# Pd button



## perman666 (Mar 8, 2014)

Here is Pd button from 1kg of my MLCC's !


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## niteliteone (Mar 8, 2014)

Nasty looking thing isn't it :shock: 
But good job with the recovery 8)
Palladium is just one of those materials where conventional melting just doesn't work well. You need an inert atmosphere with NO oxygen to get a proper melt and pour to look good. It seems the molten palladium absorbs oxygen while heated and explosively releases it during cooling.


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## bmgold2 (Mar 8, 2014)

That's encouraging to see since I have been saving all my MLCC's. Still have a long way to go to get to a kg. but I never would have guessed they contained that much palladium. How hard is it to sell? I assume gold and silver are easy to find a buyer for but I'm not even sure where to look for a buyer for any PGM's. Looks like a pretty good paycheck sitting on that scale. Not as good as if it was gold but way more than the silver I was hoping to get from that type of part. I guess I'll have to study up a bit more on palladium refining before I attempt to process my bag of SMD capacitors.

Thanks for posting the picture. It's always nice to see what others are getting out of scrap electronics.


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## necromancer (Mar 8, 2014)

i can not see the decimal point ? is that just over a troy ounce ? (31.26)
if so thats very encouraging seeing i have a nice load of MLCC's approximately 2KG

did you make a thread on your method used >>


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## perman666 (Mar 8, 2014)

Yes, 31.26 grams.
I didn't refine by myself, I was watching, helping and learning
new method. We have losses, maybe 5% in process but I am satisfied.








necromancer said:


> i can not see the decimal point ? is that just over a troy ounce ? (31.26)
> if so thats very encouraging seeing i have a nice load of MLCC's approximately 2KG
> 
> did you make a thread on your method used >>


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## justme2 (Mar 8, 2014)

very very nice. Good work.


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## joubjonn (Mar 8, 2014)

how did you melt it?
when I get enough MLCC's to process I was just going to leave it in powder form and find a buyer on here. I don't have a hydrogen torch and don't see the need to ever invest in one.


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## moose7802 (Mar 9, 2014)

You don't need hydrogen to melt Pd. To make it look nice you need an oxygen free environment in a quartz tube type melting furnace that you can pull all the oxygen out or it will bubble and absorb oxygen. 

Tyler


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## Lou (Mar 10, 2014)

Moose, 

Don't melt Pd in silica! Especially in reducing environments.


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## mls26cwru (Mar 10, 2014)

Lou said:


> Moose,
> 
> Don't melt Pd in silica! Especially in reducing environments.




Lou, i know nothing about melting palladium and was wondering what happens when you melt the Pd in silica? is their a reaction, contamination, or worse? what is a good medium to melt pd in? i was thinking about processeing some mlcc's soonish so im just looking to expand my knowledge. 

thanks,
Mike


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## Lou (Mar 10, 2014)

Palladium reacts with silica in reducing environments to give palladium silicides. It is particularly a problem with palladium.

This is a problem with many of the PGMs. Even platinum reacts with quartz calcination boats. You can probably melt Pt in silica and be OK if the flame is oxidizing, but when reducing gases are present, the metal can react with SiO2.


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## joubjonn (Mar 10, 2014)

I don't think I can invest in PMG melting equipment with the small amount (1-2kg) of MLCC's I would be refining by this time
next year if I keep getting the same materials I have been. all I have is a mapp torch and crucibles. so it's probably better to just get the refine to the powder form and sell that as is then try and melt it with mapp in atmosphere, where it would sputter and end up loosing out.


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## moose7802 (Mar 10, 2014)

Thanks lou. I always like your input! I would send my pgm's to you anyways when I need to have them melted. 


Tyler


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## nickvc (Mar 11, 2014)

If members are recovering Pd or other PGMs in reasonable quantities and want to sell I'd advise you to ask Lou if he's interested and check whether powders would be better for him than attempted melts of possibly impure metals that will need refining again.


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