# My 1st Inquarting Process



## Tndavid (Oct 8, 2016)

Started with around 10 grams 10k karat gold. Combined the appropriate amount of Ag to form the 6k alloy. And the cornflakes turned out beautiful!! Got em in my HN03+Di H2O. Watching it work. Soon as the chocolate dipped cornflakes are ready I will digest in AR and precip w/copperas. Then refine using AR and final precip will be smb.


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## Shark (Oct 8, 2016)

Sounds like a plan. Remember the washing procedure as well. Between both you should have a nice button when your done.


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## Tndavid (Oct 8, 2016)

Shark said:


> Sounds like a plan. Remember the washing procedure as well. Between both you should have a nice button when your done.


Thanks you shark, definitely gonna use Mr Harold's washing procedure. Here is AR in progress.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Oct 8, 2016)

Tndavid said:


> Shark said:
> 
> 
> > Sounds like a plan. Remember the washing procedure as well. Between both you should have a nice button when your done.
> ...



I think you missed taking out some of your base metals with your nitric digestion.


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## Tndavid (Oct 8, 2016)

I ran the dilute nitric solution on the 6k alloy until the reaction ceased with a new addition of nitric. They turned the chocolate brown color and were easily breakable by rod. I then rinsed the residual silver chloride solution off the shot then started them in ar. Did I miss a step? Hopefully not.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Oct 8, 2016)

Tndavid said:


> I ran the dilute nitric solution on the 6k alloy until the reaction ceased with a new addition of nitric. They turned the chocolate brown color and were easily breakable by rod. I then rinsed the residual silver chloride solution off the shot then started them in ar. Did I miss a step? Hopefully not.



You should have removed your first nitric digestion solution and done 2nd disgestion with nitric on your shot. Your doing ok.


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## Tndavid (Oct 9, 2016)

Barren Realms 007 said:


> Tndavid said:
> 
> 
> > I ran the dilute nitric solution on the 6k alloy until the reaction ceased with a new addition of nitric. They turned the chocolate brown color and were easily breakable by rod. I then rinsed the residual silver chloride solution off the shot then started them in ar. Did I miss a step? Hopefully not.
> ...


I did a pour off the 1st and attempted a second which that's when I noticed the lack of reaction with the nitric. Should I have left the shot in the second solution for a period of time anyways?


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## Barren Realms 007 (Oct 9, 2016)

Tndavid said:


> Barren Realms 007 said:
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> > Tndavid said:
> ...



Yes you should have left the second run in longer with some heat added to help it out.


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## Tndavid (Oct 9, 2016)

I did have heat on it and no reaction. But I will leave it longer next time for sure. Thanks


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## Tndavid (Oct 9, 2016)

Any guesses on yield?


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## Tndavid (Oct 10, 2016)

Well here is the finished product. 

And here is some silver I reclaimed after cementing from solution.


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## Shark (Oct 10, 2016)

In our recent absence, I was thinking of the old saying about how best laid plans go wrong.  



Barren Realms 007 said:


> Tndavid said:
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> > Shark said:
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But I see it came out pretty good anyway.


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## Tndavid (Oct 10, 2016)

Thanks Shark, I appreciate it.. To quote a genius " I love it when a plan comes together" LOL


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## Barren Realms 007 (Oct 10, 2016)

Shark said:


> In our recent absence, I was thinking of the old saying about how best laid plans go wrong.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yes it does look pretty good.


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## Tndavid (Oct 10, 2016)

Thanks Barren.


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## samuel-a (Oct 10, 2016)

Nice work.
It is always pleasant to see a newcomer learning and following known procedures for success.


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## Tndavid (Oct 10, 2016)

samuel-a said:


> Nice work.
> It is always pleasant to see a newcomer learning and following known procedures for success.


Thank you. No need to try to reinvent the wheel if its rolling just fine. And "newcomer" is that a step up from newbie?!? Lol


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## 4metals (Oct 10, 2016)

> I did a pour off the 1st and attempted a second which that's when I noticed the lack of reaction with the nitric. Should I have left the shot in the second solution for a period of time anyways?



