# Any one have any suggestions on processing this material



## 7daycourier (Aug 29, 2017)

I was wondering if this is an alright idea. I have these connectors with a pretty thick layer of gold. don't know what there off of. I can't free the pins from the plastic very easily. So I was thinking of cleaning as much plastic off as possible. Then drop them in an acid peroxide bath and letting the acid dissolve the Pins. Is this to much copper? I know the best way would be to reverse electro plate them. But I don't have any mill to free it from the plastic. Or even a seperator. Any ideas would be appreciated.


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## jimdoc (Aug 29, 2017)

I hope you don't plan your lab - work area in the bathroom.


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## justinhcase (Aug 29, 2017)

Standard gold plating, I value it at one gram a kilo just to be safe.
I have never processed any my self .just saving them up until I can work on a cyanide leach.


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## 4metals (Aug 29, 2017)

These are best handled by pyrolysis to loosen the pins and separate them from the ash. Then they can be stripped, or if they are copper, melted into an anode and recovered from the slimes remaining after electrolytic recovery of the copper. 

The gold plating encapsulated by the molded coating is the problem, chemistry will not work on surfaces not exposed to the chemical reaction.


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## meatheadmerlin (Aug 31, 2017)

Depending on the plastic involved,
placing them in the freezer for some time can
make the plastic easier to remove by crushing/smashing.
(Be sure to wear eye protection and prepare for preventing losses from flying bits.)

I also use an old pair of garden pruning clippers to cut away plastic on connectors.
The kind with 2 blades works better for me than the one-blade and flat-edge kind.

As far as using AP to process the pins, it is how I do it currently.
For maximum effectiveness, I break the pins into smaller pieces
by bending them back and forth until metal fatigue breaks them.
You do not want to cut them into smaller pieces,
since this will likely "smear" the gold plating over the cut surface,
undoing the benefit of exposing more of the base metal surface area.

If time is not a factor, you could use this AP method.
pin foils with vinegar, peroxide, and salt

edit: grammar


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