# Deplate gold plated sulfuric acid stripping cell VIDEO



## kadriver (Sep 17, 2015)

Hello, I just finished a video that shows step by step how to construct and operate a sulfuric acid stripping cell to reverse plate gold off of gold plated jewelry and other items.

This is part one of two. Part two will show, in detail, how to get the gold from the cell and then how to refine it to high purity.

Part two will be a few days from today as I am trying to run 10 pounds of gold plated jewelry through this small cell so that I can calculate a yield.

https://youtu.be/WgprlL-wmCk

Comments, suggestions and critique are welcomed.

kadriver


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## Pantherlikher (Sep 17, 2015)

Nicely done. 

Always make sure you can read the white instructions which you are good with here.
Many videos you can't read well.

1 big thing though. You have sound which you should utilize.
1st explain the humming from your fume exhaust fan and why.
Then step by step you have plenty of time to explain things like why lead and copper basket; Why you don't overload the basket; etc.
Also like to hear the voice. Personalizes the experience.
It would be best to video and then add commentary but can be difficult adding sound.

You made "seem" easy enough that I want to dive right in without learning enough. Good and bad.
Commentary can add warnings and reasons.

You could, since you have plenty of material to get done, write a script.

Well done.... "B" though for lack of sound use... "F" because you tossed $ instead of scrapping metal...

B.S.


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## g_axelsson (Sep 17, 2015)

Nice video... again! 8) 

I saw a flat round piece when you raised the basket and I always wondered if that's a problem. Does the side facing down flat against the basket deplate or do you need to turn it over to get all gold?

Göran


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## goldenchild (Sep 17, 2015)

Now he's teasing us with multi part series. This isn't right.


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## Palladium (Sep 17, 2015)

Face it Kevin your going to eventually have to talk. :lol: 
If people can listen to the way I slaughter the English language you should not have a problem.


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## g_axelsson (Sep 17, 2015)

Palladium said:


> Face it Kevin your going to eventually have to talk. :lol:
> If people can listen to the way I slaughter the English language you should not have a problem.


I'll second that! :lol: 

I have had a long discussing with some language gifted friends trying to pin your dialect down somewhere geographically. We brought up a lot of other youtube clip to compare and we had a lot of fun that night, all while we were scrapping old computers. :mrgreen: 

Too bad my friends dad passed away a number of years ago, he was a highly regarded professor in linguistics, specializing in dialects.

Göran


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## kadriver (Sep 17, 2015)

g_axelsson said:


> Nice video... again! 8)
> 
> I saw a flat round piece when you raised the basket and I always wondered if that's a problem. Does the side facing down flat against the basket deplate or do you need to turn it over to get all gold?
> 
> Göran



If it's a solid piece and in good contact with the basket then it will deplate all over even the side facing Toward or away from the basket.

Some pieces, like chain, might skip a few links because there is poor contact between the links. I have to manipulate those with the tweezer and then it will deplate completely.

kadriver


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## kadriver (Sep 17, 2015)

goldenchild said:


> Now he's teasing us with multi part series. This isn't right.



Sorry about that, but I've got to get through 2130 grams of scrap and that will take a long time. It's mind numbing work.

After taking 2130 grams out of my gold plated scrap bin I couldn't even tell any had been removed.

Plus it has to settle for at least a couple of days before I can siphon the acid and get the gold powder, or I could centrifuge it in a few minutes and make that part of the video. Thanks for that idea Mario!

I got this video done start to finish in about 12 hours.

kadriver


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## kadriver (Sep 17, 2015)

Palladium said:


> Face it Kevin your going to eventually have to talk. :lol:
> If people can listen to the way I slaughter the English language you should not have a problem.



I thought about over dubbing this one and have my daughter narrate. Even I could just read the text as it comes up. If I try to explain without a script it sounds like I am rambling and it makes the video too long.

My friend has a vocal processor that can alter my voice. It's sitting in the living room at my shop because we use a spare room there to rehearse.

Maybe I'll give it a try on part 2 of this one.

Thanks!

kadriver


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## kadriver (Sep 17, 2015)

Pantherlikher said:


> Nicely done.
> 
> Always make sure you can read the white instructions which you are good with here.
> Many videos you can't read well.
> ...



Thanks, that's the second time I've heard about sound.

I never thought about scrapping the metal instead of throwing it out.

I don't even know who would buy it.

After refining pure gold and silver, all that other metal just seems like trash.

I make these videos so that one could follow and duplicate the process, but they are not intended to be a tutorial, even though folks will probably use it as such.

Thanks for the eval, I always welcome critical input - this will help me to improve the videos that I make.

kadriver


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## Palladium (Sep 17, 2015)

I use talking points for my videos. Make you a short script highlighting the points you want to talk about and then improvise from there. It can be placed off camera to script from so no one knows the better. My problem is i don't know when to shut up! :mrgreen:


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## kadriver (Sep 17, 2015)

g_axelsson said:


> Palladium said:
> 
> 
> > Face it Kevin your going to eventually have to talk. :lol:
> ...



I've got to say that Palladium has got to be from L.A.

