# Someone once said.....



## Shark (Apr 3, 2018)

Someone once said you should be able to read a newspaper through your solution before precipitating it. Sorry, I didn't have a newspaper


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## FrugalRefiner (Apr 3, 2018)

Nice clear solution! I can even see that your copy was written by G. M. Hoke. :lol: 

I corrected a lot of stuff like that in the versions in my signature line.

Dave


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## anachronism (Apr 3, 2018)

Haha nice one.


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## Shark (Apr 3, 2018)

Here is a shot 40 minutes after adding the SMB. I really wish I had videoed this drop.


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## rickzeien (Apr 3, 2018)

Beautiful!

Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk


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## denim (Apr 3, 2018)

Nice AuCl Shark. Now let's see that button! My guess is that it will be nice and shiny.


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## UncleBenBen (Apr 4, 2018)

Right on, Shark! Looking forward to seeing that nice shiny button (bar maybe?)  :G


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## goldsilverpro (Apr 4, 2018)

In that last photo, that exact blue color, totally void of yellow, at the top of the solution, always says that no gold remains in solution.


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## Shark (Apr 4, 2018)

goldsilverpro said:


> In that last photo, that exact blue color, totally void of yellow, at the top of the solution, always says that no gold remains in solution.



Thanks GSP, I didn't know that. And you are right, I tested the solution right after taking the picture and it tested negative.


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## Shark (Apr 4, 2018)

After decanting the solution off I was left with this.


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## Shark (Apr 4, 2018)

Washed and dried. 38.6 grams after tared for the cup weight.


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## Palladium (Apr 4, 2018)

Looks good brother!
I'll stop by tonight and pick it up!


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## glorycloud (Apr 4, 2018)

Very nice! 8)


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## Shark (Apr 4, 2018)

UncleBenBen said:


> Right on, Shark! Looking forward to seeing that nice shiny button (bar maybe?)  :G



I am wishing I had a bar mold right now. Need to get it melted.


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## kurtak (Apr 4, 2018)

VERY nice Shark :!: :!: :!: 

I am guessing that is the gold we were discussing you were going to be refining when we talked on the phone the other day 

If so - looks like it went VERY well 8) :mrgreen: 

Kurt


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## Grelko (Apr 4, 2018)

Wow :shock: The first picture looks like a glass of apple juice. Except that, apple juice isn't that clear.

That looks like an extremely clean drop, very nice work. :G


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## Shark (Apr 4, 2018)

kurtak said:


> VERY nice Shark :!: :!: :!:
> 
> I am guessing that is the gold we were discussing you were going to be refining when we talked on the phone the other day
> 
> ...



Yes, that is it. Everything went as expected. 
Thanks for the tip, I will be doing more that way from now on.


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## denim (Apr 4, 2018)

So what was the original material?


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## Shark (Apr 4, 2018)

denim said:


> So what was the original material?



About 40% was from once refined buttons that came from mixed electronic waste. The rest came from smaller lots of gold filled material. I have a batch of gold filled ready for AR now, but I am going to wait until I pick up tomorrows batch and see how it goes from there. 

Here is the button, still having a hard time with getting a decent picture of it. Can someone explain the "hammered" shape and all the tiny cracks? I sure would have thought a pipe would appear first.




Edit: Corrected spelling


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## kurtak (Apr 5, 2018)

Shark said:


> Here is the button, still having a hard time with getting a decent picture of it.



Try taking the pic under different lighting conditions &/or from different angles --- I have "often" had to take "multiple" pics under different lighting &/or from different angles before getting an acceptable pic to post

Also different back grounds - though not always true a black back ground has more often the not worked best for me



> Can someone explain the "hammered" shape and all the tiny cracks? I sure would have thought a pipe would appear first.



Did you do your melt in a clean dish/crucible ?

Did you let the melt solidify in the dish/crucible ? 

Or was the melt poured to a mold ?

Try taking some more pics to see if you can get some better pics - its hard to tell anything under the current quality of the pic (due to above mentioned lighting conditions)

Kurt


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## Shark (Apr 5, 2018)

kurtak said:


> Did you do your melt in a clean dish/crucible ?
> Melted in a new dish. The only discoloration left in the dish is a faint purple around the top edge of the dish.
> 
> Did you let the melt solidify in the dish/crucible ?
> ...



There is a "cup" formed in the center but it is not very visible in the picture.
I will be trying some different background and conditions today. I will post a picture if I can find a good combination.

Edit: correct spelling


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## anachronism (Apr 5, 2018)

Ive had this before but usually only at the purer end of the scale. Now this is complete theory crafting so I am open to being shot down but you've got a really good crystalline structure going on there. To the point where it almost looks as though the whole top is trying to form a pipe. 

Judging by the size of the lumps of powder and the colour, my guess (and it's a guess) is that this may well be the purest gold you've ever melted. 

Jon


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## modtheworld44 (Apr 5, 2018)

Shark

I'm not going to guess...I'm going to tell you knowingly that your button will shoot at 99.99%.Great job on producing a high purity product!!!! :G :mrgreen: 



modtheworld44


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## Shark (Apr 5, 2018)

anachronism said:


> Ive had this before but usually only at the purer end of the scale. Now this is complete theory crafting so I am open to being shot down but you've got a really good crystalline structure going on there. To the point where it almost looks as though the whole top is trying to form a pipe.
> 
> Judging by the size of the lumps of powder and the colour, my guess (and it's a guess) is that this may well be the purest gold you've ever melted.
> 
> Jon



I have no doubt that this is my best button purity wise. But it does help to hear it from others with more experience. It has also taught me a lot of things that just never came together for me that will allow me to make long term improvements on future buttons as well.



modtheworld44 said:


> Shark
> 
> I'm not going to guess...I'm going to tell you knowingly that your button will shoot at 99.99%.Great job on producing a high purity product!!!! :G :mrgreen:
> 
> modtheworld44



You know I have been shooting for a clean high end button lately, and this may well be it.


