# Precip. help! PLEASE!



## jschwanke1 (Sep 5, 2017)

I did the acid/peroxide method. 
I did the following steps:
1) filter
2) rinse
3) filter again in acid
4) added smb
5) very little gold

I'm sure I am missing something so obvious it's painful...

Please advise!!!


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## FrugalRefiner (Sep 5, 2017)

jschwanke1 said:


> I did the acid/peroxide method.


You did what acid/peroxide method? Acid and peroxide is typically used to dissolve base metals to free gold plating, but it can also be used to dissolve gold. Which process did you do?



> I did the following steps:
> 1) filter
> 2) rinse
> 3) filter again in acid
> ...


That doesn't make much sense. You filtered and rinsed. What? Then you filtered again in acid? What does that mean? Then you added SMB. To what?

Just stop what you're doing right now. Cover everything lightly. Try to answer a few questions and add a little more detail and we may be able to help.

Dave


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## kernels (Sep 5, 2017)

Agreed, your steps don't make any sense, you cannot precipitate Gold without first having dissolved it.


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## jschwanke1 (Sep 7, 2017)

First of all, THANK YOU ahead of time!

I did it for the gold.

I see I typed 1 too many "rinsed" in there, sorry.

The "recipe" I followed was:

1) Soak material for 1-2 days and filter. 
2) Rinse with Ammonia, filter.
3) Mix AR and bleach, heat, add SMB, let sit for 30 minutes, then filter.
4) Let material in filter dry, saving poured off water for further filtering.
5) Heat in crucible. 

Problem is, there wasn't much of anything there. I know I'm not going to get rich off this, but I did 24 desktop and 15 laptop computers, there should be something in there, right?

Again, THANK YOU ahead of time! I have 2 disabled Sons and this is to go towards Christmas for them!!!


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## kernels (Sep 8, 2017)

Your 'recipe' is still so cryptic that it's hard to figure out what you were doing and why you were doing it.

You wouldn't mix AR and then add bleach, you then certainly wouldn't add SMB.

Try writing down all the steps with much more detail, including what you were seeing at the time, and add reasons for why you did those steps.

What material did you process ?


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## jimdoc (Sep 8, 2017)

jschwanke1 said:


> First of all, THANK YOU ahead of time!
> 
> I did it for the gold.
> 
> ...




If you are in this to make some money, you will be very disappointed. The chemicals alone will cost more than what you can "easily" recover from 24 desktops and 15 laptops. I hope you are doing this in a safe
place. This is more for people wanting to learn it for a hobby that may lead to a money making opportunity in the future, after much study and practice. For fast gold you would do better with a metal detector at the beach or park. If you got the computers for free you can sell the motherboards and processors. Most of the time they will sell for far more than what you can recover from them, on Ebay. Without the hazards and chemical/equipment costs.

Jim


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## geedigity (Sep 8, 2017)

> If you are in this to make some money, you will be very disappointed. The chemicals alone will cost more than what you can "easily" recover from 24 desktops and 15 laptops. I hope you are doing this in a safe
> place. This is more for people wanting to learn it for a hobby that may lead to a money making opportunity in the future, after much study and practice. For fast gold you would do better with a metal detector at the beach or park. If you got the computers for free you can sell the motherboards and processors. Most of the time they will sell for far more than what you can recover from them, on Ebay. Without the hazards and chemical/equipment costs.
> 
> Jim



As unbelievable as this may sound, this is so close to the truth and is simply, well presented. Humans in general tend to have to see and do things for themselves before they will believe. This is not all bad, since the process of recovering and potential for the refining after recovery can lead a person down the path of pursuing a great hobby, or if they are really serious, maybe even a viable business venture. I guess I should add that being serious would also include studying.


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## jschwanke1 (Sep 11, 2017)

Hi, I get it that this isn't easy or a get rich quick thing. I was just trying to make a few bucks and do something different.

Thanks


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## jimdoc (Sep 11, 2017)

jschwanke1 said:


> Hi, I get it that this isn't easy or a get rich quick thing. I was just trying to make a few bucks and do something different.
> 
> Thanks



You can always collect computers for free and sell the motherboards and processors to make money. The refining part takes study, and an initial investment in equipment to safely succeed.
A lot less dangerous. 

Jim


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## Lino1406 (Sep 11, 2017)

If there was some significant gold there, the mistake is: before adding SMB, should get rid of excess chlorine by sulphamic acid, or urea or otherwise


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## lazersteve (Sep 14, 2017)

The first step should be to strip down the desktops and laptops and accumulate all the visibly gold plated parts.

Next you should sort the plated parts into groups of similar items ( memory sticks, add in cards, cpus, and header pins).

Each group of parts should then be further high graded by trimming the fingers off of the memory and add in cards, plucking the pins from the headers, and removing any heatsinks and coatings/grease from the cpus.

Finally each type of high graded material (clean cut fingers, loose pins, and various grades of cpus) should be run in a separate reaction to recover the gold. The Guided Tour link: Reaction List, below will provide details on the best recovery method for each high graded material type.

The steps of each of the reactions required is detailed ad infinitum here on the forum with a simple search for each type of high graded scrap. Sort the search results by oldest date first and filter by Author and you will get a relatively narrow list of results.

Ignoring the sorting and recovery phases will only lead to headaches for the novice refiner.

Steve


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## jimdoc (Sep 14, 2017)

Ignoring the safety issues will lead to a bigger headache for the novice refiner as well.


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## jschwanke1 (Sep 21, 2017)

Thank you Steve!


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