What strength of nitric / water did you use for the parting? Generally it is effective to start with 2 parts DI water to 1 part Nitric Acid. When that acid is spent, decant the acid and replace it with 1:1 acid to DI water. Both should be heated, the second may or may not appear to be reacting but give it time anyway. 

It is often necessary to break up the chunks with a stirring rod to help the acid penetrate better. When assaying and the ratio is 3:1 gold to silver, it is often better to roll the inquarted alloy flat before parting for more surface area. This is quite a bit of work for large lots so adding a little extra silver to make the acid penetrate better is the easier route.


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## Tndavid (Oct 10, 2016)

4metals said:


> > I did a pour off the 1st and attempted a second which that's when I noticed the lack of reaction with the nitric. Should I have left the shot in the second solution for a period of time anyways?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Your 1st paragraph is exactly what I did with the addition of a few small doses of nitric. And the second didn't have to react long as I checked and the chunks were breakable using my rigid plastic spoon as I don't have a glass stir rod yet. And the reaction ceased. It worked out great as far as free nitric. I only had to add the smallest sprinkle of sulfamic. And thank you for the tip on rolling to add surface area.


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## 4metals (Oct 10, 2016)

> I only had to add the smallest sprinkle of sulfamic. And thank you for the tip on rolling to add surface area.



And you killed the nitric off when you were done. Why? The parting is to separate the silver and base metals from the gold, sulfamic is not used in the parting acids.


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## Tndavid (Oct 10, 2016)

4metals said:


> > I only had to add the smallest sprinkle of sulfamic. And thank you for the tip on rolling to add surface area.
> 
> 
> 
> And you killed the nitric off when you were done. Why? The parting is to separate the silver and base metals from the gold, sulfamic is not used in the parting acids.


No my mistake. The sulfamic was used after ar before precipitating. Sorry for my misconstrued words.


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## 4metals (Oct 11, 2016)

No need to be sorry, I just wanted it to be clear when to, and when not to, use sulfamic. 

Nice job.


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## Tndavid (Oct 11, 2016)

Thank you 4metals.


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## upcyclist (Oct 12, 2016)

Nice job!

I haven't noticed too many issues with my karat gold using either copperas or SMB, but I tend to use copperas on the first refine, SMB on the second. When/if I start doing higher volumes, I may switch to one or the other unless I encounter a problem, but it's working so far. 

One last bit--if you're cementing your silver after you part it with nitric, you don't need to remelt it into cornflakes until you're ready to sell it or prep it for some other end use (realloying to Sterling, etc.). If you're just going to use it for future inquarting, you'd just be melting it twice by the time you alloy it with your karat scrap. Totally up to you in the end--just a suggestion.


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## Tndavid (Oct 12, 2016)

upcyclist said:


> Nice job!
> 
> I haven't noticed too many issues with my karat gold using either copperas or SMB, but I tend to use copperas on the first refine, SMB on the second. When/if I start doing higher volumes, I may switch to one or the other unless I encounter a problem, but it's working so far.
> 
> One last bit--if you're cementing your silver after you part it with nitric, you don't need to remelt it into cornflakes until you're ready to sell it or prep it for some other end use (realloying to Sterling, etc.). If you're just going to use it for future inquarting, you'd just be melting it twice by the time you alloy it with your karat scrap. Totally up to you in the end--just a suggestion.


Thank you upcyclist. And that was my plan to drop with copperas 1st but my light went out and was easier for me to deal with smb rather than copperas at the time. But my future inquarting will be done that way as I have some great copperas acquired from Topher. And to be honest as far as the silver shot,I melted just to see the prettiness. Thank you for the tips and compliment, I appreciate it!


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## upcyclist (Oct 12, 2016)

Hehe--I almost wrote, "_But it's pretty_, so it's totally up to you in the end"


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## Tndavid (Oct 12, 2016)

upcyclist said:


> Hehe--I almost wrote, "_But it's pretty_, so it's totally up to you in the end"


Gotcha bro. Thanks again...


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