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## Shark (Apr 5, 2018)

The best shots I could come up with today from about 15 more pictures.

Top



Bottom


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## g_axelsson (Apr 5, 2018)

Nice work!

The "flakes" are probably single gold crystals that were formed during cooling. The reason to why it didn't form a nice pipe might be in how it was allowed to cool. If it was heated from the top so the solidifying started at the bottom and the top was the last part to freeze then there isn't much of a pipe formed.

A pipe forms when the center of a button cools and contracts, the internal vacuum pulls the surface down to form the pipe. If most of the surface has cooled then a small area is pulled in while the center is still molten.

Göran


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## autumnwillow (Apr 6, 2018)

From AR to powder form it was very nice but the resulting button in questionable.
I've had similar results as yours before, would you like to troubleshoot? Hehe


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## goldsilverpro (Apr 6, 2018)

I know that most all of you let the gold powder settle in the beaker and then continue to decant and rinse in the beaker. For gold as fine as what's in the photo, I think that's a very bad idea if you want pure gold. I tried that for awhile, but, for slow settling gold, it's extremely inefficient and too slow, compared with filtering. I got to the point, where, if the gold didn't completely settle, with a crystal clear solution, in about 60 seconds, so I could rinse in the needed 20 times in less than an hour, I filtered it. If it's slow in settling, you're going to decant some gold over that you'll have to deal with, and you'll have to rinse 20-30 times, literally, to eliminate the same amount of solution as about 5 much quicker rinses in a filter, whether vacuum or gravity. I never worried about gold stuck in filter paper. I always got it sooner or later. In about 5% of all the cases, where I had to have every little bit of the gold right then, to know the exact numbers, I wet ashed the paper in a 250ml erlenmeyer.


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## Shark (Apr 12, 2018)

I applied some of the things I learned from the larger button above to this latest batch. There were many things that I changed from how I dropped it to the wash process. I think some of those things have made improvements to my overall quality.



goldsilverpro said:


> I know that most all of you let the gold powder settle in the beaker and then continue to decant and rinse in the beaker. For gold as fine as what's in the photo, I think that's a very bad idea if you want pure gold. I tried that for awhile, but, for slow settling gold, it's extremely inefficient and too slow, compared with filtering. I got to the point, where, if the gold didn't completely settle, with a crystal clear solution, in about 60 seconds, so I could rinse in the needed 20 times in less than an hour, I filtered it. If it's slow in settling, you're going to decant some gold over that you'll have to deal with, and you'll have to rinse 20-30 times, literally, to eliminate the same amount of solution as about 5 much quicker rinses in a filter, whether vacuum or gravity. I never worried about gold stuck in filter paper. I always got it sooner or later. In about 5% of all the cases, where I had to have every little bit of the gold right then, to know the exact numbers, I wet ashed the paper in a 250ml erlenmeyer.



I have reread your statement several times the past few days and kept thinking that a solution that settled that fast would be great. This one did, and it made it much more enjoyable to work with.

This one is only 2.5 grams, and the dull look in the pictures isn't there on the actual button.


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## kurtak (Apr 13, 2018)

Very nice Shark :!: 8) 

Kurt


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## Shark (Apr 20, 2018)

I sold the large button today and was pretty happy with the results. While I know XRF is not perfect, the buyer does buy based on their reading. They also pay a 2% higher rate from 99.98 to 99.99, So I feel the extra effort was worth it.

And the results are......

Top




Bottom




Three different tests, with the same results,  


Thanks to everyone who I have learned this from!


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## Grelko (Apr 20, 2018)

Shark said:


> I sold the large button today and was pretty happy with the results. While I know XRF is not perfect, the buyer does buy based on their reading. They also pay a 2% higher rate from 99.98 to 99.99, So I feel the extra effort was worth it.
> 
> Thanks to everyone who I have learned this from![/color][/size]



Four 9's on both sides is impressive, congrats :G 

My best so far was 90.77 (0.038g) :lol: I still have no idea if it's even possible to get .999 using HCL/bleach.


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## anachronism (Apr 20, 2018)

Well done Shark.

So what percentage of spot do they pay on 99.98 plus?


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## rickzeien (Apr 20, 2018)

Awesome job! Great results.

Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk


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## Shark (Apr 21, 2018)

anachronism said:


> Well done Shark.
> 
> So what percentage of spot do they pay on 99.98 plus?



99.98 pays 95% and 99.99 pays 97%. While there are a few stipulations to get those prices, they are not hard to meet.


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## anachronism (Apr 21, 2018)

Shark said:


> anachronism said:
> 
> 
> > Well done Shark.
> ...



Thanks for sharing. I still can't get over how hard on you the buyers are over there.


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## snoman701 (Apr 21, 2018)

anachronism said:


> Shark said:
> 
> 
> > anachronism said:
> ...


It's not universal. 

I can sell for 98 pretty easily.






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