# What size ??



## Mmon2616 (May 10, 2014)

Please don't ridicule me because I have read many post and am currently doing as me research as possible but I know many of you have so many years of experience and I have very limited. Also I am wondering what size silver cell units I will need to process 300 gallons of fully saturated (12grams per liter) fixer, and 720 gallons a month of developer , stop bath , and rinse waters ? I have very limited experience but have unlimited resources. If you find this question or topic ridiculous please do not respond. If you don't want to give me good direction or already have do not respond. Regardless of what I know now I will make sure I figure it out. The fixer and chems I will be receiving are from Agfa. I have a limited budget to start with. I have read about the different cells. I would like an experienced refiner to lead me to the right literature that will teach me what I need to know. I have received a lot if suggestions and have taken them seriously. I am not asking you to give me the answer on a silver platter. I just want to make sure I'm reading the right material. I will properly you the elect system then the zinc method to ensure I capture most of the silver. 






P.s. Only helpful post!! If this post annoys you or you do not have any insightful suggestions please refrain from commenting as this post may help someone else. I am willing to learn without you giving me the exact answer. Just lead me in the right direction and only if you want to. If not no need to reply. Thanks!!


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## solar_plasma (May 11, 2014)

Though I don't have any useful knowledge about the big scale recovery and refining of anything, sometimes four eyes find more good links than two, so I searched thiosulfate / electro and found this topic with useful links:

http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=16238

GSP's link in this topic might answer some of your questions about the big scale processing and sizing of units: http://www.kodak.com/eknec/documents/03/0900688a800f8103/J215ENG.pdf (page 5)

Btw. Agfa offers similar recovering and recycling units: http://www.agfahealthcare.com/globa...o/technology/processing_chemistries/index.jsp

...hope this helps a bit.

If it was me, I would build an easily handled system with pumps, valves, stripping tank in the shape of a large funnel, replaceable settling tank, replaceable waste tank and I would try to find a commercial facility to take my waste solution fee-based. No need to get the last gram of silver. Based on the calculation on page 5 in GSP's link, I would choose 20l-canisters and tanks for this setup, if was alone and to start with. Those seem big enough to process your monthly amounts in 2 weeks and are easily handled and changed. All used materials have to be checked for durability. This could be scaled up easily to bigger barrels later on. This whole setup is definitely commercial and you should come clean with your authorities and let it get certified before you start it commercially. Find out how the solutions can be delivered legally regarding your local laws for hazardous goods. You have to have a plan for any possible incident under processing like leaks. I would not refine the silver, but only recover it and sell as is. Specialize, make it economic and labor efficient.

If you strip 6kg+ silver per month 2000€ worth you can easily pay for professional waste treatment and still have a nice additional pin money.

edit: handling such quantities of more or less corrosive liquids in non-ex atmosphere, you will need something like for example this: http://www.jesspumpen.de/shop/Fassp....html?XTCsid=447006fe6757151c6a121319f9fd39ab

it would be useful if not even necessary to be able to monitor silver content etc.


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## Mmon2616 (May 11, 2014)

Thank you . I appreciate your post. I'm not going to attempt anything until I fully understand the process. I have done a little refining in my garage. Really I know nothing except that I will be getting free fixer, and the other processing chemicals , and also the unexposed film. I have great resources because I have worked in the industry for awhile and know a lot of the owners. Most of the companies just dump it or pay to have it removed. I will be recovering the silver and keeping it for myself. Until I can figure out a few other things I can do with it. My gold and silver buyer stopped buying melted gold and silver. So now I have no one that will give me a decent price. He told me the city asked him to refrain from buy melt Pm's because people are stealing jewelry and just melting it. I don't know anyone that will buy it so I will just hoard it. Thanks again.


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## Mmon2616 (May 12, 2014)

The link to Kodak was extremely helpful for me. Thanks again.


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## rickbb (May 13, 2014)

When I was in the printing business I used about 15 gallons of fix per week processing 36" wide litho film. My recovery unit only held approximately 3 to 4 gallons of fix but was mounted inline with my processer fix tank discharge. 

A unit of that size should be plenty, you should setup a recirculation pump to run continually from any larger tank through the unit. That way you can set it and leave it until needs the collector changed.

I kept a spare collector on hand that way down time was kept to a minimum.


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## necromancer (May 13, 2014)

here is some more info to read


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## fonnie (May 14, 2014)

also very usefull, and difficult to get


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## goldsilverpro (May 14, 2014)

Thank, fonnie,

The older Kodak booklets are better than the newer ones. I had that one but it was lost.

Getting the silver from the steel wool cartridges is easier said than done, especially when a lot of the steel wool is still intact in the cartridge.


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## fonnie (May 15, 2014)

I was searching for that booklet, all over the www. but nothing to find.
Then I contacted some people at Kodak Carestream Belgium, and they contacted some older worker, that someone remembered those publications.
From the cover, it seems they had to retrieve the publication from some kind of archive.

I'm glad it is saved from being lost forever, but don't know if there is some kind of copyright on it.

hope you all enjoy the read

Best regards

Fonnie


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## rickbb (May 16, 2014)

One of the things I miss about the old school Kodak, (and DuPont too), was the wealth of information they would freely distribute. 

I believe they do still own all the copyrights on their publications, but as long as you give them the credits they have never been concerned with anyone distributing them.


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