# My first good run



## mjgraham (Jun 10, 2012)

HI, first off I just want to thank everyone that has shared their knowledge on here, for with out it I would have never known that this was even able to be done at home. I first started with 3 cards from and old mainframe computer they had gold pads along both sides that were about 8mm square, maybe 75 per board. The person that gave them to me said he had just thrown a lot of them away not too much earlier of course but at any rate here we go. They did not have any solder mask so the traces were all solder coated, after I just the fingers off did a day long HCl soak then did the AP then HCl/Cl then the normal routine from there. But I have some pictures to show the way. Turns out if I really did a good job that person that gave me the boards was throwing about $10 per board away , go figure. I think the finger stock was about 70g starting. I hope this is not too many photos, but sometimes I get carried away. Like I said thanks to everyone, my first little test run did not go so well but I learned a lot and the second time it went much better!





HCl soak



All collected foils dry weight was 0.8g



All gone



Dry Weight



Melting Dish



Melted weight



Up close

I think it looks pretty good but I am open for comments.
Thanks
Jarrid


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## skeeter629 (Jun 10, 2012)

Outstanding work. Very nice button with good color.


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## NobleMetalWorks (Jun 10, 2012)

I really like how you posted your pictures so people just starting out can see how the melting dish should look after, weight the powder, then the end result, nice post, very nice post and congratulations on your first run.

Scott


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## mjgraham (Jun 10, 2012)

Thanks all, I did some videos also of the gold drop and the melting, however I just noticed about half of the melting video is out of focus, I guess the flame tricked it. It was pretty funny I melted the power and then let it cool a second or four then went to get it with the tweezers and of course jumped right out on the to the floor, funny now, heart attack then .


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## jmdlcar (Jun 11, 2012)

Very very nice button. Good job


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## Harold_V (Jun 11, 2012)

A comment on the melting dish. 
It appears that your gold contained traces of copper. Note the blue color near the center, ringed by the purple exterior. A second refining, or a much better washing procedure, including one with ammonium hydroxide, would likely eliminate the traces of copper. 

Well done, otherwise!

Harold


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## mjgraham (Jun 11, 2012)

Thanks for the information, I will add that to the list on the next run, I am guessing with HCl/Cl method dissolving a button (second refining) is going to be hard to do w/o hammering it super flat.


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## Geo (Jun 11, 2012)

ive done it before. if you try it, be sure the hammer if clean and the anvil or whatever you are using for one is free of dirt and grease. this will hold all types of impurities. too i learned that when flattening a gold BB, a gentle single tap at a time will work fine. dont hit it like your trying to split an atom. a piece of gold that size can fly into a corner never to be seen again. it is a fact that 1 centimeter cube of gold can be flattened to cover 1 square meter of area.add hcl and bleach in very small increments and wait 5-10 minutes before adding more or you will wind up with a gallon of solution for a half gram of gold.


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## glorycloud (Jun 11, 2012)

Those were nice gold fingers that you started with.
That was a good find!


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## lazersteve (Jun 11, 2012)

When flattening buttons and BBs for a second digestion I like to sandwich the button between two sheets of thin titanium to keep the hammer and anvil from transferring debris and other trash to the BB. Make sure the BB is in the center of the two sheets before smashing it. As Geo stated, a gentle tamping first will help deform the BB to a flatter shape to help prevent it from flying away. 

Great job on the BB.

Steve


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## mjgraham (Jun 11, 2012)

glorycloud said:


> Those were nice gold fingers that you started with.
> That was a good find!


well I got lucky, then again he found me 11 more boards, I'll take some pictures of them this time, they have some interesting chips on there and I have seen before but don't know what they are, I am sure someone might.


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## Palladium (Jun 11, 2012)

Nice Job !


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## johnny309 (Jun 15, 2012)

Good looking BB....Congrats!
Still,do....I have a question...:
You pay 10 usd per board or 10 cents?


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## mjgraham (Jun 15, 2012)

johnny309 said:


> Good looking BB....Congrats!
> Still,do....I have a question...:
> You pay 10 usd per board or 10 cents?


well actually I didn't pay anything (other then for equipment), a friend of mine collected these 20 years ago and had them in his basement, when I started looking into recovering gold from my old computer junk he though of those boards, he gave me 3 of them he said he threw some away just a year earlier. I just processed these boards just to see and this is what I got. from 3 boards got a bb that was a little over a gram so I figured the boards were about like $10 USD each he put in the trash. I have some pictures of the old boards, I am sure some will have seen them. He said they were from and old Burroughs Mainframe from the 70's. The date on them was '77 just a month or so before I was born.


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