# silver electrical wire



## Geo (Oct 7, 2013)

guys, i may have some news. i got some scrap that has some very nice connectors so i know its all high end, custom made electronics. what caught my eye first was the wire. the jacket was very shiny and slick to the touch. looking at the cut ends showed silver and not copper. ive seen this before in military scrap and have long suspected silver content in the wire. i stripped 32 grams of bare wire. it was a nice white metal with a beautiful luster. i dissolved this wire in dilute nitric acid. the solution was a bright blue. this morning before i left, i placed a nice piece of copper into the solution and was disappointed when it didnt immediately react. when i returned this evening though, nice fluffy cemented silver was surrounding the copper. i am leaving it over night to be sure i got it all. then ill rinse it, dry it, and weigh it. that should give me a decent ratio. ill post pictures of the wire, jacketed and stripped and the dry powder. this could be a looked over market. im sure many of you already know about this wire but it looks really good. if i get 3 grams, thats almost 10%. 10 pounds of wire may equal 1 pound of silver. definitely worth the cost of the acid.


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## nh6886 (Oct 20, 2013)

Geo,

This sounds very interesting I look forward to reading your results. 
I picked up a hand full of silver wire in Florida where a naval training plane was parked in some trees years ago. I lost track of it before I started refining but always wondered what it was.

John


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## Geo (Oct 20, 2013)

actually, i did get some numbers back from the test batch. the yield was only in the 3% range. it was disappointing in a way because i was hoping for more. i did another test with 100 grams of stripped wire just to be sure and the yield was the same 3%. if you want pictures of the wire, i can put some up but at 3% ill have to save for quite some time to warrant a refining.


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## resabed01 (Oct 20, 2013)

Geo,

Of that 100 gram test sample. do you know what % was insulation? I have 7 pounds of this wire, I'll need to figure out a way to strip it all first.


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## Geo (Oct 20, 2013)

here is what i have. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkXHVAY1bPA


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## Geo (Oct 20, 2013)

resabed01, the jacket is teflon and strips great. if you can get enough of the loose end stripped to grab the jacket in one hand and the wire with the other, it should split apart with little effort. i have done many feet of it that way.


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## nh6886 (Oct 22, 2013)

Thanks Geo,

The video is nice and that wire looks like what I remember.
The funny thing is at 3% that would be about 875ozt per ton. If that was an ore it would be one heck of a pay streak, right.
Only problem is like you said you have to have enough to make it profitable.

All the Best,
John


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## solar_plasma (Oct 22, 2013)

teflon coated? silver inside? I would not scrap that! Probably good for many high temp, high corrosion applications.

isn't there a market for those? Maybe people who go around measuring hot vulcanic springs? :lol:


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## goldsilverpro (Oct 22, 2013)

When you cut something like silver plated copper wire, the soft silver tends to smear over the cut and this can make it appear that it is solid silver wire. Instead of cutting, I usually bend it back and forth until it breaks and then examine the broken end with a loupe. This helps prevent fooling yourself.

This small diameter, teflon-coated, silver plated, copper wire is quite common on certain backplanes. I have seen solid silver wire of very small diameter used for similar applications, but it is very, very, very rare compared with the plated variety.


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## Harold_V (Oct 25, 2013)

Nitric acid (and testing) is your friend. When you have a question about wire, a drop of nitric acid will immediately remove any questions you may have. If it's plated, you'll quickly see a blue reaction. 

Harold


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## Tub Buster (Jan 4, 2014)

Herer is some data on the silver coated wire. It will give you specifications to look for when you're perusing govliquidation.com etc.


Cable P/N Mfr or Brand Imp. VF Center DielecCap.ShieJacke OD Volts Lbs/
type (ohms) conductor (pf/ft) RMS 1000ft

RG142B/153 Mil Spec 50 0.695.037" sc ptfe 29 sc/s IX 0.191400 36

RG223/U143 Mil Spec 50 0.66 .035" sc pe 29.4sc/s IIA 0.211900 36

RG303/U154 Mil Spec 50 0.695.039" sc ptfe 29.4 sc IX 0.171200 30


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Legend: bc=bare copper; tc=tinned copper; sc=silvered copper 
ptfe=teflon type; IIA=Class 2 PVC(non-contaminating)
IIIA=polyethylene(pe)Class 3; IX=Class 9 teflon type(ptfe)


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