That accent is unmistakable. The pastor of a church I once attended was from from the same are, Lower Alabama.

kadriver


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## kadriver (Sep 17, 2015)

Palladium said:


> I use talking points for my videos. Make you a short script highlighting the points you want to talk about and then improvise from there. It can be placed off camera to script from so no one knows the better. My problem is i don't know when to shut up! :mrgreen:



Yes, I've tried it and my mind will wonder and then I'll try to cram too much in and start rambling. I like the short concise statements. They seem to get the point across, if the script don't get in the way of watching the video.
kadriver


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## Palladium (Sep 17, 2015)

g_axelsson said:


> Palladium said:
> 
> 
> > Face it Kevin your going to eventually have to talk. :lol:
> ...



I call it redneckineese! :lol: 

I'm located in Alabama, USA which is deep in the south. I've visited all the the world, but my dialect is a product of my Southern environment and upbringing. The dialect mostly stems form my time as a youth being raised deep in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virgina, Tennessee, and the Southern Appalachian mountains of North Alabama. My great grandfather was a moonshiner and a sheriff from a little town in West Virgina as well as a tobacco farmer at times. Great grand paw went to Cherokee, N.C. and bought grand maw off the Indian reservation from her father and brought her back to West Virgina to be his wife. So part of my ancestral blood stems from my Indian heritage. I swear that's where i get my attitude from sometimes. Grand maw was 88 when she died and she had the prettiest long, black, oily hair you will ever see on a person, not a speck of any other color and she was religious about using nothing but rain water to wash her hair with. She taught me so much about respect for nature and how if your in tune with it you can feel it's presence.

Where i grew up was deep in coal mine country where everyone still had an outhouse and the way we got running water was we had a pipe that ran up the side of the mountain and to a spring. The pipe ran downhill and into the kitchen sink where it run in a steady stream 24-7. That spring water was so clear, pure, and so cold! Best water i've ever drank. We use to heat water on the wood stove and take a bath in an old wash tub. You had to have a wood stove because it just wasn't efficient to heat any other way. The wind would literally blow through the house! We had an old ringer style washing machine on the back porch. I learned at an early age what a wash board was and what hard work was.

In some of these regions time has stood still and the native languages and dialects have not really changed that much. It was even more true during the yearly years of my youth in the late 60'S and early 70's. Today we have so much influence from diversity and from slang language that you wont hear a lot of people speak the way i do. I actually make it a point to be proud of my heritage and dialect to the point of i don't care if it's proper or not by other peoples standards i'm proud of who, what, and where i'm from. We used to have what we refer to as a Southern Gentleman in the South. People who always say "Yes sir or yes Mamm", "How y'all doing today", "Howdy'', and "How's your momma doing"? Men who hold and open doors for ladies. Men who aren't afraid to stand on principal........politically correct be dammed! Men who are men and provide and protect for your family and loved ones without the need for outside help or interference! Men who work hard from sun up until sun down without the need to have to be told what to do or how to do it. Men with pride, honor, and dignity. I see all that dying away with today's generation of sissies and the entitlement mentally. I can skin a buck or run a trot line. Women tend to like it to! :mrgreen:


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## 4metals (Sep 17, 2015)

> Face it Kevin you're going to eventually have to talk. :lol:
> If people can listen to the way I slaughter the English language you should not have a problem.



Ralph is right, if we can get past the way Ralph pronounces pipette and still enjoy his work, there is nothing you can say that will hurt your video's.


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## Palladium (Sep 17, 2015)

4metals said:


> > Face it Kevin you're going to eventually have to talk. :lol:
> > If people can listen to the way I slaughter the English language you should not have a problem.
> 
> 
> ...



You like that huh? You wouldn't believe some of the pronunciations i have. :mrgreen:


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## kadriver (Sep 18, 2015)

You guys are great. The GRF actually feels like a family to me, like I grew up with my refining experience right here on the forum. Thanks for all the comments.

kadriver


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## Aristo (Sep 18, 2015)

Great stuff Palladium. One can feel the enthusiasm in your expression. I can certainly relate to much of what you have said.
It is truly unfortunate that those qualities are being eroded by moral degradation.
Now I am curious about the "pipette" video.
Excellent work kadriver.


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## goldandsilver123 (Sep 18, 2015)

Great video!! Thanks!

I have one question, wouldn't titanium be a better cathode than lead?


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## Sputins (Sep 21, 2015)

Hi Kadriver,

I too enjoyed the video and looking forward to seeing part two. 
I’ve seen most of your videos and you’ve done a great job with them, even though you’re mute! Haha. The information conveyed is great. They have helped me particularly with the silver cell. (I’m about to make new electrolyte for a bigger cell now). 

Also I would have to say your laboratory skills (and safety) with the reagents and hardware seems very good in the videos I’ve watched. 

Although probably a silver nitrate stained finger is likely a ‘rite of passage’ for the silver refiner.

Thanks for sharing your work!


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## kadriver (Sep 22, 2015)

Just finished part two;

https://youtu.be/yb6xPB6IHGA

Thanks!

kadriver


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## g_axelsson (Sep 22, 2015)

That's a lot of work for a tiny piece of gold! 8) 

Thanks for the second part of the video.

