# Ultimate Gold Pins Question



## MR.ED (Aug 17, 2010)

I have 70 pounds of gold pins that are in small plastic rectangle connectors.
What would be the best way to handle these pins
1) take the time and pull these pins out or their small connectors and throw them in a AP bath??

OR

2) leave the plastice on the connectors and try to disolve the gold off the pins while they are on the connectors??


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## pinman (Aug 17, 2010)

A small test batch will answer your question.


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## pha (Aug 19, 2010)

MR.ED said:


> I have 70 pounds of gold pins that are in small plastic rectangle connectors.
> What would be the best way to handle these pins
> 1) take the time and pull these pins out or their small connectors and throw them in a AP bath??
> 
> ...




OR

3) Leave the pins in the connectors and dissolve the base metals (in HNO3 or your preferred mix, depending on the base metal), decant/filter solution, treat plastic, gold foils and filter (with AR or HCL/hypochlorite) to dissolve gold, and finally drop out the gold (with SMB or copperas). If you use AR, you need to remove surplus HNO3 before dropping out the gold.

1) takes too much time.
2) IF you happens to find the perfect stripping solution (sometimes not so easy), you will miss the plated parts touching the plastic.

-Peter


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## Platdigger (Aug 19, 2010)

Some plastics just turn to goo in nitric. A real mess.
Test a small batch first.


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## pha (Aug 20, 2010)

Platdigger said:


> Some plastics just turn to goo in nitric. A real mess.
> Test a small batch first.



Testing is allways good.
It takes a lot of chemicals to process 70 lb. Testing could also show, if it's worth the money and effort.
-Peter


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