# anyone know how much silver is used in plating tank



## steyr223 (May 25, 2013)

Just like the title says
Tell me what you need to know to answer 
The question and i will. Get specifics
From my partner

My buddy came home with 2 lt bottles from
Plating tank at his work
He said they were bought out by a bigger company
And they are bringing in all new equipment 
So all the old stuff is up for grabs 
Were trying to figure out how much silver would
Be in a 2 lt bottle of solution
The tank is fot plating bolts thats all i 
know for now

Thanks steyr223 rob


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## goldsilverpro (May 25, 2013)

It can vary a lot. If unused, I would guess there's between 0.1 oz and 2 oz total in the 2 liters, depending on whether it's a strike bath or a conventional silver bath. If a high speed bath, it might have 4 oz in the 2 liters, but that's probably not the case. If taken from a production tank, which it seems like it is, it's probably less than these figures and could be a lot less. It likely is a cyanide silver solution, which is very poisonous and could be quite dangerous in the wrong hands. Were I you, I wouldn't mess with it.


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## jeneje (May 25, 2013)

goldsilverpro said:


> It likely is a cyanide silver solution, which is very poisonous and could be quite dangerous in the wrong hands. Were I you, I wouldn't mess with it.


GSP, question here? is not cyanide silver solution made with sodium cyanide. I know that HCN is odorless, would the silver cyanide also be odorless. Just curious.
Ken


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## steyr223 (May 25, 2013)

Thanks guys there are children and family 
Present i will leave this one alone
Is there a way to tell by weight and maybe if 
We figure on enough sombody on this form can
Do it

Eric do u know or want you are the silver junkie
I think
Thanks steyr223 rob


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## 4metals (May 25, 2013)

I always thought cyanide smelled like almonds. I remember a distinct smell in the alkaline storage room when I ran a large plating shop and it was always attributed to cyanide. We stored both potassium cyanide and sodium cyanide and went to great lengths to to not have any HCN on hand. The accounting department kept the silver cyanide in fiber drums in their safe and they always complained that it had an odor as well.


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## lazersteve (May 26, 2013)

I've smelled HCN first hand on a few occasions and it reminds me of the almond sugar cookies my mother makes at Christmas time.







Steve


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## jeneje (May 26, 2013)

Thanks guys,

I wanted to know, almond smell BAD. :evil: 

Ken


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## goldsilverpro (May 26, 2013)

Steyr,

All cyanide silver baths contain large amounts of free potassium cyanide (usually 5 to 10 oz/gal) and other ingredients, so the weight of the solution is not a way to determine silver content.

Like 4metals, I spent lots of time in large plating shops, mainly in L.A. as a troubleshooter. Most all of them had large open vats of cyanide solutions and many were heated. Silver, gold, zinc, cadmium, and copper were usually plated from a cyanide matrix. Some I've seen were as large as 4000 gallons. One huge place I worked in the 60's had a 500-1000 gallon electrolytic steel cleaning solution that contained 10 oz/gal cyanide and 20 oz/gal sugar. Once a month they dumped it down the drain (like everybody else did back then) and made up a new one. When you walked into a plating shop, you could immediately tell if they had a cyanide tank. Besides the bitter almond smell, you could smell a little ammonia, a breakdown product of the electrolytic cyanide.

Strangely enough, I don't remember hearing of any deaths or injuries relating to the cyanide in plating shops. Everyone was well trained on how to handle it. Lots of injuries (mainly burns, some severe) from tanks of HF or HNO3, though. The most celebrated cyanide death (in the mid to late 70's, I'm thinking) was in a Chicago plant that stripped film with cyanide. After 60 Minutes did a story on this, the entire film processing industry was forced to stop using cyanide and they switched mainly to sodium hydroxide, even though cyanide was (and, is) the very best way to do it.


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## nickvc (May 27, 2013)

Just a word of caution here guys about the odour of cyanide, not everyone can smell it so never go by odour alone when trying to decide if it's cyanide, if your unsure keep well away from it. 

IT CAN BE DEADLY AND GIVES NO SECOND CHANCES!


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