Have you (or someone else for that matter) ever tested a separatory funnel to extract the gold powder?

Göran


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## Grelko (Sep 23, 2015)

These videos are wonderful, thank you for making them.

This looks so simple to do and is also ALOT faster than dissolving everything with HCL+peroxide. (Weeks compared to only a few minutes :shock: )

Then I think about the hot sulfuric acid and electricity (especially the amps) and tell myself, maybe next time.

I'll keep reading and learning more about it, while slowly gathering up plated items and eventually I'll give it a try.


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## kadriver (Sep 23, 2015)

goldandsilver123 said:


> Great video!! Thanks!
> 
> I have one question, wouldn't titanium be a better cathode than lead?



I've never tried that. I used lead because it was the way I learned it, and it is easy to work with and cheap.

kadriver


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## kadriver (Sep 23, 2015)

g_axelsson said:


> That's a lot of work for a tiny piece of gold! 8)
> 
> Thanks for the second part of the video.
> 
> ...



A step funnel might work pretty good here. I had a giant 3 liter step funnel, but I sold it because I thought I'd never use it. But I agree, it looks like it would do nicely for getting at the black powder.

kadriver


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## kadriver (Sep 23, 2015)

Sputins said:


> Hi Kadriver,
> 
> I too enjoyed the video and looking forward to seeing part two.
> I’ve seen most of your videos and you’ve done a great job with them, even though you’re mute! Haha. The information conveyed is great. They have helped me particularly with the silver cell. (I’m about to make new electrolyte for a bigger cell now).
> ...



Cool - sounds like you enjoy refining as much as I do. Thanks.

kadriver


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## kadriver (Sep 23, 2015)

g_axelsson said:


> That's a lot of work for a tiny piece of gold! 8)
> 
> Göran



What really disturbed me was when NOTHING came down after I added SMB. I even went and took a shower and came back to see if any gold had precipitated and there was absolutely nothing.

I thought this was going to be a failure.

But then I came in the next morning and the gold had precipitated and settled out.

I've had many people question me about this. If there is less than 1 gram of gold in solution per liter of liquid then the gold precipitates and settles very slowly. If it is allowed to sit overnight then the gold will come down, but it's un-nerving when you add the SMB (after all that work) and NOTHING HAPPENS!

kadriver


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## goldenchild (Sep 23, 2015)

There's not much more disappointing in the refining world than to do a ton of work for a small yield. That is why I completely gave up on plated material and electronics for the most part. The only e-scrap that I would mess with is already cut memory fingers. That being said it's still very fun to try these methods for academic purposes and to have another tool under your belt if the need ever _did _arise.

For instance in the thread below I talked about plated material that yielded .7 grams of twice refined gold from a little over 100 grams of scrap! In my opinion that type of material would be the only way a small refiner would ever make any profit off of plated material. Sadly the person I was in negotiations with never committed and decided to stay with the devil he knew. I guess no yield is one of those things that is more disappointing than small yield?

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=20616&p=214445#p214445


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## kadriver (Sep 27, 2015)

I bought a small lot of 30 grams of gold plated mil-spec pins. The lot cost thirty bucks! I plan to do a video on recovery and refining of the gold from these pins - if there is even enough to get a yield.


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## Pantherlikher (Sep 27, 2015)

I'm itchin to get a stripping cell going but $ keeps the copper basket from reach right now... Just refinanced the house to get a better interest..Fun fun there.

I did however get to finally pan the handful of memory chips I pyrolized and crushed and stored from 2 years ago.
1" steel balls inside a metal can made it too much fun rolling around to work on a crusher... Worked great.
My loving wife got me a nice panning set...
http://www.amazon.com/VAS-PANNING-C...1443405645&sr=8-135&keywords=gold+panning+kit without the rock hammer and large pick up magnet.

Was easier then I thought and the little pan with small steps worked great. Of course, with only a handful of memory chips for material, I got a nice, shiny but very tiny amount of gold hairs.

But it is worth the experience and joy of having something to show for my pyrolizer set up.

All keyboard Mylars just finished that and now need to be crushed and then smelting is on the menu. But I think I need a slightly bigger melting thingy to get it all done.
Hmm... any good videos on smelting silver from Mylars? I wonder...

B.S.
... It's all fun n games. Till you have to stop and work to pay da billz...


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## kadriver (Oct 11, 2015)

Pantherlikher said:


> Was easier then I thought and the little pan with small steps worked great. Of course, with only a handful of memory chips for material, I got a nice, shiny but very tiny amount of gold hairs.
> 
> But it is worth the experience and joy of having something to show for my pyrolizer set up.



I'm with you! There was lots of work involved in making this video, but having it produce gold - even just 0.3 grams - was somehow quite rewarding.

By the way, I did get another 1/10 gram after letting the dilute acid settle for about 5 days. So the actual yield was closer to 0.4 grams.

I was in a hurry to get ANY yield so I could get the video produced. But another 1/10 gram is 25% of the total actual yield!

kadriver


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