction from going any further. All aluminum should be *removed first* with straight muriatic acid or separated by hand if possible.

The gold plating appears to be mostly intact in the after photo above. Some of it does appear to have dissolved into the solution (partial deplating with no visible foils) which would put it in the black residue that is stuck to the bucket. This residue is contaminated with aluminum and other base metals and should now be dissolved in AR or HCl-Cl after bringing it to red heat (*Do Not Melt!*).

Steve


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## ilanpro (Sep 6, 2009)

This case is aluminum 





I put it 3 in there I believe they are plated, are the connectors copper under the plating?


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## ilanpro (Sep 6, 2009)

What should I do next??


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## lazersteve (Sep 6, 2009)

lazersteve said:


> The presence of Aluminum will foul the AP and stop the reaction from going any further. All aluminum should be *removed first* with straight muriatic acid or separated by hand if possible.
> 
> The gold plating appears to be mostly intact in the after photo above. Some of it does appear to have dissolved into the solution (partial deplating with no visible foils) which would put it in the black residue that is stuck to the bucket. This residue is contaminated with aluminum and other base metals and should now be dissolved in AR or HCl-Cl after bringing it to red heat (*Do Not Melt!*).


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## ilanpro (Sep 6, 2009)

what do I use to heat it up?


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## lazersteve (Sep 6, 2009)

If you want to heat reactions in a 5 gallon bucket you can use 'bucket heaters', they are a strap on belt that plugs into a wall socket.

Steve


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## ilanpro (Sep 6, 2009)

Do I drain the old solution and then add the HCL-CL, Then Heat it?

Also Do I need SMB?


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## ilanpro (Sep 9, 2009)

Will an aquarium heater work?


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## goldsilverpro (Sep 9, 2009)

Aquarium heaters don't last long in fumey acid solutions. You could use a boxlike container with water in it as a hot water bath for the buckets. The water can be heated with aquarium heaters.


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## ilanpro (Sep 26, 2009)

lazersteve said:


> ilanpro said:
> 
> 
> > I don not want to dissolve the aluminum Just strip the gold
> ...



Can I use a crock pot for this?? HCL-CL in a crock pot?


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