# Pictures of my silver cell project Kool



## wct0415 (Aug 2, 2011)

Here are some pictures of my cell once it finished after 48 hours run at 1 vdc pulling 1-1.3 amps. The largest crystal measuring .25". Total from the cell was 7 oz.


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## rewalston (Aug 2, 2011)

drool


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## wct0415 (Aug 2, 2011)

My first attempt was good but using a voltage of 5Vdc and 6 amps, my problem was leaving it run consistently when not at home or at night. The crystal growth was fine and fast and was cautious about it shorting the anode and cathode. With the lower voltage I was able to let it run 24 hours and never had to worry about it.
Yes it took longer but required little attendance. My next run will be at a lower voltage of between .5 to .75 volts and see if I can grow any bigger crystals.


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## vango57 (Aug 2, 2011)

With Silver now $40 and staying somewhat steady, has anyone considered doing older silverplated items? This stuff appears to be quite available everywhere. 

Perhaps a thread on silverplate? I have done my searching on the site and I can only find old postings of it not worth the effort?

Any Input?

Thanks
Van


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## jimdoc (Aug 2, 2011)

vango57 said:


> With Silver now $40 and staying somewhat steady, has anyone considered doing older silverplated items? This stuff appears to be quite available everywhere.
> 
> Perhaps a thread on silverplate? I have done my searching on the site and I can only find old postings of it not worth the effort?
> 
> ...




It has been mentioned on the forum before, I forget where.
I had a guy just ask me about doing 150 lbs of silverplate and I
told him I don't think it is worth it YET.

Jim


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 2, 2011)

jimdoc said:


> vango57 said:
> 
> 
> > With Silver now $40 and staying somewhat steady, has anyone considered doing older silverplated items? This stuff appears to be quite available everywhere.
> ...



Jim,

I think you're smart about that. I've been doing this crap for a jillion years and still don't know a profitable way to do silver plate. Maybe when silver hits $100.


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## jimdoc (Aug 2, 2011)

goldsilverpro said:


> Jim,
> 
> I think you're smart about that. I've been doing this crap for a jillion years and still don't know a profitable way to do silver plate. Maybe when silver hits $100.



Chris,
This guy was telling me that he had a place that was doing it for him, and they are just too busy now.
I highly doubted that that was true. I told him it would probably have to get to $200 an ounce to be worth it.
If someone finds a profitable way, I am sure it will be you or someone on this forum.

Jim


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 2, 2011)

> This guy was telling me that he had a place that was doing it for him, and they are just too busy now.


Uh-huh!

Don't tell anybody but I was lying. I actually invented a way to do it cheap, but it requires cyanide and a lot of caustic. Put the silver plated material in a barrel plater (tumbler). The solution is made up of 12-16 oz/gal NaOH + about 5 oz/gal sodium cyanide. Use a sheet of 300 series stainless for the cathode. Run it at about 6 volts. The silver will strip and plate onto the cathode without attacking the copper base - the high NaOH is the secret - for some reason, it prevents attack on the copper. This has been tested and it really works, but you must have a tumbler or, a plating rack might work for certain parts, such as dinnerware, if you have a cathode on both sides.


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## stihl88 (Aug 3, 2011)

A guy i know thought a quick way to get the plating off might be to buff it off with a bench mounted grinder with a wire disk attachment to kind of brush the plating off, you would of course have some copper contamination but that could be easily eliminated...

It would probably take a while to build up a tub full of Silver powder doing it this way but I'm sure it would be a relatively quick process to buff the Silver off the plated item.

_edited:_ spelling mistake...


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## Harold_V (Aug 4, 2011)

stihl88 said:


> A guy i know thought a quick way to get the plating off might be to buff it off with a bench mounted grinder with a wire disk attachment to kind of brush the plating off, you would of course have some copper contamination but that could be easily eliminated...
> 
> It would probably take a while to build up a tub full of Silver powder doing it this way but I'm sure it would be a relatively quick process to buff the Silver off the plated item.
> 
> _edited:_ spelling mistake...


Wow! 
When one considers that silver plating is on the surface, and it's the surface that gets eliminated in use, I'm really struggling with the idea of buffing of values, knowing when to stop buffing (flatware is commonly made on a white copper based alloy), and how much silver you might expect to recover from a gross of spoons when they had only five ounces applied when they were new. 

Silver can be stripped in a sulfuric cell. Whether it can be done at a profit, or not, I do not know, but any type of mechanical action that requires a person is highly unlikely to be profitable. 

Harold


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## stihl88 (Aug 4, 2011)

Yeah i told him that it wouldn't be worth the effort at todays prices. I don't mess with Plated stuff and wasn't sure if it was plated directly on to Copper or not but being that they are a white alloy base metal then this would make things much harder to guess when the Silver is all off.


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